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20 - The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday April 4, 2007 www.oakvillebeaver.com The Oakville Awards for Business Excellence Celebrating achievement and raising funds for our youth For more than a decade the Oakville Awards for Business Excellence (OABE) has been encouraging and rewarding business excellence in our community. These prestigious awards are the result of a joint collaboration between the Rotary Club of Oakville West and the Oakville Chamber of Commerce. The awards are held every year to recognize the invaluable contribution business makes to our community as well as raise money for Oakville's youth. Every year we raise thousands of dollars through this event to support the Oakville Awards of Academic Excellence, the scholarship and bursary program for academic excellence in Oakville public and Catholic secondary schools in addition to a number of other youth initiatives supported by Oakville's Rotary Clubs. On the evening of April 12, 2007 we will be honoring the 2006 finalists and winners of this year's `Obies'. Congratulations to everyone for their fine work and outstanding contribution to our community. We are also delighted to have Elysia Nisan Kirkup as our emcee for the evening. Elysia is currently a teacher with the Halton District School Board at Nelson H.S. She has piloted a program for Halton's At-Risk students that met with great success and is also teaching in the Police Foundations program at Sheridan College Without the proud support of our sponsors our 12th anniversary event would not be possible. Many thanks go to Lexus of Oakville, our platinum sponsor; CIBC and Oakville Conference and Banquet Centre, our gold level sponsors; silver level sponsors: Business Development Bank, Business Development Centre- Halton Region, Evian Canada, Henderson Partners, LLP, Ideal Graphics, Laser Networks, Mary Cardamone: Royal LePage, O'Connor MacLeod Hanna, Snap-On Tools, The Oakville Club, The UPS Store and Virox Technologies. Our bronze level sponsors: Gall & Associates Vision Source, Higgins Party Rentals, McGowan Insurance Services, MCS Interactive Media, South Sheridan Executive Centre, Blazer for Men, Brendan Moore & Associates, Hearing Solutions Oakville, Kopriva Taylor Community Funeral Home, M. Edward Powell Insurance Brokers, OEDA and Pong Family Dentistry. We also want to pay proud respect to our inkind sponsors who have donated their products and/or services to make the evening outstanding: Thank you to Ada's Flowers, Cogeco, The Oakville Beaver, ACS Web Group, CJC Communications, OnSite Images, TeaLeaf Communications and Woodfield Consulting. Celebrating 12 successful years of business excellence in Oakville The Oakville Awards for Business Excellence (OABE) will be celebrating their 12th anniversary on April 12th, 2007. From humble beginnings ­ in 1995 we raised $4,500 ­ we now receive over 100 nominations annually, honour 15 businesses with an "Obie" and raise close to $40,000 to fund Rotary youth initiatives. When we began heading up this volunteer committee a year ago, we quickly became immersed in understanding the demographic of the Oakville business community. We learned to appreciate the value of the large international firms and large employers. We also found ourselves developing a significant understanding of the importance of the hundreds of small- and medium-sized firms that are striving for leadership in their respective fields every day, often seven days per week. We have learned that simply surviving and thriving in business is a form of excellence in and of itself. So, the challenge of being recognized publicly as `excellent' by a panel of distinguished judges is a significant achievement. Our congratulations go out to those nominated, to those judged to be leaders and especially to those whose business success and whose involvement within the Oakville community adds up to their being recognized as excellent in their field, a winner of an "Obie." Well done. We'd also like to thank our corporate sponsors and sponsors in-kind who have so generously provided support in the way of donations, time and effort to ensure that this event is a successful, prestigious fundraising opportunity for the Oakville community. Thanks also to the OABE organizing committee volunteers who have worked very hard over the last year. It has been our pleasure to be part of such a dedicated team of individuals from the Rotary Club of Oakville West, the Oakville Chamber of Commerce and the Oakville community. Greg Duffy Chair Your community. Your goals. Your law firm. We are proud to sponsor the Oakville Awards for Business Excellence "Your hometown connection to a world of legal advice." Jeffrey S. Burkett Harold R. Watson Christine A.M. Fisher LITIGATION fisher@omh.ca Kenneth W. Watts LITIGATION watts@omh.ca Kelly G. Yerxa REAL ESTATE & MUNICIPAL yerxa@omh.ca Thomas C. Hays REAL ESTATE hays@omh.ca Andrew C. Knox REAL ESTATE & MUNICIPAL knox@omh.ca Blair S. Taylor LAND DEVELOPMENT & MUNICIPAL taylor@omh.ca Jarvis G. Sheridan CORPORATE & COMMERCIAL sheridan@omh.ca Tanya A. Leedale CORPORATE & COMMERCIAL leedale@omh.ca Brian J. Hanna REAL ESTATE hanna@omh.ca Gracie Romano CRIMINAL romano@omh.ca James McAskill REAL ESTATE & MUNICIPAL mcaskill@omh.ca Mary-Anne Kril FAMILY LAW kril@omh.ca Paul D. Stunt CRIMINAL stunt@omh.ca Larry S. Gangbar WILLS & ESTATES gangbar@omh.ca Robert Krizman CORPORATE & COMMERCIAL krizman@omh.ca Marian G. Gage FAMILY LAW gage@omh.ca CORPORATE & COMMERCIAL MUNICIPAL & EMPLOYMENT watson@omh.ca burkett@omh.ca 700 Kerr Street, Oakville, Ontario L6K 3W5 · (905) 842-8030 Visit us at www.omh.ca