Rotary awards business excellence

BY JAMES TAYLOR
THE Rotary Club of Torquay has recognised the efforts of local businesses working hard to shake off the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The service club invited entries in April to the 2022 Torquay Rotary Business Excellence Awards, which were presented at a ceremony at Kithbrooke Park Country Club last week.
Customers were invited to nominate outstanding businesses that met four selection criteria: a demonstrated pursuit of excellence in work practices, quality of personal attributes towards customers and staff, customer service or standard of service delivery, and impact on the environment.
This year’s winners were:
Retail – Great Ocean Road Nursery, represented by Brian, Lauren and David Brennan
Community Service – Ocean Mind, represented by Rachael Parker
Cafe/Restaurant – Modest Folk represented by customer and nominator Jack Hannan on behalf of owner Hayley Kruse.
Rotary Club of Torquay vocational director and awards chair Trevor Hall said the club, like many local businesses, had done its best to adapt to the COVID-19 circumstances of the past two years.
“Owners, managers and staff had to dig deep to find the resilience to press on in a situation that looked increasingly hopeless. The Rotary Club of Torquay ceased their weekly dinner meetings to protect members from the COVID virus. Its members wracked their brains to come up with innovative and COVIDSafe ways to raise funds for community projects,” he said.
“Toilet paper became a scarce commodity and telehealth phone meetings with health professionals became common, and for the first time I ventured into my local pharmacy armed with my phone rather than a fist full of prescriptions.
“As a community, Torquay held out to a point where we seem to be emerging from the COVID cloud. New variants taunt us but some activity is returning to our town.”
Torquay Rotary managed to run a Book Fair and Car Show in early 2022, and locals turned out to support these successful events.
“Now as the view clears and spirits begin to rise, the Torquay Rotary Vocational Service Team think the time is right to recognise the spirit, resilience, problem solving and positive attitudes with the Rotary Club of Torquay Business Excellence Awards.”