The Launch Event for the Anguilla Choice Awards took place at Valley Bistro on February 1st, 2014 at 6 pm. the Honorable Jerome Roberts, The Honorable Haydn Hughes, the band British Dependency and several other guests were present and remarked on what the Choice Awards offered to the Anguilla community.
The Anguilla Choice Awards are for the best establishments and individuals on the island in the categories of Tourism, Food, Local, Individual, Commerce, Web and Entertainment. The Awards Ceremony will be streamed and broadcasted live and will take place on July 12th 2014. On the website Anguillachoiceawards.com, persons can vote for individuals and businesses of their choice. The idea is to vote for who you want to see win. The categories are broken down further into sub-categories. For example, the category of Food is broken down into Best Bakery, Best Pizza, Best BBQ Grill, Best Food Van and so on, filtering out the best of the best on the island. The top twenty highest votes will be selected to attend the actual Awards ceremony. Persons are able to vote from February 1st, until around the award show, for who they want to see win. Valley Bistro was awarded a nomination in the category of Best Pizza and was presented with a nomination award by originator of the Choice Awards Austin Helliger.
In explaining his reason for establishingthe awards, Helliger said: “I wanted to make my contribution to Anguilla. There are a lot of business and unique individuals and no one gets recognition. You either get recognition when you’re dead or when something happens. Anguilla has a lot to offer. So I decided to get a group of eight individuals together and we decided that were going to do the Anguilla Choice Awards. We have been doing a lot of stuff out of pocket and we recently just started soliciting sponsor packages to different sponsors in order for them to come on board. This show is going to give a lot of recognition to the island. We’re going to be marketing through the Caribbean and America. It’s going to let business know if they have to carry up their caliber or if they have to maintain their caliber.”
Celebration of The Anguilla Choice Awards will be a four-day event from July 10th to the 13th. On the 10th there will be a cocktail party for invited guests and on the 11th there will be a pre-awards show where proceeds from ticket sales will go to high and primary schools on the island. The Anguilla Choice Awards and after party will take place on July 12th with a pool party hosted by Marcus Garvey of Black Men magazine on the 13th. The nominees for the Anguilla Choice Awards will be publicized in the coming week.
The Choice Awards link the industries and individuals in Anguilla in a way that has never been done before and allow the community to choose what industries they want to see thrive or continue to thrive. The website gives tourists and locals an understanding of what the island has to offer and the opportunity to vote for whom they want to see win. Moreover an increase in revenue for the island is made possible by the advertisement the competition has to offer.
Article by Josharmond McKinson-Romney
