CASPER, Wyoming – Casper-area voters have been voting for weeks, and on Saturday Oil City News announced the winners of the second annual Oil City’s Best awards at the 2024 5150′ Festival.
Locals voted in dozens of categories for local businesses, schools, organizations and more. In total, more than 200,000 votes were cast, a significant increase from last year. The list of categories was also shortened for the second edition of Oil City’s Best to make the voting process simpler and smoother.
For some of the most voted candidates, like Best Piercing Studio winner High Plains Adornment, winning the top prize is nothing new.
“We won last year, too,” said store owner Halley O’Donnell with a grin. “Two in a row feels great. … The key is to just be nice and welcoming.”
O’Donnell said her approach to piercing is to make the process intimate and personal.
“It’s become so common for shops to turn over and burn their piercings and tattoos. I like to get to know my customers beforehand,” she said.
For other winners, such as Buckin’ Brew, which won the award for Best Local Business, it was the first time they received the coveted “Oil City’s Best” trophy.
“It’s a huge honor and humbling,” said Abriel VanValkenburg, owner of Buckin’ Brew. “We have a lot of repeat customers and they are like family to us. We’ve built a very large community, which I never expected, and I’m so grateful for that.”
VanValkenburg said Buckin’ Brew is constantly working to offer more and better deals to its customers and opened its third location in Natrona County last year.
Another local winner that has built a family-like community is 307 Dance Academy.
“We started about 11 years ago with a group of parents running it, so we’ve always been very close,” said teacher Maliyah Harrington. “Then we started becoming a competitive dance studio and just kept growing from there.”
Harrington said the key to running a successful dance studio is simpler than one would think.
“The most important thing is to have open communication and just be a decent human being,” she said with a giggle. “A little empathy goes a long way.”
The dance company has had a great year and recently moved into a larger studio. And there are even more big things on the horizon, as Harrington said the troupe will compete in a national competition in Las Vegas later this year.
The full list of winners will be posted online next week.
