Happy New Year!!! The countdown is on for the Annual President's Dinner - just 5 short weeks away! This year we continue with our theme of Celebrate! following the success of last year's event and the great stories we were able to share. Last year, the Log Cabin crew were talking about how we might recognize our members that don't seem to get captured in the Quinte Business Achievement Award program. We certainly didn't want to compete with the QBAA and the honour it brings to its award winners but we thought there might be room to build on them.

We also looked at the Lifetime Achievement award and wondered if there wasn’t a way to cheer you on along the way.  What type of “criteria” or achievements on that path would be part of this cumulative award?  And so, with the support of the Board, we developed the Cornerstone Awards.

The Cornerstone Awards, so named for being the foundation to Lifetime Achievement, celebrate the innate qualities of the business leaders in our community.   The qualities that drive every one of you to succeed and ultimately, benefit the community around you; citizenship, founding, mentoring and vision. 

As we sifted through a long list of names to choose the inaugural recipients, we knew it was the right thing to do.  We weren't sure how well it would work - we were doing away with the tradition of a guest speaker at our "gala" night and would the awards themselves be entertaining enough?  

Then, we started to gather the stories and there was no doubt we would fill an evening with laughter, inspiration, awe and maybe even a few tears.

In case you weren't able to join us last year, let me share these stories with you now - over the next few weeks - and I hope you'll consider joining us for this year's event where will be celebrating at least five more amazing members of our Chamber family along with the milestones and anniversaries of many others!