Walk past Boulangerie or Kennebunk Savings this month and you'll likely spot a small gold or silver decal in the window, left over from last year's round of the Chamber's "Drive to Be the Best" awards. It's a familiar bit of window dressing around Kennebunk, Kennebunkport, and Arundel every fall, the kind of detail that blends into the storefront until you actually stop and read it. This year there will be fewer of those decals to notice.
The Kennebunk Kennebunkport Arundel Chamber of Commerce held its annual "Drive to Be the Best" dinner at Vinegar Hill on Wednesday, September 16. Ten major awards went out to local businesses and individuals, the same number the Chamber has handed out for at least the past three years. But the "best of" survey underneath those ten awards, the one that used to crown a winner in everything from best breakfast spot to best bank, shrank from around 100 categories to 49. And for the first time, the Chamber has said plainly how the marquee ten get decided: community members put forward nominees, but chamber staff and the executive board pick the winners.
What Happened at Vinegar Hill
The event itself followed its usual shape. According to The Local News, the Chamber gathered members from all three towns at Vinegar Hill for a night that's become part community celebration, part local economic report card. Ten standout individuals and businesses received the major honors. The rest of the evening belonged to the "best of" survey, the long-running community survey that turns into window decals across Main Street, Dock Square, and Route 1.
What's new is the language the Chamber used to describe how those ten majors get chosen. Nominees come from the community, the same as always. But the winners are selected by chamber staff and the executive board rather than tallied from a public vote. That's a meaningful shift from how the awards were described as recently as a few years ago, when Kennebunk Savings president Bradford Paige called the honors meaningful specifically because "these awards are so meaningful because there are voted on by the community." Whether that changed gradually or all at once isn't clear from what the Chamber has published. What's clear is that this year, the ten major trophies work more like a curated slate than a straight public vote.
The Ballot Used to Be Twice as Long
The bigger visible change is in the "best of" survey itself. Here's how the category count has moved over the past three years:
| Year | "Best of" survey categories | Major awards |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 103 | 10 |
| 2025 | 100 | 10 |
| 2026 | 49 | 10 |
That's not a small trim. The survey lost roughly half its categories in a single year, after holding steady around 100 for at least two cycles running. Fewer categories means fewer businesses can legitimately put a "Best Of" sticker in their window this fall. It also means the categories that survived the cut are carrying more weight than they used to. If the Chamber folded several old categories together, a business that used to compete against a handful of others for, say, "best hair salon" or "best spa" separately may now be competing across a combined field. A trophy this year likely represents a wider swath of the local business community than the same trophy did in 2024.
Two Different Contests Under One Roof
It's worth being precise about what actually changed and what didn't. The Chamber has always run two parallel tracks on awards night: the ten "major" honors, which recognize individuals and standout businesses by name, and the much longer "best of" survey, which crowdsources a winner in dozens of everyday categories. Past recipients of the major awards read like a snapshot of who keeps the towns running. Boulangerie was named Business of the Year in 2024, and Arundel House of Pizza took the President's Award the same year. Kennebunk Fire Chief Justin Cooper was named Municipal Employee of the Year, and the Kennebunkport Heritage Housing Trust was named Nonprofit of the Year. Laura Snyder Smith received Volunteer of the Year, Beth Fossett the Driven Woman Award, Traci Anello of the Community Gourmet the Outstanding Achievement Award, and Lani Dietz of Maine & Vine the Rising Star Award. Sharon Binette of the Kennebunk Post picked up the inaugural 3 Towns 1 Community Award, and Nonantum Resort's Jean Ginn Marvin received the Joel Stevens Community Spirit Award.
The following year carried a theme, "Defying Gravity," marking five years of business resilience across the three towns. Chris Cluff received the Joel Stevens Community Spirit Award that year, and Ted St. Amand of Superior Pest took the Outstanding Achievement Award. The evening also marked a changing of the guard on the Chamber's board: Michaela Sanna of Kennebunk Savings was seated as a new board member, Colby Marvin Bracy of the Nonantum Resort was named chair, and Eric Hrubant of CIRE Travel stepped into the vice chair role, succeeding Cluff. Sponsors that night included Graceful Escape Spa, Mobile Musette, Seacoast Street Eats, and Auntie's House.
The "best of" survey ran alongside those major honors both years, and it's where most of the familiar local names show up. Kennebunk Savings has taken Best Bank and Best Financial Services, with Camden National Bank and Paper Trails as runners-up. The Animal Welfare Society has topped Best Animal Rescue, with Woof Works Training close behind. Tourist & Town has claimed Best Local Publication over the Kennebunk Post. River's Edge Spa & Salon has swept both Best Hair Salon and Best Spa, with Lucky's Barber Shop and The Fifth Om taking silver. The Daily Sweat has held Best Fitness Club, Seashore Trolley Museum has been Favorite Nonprofit, Beau Dalleo has taken Best Local Band, Robert A. Dennis Photography has been Best Photographer, and Nonantum Resort has held Best Wedding Venue over The Colony. Vinegar Hill Music Theatre, the very building hosting the dinner, has itself won Best Performing Arts Center.
Why the Distinction Matters This Fall
None of that history tells you who won this year. What it does tell you is that the two tracks on awards night have historically run on different logic: community nomination feeding into staff and board judgment for the ten majors, versus a broader public vote for the hundred-odd "best of" slots. This year, that second track got cut nearly in half, while the process for the first track got spelled out more explicitly than it has been in past recaps.
If you're the kind of resident who notices these decals in shop windows without thinking much about where they come from, this is the year to look a little closer. A gold sticker in 2026 likely represents a business that outlasted a wider field than the same sticker did two years ago, simply because there are half as many categories to spread the competition across. And the ten major honors, the ones that go to a Business of the Year or a Volunteer of the Year, are now openly described as a staff-and-board call rather than a pure public vote, which changes how much weight you might put on them as a read of general community sentiment versus the Chamber's own judgment of who's done right by the towns this year.
The full list of this year's winners lives on the Chamber's own site at gokennebunks.com, which is the place to check if you want to see exactly which 49 categories survived the cut and who's claiming them.
Shanna Jadooram tracks the local businesses, events, and civic details that make Kennebunk and Kennebunkport worth paying attention to, whether or not a home sale is anywhere on the horizon. If you want to talk through what's shifting in this stretch of Southern Maine this season, Shanna Jadooram is always glad to have that conversation. Let's Connect.
