The Best of The Region Community Awards was held at the UNOH Event Center.
Dean Brown | The Lima News
LIMA – There were almost 265,000 votes representing 10,000 people who voted in the Best of The Region Community Choice Awards.
The program experienced a number of changes. An obvious change in the number of categories. Categories went from 50 to 178 in twelve varied, broad areas such as dining, pets, services and shopping. The voting consisted of three rounds instead of one round and done.
Kim Shaffer of Lox Salon and Spa said, “I think it was really fun to let the communnity vote for everybody. I think it’s humbling to have so many people vote for you. You don’t realize how many people love your business until votes like this come in. It’s a great reminder.”
The first round was a nomination round. People actually had to vote by typing in businesses names and nominating them to be a part of the program. The top five businesses that garnered the most nominations moved on to round two.
The second round allowed people to vote from among those five businesses.
The third round was the final tabulation of the votes, then announcing the final three and ultimately the winner.
Todd Benz, General Manager of The Lima News said, “It gets the community more involved than they were before. They’re the ones making the nominations. They’re choosing their favorite businesses that they want to see a part of this program instead of us.”
Daniel Carnes, owner of nominee Fat Kid BBQ, said, “I’ve been to a couple of galas in Lima and so far this, just the decor and the way they have everything set up is phenomenal. I really liked the voting process and how everything went. I like it better than what they’ve done in the past. I will tell you from a business standpoint, the owner of it, the way the processes went and the gala; I hope to see it back next year.”
Winners will be announced in a special section in the Sunday, December 11 edition of The Lima News.
Reach Dean Brown at 567-242-0409
