A local Cochranite and active volunteer in the Cochrane community is kickstarting the new year with an initiative to help support local businesses.

Paul Singh is a familiar face in the Cochrane community. Leading up to the holiday season he launched a successful bottle drive in support of seniors in the Cochrane area. With the funds raised from the bottle drive, Singh along with a group of volunteers purchased gift cards from local businesses for seniors left alone in isolation during the festive season.

The two-week initiative raised $2,251.25 and resulted in volunteers spreading Christmas cheer to 72 Cochrane seniors and supporting 62 local businesses. Singh says that with close to $300 remaining from the bottle drive, he had a new idea to help support local Cochrane restaurants.

He has launched a contest on his personal Facebook page, highlighting a different restaurant in a post each day. He's looking for participants to simply comment on that post with their favourite dish from that restaurant and those participants will be entered in a draw to receive the dish of their choice.

"So they can vote for their favourite dish and the next day we'll do a draw," says Singh. "Yesterday was the first day and we got over 40 entries. We're going to do a draw today."

Singh says that the contest will run until the funds are used up. He anticipates that the funds will stretch to help support 15 or more local restaurants. 

"It will promote businesses, at least 15 or 16 businesses that we can help out," says Singh. "The money stays locally and supports local businesses."

Singh credits the Cochrane community for their generosity and continually stepping up to help one another.

"It's from the help from everybody," says Singh. "There's so many volunteers involved and I really do appreciate them."

To participate in the contest and be entered to win a dish from a local restaurant you can click here.