The Castlegar Sun WEDNES March 22, 1995 It was a give and take event KAREN KERKHOFF Sun Staff Almost $4,000 was raised Friday at the First Annual Business Gives Back Luncheon sponsored by the Kootenay Columbia Child Care Society (KCCCS) After a luncheon held at the Sandman Inn, items previously donated by local businesses were put up for auction and drew fast and furious bidding assured that there will be another event next year. “Next time we hope to do a dinner. It will be bigger and better.” Some of the 36 items for auc- tion included: a Castlegar Rebels family season pass donated by the Castlegar Rebels: a central vacuum system donat- ed by Selkirk Home Care; busi- ness cards and letterhead donated by Graphic Solutions; a tool set donated by United Buy and Sell, a portrait sitting donat- ed by TK Portraits; a gift basket donated by Artistic Aromas; and a computer joystick donated by Kootenay Computers. Besides having fun, partici- pants and businesses left know- ing that they contributed towards KCCS which sponsors important local programs such © as the West Kootenay Infant Development Programme. Hobbit Hill Children’s Centre. Tender Care Infant Program, and the Robson Child Care @ a f =. { _ Graphic Solutions owner, Donna Dunlop, looks over the many items other busi- nesses, such as hers, donated for the KCCCS luncheon and auction held last Fri- day at the Sandman Inn. Altogether there was some $4,000 raised thanks to the overwhelming generosity of local businesses SUN STAFF PHOTO Maren Ke 1995 PONTIAC FIREFLY eo & ADDITIONAL $750.00 REBATE AVAILABLE TO RECENT COLLEGE GRADUATES TOP USED V AL Hic TOTALLY NEW FOR 1995! ual Air Bags, 66 MPG Highway, 50 MPG City, Very easy to own! Let us show you why! Buy one for $10,895 [ESMARTLEASE ah $251 PER MONTH 0 DOWN PAYMENT Payment based on 36 month lease, OAC Total Paid $9121.00. Security deposit required. 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V/6 engine, overdrive automatic transmission, power windows & door locks, air conditioning, tit steering, cruise control, Cassette stereo system, power mirror adjustors, split folding rear seat back, rear deck lid spoiler $19,288 | of excellence/ | KALAWSKY 4 dr. sedan, 2.0 tt OHC engine, auto NC. intermittent wipers, cassette stereo, Glance Busy hotel The Fireside Motor Inn reports that people have already started book- ing golf packages for 1995. The hotel has had a relatively good win- ter but ski packages were down. This spring and summer the banquet room and the hotel will be busy with conferences including the fire- fighters fe in June, ddings and i And, now that the Hugh Keenleyside dam project has been announced they expect it to be even busier with commerical travellers and with companies coming in. Kootenay Contacts If you haven't received your special Kootenay Contacts book, please come to The Castlegar Sun office and pick one up. They're free! Spitted up The Oglow building e i along C been painted. Avenue has recently Sorry to see you go Melanie Graham, the receptionist at Re/Max Castlegar Realty, is leaving and moving to Invermere. Good Luck Melanie! Rosemary Barley is the new receptionist Home and Garden Guide Look for the special Home and Garden Guide supplement in today’s Castlegar Sun. This 28-page supplement features handy ideas for your home and garden as well as almost 50 business in the Castlegar and Trail area who have services and products to help you. And, you can enter to win a $100 gift certificate to any of the busineses adver- tising in the supplement! New flavors Canadian 2 for 1 pizza has new full-color menus. They've added sever- al new pizza items too, including hot and spicy, four cheeser, tropical supreme and classic Italian. And, they have spinach, if you ask for it Spring color People's Drug Mart has an Easter coloring. contest for children Check out details at their store College bonus If you are a recent graduate of a college or university and need a vehi- cle, then General Motors wants you to know that they have a special Program to help you buy that car. It’s a $750 rebate and Kalawsky sales professionals have all the details Spring into savings , The B.C. Lung Association Golf Privilege Card entitles golfers to free rounds or reduced green fees at 105 B.C. golf courses, 489 courses in Alberta and nine western states. According to a press relase, Castlegar golf course's name isn't mentioned, but many of the other area clubs do accept it. Cards can be purchased through Ticket- master locations. New business The City of Castlegar reports that it has issued seven new business licences in February and the total licences issued for January and February are already higher than last year at this time. Five new contractors are now working in Castlegar: Paul's Way Plumbing and Heating from Trail; Shorty’s Bobcat Service, an equip- ment