Central Huron's Smith wins OBIAA's prestigious Jan Hawley Pinnacle Award

BY SHAWN LOUGHLIN

On Monday, March 31, Central Huron Community Improvement Co-ordinator Angela Smith returned from the Ontario Business Improvement Area Association (OBIAA)’s annual awards ceremony with two honours for her work in Huron County, including the prestigious Pinnacle Award.

 

Smith’s first award came in the form of an Award of Merit in the streetscaping and public realm improvements category for the mural and flower street art trail in Clinton. This project involved students from Central Huron and St. Anne’s Catholic Secondary Schools who painted murals on the street to connect the casino, Regional Equine and Agricultural Centre of Huron (REACH) and the Central Huron Community Complex in the north end of Clinton to the commercial downtown in the central part of the town.
She said that the Clinton downtown could always use more visitors and that, over the course of all seasons, tens of thousands of people attend events at the three aforementioned buildings in the north end of the town, so the idea was to guide those people to Clinton’s downtown.

 

Smith, however, was most honoured by winning the organization’s Pinnacle Award. Recently renamed for the late Jan Hawley, Huron East’s long-time economic development officer, the award recognized individuals who are accomplished leaders and who have demonstrated skills in advocacy, innovation and community building with their own organizations, the OBIAA level and/or within the BIA movement at large.

 

Smith says winning that award is important for her, not just because of how important her work for Central Huron is to her, but because of her personal connection to Hawley.

 

Smith said she first met Hawley as a small business owner in Huron East and Hawley served as somewhat of a mentor to her. Now, Smith said, as the winner of the award, she is more frequently sought after for consultancy and speaking engagements, meaning she has moved into a mentor role for others in the field, so things have come full circle for her. 

 

Both awards, she said, serve as an affirmation of the work she’s doing within Central Huron, helping encourage her and confirm that she is on the right track with the projects she’s implementing. Much of the work she does is with local students and youth, she said, which makes it even more rewarding to bring that generation into the fold.

 

However, individual achievements aside, the main thing being accomplished with these award wins, she said, is that Central Huron is on the map and people are recognizing what’s happening within the municipality. A province-wide award can help raise the profile of a community like Central Huron and encourage tourism and help people make the decision to visit the community.
In her acceptance speech, Smith spoke in glowing terms about the impact Hawley has had on the community and she thanked all of the Central Huron businesses and other municipal partners and departments who have helped over the years to implement her vision and projects.