It’s a win!
Kerfuffle Creations’ is thanking the community for their support after winning the 2024 Canadian Choice Awards (CCA) for Best Gift Shop in Hope.
“It’s super humbling,” said Sarah Preson, the owner of Kerfuffle. “The amount of people that reached out and said, ‘Hey, we love you’ has been incredible. Especially on our Google reviews, we got some amazing reviews.”
The awards, which according to their website aims to “celebrate and uplift small businesses across Canada,” announced their winners on Feb. 16 after a lengthy process. This process involved a “nominator feedback survey, independent analysis,” and filling out a business owner questionnaire. People were also able to vote online for their favourite business in order to help them win.
Preson said she first learned that the store was a top five finalist in early December, after being nominated in November (the last day for nominations was November 30, 2023) for the category of Gift Shop. Kerfuffle’s nomination and success in the CCA had the support of many people in Hope who expressed their excitement over the chance of the store winning — something that Preson said she was truly grateful for.
However, Preson said her own excitement was soured after doing further research on the awards and growing suspicious that it was a scam. This, she said, was due to realizing that winners would need to pay $500 in order to receive a trophy. She also had concerns that winners might not to be able to use the CCA advertisement — such as using CCA logos to show that they won — without having to pay a fee first.
As such, Preson said she was pleasantly surprised when she received her win — along with a digital package with the CCA banner and logos for her to use for free. However, she will still need to pay $500 in order to receive her trophy.
“From the research myself and others have done you could say its like magic,” Preson said via Facebook. “The awards are real. The trophies are real. The digital package is free and real. Advertising winning businesses is real. The CCA Facebook page has 4, 500 followers. And people are disapointed that they did not win.
“I will display the banner I was given. Thank you to the customers who say they voted. And I appreciate someone recognizing I do try for our community, often at my own cost. Cheers to a win at the start of 2024. Lets hope its a better year with more amazing surprises ahead.”
The full list of winners from other cities and towns across Canada can be found at canadianchoiceaward.ca .
READ MORE: Annual Kids Christmas Shop back at Kerfuffle Creations from Dec. 10 till Dec. 17
@KemoneMoodley
kemone.moodley@hopestandard.com
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