Westhope Named Winner of 2007 Great Strides Award

The town of Westhope has been named one of four regional winners of the Great Strides Northwest Area Foundation's third annual Great Strides Award!  The Great Strides award is bestowed upon a community showing creativity and ingenuity in their business ideas.

A few of the select businesses that played a role in securing this award are diverse, but equally ingenious in their vision for business beyond the borders of their small town.

Deva Lifewear, a business comprised of 19 on-site employees as well as 11 home-based area stitchers, sells their "carefree, natural clothing" around the globe.

The City of Westhope, EDC, Community Club, and Senior Citizens Organization came together to invest in the reopening of the former Gateway Motel.  This is the only motel in the area and has been a long-standing business in the area.  It is wonderful to still have it available to the community.

Recently the local grocery store closed.  The EDC invited the local community members to personally invest in the reopening of this business, and once again the community came together with 50 community members investing $600 each to provide operating funds to the new owners and are being paid back by receiving a monthly credit toward their investment.

The overall reason for the $100,000 awarding of this honor is the continued support of this town by the EDC, City of Westhope, and local organization, and especially its wonderful citizens.