WXED Staff Member Honored As Ellwood City Local Business Person of the Year

The largest online referral network for small businesses, Alignable.com is announcing the results of its national search for leaders who’ve gone above and beyond guiding peers and supporting entire communities as they strive to recover.

This week, Alignable’s network has chosen Mary Ann Shaner of WXED as 2022 Business Person of the Year for Ellwood City!

The 2022 contest is the most popular competition Alignable has ever hosted, marking a 64% increase in participation over last year. In all, 2,400+ small business owners were elected by their peers to be their Local Business People of the year across the U.S. and Canada.

During the contest, which ran from Jan. 10 to Feb. 11, 2022, 160.000+ votes and 32,000+ testimonials were posted praising thousands of local leaders for helping their peers and communities through a turbulent year with many challenges: skyrocketing inflation, labor shortages, supply chain problems, and COVID variants.

Shaner received a special badge on her Alignable profile, recognizing this big win. In past years, the awareness generated through similar contests has spurred expanded connections, as well as new business for many winners.

Alignable’s President & Co-Founder Venkat Krishnamurthy stated “Local business owners are the heart and soul of their communities and they ought to get way more recognition for all they do. Friendly competition aside, this contest generated some incredible peer testimonials (to the tune of 32,000+), showing exactly why small business owners are stronger together.”

According to its Alignable.com profile, WXED 107.3 FM is anon-profit all volunteer radio station serving Ellwood City area and surrounding communities. The station is community oriented and focus on supporting small business. WXED has a community bulletin board to keep the public informed of helpful information and events. We are a 501(c)3 non-profit station functioning totally on sponsorship and donations.