Boundary Sentinel voted top news website in the West Kootenays by our readers
By Erin Perkins
The Boundary Sentinel took home two top prizes in the first annual DiGi-Tech Awards hosted by Kootenay Business Magazine.
The Boundary Sentinel won silver for Best Overall Website and platinum in the News Website category.
“I want to thank our readers who were behind the nomination for these awards – it is clear that they like what we do,” said Mona Mattei, The Boundary Sentinel editor. “These awards also reflect the great work of Empire NewMedia and David Livingstone whose web design, along with our editorial content, make the Sentinel the success it is. And again, thanks to Erin Perkins for her reporting and Les Johnson for his contributions – it really takes a team to pull this off and we have a great one!”
This is the second award The Boundary Sentinel has received in the past few months. Mattei was also awarded the 2012 Community Entrepreneur of the Year Award at the Community Futures Boundary annual community awards celebration in October. The Boundary Sentinel has been serving the region for just over three years.
The DiGi-Tech Reader’s Choice Awards used online nominations and voting to determine the top businesses over both the East and West Kootenays. The winners were announced late last week and will be featured in the next edition of Kootenay Business Magazine.
Other winners of note included our sister papers, The Castlegar Source, which took home a gold in the News Website category and the Rossland Telegraph for taking the silver in the same category.
Also of note was our graphic artist, David Livingstone whose business website, www.empire-newsmedia.com won silver for Best Web Designer / Developer.
Christina Lake Chamber of Commerce, Grand Forks Credit Union and Snowball Ventures also won
Several Christina Lake and Grand Forks businesses were also acknowledged including the Grand Forks and District Credit Union, Snowball Ventures and the Christina Lake Chamber of Commerce.
The Grand Forks Credit Union won silver for the Financial Institutions category for their site, www.gfdscu.com.
“We would like to thank our members and community who voted for our gfdscu.com website,” said Angela Soukoreff, manager, marketing and communications for Grand Forks Credit Union in an emailed interview. “The acknowledgement reinforces that we are on the right track. Customers today want access to information and some level of service accessible when it is convenient for them. We will continue to find ways to be of value to our membership.”
The Grand Forks based wood and pellet stove company, Snowball Ventures, won gold in the Service Industry Website category for its site, www.snowballventures.com. John Billwiller, owner, said he had “no idea” the site had been nominated. The site has been up since 1998 and was designed by a local web designer. Since 2000 it has been updated and maintained by his wife, Deb.
"I'm very pleased and grateful that the presentation and content of snowballventures.com has been recognized and appreciated by the public,” said Billwiller in an email interview. “The fact that the public nominated my site in sufficient numbers to put it at the Gold level is quite humbling.”
He said it compliments the gold, silver and bronze “Best of Business” awards his company also received this year from Kootenay Business Magazine.
The Christina Lake Chamber of Commerce received silver in the Recreational Property Website category for their site, www.christinalake.com.
“It’s amazing for a little community like ours,” said Sheldon Weigal, Christina Lake Chamber of Commerce president. “It’s a good story for a little region like ours that sometimes gets overlooked … It’s nice to see our efforts paying off without big capital expenditures.”
Weigal was surprised about the award because they didn’t know they’d been nominated or had won. The site was created using a lot of volunteer hours and very little money, which adds to their pride over the award.
The site is currently undergoing a makeover and will be just that much more navigable, searchable and informative in the months to come.
Other sites of note in Christina Lake included a gold to Christina Lake Vacation for Resort/Tourist website at www.christinalakevacation.com; and a silver to Cindy and Aaron Anthony of Grand Forks Realty for their site called Christina Lake Real Estate under the Real Estate category at www.christinalakerealestate.bc.ca.
To see a complete list of the award recipients go to: http://kootenaybiz.com/digiawards.
