One of my favourite times of the year is when we hold the Seekers Choice Awards.

Throughout the year, the Seeker and myself spend a lot of time working towards helping great causes by either volunteering or giving away money. Over the last 6 years, our Small business has donated over $25,000 to various charitable organizations. We also have helped many by giving away ad space to help fundraisers meet their goals. This may not seem like much, but when you factor in the fact that our yearly profits doesn’t even come close to this amount, it puts into perspective what is truly important to us: Community.

We are proud of our awards ceremony because this is when we get to honour people who are often overlooked. The mom & pop shops, the starving artists, the volunteers, they all get acknowledgement at this fabulous evening of glitz and glitters.

Our nominees are stellar members of this wonderful city we call home and all deserve to win an award. Unfortunately, we can only give out one per category, but that does not mean there are any losers. No. Every single nominee is a winner in our eyes.

The nomination and voting period is also a means to promote the different businesses, artists, athletes that are up for an award, some of which you may not have heard about before. It can send you on a small discovery trip revealing some of the gems of our city.

The awards night aligns itself well to our mission Statement: To shine a positive light on our community; To bring a positive spin on news… To provide top quality advertising and exposure to small business owners so they can promote their product or service at affordable rates; To give a strong voice to the arts and culture community; To spread the word about all the great events taking place in Cornwall and Area.

I am always excited to reveal all the winners, but I always get particularly teary eyed when the Visual Artist is up. Coming from a family of visual artists, I know too well the struggle. And although I do not draw or paint myself, I am artistic in my own way, the only difference being that my medium is a computer screen rather than a canvas. I chose this avenue because it seemed more viable, more profitable, more stable. 

I deeply admire those who put their passion on the forefront of their lives, risk it all, are bold and unafraid. In Cornwall, I have met some of the most talented people and I have friends whose artwork should definitely be hung in national museums.

All that to say that I wish I could do more to support them. I wish I could give them walls to hang and display permanently.  I wish I could buy a piece from every artist, but my thin wallet won’t allow it.  

Slowly, I’m gathering a small collection. On the walls of the Seeker office, you can see work by Rose Desnoyers, Sandra Taylor-Hedges, Adele Constantineau and Tracy-Lynn Chisholm.  With time, hopefully, this collection will grow larger. 

I hope you can join me on June 17th, when we reveal the 2016 Visual Artist of the year is, as well as all the other winners.