BOBs 2025 (battlefordsNOW Staff)

By battlefordsNOW Staff

Best of the Best

Nominations for 2025 North West BOB Awards open

Feb 1, 2025 | 12:00 PM

Get ready – the 2025 North West Best of the Best (BOB) awards are coming.

While the official launch date is Feb. 3, the online nominations begin Saturday and will once again celebrate all manner of art, food and drink, entertainment, shopping, sports and recreation.

Nic Fransoo, Pattison Media program director said the annual awards are an opportunity for the community to vote for who they think the best of the best are.

“That opens up the doors for people to nominate basically anything,” he said.

“When the site goes live at the beginning of February here, what our listeners and readers will see is pre-populated lists of different categories that have been popular in the past.

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Last year, throughout the 167 categories, there were 15,822 nominations, 63,447 votes and 1,694 participants.

“For example, when it comes down to ‘Best Boss’, somebody might be able to nominate the principal at their school or maybe the person who runs the store that they work at or maybe one of the managers at a gas bar that’s been real busy this year,” said Fransoo.

“If somebody feels like they’re in a position to nominate somebody who has the best of the best, they can do that.”

The program director explained what makes it fun is that it doesn’t have to be just people.

“One of my favourite categories is Local Goodness, so you know, the best view in town or the best park or the best baseball diamond,” he said.

The competition will run in three stages beginning with the nomination process that will run until Feb. 23.

If you feel that there’s something that needs a good nod, anyone in the whole northwest has the opportunity to nominate the first phase. From there, the system will choose the top nominated across the categories, which will then be pushed to the voting phase.

Voting will be open from March 3 to March 23.

“That’s when all those people that have been nominated get alerted and they find out, ‘Holy moly, I’m a finalist in the Best of the Best in the North West awards,’” he said.

From there, the finalists take to their social media platforms to get out the vote.

“It’s all user driven – we tell people about it – and then it’s all done through those that are nominating those that have been nominated and then those that are listening,” he said.

Fransoo said, when he gets to vote, he feels like he’s doing his part to let the world know what the Battlefords, Meadow Lake and surrounding areas have to offer, while also letting those he’s voting for know that they’re appreciated.

Go to battlefordsNOW.com and meadowlakeNOW.com, click on the link and go to the Best of the Best Awards.

“A lot of people put everything they got into their community and so to just give them the opportunity to be recognized by their peers, that’s cool,” he said.

The winners will be announced on Friday, Mar. 28.

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cjnb-news@pattisonmedia.com