May 15th 2024
Better late than never! Each year, late winter or early spring RE/MAX Garden City Realty Inc. hosts an Awards Gala where we celebrate the outstanding achievements of our salespeople for the previous year. RE/MAX International hosts an International Convention (R4) in Las Vegas each year, always end of February. It is only after that that they send out the awards to our offices. This year for whatever reason, R4 was delayed until the end of March. As a result, we didn’t receive the awards until mid-April. The question was, does it make sense to hold an Awards Gala in early May to recognize the achievements of 2023? Would people still want to attend? We sent out feelers and the general response was ‘yes’.
So, this year our Awards Gala took place on Friday, May 3rd. And to our surprise and delight it was absolutely one of the best.
Normally held at Club Roma in St. Catharines, this year we elected to rent the Atrium. A delightful venue totally enclosed in glass and surrounded by beautifully kept gardens. And because the function started at 6:00pm with cocktails followed by dinner at 7:00pm it was still light enough to enjoy the feeling of being outdoors in an enchanted garden.
Normally our hall which also hosts our Christmas Gala is set up so that the bar and lounge area are somewhat separate from the dining and dancing. With the Atrium not only was the bar incorporated in the room itself, but also the dance area was absolutely central to the tables. Worked great! This way whether people were mingling and chatting, getting a drink or burning off calories on the dance floor, everybody was in the thick of things.
The Awards began with the individual production awards for 2023, recognizing gross sales thresholds from 2.5 million right up to 50 million and beyond. These were followed by team award recognitions of the same outstanding levels. There were career awards recognizing total production for agents’ entire career at RE/MAX. And there were awards given out for our sister company Dominion Lending Centres Easy Street Mortgages.
Following the regular production awards, here at RE/MAX G.C. we also recognize each year the top five individuals followed by the top five teams. The final trophy goes in recognition of the ‘Rookie of the Year’, the person who’s the top producer among the group of newly licensed agents within our firm.
Dinner, always good at Club Roma, was exceptional for this year’s event. Salads, veggies, chicken, lasagna and fabulous roast beef. One of the staples of the dessert fare has for years been the pecan pie from 13th Street Winery. Unfortunately, they no longer offer it at their bakery, so we substituted this year with their award-winning butter tarts. Only problem, we underestimated the demand and they all disappeared in about 3 minutes flat. We’ll do better next year.
Music was provided by D.J. Dominoes and as always was excellent. As a backdrop to the Awards, we had two photo screens, one for RE/MAX and one for D.L.C.. And as each recipient came up for their award, they were simultaneously featured on the silver screen.
Speaking of photos, again this year Giant Shoe Creative Agency was on hand to capture the events in photo format and what an exceptional job they did. After the evening, they provided us with literally hundreds of superb shots of the action. But rather than tell you further about the Gala, it’s my pleasure to share some of those pictures with you. Enjoy!
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |