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Talk about excitement!
One week ago, the Williamsport Sun-Gazette community newspaper published its annual guide to the winners of our Readers' Choice Awards.
The campaign featured nearly 1,600 nominations over more than 160 categories!
The plethora of nominations of our local and area businesses reflect the pride and value our readers place on the men and women who work hard to make a living and improve the quality of life here for all of us with their products and services.
The campaign is exclusively reader-driven --readers nominate the businesses.
Bravo to you all!
The nearly five-month campaign skyrocketed to just under 70,000 votes for the businesses nominated.
Yes, nearly 70,000!
All this was done digitally with promotions on our web site at www.sungazette.com, on our social media page with our thousands of followers, on various other platforms and, of course, in print.
Not that any of this is surprising.
There is no doubt that our local and area businesses deliver the best, most attentive customer service and offer the greatest ability to meet our region's needs for goods and services.
Beyond those hallmarks for retail -- the twin pillars of customer satisfaction, if you will -- our locally-owned businesses create jobs.
They contribute to community organizations and endeavors, just like the Sun-Gazette does!
They help to revitalize neighborhoods and communities.
We are proud to host this campaign as a way to recognize the places and people that make this region so special. Small businesses are the backbone of our communities.
The Readers' Choice Awards come at an important time mid-way through the holiday shopping season.
Small businesses offer a level of service often unmatched by other retailers and the convenience of shopping in your own community or neighborhood. Small businesses created 62 percent of U.S. jobs between 1995 and 2020 and directly employs 32 million Americans.
We encourage all of our thousands of readers in print and online to spend some of your holiday shopping time with our local and area businesses.
As the volume of nominations and votes cast in our 2022 Readers' Choice Awards reflects, you won't regret it.