BBB honors excellence in business

Thirty local businesses were honored Oct. 29 at the Better Business Bureau’s Torch Awards at East Ridge Country Club Headed up by Robin Guenard, vice president/operations and Andy Fisher, president and CEO, the Torch Awards featured guest speaker Col. Patrick Matthews from Barksdale Air Force Base and was emceed by Sonja Bailes, public relations liaison for the Bossier Parish School Board.

“The Torch Awards recognizes businesses in four different categories, allowing different companies to show their efforts in practicing ethics in the marketplace,” Fisher said.

Each year, businesses are selected through a regional competition to receive the Better Business Bureau’s Torch Awards for Ethical Commerce. Recipients at the regional level are eligible then to be sent to the Council of Better Business Bureau’s International Torch Awards for Marketplace Excellence competition.

Fisher said the awards are designed to promote not only the importance of ethical business practices, but also the willingness and efforts made by outstanding businesses demonstrating a solid commitment to marketplace trust. Each Torch Award Winner has a unique opportunity to receive public recognition for their excellence in ethical business practices.

The awards were presented this year in four different categories: The Integrity Award, which honors businesses that maintain a solid commitment to ethical business practices; The Customer Commitment Award, which recognizes businesses with outstanding customer service programs; The Good Neighbor Award, which honors businesses and employees who play a significant role in their support and involvement in local charities; and The Not-For-Profit Award, which recognizes a nonprofit that have positively impacted the communities of Shreveport-Bossier City and other surrounding parishes.

Guenard, coordinator of the Torch Awards for the past 11 years, was pleased to see another year of winners come along.

“The [BBB’s] purpose is to place consumers and businesses in the market together, to resolve any complaints or good practices of each business,” Fisher said.

At the Torch Awards, the Better Business Bureau recognized three finalists in each of the following categories: The winner of the Integrity Award was University Veterinary Hospital. Other finalists in this category were Ashley’s Building and Construction and Lex Plant Farm. The winner of the Customer Commitment Award was JEB Design/Build, LLC. Other finalists in this category were Cosse & Silmon Orthodontics and MSN Group, Inc.

The winner of the Good Neighbor Award was Porter’s Fine Dry Cleaning. Other finalists in the Good Neighbor category were GraphX Digital Service and Willis- Knighton Health System.

The winner of the Not-For-Profit Award was Children’s Miracle Network Hospital/CHRISTUS Health Shreveport- Bossier. Other finalists were Holy Angels Residential Facility and David Raines Community Health Centers. But it goes even further than the awards themselves.

“The event not only recognizes the businesses, but also honors students from all local colleges with scholarships,” Fisher said.

Recognized at the ceremonial dinner were BBB Scholarship recipients Artis Stanley, Jr., LSU Shreveport; Nathan Rutledge, Bossier Parish Community College; Melanie Garrison, Southern University – Shreveport; Ian Graham, Centenary College; Andrew Robinson, Northwestern State University and Madison White, Louisiana Tech University-Shreveport/Ruston.

–Betsy St. Amant