SJA Promo wins internationally recognized award

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — A Fort St. John company recently won an internationally recognized award for their work on advent calendars sold to support the Fort St. John Firefighters Charitable Society.

SJA Promo won the Silver Pyramid award from Promotional Products Association International (PPAI) and celebrated Friday at their new location at 10623 100th Avenue.

L.J. Lawson, with SJA Promo, said the award is called the Cause Advocacy Marketing award.

“It’s an award provided to a promotional products distributor who develops a project that helps promote not only themselves but also promote a particular cause,” Lawson explained.

The award was earned through their work with the advent calendar campaign for the Fort St. John Firefighters Charitable Society in partnership with the AFDE Group and Home Hardware.

Last year’s campaign resulted in all 500 calendars made being sold by the beginning of December.

Lawson said the team put the nomination forms forward in the spring, and in the fall, they found out SJA Promo was a finalist.

“That’s really cool because these are pretty big boards in our industry,” she said.

During the Christmas break, they were told they had won silver, and at the beginning of 2023, the trophy came in the mail.

“We always think of ourselves like a small business, with a hometown kind of aspect to it,” Lawson said.

“Then to be recognized not only on the national scale but on an international scale for what we do is pretty exciting.”

Since they can’t just write a $12,000 cheque for a non-profit, Lawson said the SJA Promo team loves to use their resources and partnerships to raise awareness and funds for local initiatives.

PPAI is based in the U.S. but has over 14,000 international members. The company represents suppliers and distributors of promotional products and services worldwide.