On September 23rd the City of Brandon, Manitoba hosted the 12th Edition of the Communities in Bloom National Awards Ceremony, honouring municipalities from Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom.

Communities in Bloom is a Canadian non-profit organization committed to fostering civic pride, environmental responsibility, and beautification through community involvement and the challenge of a national program.

National Chairman Ted Blowes and President Raymond Carriere, on behalf of the National Committee, Judges, and Sponsors, thanked all the communities that participated in the program.

National Award Winners for 2006 are as follows:

1 to 1,000: (population) Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia
1,001 to 2,000: Russell, Manitoba
2,001 to 3,000: Rosetown, Saskatchewan
3,001 to 5,000: Armstrong, British Columbia
5,001 to 10,000: Trail, British Columbia
10,001 to 20,000: Parksville, British Columbia
10,001 to 50,000: Stratford, Ontario
50,001 to 100,000: Prince George, B.C.
Over 100,000: Brampton, Ontario

Kelowna, and Summerland, British Columbia, won the Canadian Classic, a category in which past winners were twinned with municipalities that had never participated in order to mentor them in the program.

Kamloops, British Columbia in the Very Large category, St. Thomas, Ontario in the Large category, St. Ives & Carbis Bay, England in the Medium category, and Boissevain, Manitoba in the Small category were the winners in the International Challenge categories. In this category past winners of Communities in Bloom compete with past winners of the national programs of Britain in Bloom and America in Bloom.

Brampton, Ontario was recognized as the Best Blooming Community in Canada for achieving the highest aggregate score in both the WinterLights Celebrations and the Communities in Bloom programs for 2006.

Kipling and Wawota both participated in the national CIB competition. Each received a rating of four blooms from the judges. Five blooms is the highest achievable rating. This was attained by all of the category winners, along with several other communities.

Kipling’s score included special mention for its “Dedicated summer students”. Kipling was among five entrants in the 1001 to 2000 population class.

Wawota was among eleven communities entered in the 1000 and under category. Wawota earned special mention for Memorial Tree Park, the town’s recently constructed splash park./p>