The staff of The Windham Eagle newspaper have completed counting votes for the Eagle Choice Awards and once again the popularity of the annual competition is evident.
Melissa Carter, advertising director of The Windham Eagle newspaper, said that the awards remain wildly popular and established a new record this year by receiving more than 10,000 ballots cast resulting in over 191,000 votes across 93 categories.
“These awards salute those who the public thinks exceed the norm for their products, services, and overall customer satisfaction,” Carter said. “These votes are heartfelt and come from the people who use the goods and services provided by these outstanding businesses.”
Kelly Mank, owner and publisher of The Windham Eagle newspaper, says that the Eagle Choice Awards are an outstanding way for the public to learn about a business they may not be familiar with and to discover the very best services, food and products that are available locally.
“The Eagle Choice Awards give the community trusted options and a unique way to connect residents and visitors here with area businesses in meaningful ways,” Mank said. “Every vote comes from the readers and is based upon how they feel about local businesses.”
Voting opened on June 29 and continued through Sunday, July 20. A list of the 2025 Eagle Choice winners will be published in the Aug. 15 special section of The Windham Eagle newspaper.
“The special section is saved by many residents and used all year long to find the area businesses that have been singled out for recognition as being the best of the best by local residents,” Carter said. “The Eagle Choice Awards special section is also posted to the newspaper’s website for convenient and handy reference throughout the year.”
Two awards are presented in each category, gold for first place and silver for second. At times, if votes are within 10, a tie is then called, and two businesses are awarded for the category.
The awards will be presented at a gathering at Erik's Church in Windham, starting at 5 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 14. Each winner is given a decal and a plaque to display at their business or on vehicles to recognize their accomplishment.
“Now in its 11th year, the Eagle Choice Award has become a well-known symbol of business trust and top-notch customer service,” Carter said. “It is an honor to be able to recognize the many companies that pour their heart and soul into their businesses each year. The competition is tough and even for those businesses that are not awarded gold or silver, we hope that they appreciate every vote they get. The exposure of even being listed on the ballot is a win for branding and for name recognition.”
Carter said a few new categories have been added this year and some from previous years have been updated. For 2025, there are a total of 93 categories.
Businesses in the updated categories have been split to better represent business services. Those include Auto Detailing and Car Wash into two separate categories, Aesthetics/Med Spa has been split into Facial and Med Spa, and Trash Services has been split into Junk Removal and Trash Services/Dumpster Rentals.
New categories this year are Burger, Dog Training, Interior Design/Home Staging, and Remediation.
While the newspaper does its best to keep current on adding new businesses and deleting those that are closed and including everyone, they welcome feedback to help improve ballot choices for the upcoming years by sending an email to: awards@thewindhameagle.com. Voters also had a write-in option to nominate a business that is not already listed.
Eagle Choice Award voters must cast ballots in at least 10 categories or more and must also include their email address when uploading or turning in a ballot for it to be valid to ensure that only one vote is cast by an individual. Email addresses collected during the Eagle Choice Awards competition are not sold or distributed to a third party.
“Every business mentioned in the Eagle Choice special section is more than worthy and deserving of this recognition and we are so happy to be able to showcase their popularity with the Annual Eagle Choice Awards,” Carter said. “We can’t thank everyone enough who took the time to cast a ballot, to our readers for supporting these fine businesses and to the many companies that support our publication not just for Eagle Choice by on a weekly basis. We can’t wait to reveal the list of winners in the Aug. 15 edition.” <
No comments:
Post a Comment