{"id":19027,"date":"2017-11-22T15:41:08","date_gmt":"2017-11-22T20:41:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=19027"},"modified":"2017-11-29T16:56:44","modified_gmt":"2017-11-29T21:56:44","slug":"spotlight-smiles-on-local-business-excellence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/spotlight-smiles-on-local-business-excellence\/","title":{"rendered":"Spotlight “smiles” on local business excellence"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

There were plenty of smiles to go around Thursday night when, after a five year absence, the Aurora Chamber of Commerce renewed its commitment to shining a spotlight on local business at the revived Business Excellence Awards.
\nAnd, if you probably asked, a few of the smiles in the room could be attributed to Dr. Ali Shojaei.
\nDr. Shojaei\u2019s Aurora Orthodontics shared top honours with library book distributor WhitehotsInc taking home the Business Excellence Award.
\nThe two diverse businesses vied for top honours alongside fellow nominees Aurora Family Martial Arts, Carruthers Financial & Associates, GEM Health Care Services and snapd Aurora.
\nAs the name suggests, the Business Excellence award is intended to \u201crecognize business excellence,\u201d but, for Dr. Shojaei, excellence runs deep.
\n\u201cMy goal is to provide the highest quality orthodontic care for my patients and I believe I can do this by hiring excellent staff, being able to stay on top of my continuing education and the advances in the technology of our business,\u201d he said, as he was joined on stage by his team. \u201cMe and my team have a lot of plans to be able to give back in various ways and touch other people\u2019s lives, so I want to thank everybody who is up here because I am just one person and I couldn\u2019t do anything without them.\u201d
\nWhile Aurora Orthodontics is a comparatively new business to Aurora, Whitehots has a storied history to call its own.
\nCFO Sharon Culver billed the business as a \u201cmatchmaker\u201d between libraries and publishers that moves over 30,000 books to libraries from coast to coast each year.
\n\u201cIt is our 30th anniversary, so this is a wonderful gift,\u201d Ms. Culver told the crowd. \u201cWe love being in Aurora.\u201d
\nFor the business community, the return of the Business Excellence Awards, previously known as the Business Achievement Awards, was a \u201cwonderful gift\u201d in itself. Put on ice five years ago by the Aurora Chamber of Commerce, its revival was long overdue, according to Chamber Board President George Hughes.
\n\u201cThis celebration of excellence is very important to me because it is an opportunity to be recognized by peers,\u201d he explained to audiences gathered for the ceremony and dinner at King\u2019s Riding Golf Club. \u201cWhen you\u2019re working for another company or working for \u2018the man,\u2019 if you do a good job you get some praise, but there is no other compliment for a small business, or any business, than getting recognition from your peers.
\n\u201cIt is a way of providing peer recognition which doesn\u2019t happen\u2026when you work those long hours as a small business entrepreneur, and that is what this awards ceremony is and how important it is to me.\u201d
\nThis year, in all, 17 local businesses were nominated in five different categories.
\nThe first award of the evening went to Artistica Ballroom Dance Studio which, along with Simply Yummy Bakery and Athletify, vied for the New Business Venture trophy, which \u201crecognizes new businesses that have exhibited hard work, entrepreneurial initiative and success.\u201d
\n\u201cIt is truly an honour just to be represented here and [be a] part of the community,\u201d said Patrick Derry, who owns and operates Artistica alongside Kelly Stacey and Anastasia Trutneva. \u201cWe are so grateful to be a part of this community. It is kind of by chance in a way that we ended up here three and a half years ago when we sat in a basement apartment and mapped all of our clients on a map of the greater Aurora area and basically set up a 10 km radius with a string that centred right somewhere between Vata Court and Industrial Parkway South.
\n\u201cA couple of years later we opened our doors at Industrial Parkway South and we couldn\u2019t be more thrilled to be part of such a great community, and to be recognized here with so many amazing people we now call friends is just an absolute honour.\u201d
\nEmotions ran high in the next category when MR Menswear brought home the trophy in the Community Involvement category, \u201crecognizing businesses that show a strong commitment to giving back through participation in numerous businesses and community organizations and\/or charitable events.
\nNominated alongside Apple Self Storage and RE\/MAX Hallmark Lind Group Realty Ltd. Brokerage, the award was accepted by Mike Rathke, the \u201cMR\u201d behind MR Menswear who has been battling a second courageous fight against cancer.
\n\u201cThank you so very, very much,\u201d said Mr. Rathke, who has used his business as a means of raising tens of thousands of dollars for organizations ranging from Southlake to SickKids, to Easter Seals to the MS Society of Canada.
\nThe Non-Profit of the Year Award was a race between Hope House Community Hospice (formerly Hospice King-Aurora-Richmond Hill), The Able Network, and, the eventual honouree, CHATS (Community and Home Assistance to Seniors).
\n\u201cAlthough we serve all of York Region and south Simcoe, providing care and services to over 8,100 clients, our home and our base is right here in Aurora,\u201d said CHATS CEO Christina Bisanz, joined on stage by CHATS\u2019 Tim Jones, who is planning to retire in February. \u201cAs one of the largest not for profit employers, we\u2019re also very much a part of the community participating in the annual Aurora Street Festival, Santa Claus Parade, and anything we can do to really be a part of this community because it is our home and this is just wonderful \u2013 particularly so because we only have a little bit more time that this wonderful gentleman is going to be part of our organization on a day to day basis.\u201d
\nFinally, the Trailblazer Award, which recognizes \u201cbusinesses that demonstrate innovation and creativity within their industry\u201d came down to Everyday Cooking by Sandra Katanic, and Food in Motion.
\n\u201cThis comes as big surprise. It is amazing the doors that open when you can actually make a good lasagne,\u201d said Chef and Food in Motion co-owner John Cosentino. \u201cWe had immediate support from the Chamber, the Town and we really see the dividends paid from choosing Aurora as our home and we look forward to continuing to work with everybody here.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir There were plenty of smiles to go around Thursday night when, after a five year absence, the Aurora Chamber of Commerce renewed its commitment to shining a spotlight on local business at the revived Business Excellence Awards. And, if you probably asked, a few of the smiles in the room could be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":19020,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/2017-11-23-02.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-4WT","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-11 00:34:25","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}