Nominees announced for Aurora Chamber’s 2025 Business Excellence Awards

The countdown is on for one of the year's most celebratory nights in the local business community as the Aurora Chamber of Commerce announced the nominees for their 2025

Business Excellence Awards on Monday night.

This year's nominees were celebrated with a reception held last week at the Aurora branch of the Royal Canadian Legion. The event stirred excitement not only for this fall's Business Excellence Awards ceremony and dinner set for October, but also the Chamber's milestone 45^th anniversary serving the Aurora community.

“I think it's great to see the longevity of the Chamber and to see it morph and grow over the time that I have been involved,” says Aurora Chamber of Commerce Interim President Debra Wilson, who has been a member of the organization since 2008. “We've seen it grow, we've seen it change with the times, we came through COVID, and we had to do a lot of adjusting there – now we're helping our businesses migrate through tariff time. To have an organization like the Aurora Chamber of Commerce survive the ups and downs of 45 years and still be here, strong and celebrating our leadership is quite an accomplishment.”

The Chamber's anniversary will be recognized at this fall's ceremony with a new category recognizing Legacy of Leaders, which will honour some of the Chamber's longest-standing members – a fitting addition for an evening built around the theme of “Celebrating Our Leaders Past, Present and Future.”

As such, this year's nominees reflect both long-standing and up-and-coming Chamber members who have enhanced the local business community in the areas of community participation, the non-profit sector, the world of young entrepreneurship, manufacturing export, IT and Media Professional Services, and businesses that work in Children/Youth Recreation & Education.

This year's nominees are:

NON-PROFIT

Aurora Cultural Centre

CHATS (Community & Home Assistance to Seniors)

Community Living Central York

Windfall Ecology Centre

COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION

Aurora Orthodontics

Flow Water

Neighbour Media

NewRoads Aurora Toyota

YOUNG ENTREPRENEUR

Yehya Chehade, Studio 95 Training and Athletics

Brittney Jones, Socials & Stilettos

Julia Livia, RISE Event Planning

Lindsay Strom, Key Advantage Team

I.T./MEDIA PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

Addison Marketing Solutions

Flagship Software

Foundation BTS

Neighbour Media

CHILDREN/YOUTH RECREATION & EDUCATION

Aurora Family Martial Arts

Aurora Music Academy

socialskilled

STEM Minds

PEOPLE'S CHOICE

Aizadfood

Allegra Aurora: Marketing, Print, Mail

Chocolate & Company

Flow Water

LD Human Resources

Midas Auto Group

Monaco Interiors

Mondo Del Café

Neighbour Media

Omars Shoes

Rosegold Health Inc.

Sunrise of Aurora

The Aurora Skin Clinic

The Maverik Inc.

Thrive Gymnastics

The nomination process this year saw a great response, says Wilson, who adds the selection committee will “have their work cut out for them” as they visit the nominated businesses over the summer to determine the winners. The People's Choice winner will be determined by public vote beginning in September.

“There's a lot of great companies that have been nominated this year,” says Wilson, noting awards ceremonies like these are invaluable in shining a light on businesses throughout the Aurora community. “One of the things we've constantly heard [during the process] was, ‘I didn't realize we had a company like that in Aurora' and ‘I wasn't aware they were in Aurora.' I think sometimes our businesses operate we don't really know what they do; this is a great opportunity to learn more about what's right here in our backyard.”

For more on this year's nominees, the selection process, and tickets for the 2025 Business Excellence Awards, which will be held Thursday, October 23, at the Royal Venetian Mansion, visit aurorachamber.on.ca/business-celebration-2025.

By Brock Weir