The 30th Annual SCORE Small Business Awards and Cape Cod’s Chambers of Commerce Excellence Awards will be held on May 8th at 7:30AM at Family Table Collaborative (Riverway Lobster House in Yarmouth).
SCORE Cape Cod & the Islands recognizes the outstanding businesses of 2023. SCORE will honor their Small Business of the Year (SmokeSygnals), Non-Profit of the Year (Cape and Islands Veterans Outreach Center) and Small Business Champion (Love Live Local) while the various Chambers of Commerce on Cape Cod will each recognize their town’s best with their Business Excellence Award.
At this year’s ceremony, SCORE’s Keynote Speaker will be Bridget Weston, CEO of SCORE on the subject of “The Power of Small Business”. She will be joined by many of the Chapter’s Business Mentors.
Small Business of the Year
SmokeSygnals, an Indigenous Creative Production Company founded in 2001 by Paula Peters and managed by Jennifer and Steven Peters since 2012, is known nationally and internationally for its ability to create environments that showcase Native American culture with authenticity. The way they bridge history with contemporary life is innovative, with an approach that has created new curatorial practices for museums and educational institutions. Their capabilities now include creative, design, production, and fabrication. SCORE has worked closely with them on business strategy, marketing and sales, and organizational dynamics.
Nonprofit of the Year
Cape and Islands Veterans Outreach Center (formally Nam Vets) just celebrated their 40th Anniversary. It transformed itself from a social organization to one that offers life sustaining services to veterans and their families – housing, food pantry, transportation, outreach, professional services. Today, they serve 263 families per week and their state-of-the-art food distribution center that serves 14 food pantries, as well as home deliveries to house-bound veterans. In addition they have 13 transitional housing units and are developing units in Martha’s Vineyard.
Small Business Champion
Love Live Local was launched in 2013 to serve the small business communities on Cape Cod. Their focus has been on nurturing entrepreneurship through creating highly supportive stories to connect local businesses with customers and suppliers. They have succeeded with small businesses to help them achieve their goals, educate and inspire the community to buy locally and foster a strong sense of community. To support this they publish 16,000 guides annually and over 18,000 attendees participate at their annual LoveFests event.
Chambers of Commerce on Cape Cod will provide Business Excellence Awards to:
Brewster Chamber to Green Road Refill
Cape Cod Canal Chamber to Rod and Rail Restaurant
Cape Cod Chamber to Eldredge & Bourne Moving
Dennis Chamber to Stage Stop Candy
Harwich Chamber to Cape Life Brand
Hyannis Area Chamber to Finns Craft Beer Taphouse
Mashpee Chamber to Trevi Café
Orleans Chamber to Sea Howl Bookshop
Provincetown Chamber to Storm Scooters & Apre Surf
Sandwich Chamber to Elevated Impressions
Wellfleet Chamber to Honeybee Bouquets
Yarmouth Area Chamber to Cape Cod Toy Chest
The business community overall has rallied to support this exciting event with
Cape Cod 5 as the event sponsor. They will be joined by many others businesses and lending institutions at the Wednesday, May 8th event.
To attend, register at: www.tinyurl.com/33pfpj94 – Event fee: $40.00
SCORE, a resource partner of the U.S. Small Business Administration, is a nonprofit association dedicated to helping small businesses get off the ground, grow and achieve their goals through education and mentorship. The Cape Cod & the Islands chapter was founded in 1970 and is staffed by volunteer counselors with years of business experience. For more information on SCORE, our workshops or to schedule free one-on-one counseling visit our website www.score.org/capecod, send an email to capecod@scorevolunteer.org or call 508-775-4884.
