Inspired by Golden

After attending this year’s Business Excellence Awards I am compelled to comment yet again on how inspiring it can be to live in this community.

While at the awards gala, I had a chance to become acquainted with many people, some of whom I have had the privilege of meeting before and some that I had not known of until that night.

It is important to point out that everyone who was nominated for an award should feel proud that they live, work and prosper in Golden. Even without winning an award, all the nominees are important pieces of this town and their hard work will ensure that we grow and succeed as a community.

I enjoyed the presentation given by the keynote speaker for the evening. Daniel Griffith, who climbed the seven highest peaks, in seven continents in seven months, presented us with a slideshow and reminisced about his adventure.

It is interesting that in our day to day lives, we often don’t think about our big goals and dreams. Griffith was proof that anyone can achieve their biggest dreams and goals and, in my mind, that idea was paralleled by the local businesses that were being awarded for doing the same thing.

Upon hearing the story of Merle and Mike McKnight, who were honoured with the Peter Bowle-Evans award, I was struck by how it feels to be surrounded by the people that worked to create the Golden I know and love today. This family had also dreamt big and had realized their goals. It was inspiring to hear of how the McKnight’s worked alongside many others to build two very important parts of this community. I am uplifted by their work ethic and humbled when I think about how selflessly and courageously they pushed for what they believed would be something the whole community needed.

This has been a theme that I have noticed many times since moving to Golden. Having moved around a lot, I have not experienced this many times before. I am sure that many towns have their own stories of the people who worked to build them, but it was a great experience for me to be in a room with so many people that have contributed to the place I live.

I was thrilled to hear the Kicking Horse Resort team acknowledge this as well as they now carry the torch of one of the main economic drivers in the community.

It is on that note that I acknowledge the McKnight family and the families of all Golden’s past and future pioneers. It is because of their contributions that I am able to enjoy the things that I do about this community.

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