Coaldale Chamber awards dinner postponed

Posted on March 17, 2020 by Sunny South News

By Nikki Jamieson
Sunny South News

The Coaldale and District Chamber of Commerce’s Awards and Appreciation Banquet has been postponed until further notice.

The event was originally scheduled to go March 21. However, due to statements made by Alberta Health Services concerning covid-19, chamber president René van de Vendel said the decision was made to postpone it.

“We think we will be wiser off to consider everybody’s safety, and we don’t want to take any chances of anybody catching anything because of our event,” said van de Vendel. “We’re not cancelling, we’re postponing until further notice.”

Last week, the province asked organizers to cancel events with attendances of more than 250 as a measure to prevent the spread of covid-19. While the event was believed to attended by less than 250 people, the chamber believes that  proceeding with this event is not in the best interest of the public.

The awards night aims to honour and pay tribute to members of the Coaldale community, In addition to presenting the chamber awards for Business of the Year, Customer Service, Citizen of the Year, Group Citizens and Special Tribute Award, the Town of Coaldale had partnered with the chamber for the first time to present the town awards for Male Athlete of the Year, Female Athlete of the Year, Arts or Recreation Leader of the Year, Community Artist of the Year, Environmental Excellence and Youth Citizen of the Year. The event will now be held at a later date.

The chamber would like to thank the community and chamber members for their support and understanding regarding this turn of events.