{"id":150746,"date":"2024-02-29T09:44:22","date_gmt":"2024-02-29T14:44:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/rwddev\/?p=150746"},"modified":"2024-02-29T09:44:29","modified_gmt":"2024-02-29T14:44:29","slug":"muskoka-founders-circle-announces-award-winners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/muskoka-founders-circle-announces-award-winners\/","title":{"rendered":"Muskoka Founders Circle announces award winners"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>Photo: Owner of Muskoka River Bagel Company in Bracebridge, Morgan Vassalo, receives the $10,000 prize from Rick Dalmazzi, representing Muskoka Founders Circle. (Supplied photo).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n<div style=\"float: left; margin-right: 14px;\"><strong><broadstreet-zone zone-id=\"45658\" keywords=\"\" soft-keywords=\"true\" zone-alias=\"\"><\/broadstreet-zone><\/strong><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Muskoka Founders Circle, a group of Muskoka-based businesspeople working to support entrepreneurism in Muskoka, is pleased to announce the winners of the fifth annual \u00a0Founders Choice Awards contest. Winners were selected and prizes were awarded at a public event held at the Gravenhurst Opera House on February 28th, 2024. Presentations by the finalists to a panel of judges and the public were followed by an announcement of the winners and a celebration reception.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The first prize of $10,000 was awarded to Muskoka River Bagel Company in Bracebridge.\u00a0Owner Morgan Vassallo was accompanied by her business partners and parents Paddy and\u00a0 David McDonald. The company produces and sells handcrafted bagels made from locally sourced ingredients, as well as artisanal cream cheeses.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As a result of a tie in the voting, two second prizes of $5,000 were awarded. Hidden Habitat in\u00a0 Gravenhurst is a plant nursery that grows Ontario native wildflowers, grasses, shrubs, and trees and offers landscaping and garden design services. Founder and president Laura Thomas was on hand to accept the award. Muskoka North Good Food Co-op in Huntsville is a community-owned food co-operative that works to grow Muskoka\u2019s regional food system and sells directly to the public. General Manager Kelli Ebbs accepted the award.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Each year Muskoka Founders Circle awards cash prizes to the most deserving small business ventures in Muskoka. This year\u2019s contest attracted a record 51 entries from entrepreneurs across the region.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cEach of our seven finalists did a superb job in representing their companies\u201d, said Rick \u00a0Dalmazzi, executive chair of Muskoka Founders Circle. \u201cAgain this year the voting was very close. Congratulations to our winners and thank you to all who came out to enjoy the \u00a0presentations and join in the celebration.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ABOUT MUSKOKA FOUNDERS CIRCLE&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Muskoka Founders Circle is a group of local businesspeople working to promote economic development in Muskoka by providing financial support and business mentoring to local entrepreneurs. Through its annual Founders Choice Awards contest, Founders Circle has provided $95,000 to deserving new businesses and connected with over 200 Muskoka-based entrepreneurs. For information on becoming a Muskoka Founder please visit \u00a0https:\/\/www.muskokafounderscircle.com\/become-a-founder, or contact Geralyn Ochab, \u00a0membership chair, gerochab@gmail.com.<\/p>\n\n\n<h5 style=\"text-align: center;\">Don\u2019t miss out on Doppler!<\/h5>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Sign up <a href=\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/dont-miss-out-on-doppler\/\"><u>here<\/u><\/a> to receive our email digest with links to our most recent stories.<br \/>\nLocal news in your inbox so you don&#8217;t miss anything!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a style=\"background: #5cb85c url('https:\/\/d1iczxrky3cnb2.cloudfront.net\/red_logo.png') no-repeat 37px; color: #fff; text-decoration: none; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; display: inline-block; font-size: 16px; padding: 15px 38px; padding-left: 75px; -webkit-border-radius: 2px; -moz-border-radius: 2px; border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0 1px 0 0 #1f5a89; text-shadow: 0 1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.3);\" href=\"https:\/\/donorbox.org\/support-huntsville-doppler\">Click here to support local news<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><broadstreet-zone zone-id=\"45657\" keywords=\"\" soft-keywords=\"true\" zone-alias=\"\"><\/broadstreet-zone>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Photo: Owner of Muskoka River Bagel Company in Bracebridge, Morgan Vassalo, receives the $10,000 prize from Rick Dalmazzi, representing Muskoka Founders Circle. (Supplied photo). Muskoka Founders Circle, a group of [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":150751,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1188],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-150746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Muskoka Founders Circle announces award winners - Huntsville Doppler<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Muskoka Founders Circle, a group of Muskoka-based businesspeople working to support entrepreneurism in Muskoka, announces winners.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/muskoka-founders-circle-announces-award-winners\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Muskoka Founders Circle announces award winners - 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