The Better Business Bureau held its ninth annual Torch Awards at East Ridge Country Club honoring 24 nominees in the Shreveport/ Bossier market.

Sonja Bailes, public relations liaison, Bossier Parish School Board, emceed the event and presented the awards to four different categories: Integrity Award (businesses that maintain a solid commitment to ethical business practices); Customer Commitment Award (business with outstanding customer service programs); Good Neighbor Award (businesses and employees who play a significant role in their support and involvement in local charities); and Not-For-Profit Award (non-profit organizations that have positively impacted the local communities).

BBB recognized three finalists in each of the categories

• Winner of the Integrity Award was Holmes Honda. Other finalists in this category were Osborne Funeral Home, and Red River Bank.

• Winner of the Customer Commitment Award was Snell’s Orthotics-Prosthetics. Other finalists in this category were Ashley’s Building & Construction and One Planet Solar.

• Winner of the Good Neighbor Award was Argent Financial Group. Other finalists in the Good Neighbor category were Carter Federal Credit Union and Paragon Press.

• Recipient of the Not-For- Profit Award was the Food Bank of Northwest Louisiana. Other finalists were Caddo Council on Aging and Remington College.

Also recognized at the dinner were BBB Scholarship recipients, Elizabeth Gautreaux, LSU Shreveport; Alessa Rexer, Bossier Parish Community College; Benjamin Siele Towett, Southern University – Shreveport; Desiree Boyd, Centenary College and Brittany McConathy, Northwestern State University. Louisiana Tech University Shreveport/Bossier has a scholarship that will be presented in the spring. The BBB scholarships were established to assist business majors pursuing an master’s of business administration.