On the eighth page of today’s newspaper you will notice a full-page ad with a wide-range of categories, prompting a vote and offering a cash prize. These categories span across food, shopping and health options. With well over 100 categories to choose from, this represents the beginning of the Valley Times-News’ Best of the Best two-week vote.

The Best of the Best vote will culminate in a special section that will run alongside the Saturday, June 23 newspaper. This section will include the winners from all categories included here, as voted on by members of the community. From best hamburger to best tire store, all local businesses will have a chance to be represented and crowned the best in their respective genre.

This full-page ad will run each day in the newspaper for the next two weeks, beginning today and ending Saturday, May 12. During the course of these two weeks, we encourage any and all subscribers and nonsubscribers to vote for your favorite businesses, people and locations from across the Greater Valley Area.

Voting is simple. All that is needed is to take pen to paper, selecting which business you believe to be the best in each category, then proceed to bring your ballot to the newspaper office. Every subscriber and nonsubscriber is eligible to vote once, which will then make you eligible to receive a $50 cash prize. We do not require that a winner be selected for each category for a ballot to be eligible, but the more comprehensive each ballot is, the better. 

In two weeks, we will tally all votes we receive at the office, choosing a winner from each category. Winning businesses and individuals will be rewarded with plaques commemorating their nomination as the Best of the Best in their respective categories.

We hope and intend for the community to take an active role in this voting exercise. This is an opportunity for each community to rally behind local businesses and an avenue for every citizen who wants to bring awareness to a particular business.

We want to highlight the businesses and people doing good work in our area. All we need now is for you to tell us who and what to highlight.