Resilience of businesses highlighted at ‘Best Of Lakes Region’ event

LACONIA — Surviving a global pandemic would be reason for any business to celebrate, but on Tuesday night more than 200 local businesses and organizations had another reason to smile – being named to the roll of 2021’s Best of the Lakes Region.

The Best Of party was held in the recently reopened Lakeport Opera House, where revelers enjoyed drinks, food, music, and the chance to do something all too rare in 2020 and the beginning of 2021: mingle and socialize, face-to-smiling-face.

“Who would have thought that we would be able to be here when we started the contest in March,” asked Adam Hirshan, publisher of the Laconia Daily Sun, during his remarks to the crowd.

The party marked the conclusion of the third year of the Best of the Lakes Region event. The contest began with a nomination period in which anyone can nominate a local business or organization in one of 183 categories. During a 10-day window, more than 2,000 nominations were received. Voting was open from April 13-30, and a total of 198,179 votes were cast, from 34,778 unique voters. The result was the 249 winners who rose to the top, including both Gold and Silver level winners.

The Downtown Gym won Gold for the “Gym/Fitness Center” category. Owner Janine Page said this was the first time that she and her gym decided to make a push for the contest.

“I don’t think we ever tried, never entered the fun (before),” Page said, so she said it was a “cool surprise” to hear that her gym, smaller in size than other names in the category, had garnered the most votes. “We just said to our people, told them what we were doing, and said, if you love us, vote for us.”

Also celebrating a Gold was Lakes Region Visiting Nurses. Renee Speltz, board chair of the organization that has been providing in-home nursing services since 1923, said the award has validated the hard work that the staff has been providing, even during a pandemic.

“This award is so wonderful. We as a board know how hard they work day in and day out – they go above and beyond,” Speltz said. “It’s no small feat to go into someone’s home, make sure they’re safe and cared for, and in a hospice situation, help them through that process.”

Speltz said the organization has benefited from the leadership of CEO Kevin Kelly. He joined the LRVNA in 2018, when they had a staff of 14 and a client list of 40. Today, they have 92 on staff and a client list of 340, with 200 referrals each month.

Kelly said the LRVNA has grown to a point where it can make good on its promise to provide care to anyone who needs it, regardless of their ability to pay.

“We’ve come to the position that we have the team that can say, ‘Yes,’” Kelly said. “I’m very proud of this group.

Lynne Arsenault, owner-operator of All In The Details, said she was brought to tears when she got the call telling her that she won Silver in the “Car Wash” category. She’s a one-woman show in the fourth year of her business, which she started as a way to stay busy after a personal tragedy.

Winning the award meant “Everything,” she said. “It warms my heart more than anything. I’m someone who works my butt off to get anywhere in life.”

For Penny Pitou Travel and Kim Terrio, winning Gold is a bright spot during one of the darkest stretches a travel agency could go through, considering the travel restrictions made necessary by COVID-19. “It’s been a long haul,” said Terrio, adding that it will probably be another six to eight months before her business returns to pre-pandemic levels. Yet, winning Gold means that their clientele hasn’t forgotten about them. “It’s always nice when your clients vote, not only by going into the office, but also online.”

Sunflower Natural Foods was a first-time winner, and manager Ryan McCourt, who is soon to become owner of the store, said it was nice to be appreciated by a city that the store continued to serve, even through a pandemic.

“We’ve been helping the community for 36 years,” McCourt said. “We took this store through COVID, we were there for the people, we have a great crew, it means a lot for us to be recognized.”

Hirshan said the 2021 levels of participation were well in excess of the traffic generated by last year’s contest. Continuing a prior trend, most votes were cast from mobile devices – 63%, to be specific. Desktop machines were used to cast 32%, and 5% of votes came from tablet users.

While those statistics might be interesting, Hirshan said they’re rather beside the point. It’s the brick-and-mortar, face-to-face relationships that keep the Lakes Region’s community of businesses healthy, and which helped to sustain so many through such a challenging time.

“I don’t know about you, but the digital world can’t compete with the sense of community we have here,” Hirshan said, noting the space where the party was located was created by a local product, developer Scott Everett. He created not just a space, but a vehicle to advance relationships. To that point, Hirshan announced that an event was being planned for the fall at the Opera House, in which a speaker will come to discuss the connection between arts and economic development.

Bob and Linda Glassett were among those whose attendance at the Best Of party was also their first look inside of the Opera House.

“Gorgeous,” said Bob.

“It’s really nice, it’s done beautifully, I can’t wait to see a show here,” said Linda.

Bob noted how significant the building will be to the Lakeport area, as the first floor tenants – Laconia Daily Sun and the coffee shop Wayfarer Lakeport – draw consistent daily traffic, and the several shows each month in the performance space will bring evening crowds.

“It’s a huge improvement, both outside and inside,” Bob said. “I think it’s got a great future.”