contractor, Nyonna Deptuck/Hannu Hupponen a painting/clean- e/d ic and yard contractor; John Carpenter, a carpenter, and Concrest Borders and Pavers a concrete paver/drive- way border/plant borders company. Welcome! New faces Marie Orr of Welcome Wagon reports that between mid-February and mid-March she visited 17 new families. Folks from such exotic places as Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, Hope, Abbotsford, Kelow- na, Trail, K ps, Peachland, N: 0, Nelson, Rossland, and Squamish are now making Castlegar their home. Welcome! School reunion If you were a student or staff member who attended or taught in the Prince George area prior to 1948, the organizing committee is looking for you. The reunion will be held on Aug. 19 and contact person is Jackie (O’Rourke) Wallace at 604-964-2993 Re-appointed The Castlegar Sun publisher, Marilyn Strong, has been Teappointed for-a one-year term, to the Ministers’ Advisory Council for Sport and Recreation. New business If you're looking for an exciting way to spend a weekend this spring or summer, Drifters Rod ‘n River Adventures of Rock Creek is offer- ing “soft ” including g and fly fishing along the Kettle River. Other adventures and day trips in the area (including the whole Boundary/Similkameen area) are also available. New products Playmor Foods, located at the junction of highways 6 and 3A now offers multi-grain bread. Winter wishes/Summer dreams For those people travelling on holidays this spring, don’t forget to take along a copy of The Castlegar Sun and have your picture taken showing you and your surroundings. Bring in the Photo to the Sun office before April 30 and fill out the entry form)to win one of three great prizes including a portable BBQ from ICG Propane, a subscrip- tion to The Castlegar Sun , or a six-foot sub from Castlegar Subway. The grand prize, of a trip for two anywhere Canadian Regional Air- lines flies, will be drawn on Oct. 3 from all entries received front both winter wishes and summer dreams. On your next vacation, remember to show us where your Castlegar Sun shines! Call 365-5579 with your business news PONTIAC BUICK GME (1989) LTO. —— THE KING OF CaRs—— 78 C cht | * vi ‘ dim Laktin Bernie Krueki Sam Polovnikoft FINANCIAL PLANNING Investors . 1402 Columbia Ave.,Castlegar, B.C. Group 3GE65-RRSP Bes-7777 Building futures since 1940. Wednesday, March 22, 1995 The Castlegar Sun West's wins top ‘People's Choice Business Award CHAMBER CHAT CASTLEGAR CHAMBER OF COMMERCE Time again for another newslet- ter and I've got lots to share with you this-month, The best is our People’s Choice Business Awards. We've changed the format to cus- tomer service as we feel that this is the most important. If you don't make your customers happy, you won't have any. Thank you to all who took a few minutes to fill out a form for us and send it in or drop it off. It shows you do notice good ser- vice, and who gives it. There were great choices this year. Our congratulations té those who won. Keep up the good work! The winners are: Best Quality of Service - Graphic Solutions; Fastest Service - Cohoe Insur- ance; Friendliest Service - Cana- da Safeway; Most Community Minded Service - Kootenay- Columbia Child Care Society; Business of the Year - West's Department Store. Tourism/moving Our office is busy sending out packages of information to tourists and people interested in moving to Castlegar, at least a dozen a week. Business inquiries Businesses are also interested in coming to our town. Some have asked the question: “What kind of business do you need?” If I knew that, I'd be doing it Although there are a few areas of business that don’t exist here yet, there is potential. I said to one gentleman that I ‘was not sure why business was so keen on coming to Castlegar. His reply? “We hear you've got lots of potential, we're checking you out!’? Coming workshops Doing Business on the Internet, and Reality Bytes: Education and Jobs in a New Global World workshops are coming to Castle- gar on May 9. These are spon- sored by the Ministry of Small Business, Tourism and Culture. These will focus on educating business owners and youth about the importance of Internet and its relevance to small business and economic development. Doing Business on the Internet is targeted at t'e small-business community and provides insight into how small businesses can make use of the Internet to improve their competitiveness. Communications, research, sales and marketing are some of the particular applications for small businesses that will be discussed. Reality Bytes is targeted at youth and is meant to raise about the i of new economy and how it will affect future employment and self-employment prospects for youth. The facilitator of the workshops is Guy Huntington, president of Huntington Ventures and a well-respected speaker in this