MINTO – The Town of Minto was the recipient of a 2018 Award of Excellence from the Economic Developers Council of Ontario (EDCO) at a Jan. 31 awards ceremony at the Sheraton Centre Toronto.
Minto placed first in the Collaboration and Partnership Awards category, for Local Collaboration and Partnership under 50,000 population.
Minto was selected for last summer’s Cool Cones Crawl public art project, which celebrated a reunion of former Canada Packers employees and the history of York Ice Cream production in Harriston.
“This is an extremely special honour,” said Minto economic development manger Belinda Wick-Graham.
“This truly was a project that was successful because of the community partners including the Harriston downtown revitalization committee, Town of Minto Cultural Roundtable, business sponsors and, of course, the artists.”
Wick-Graham also thanked Raissa Rogers of the Magic Ice Cream Shop for her encouragement on the project “when things got difficult” and Andy Pridham at Weathered for “making our vision a reality by constructing our base cones.”
Mayor George Bridge said, “Minto prides itself on our strong community partnerships and this project continues to demonstrate that we are stronger together, when we come together great things can happen.”
The town is planning a similar project, Trendy Trains, for next summer, celebrating the railway heritage of the community of Palmerston.
The awards program, which marked the finale of the 62nd EDCO Conference and Showcase, aims to seek advanced ideas with the ability to become future economic development best practices.
This year, 98 entries were submitted from communities and organizations across Ontario.
A judging panel with expertise in marketing, communications, tourism and industrial/commercial development met in Toronto in November to evaluate each entry and select finalists.
