From left to right: Kole Norman, Brittney Norman (Young Business Leader of the Year), Shelly Rowland (Indigenous Leader of the Year) and Roger Rowland celebrate having two ML-Bex award winners in the family. (Submitted Photo/Shelly Rowland)

By Julia Lovett-Squires

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MLBEX winners reflect on ‘wonderful event’

Apr 27, 2024 | 4:17 PM

Feelings of overwhelming surprise and gratitude are how winners of the Meadow Lake Business Excellence Awards are feeling the day after their big night.

“This was a complete surprise, I’m still in shock,” said Shelly Rowland, winner of the Indigenous Leader Award, sponsored by SaskWater.

The health manager of Flying Dust First Nation explained she was honoured for the recognition.

“I always tell my staff, ‘Always do the best of your ability and you can hold your head up high and you can walk out the door and know you did the best that you can,” she said.

“I believe in that, I’m going to keep doing that.”

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The ML-Bex, an event hosted by the Meadow Lake and District Chamber of Commerce and held at the Meadow Lake Civic Centre on Fri., Apr. 26, was a sold-out show to gather and celebrate their community members and local businesses.

“I think for Meadow Lake having 290 people at an event is almost unheard of I think,” said Administrator Trevor Dignean.

For Marlie Bundschuh, whose business MM Cleaning Co., took home the award for Best Small Business – sponsored by Martodam’s The Clothing People – the ML-Bex were “a wonderful event.”

“It’s nice to have some (recognition) for just a lot of hard work,” she said.

The 25-year-old was also nominated in the Young Business Leader and Female Entrepreneur categories and said she began her business as a way to fit her life as a mother raising a young child.

“It’s been a lot of hard work trying to manage my personal life and then also try to grow and continue to grow a business and all the things that go with it like making people happy and making sure the work is the same quality,” she said.

“It’s been a really fun journey.”

Marlie Bundschuh, owner of MM Cleaning Co., took home the award for Small Business of the Year. (Submitted Photo/Marlie Bundschuh)

The awards had 11 categories overall including Male Entrepreneur (Travis Bacon), sponsored by Snipe and Celly Sports Excellence, Customer Service (Mark Kruger), sponsored by Eagle Creek GM, Non-Profit (Meadow Lake Legion) sponsored by Meadow Vape, Corner Liquor and Grass Bar, New Business (Perfect Timing Mechanical), sponsored by Home Hardware, Young Business Leader (Brittney Norman), sponsored by City Convenience and Female Entrepreneur (Madison Strelezki), sponsored by Innovation Federal Credit Union. Community Builder awards went to Gladys Joseph (Sponsor: Head’s Auto Body), Rick Burnett (Sponsor: Madill’s Drugs) and Al MacFarlane (Sponsor: Solitude)

Dignean said the event had a lot of fun moments including the silent auction, raffles, dinner and the live entertainment. He said he had some favourite moments too – Joel Jeffery’s comedy for one.

“I know a couple people at our table, they had tears in their eyes they were laughing so hard,” he said.

Meanwhile, the team at Meadow Lake Outreach Ministries picked up the “Roots of Hope” Workplace Mental Health Award that was sponsored by the Medicine Shoppe Pharmacy.

Executive Director Delton Sylvain said it’s not about how much an organization offers but how the services are offered.

“It is a satisfaction knowing that our employees have a healthy environment,” he said.

“When you have a healthy environment, they’re more likely to have a healthy mind set and in order to provide a quality of service, you need to be healthy mentally.”

The ministry, which was also nominated in the Non-Profit category, offers a wide range of social services including the Door of Hope Soup Kitchen, Tiny Treasures Daycare and the Supportive Apartment Family Education (SAFE) Program.

Sylvain said the support of his employees doesn’t just come from him but rather the whole team and they were also surprised at their win.

“That just speaks volumes about the impact of the organization to the community,” he said.

From left: Darcie King, Delton Sylvain, Diana Villenueve, Christine Osborn, Krista Montgomery and John Sam of Meadow Lake Outreach Ministries celebrated their ‘Roots of Hope’ Workplace Mental Health Award win. (Submitted Photo/Delton Sylvain)

Caralee Strome, Manager for Meadow Lake Co-op, said the team couldn’t be happier they won the Large Business of the Year Award that was sponsored by Wireless Age.

“We’re very proud to be part of the community,” she said.

“We appreciate all of our team members, all of our members that support us and make us what we are today.”

She explained that they were honoured to be nominated.

“There’s many, many great businesses – large businesses – in the City of Meadow Lake,” said Strome.

“To actually be the recipient of the award is phenomenal, it’s just a wonderful feeling.”

From left: Andrew Nagy, Alyson Hill, Janet Marr, Caralee Strome and Rick Burnett celebrate winning the Large Business of the Year Award. (Submitted Photo/Caralee Strome)

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julia.lovettsquires@pattisonmedia.com

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