Regional Mortgage Corp. has been rewarded for its support of children’s cancer charities, with the Cancer Care Foundation of Alberta sharing in the Red Deer business’s good fortune.
Yellow Pages Group announced on Thursday that Regional Mortgage is one of 10 winners in the phone directory company’s annual Make It Real program.
Held in select communities across Canada, the Make It Real program is issuing $6,500 prizes to small businesses deemed deserving due to their community contributions.
A news release issued on behalf of Yellow Pages Group said Regional Mortgage was chosen as a result of its support of charities that assist children with cancer, including Golf a Kid to Cure and Build a Kid to Cure.
It is donating $1,500 of its prize to the Cancer Care Foundation of Alberta.
This is the fourth year of Yellow Pages Group’s Make It Real program, with Red Deer chosen to participate every year.
In 2008, Sunworks Home and Garden and Massage Above All were named local winners and received $5,000 and $2,500 respectively.
Sunworks donated $1,000 to the Red Deer and District Community Foundation and Massage Above All gave $500 to Safe Harbour Society.
The year before that, Café Pichilingue and the Velvet Olive was awarded $5,000 and Parkland Nurseries $2,500; and in 2006 Tigertel UTR received $5,000 and House Warmings $2,500. In each case, the winners donated a share of their prize to a charity.
Businesses with 50 or fewer employees are eligible to receive prizes under the Make It Real program.
Judging in Red Deer was conducted by a panel of four local people.
“Given the current economy, it becomes important more than ever to encourage Canadian small businesses like Regional Mortgage Corp. to find the time, energy, money and human resources to support their local communities,” said Annie Marsolais, director of corporate communications with Yellow Pages Group.
Red Deer was the only Alberta community chosen to take part in the Make It Real program this year.
Participants elsewhere were Halifax, N.S.; the Laval Region and Sherbrooke in Quebec; Kitchener/Waterloo, London and Kingston in Ontario; Winnipeg, Man.; and the British Columbia cities of Abbotsford and Kelowna.