A night to remember for downtown biz

By Lethbridge Herald on August 9, 2025.

Alexandra Noad
Lethbridge Herald
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Downtown businesses were celebrated in style at the Downtown Awards Night held in Festival Square on Thursday.

The evening consisted of a plated three-course meal from local restaurants, including Lighthouse, Prime Catering and a collaboration between Round Table Board Gamerie and Cookie Crimes.

Sarah Amies, executive director of Downtown Lethbridge Business Revitalization Zone (BRZ), said the evening was a night to celebrate all of the hard work small- and medium-sized businesses put in every single day.

“It’s all about the businesses and the contributions they make to the community as a whole as they labour through all kinds of obstacles that are thrown their way, and yet every day they cheerfully get up and come to work and open up their businesses for the rest of us to enjoy.”

One of those businesses is Cookie Crimes, which went home with the prestigious People’s Choice Award, the only award voted by the public.

Cookie Crimes had a difficult year, with three separate break-ins. Owners ran a fundraiser to raise enough money to install roll-shutters, then earlier this year one of the owners broke her ankle while filming promotional TikTok videos.

Riley Walburger, director of Cookie Crimes, said it was a gratifying experience to be recognized by not only his peers but also his customers.

“To have people genuinely be a fan of you and enjoy the art that you make is really good and I’ve found there’s been a lot of really dedicated customers.”

Nine awards in all were given out, including the Downtown Legacy Award, which is only given out every five years, to Doug’s Sports. Upside Downtown was given the Event of the Year award, and the Downtown New Business Award went to The Vault.

Each of the businesses were nominated by their peers and were chosen by a committee which consisted of business leaders and city officials.

The national “buy local” campaign has helped strengthen local businesses and Amies says small businesses are the backbone of the economy.

“When one spends a dollar locally, three quarters of that dollar stays in the community. When one spends a dollar on goods not produced locally, only about 30 per cent of that dollar stays within the community, so small community businesses and entrepreneurs are the backbone of Canadian economy.”

Walburger also pointed out that many locally sourced goods are of higher quality than those produced by large corporations.

“We make our ice cream from scratch, it’s with whole ingredients, there’s as little artificial as we can put in it and we think it makes a superior product.”

The Downtown BRZ has four pillars in its mission: to support, promote, educate and advocate for the downtown businesses. Walburger said they do an exceptional job at keeping the downtown thriving.

“I think if you look at the total net benefit of the (BRZ), we need that organization.”

A full list of winners can be found on the Herald’s Instagram account at @leth_herald.