Motivational March

The Perseverance Within Us - A COVID Warriors Dinner

We were thrilled to have Michelle Cederberg as our keynote speaker for this event. Her presentation was called "Energized for Excellence". To succeed in any work environment, you need high-energy, and a high-performance mindset to make it happen. It's clear then that abundant energy is at the core of excellence in work and in life. Without it, your enthusiasm and output will be poor, and with more of it, your passion and productivity will soar! Change Agent Michelle Cederberg has literally written the book on living an energetic and abundant life. Over the past 20 years she has built her career as a speaker, life coach and author transforming how people work and live.

She believes that when you're Energized for Excellence you show up as a leader and strive for success in all you do. You take on bigger challenges, and better manage stress. You find ways to take care of your energy, mind, body and spirit, no matter what is coming at you. You feel great about yourself and your capabilities. What's possible from there? Her keynote was definitely energizing! We got clear on what excellence means to us in our career and life, and how we can take it to the next level, discovered ways to strengthen our mental focus, emotional energy and day-to-day prioritization to be a stand-out in all we do, how to commit to physical health as a foundation for personal and professional growth and learn why it's the key to excellence, and embrace a path to excellence that includes career success without compromise. In an age where most of us feel overworked and under-valued, this session was educational, inspirational and got us energized for excellence!

 In addition to our special guest speaker, we recognized 12 local COVID Warriors. A special thank you to our event sponsor JHH Transport for making this celebration possible! Thank you to our special guests; Mayor Peter Brown, MLA Angela Pitt, and our Chamber Influencers, also to Woodside Golf Course for their hospitality and delicious dinner as always.
  

COVID Warriors

A COVID Warrior is a business or an individual (of any age) that deserves to be recognized for their:

• ​outstanding acts of service 
• demonstration of exceptional leadership during COVID 19
• someone or a business who made a major difference in the lessening of stress and brought assistance to neighbors, co-workers, employees, or others during the pandemic. 

Award Eligibility:

• Business must be located in Airdrie, Alberta or must be an Airdrie Chamber member
• Individual must be located in Airdrie, Alberta

Please join us in celebrating our 12 local COVID Warriors who went above and beyond for their teams and our community. 

Airdrie Food Bank

The Airdrie Food Bank staff and volunteer team have been and are still true Covid Warriors. Throughout the pandemic they constantly shifted and adapted to meet the needs of our community. They had to close for only 4 hours to reset their facility to carry on and help those in need of food support. Their staff and volunteers have consistently gone above and beyond to support families that have been impacted by Covid in many ways.  From seniors afraid to leave their homes, families with lost income, children in schools and neighbors struggling with food insecurity, they have been able to be a light in dark times. Volunteer numbers went down, but the ones who felt safe to continue doubled the number of hours they worked. With the help of our generous community the Airdrie Food Bank has been able to feed all that came their way. 

Airdrie Music Lessons

We heard from some parents that when families were hit with job loss or financial hardship due to Covid, the owner Anthony discretely covered the students’ lesson costs for the remainder of the school year. This must have amounted to thousands of dollars in free lessons which has impacted the business itself. It seems like whatever happens, they always look out for the kids. Although it might seem obvious, one of the biggest ways AML reduces stress is by providing music and art. Lessons were an important way for students to find a place of emotional wellness during the pandemic. The art students even created paintings of the good things they experienced during the pandemic and that was turned into a beautiful mural that was displayed at the entrance to AML. While there haven’t been as many performance opportunities because of the pandemic, AML musicians have provided musical entertainment at the Airdrie Business Awards and at The Airdrie Festival of Lights.  

Airdrie Public Library

During the pandemic, the Airdrie Public Library demonstrated exceptional leadership in the nimbleness with which they were able to revise their service model, ensuring public dollars were put to the best possible use. Programming went virtual, reference and information service was offered through telephone and online chat, e-books and other digital resources were expanded, curbside service was introduced, and online payment of fines and fees was implemented. In 2020, 22,948 patrons participated in 571 virtual library programs, while digital downloads increased 40%. In a time of extreme isolation, APL stepped up and reached out, providing opportunities to learn, engage with others, and expand personal horizons beyond the confines of the home. 

Ambition Performing Arts (APA)

Tara Pickford, owner of Ambition Performing Arts (APA), advocated on behalf of all dance studios across the province through COVID. She co-founded a non-profit organization called Dance Safe Alberta (DSA) in an attempt to get a seat at the table with the Alberta government through the COVID restrictions. DSA aimed to help set standards and guidelines that would sustain long-term viability through proactive planning and response, with a purpose to coordinate under one umbrella and achieve Provincial Sport Organization status. Although Tara and her staff prefer to provide in-person services, she has worked hard since March 2020 to create a business model that can pivot as needed. It only took Tara and her team 2 weeks to get the necessary technology to launch classes through zoom, so the students weren't missing out. When they couldn't have a traditional recital, she created an individual recital experience that followed all safety measures and still celebrated the students’ hard work. The following year when they still couldn't have a traditional recital her staff had a 12-hour day as they planned an outdoor recital at Nose Creek so they kids could still have an audience.  

