Voting begins for Best of Whitefish

Whitefish has an abundance of community pride. And there’s a lot to be proud of — the small businesses downtown, the folks who share a smile while handing over your morning coffee or the people who help you find just the right pair of skis. Or even the community volunteers who keep things running behind the scenes.

We’re kicking off our annual friendly competition the Best of Whitefish this week asking our readers to vote for their favorites. Let us know who does it the best and send them some appreciation for the extra effort by voting for them.

For more than a decade the Pilot has been hosting this poll of favorites, but this year we’re changing things up a bit.

Beginning today, on May 5 there’s a two week nomination period that runs through May 19. This is the time when you’ll get to enter your favorites into the competition and then we’ll narrow it down to the finalists.

On May 26 voting begins during which you’ll return to cast your ballot to determine the winners in each category. Voting ends on June 9.

Nominations and voting can be done through the Pilot’s website at https://whitefishpilot.com/bestof/

You can vote once per day throughout the contest. Voting will enter you in the chance to win a prize of your own.

As always there’s the chance to vote for your favorite burger, the best place to shop for outdoor gear and let us know which bartender makes the best drinks. But we’ve added a few new categories this year, like best take-out, best food truck, best employer and best artisan/maker.

Seemingly a point of pride for many businesses in town, each year one of our most competitive categories has been best customer service. We know many businesses in town do a great job, so we have increased the chance to select the best — vote for the best customer service restaurant, the best customer service for professional services and the best customer service for shopping.

When we’ve tallied all the votes, then we’ll present the winners to the community in a magazine published in the Pilot and distributed around town. And winners will get their very own certificate to proudly display.

All right, Whitefish, it’s time to get nominating and voting for your favorite aspects of the community.

Let the annual Best of Whitefish begin!

Heidi Desch is the editor of the Whitefish Pilot.