Safety Buzz Campus wins Small Business Award of Distinction, an accomplishment ‘20 years in the making’

Southern Alberta Newspapers

Dunmore’s Safety Buzz Campus can check off one of its “bucket list items” after winning the Small Business Award of Distinction at the Alberta Business Awards of Distinction earlier this month.

Owner and instructor Amy Zuk-Olsen says Safety Buzz has won similar awards through the Medicine Hat and District Chamber of Commerce in the past, but taking the provincial title was an accomplishment two decades in the making.

“In 2019 we were a finalist of the Alberta Awards of Distinction, but very excitedly this year we became the winner,” said Zuk-Olsen. “It was certainly even more of a feather in our cap when we found out there were more than 400 nominations for the award. So, to even become a finalist was a great honour, but in our category, to win the small business of the year, it’s something that really takes all that time and effort and building of team and expansion, and it really puts it in perspective that we did the right thing. We’ve certainly been taking the right path.”

Over that 20-year path, the Dunmore safety training business has taken “a gradual approach” to its growth, expanding to include commercial driver training, small business safety management and more – and Zuk-Olsen says it all starts from a core of safety culture that has defined the business since Day 1.

“At Safety Buzz Campus the No. 1 thing that we always strive for is to have the safety culture internally that we promote to our clients externally,” said Zuk-Olsen. “This award was 20 years in the making and could have never been done without our past, present, and future team members. We’ve had a lot of assistance on the way, encouragement from our team, our corporate development manager, our clients.

“Our clients were what enabled us to understand what the need was when it comes to safety and how to expand.”