Creekside Pharmacy

Kester has been amazing since the beginning of the pandemic. He is flexible with all his staff, patients, doctors, other healthcare professionals, provides amazing service and deliveries. He lost a lot of sleep but kept on going. He covered for anyone who was sick or needed time off to attend to their children or spouse who was ill. He was reasonable, understanding, and compassionate. Despite all the financial stress, he kept paying his employees and never laid off anyone despite how slow business was. He even let people go without paying for their prescriptions or allowed them to pay later. Kester is a humanitarian COVID warrior!  

Keyra Hoffman

During the holiday season in December 2021, Keyra Hoffman set a goal to bring some joy to residents at a senior facility. She said they would LOVE photos of pets and just a short little feel-good holiday greeting. Her mom posted on social media for anyone who wanted to participate, to email their greeting to her to print them out. Keyra's goal was to get 100 cards. Between friends and Keyra's leadership class she took in a huge stack and brought smiles to many residents. Keyra volunteers at least 6 hours a week, plays guitar and ukelele, and calls bingo for the residents. She calls them her ''old people friends''.

Marr & Company

Marnie Marr and team at Marr & Company Chartered Professional Accountant helps the little guy. Staff took their mission to assist small businesses to a new level by lending a helping hand to struggling businesses who were overwhelmed by the avalanche of paperwork that followed the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Business owners were terrified, trying to figure out how to keep their employees paid and their businesses afloat and every program had different rules for qualifying and the rules were not very clear and often required a technical interpretation. Marr saw an opportunity to help not only her own clients but the broader community by passing her knowledge of the government rules and programs that pertained to small businesses to the City of Airdrie’s Right for Business Program. Marr and team volunteered to consult with Airdrie businesses and assist them in navigating the COVID crisis and obtaining any supports that they were entitled to. 
 

The Hair Lounge

Wendy has been a Warrior throughout this entire pandemic. When it first stared, she shut down to ensure the safety of her clients and employees and worked herself to exhaustion to get everything ready for a reopening spending $25,000 in renovations, preparation, and expenses of supplies to combat COVID, and ensured PPE training of the staff (not including her own time) to ensure the safety of everyone that entered the salon. If you have every entered the salon, they have the best COVID practices...even to date still requiring her staff to COVID test every 48 hours (and her expenses continue in keeping COVID out of her shop). While Wendy was scared herself about the impact of shutting down would have on her business and employees, she always told everyone that it will be ok. Wendy even guided other business owners on great practices to have during COVID-19. Wendy is a true champion to our business community and to the public she serves. 
 

The Medicine Shoppe

Pharmacists all over the world and in our community have worked tirelessly to help others face the ongoing pandemic. Nataliya and her team went above and beyond in taking care of families and their vaccines. She also was interviewed by Global News demonstrating the rapid test program and discussing the Covid-19 services pharmacists offer our communities. 

The Pink Wand Cleaning Company

As soon as COVID was ramping up people were in desperation for proper cleaning supplies and PPE. The Pink Wand was the fastest at getting cleaning supplies to other and they refused to charge anything above cost whereas some businesses profited significantly. They even delivered the products. The Pink Wand showed incredible leadership and compassion during a stressful time.  

Venue Church

Throughout the pandemic, Pastor Corey provided clear-headed, respectful, and hopeful leadership right from day 1. His communication was always rooted in truth and away from fear. His teaching and coaching helped many families and individuals navigate through many of the trials with less stress and worry. Not only did Venue Church offer online ministry throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, but they also built an entirely new church during one of the most challenging times in history! Their focus continues to be friendship and community connection throughout the pandemic. They offer programming for all ages, supporting those who need to feel connected during so much uncertainty. Corey and Erin, and their entire Venue team are true Covid-19 Warriors to persevering during extremely challenging times! 

Your Local Ranch Ltd.

At the start of the pandemic when stores were closing and there were food shortages, Your Local Ranch made sure that everyone who needed food was able to purchase what they were looking for without needing to panic. They increased production and worked countless hours to ensure that all orders were filled. Your Local Ranch made sure that both returning customers and new customers were well looked after. They implemented safe shopping protocols by offering curb side pick-up and made sure that the products were available to purchase at original prices when it would have been easy to take advantage of the situation. When customers were worried, one thing that they could count on was having high quality food on their table.  

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