The Crookston Area Chamber of Commerce is celebrating local businesses in the community with its Chamber Celebration and Awards on Friday, December 2, in the Crookston Eagles Club. This year’s theme will be Night of Stars, and it will be the first time in two years that the event will be done in person. “This is the first time we’re doing it in person after a couple of years off. We’ve been doing a virtual presentation of awards for the past few years,” Chamber Executive Director Mark Landa explained. “This is a night to celebrate Crookston, another good year for the Chamber and the business community, and to celebrate some of the businesses and individuals that make up the business community here in Crookston.”
The event will begin at 6:00 p.m. with a Social Hour, where the Club will serve appetizers and have the bar open for people to enjoy drinks, network, and converse. Along with appetizers, there will be a Red Carpet Photo Booth, raffles, and a silent auction with large prizes, such as a Designer Purse, a birthday party with the Crookston Fire Department, and even a trip to Florida. “We’re calling it a “Night of Stars” and making it more of an Oscars or Emmy’s-type celebration, so we’ll have a big banner that is a big backdrop for photos and a red carpet to walk to make it a fun evening,” Mark Landa explained. “People can get as dressed up as they like, they can come in business casual, or they can get dressed up to the nines.” After the Social Hour, the Awards will begin at 7:00 p.m. where the Chamber will first recognize its Leadership Crookston Class, where the graduates will receive Certificates of Completion for completing the 16-week course (these students include small business employees sent by their employers who are preparing to take or have started leadership positions in their business to explore different segments of the economy and explore Crookston). After the “graduation,” the Chamber will begin handing out awards to businesses that were nominated by the public three weeks earlier. After the awards are given out, and events like the silent auction are finished, the Night will end with a comedy show by comedian Jessi Campbell.
The award categories for the Night include:
- Large Business of the Year
- Small Business of the Year (both of which include for and nonprofit businesses),
- Lifetime Achievement: an award given to an individual or business that has been in business for 25+ years
- Entrepreneur of the Year: an award given to an individual who is new to the business and trying to do good work or something different
- The Chamber Champ: an award given to an individual who is very supportive of the Crookston Chamber of Commerce
- Volunteer of the Year: an award given to an individual or group that has done the most work volunteering
Each award has its own special criteria that the Chamber looks for in the nominated businesses to see if they deserve the award. “For the Small and Large Business awards, it’s trying and setting up new programs and doing new things or bringing in new technology. Those that are making a difference or improvements in their businesses. The Lifetime Achievement is for businesses that have been here for a long time and keeps improving and working hard,” Mark Landa explained. “The Entrepreneurs of the Year award is for those folks that are doing something new or different that we notice because there are always a lot of brand-new small businesses, and some of them don’t make it. We want to recognize the ones that are successful, doing something different, or trying something new.”
The event is open to the public, with tickets costing $35 per individual or $60 for couples. Businesses can also purchase tables of eight for $240. Tickets can be purchased at the Crookston Area Chamber Office at 103 S Broadway, Crookston, or by contacting any of the Chamber’s board members.
A flyer of the event can be found below-