field Reality Bytes will be offered at SHSS the afternoon of May 9 and is free to the students- Verna Doing Business on the Internet workshop will run 7-10 p.m. on May 9 at the Fireside Inn and the cost is avery affordable $20 per person. For more information or to register please call us at 365-6313, Heavenly hep Too many entrepreneurs are unaware of alternate sources of financing, says Douglas Gray, a Vancouver-based lawyer and co=author of Raising Money: The Canadian Guide to Successful Business Financing. That's to their detriment, because security- conscious banks aren't the best bet for higher-risk Loans and interest have to be repaid at regular intervals—pay- ments that can drain the cash flow of a young company—and loans may be called in or a line of cred- it frozen with little warning. One of the most appealing alternate sources of cash for small businesses are “angels” or informal venture capitalists. Often middle-to-upper class pro- fessionals with a small amount of disposable income to invest and a yen to live the entrepreneurial life vicariously, angels can be found in a variety of ways. They may be acquaintances you know or could be referred to within. your business network, or they may be complete strangers who respond to your business Opportunities ad for equity inter- est in a company. Yet again, you may find your angel through a matchmaker Many provincial governments and municipal economic agencies have matchmaking services, as does the Federal Business Development Bank. Business owners can draft an agreement to buy out an angel's share of the company after a short five-year period, for example. As always, never sign anything until your lawyer and tax accountant have vetted the document Strategic alliances The Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Ottawa or the fed- eral government's International Trade Centres in Ontario, Que- bec, Nova Scotia and British Columbia can point out details about strategic alliances and BCNet, the European-based Business Co-operation Network. After coming +o Canada a little more than a year ago, BCNet has successfully introduced a high number of Canadian companies to global counterparts keen to enter strategic alliances or part- nering, BCNet, developed by the Européan Economic Community, electronically links more than 1,100 accredited business advi- sors in 35 countries These advisors—bankers, lawyers and consultants—repre- sént clients whose financially intimate, up-to-date profiles are listed on the computer network Confidentiality is maintained, however, as company names arc not included. The joy of choosing Selling off company shares to family members is another time- honored means of raising capital. All of which underscores the realization that, yes, small busi- nesses do have financing options. The Castlegar and District Chamber of Commerce annual People's Choice award winners were named last week. Accepting the awards on behalf of their companies were: (from top left, clock- wise) Vi Kalesnikoff of West's Department Store; Donna Dunlop of Graphic Solutions; Steve Loughheed of Canada Safeway; Charlie Cohoe of Cohoe Insurance; and Kim Adamson of Kootenay Columbia Child Care Society. PHOTOS by Alexa Pongracz 2327 - 6th Avenue We produce alll signage locally, from design concepts, through fabri to Castlegar, BC installation. Colourmix also provides painting contacts for industrial, oppspies Phone us for a quote. Ph: 365-7672 cone Hes.’ Pa, 365-7692 2 8S FASTEST SERVICE AWARD Thanks for the honour. From everyone at Cohoe Insurance. (CI Coboe Insurance "Takin’ Better Care Of You" Chemoff is ec gz the stu- dents who will be attending HAIR-4-U and the UPPER ROOM GIFT SHOP Featuring Seniors <4 Discounts every day 314°- 10th Ave. 365-2213 or REPUTATION SPEAKS FOR US. S CLEAN-SCENE CARPET CLEANERS + PROFESSIONAL CARPET AND UPHOLSTERY CLEANING With Complete Rinsing For Superior Results * FLOOD CLEANUP SPECIALISTS + TRAINED PROFESSIONALS With Over 26 Years of Combined Experience THE CARPET CLEANERS MOST PEOPLE RELY ON OR A FREE ESTIMATE CALL 365-6969 THANKS A BIG thank you to all our customers'and clients who took time out to cast their ballots for West's Travel and West's Dept. Store staff, for the business of the year award te hw Travey Aang we Department Store me \ > Castlegar & District Chamber of Commerce and to everyone who took the time to vote in the People’s Choice Business Awards. We're awful glad you're out there, Because you're the reason good service happens. Creating demand for more good service. Which is why we're In business. We are very honored to be chosen for the 1994 Business Award Best Quality of Service Thanks again, Donna & Dick Duniop GRAPHIC SOLUTIONS Advertising « Design Desktop Publishing & Button Making (604) 365-6320 Fax (604) 365-3937 CASTLEGAR “Supporting & Growing with Castlegar”