My new favorite number is 118,769. That is the number of votes cast in Leader Publication’s inaugural Best Of Jefferson County contest.
I wish I had the time to write a thank you note to all 7,749 people who nominated businesses and organizations and cast votes in the contest. The whole Leader team is so grateful to our readers and community for embracing our new contest and supporting local businesses.
For many years, Leader staff members have discussed the possibility of holding a reader’s choice-style contest, but until this year we have been hesitant about it. While there had been no contest like its kind for Jefferson County, at least not in recent history, similar contests have been held in the St. Louis area for a long time. So, we were concerned that maybe there wasn’t a good reason or need for another contest.
However, we know how wonderful Jefferson County is and finally decided that our local businesses and organizations deserved their time in the sun without competing with those outside the county.
Our local business owners and managers open doors early, stay late, remember your name and care deeply about our community. They are our neighbors, friends and family and provide trusted places to go to for lunch, a haircut, health care, home improvement services and so much more.
We created a contest that offered readers the chance to shine a spotlight on all the incredible small businesses, organizations and professionals serving our communities every single day. From the local coffee shop owner who knows your order by heart to the local auto shop manager who goes the extra mile, all those folks help make Jefferson County feel like home.
Without our wonderful business community, Jefferson County would not be what it is today.
When we started putting together the contest this year, our first mission was to find a title sponsor to help support it. Our team came up with a list of businesses and organizations that might be a good fit. At the top of the list was the Jefferson County Growth Association, known as JCGA to many.
If you don’t know much about the JCGA, it’s a group that’s passionate about supporting Jefferson County businesses, jobs and community improvements. JCGA works hard to help make Jefferson County a great place to shop, work, live, visit, play and stay.
We asked the JCGA to partner with the Leader, and without a yes from the group, I don’t know if the contest would have happened. So, the JCGA deserves an extra special thank you!
The contest is not about who the Leader thinks is best. It’s about you, our readers, making your voices heard. The contest was reader driven from start to finish.
We published a list of categories and asked for nominations in each one, and 1,041 businesses, groups or professionals were nominated and advanced to the voting round. Anyone could submit nominations, and it only took one nomination to move on to the voting round.
Everyone was allowed to cast one vote per day in each category. Our voting system even tracked voting fraud to make sure the contest was fair. That prevented people from voting multiple times a day or creating multiple logins to vote. Since we live in such a great community, not many tried to trick the system, but if they did, they failed.
Even Leader employees could only vote once per day, and I know I voted for my favorites every day in every category. It was hard to pick in some categories, and I often wished I could have voted for more than one.
Once we began planning for the contest, we tried our best to get the word out about it. We also tried to make sure our community knew about the nomination round and the voting round. Sadly, we know some businesses were left out because their biggest fans did not know about the contest. The good news is, those businesses will have a shot again next year because the Leader plans to hold the contest each year, making it a tradition in Jefferson County.
We were absolutely thrilled by the response and enthusiasm from our readers. The support shown for our local businesses was fantastic, and businesses kept the competition friendly.
It was a joy to watch community members rally behind their favorites, share stories, post photos and spread the word about nominating and voting.
We are looking forward to the second annual Best Of Jefferson County contest next year, so remember to be on the lookout for it and make sure your favorites are nominated and recognized in 2026. We are planning to open nominations next March, so mark those calendars now. I hope you will take part every year.
If you haven’t already done so, please check out our full list of the 2025 winners and finalists in the June 26 edition of the paper.
Then, try out a new dinner spot from the list and see why that business was voted the best. Or, the next time you need a manicure, auto repair, lawn care service or home improvement, look at the Best Of Jefferson County list and give those local businesses a call. You may view our list of winners and finalists all year on the Leader website at myleadepaper.com/bestof. Use it next time you need to find a local gem.
Thanks for reading the Leader and for taking part in the Best of Jefferson County contest, and, most importantly, thank you for supporting local businesses.