March 14, 2024
Jim Boddez receives the Leadership Impact Award from Angie Venekamp, ECP-SM, outgoing ARA Region Ten director
Members of the Canadian equipment and event rental community received special recognition during The ARA Show™ 2024 in New Orleans.
Leadership Impact Award — Jim Boddez
Jim Boddez of Five Bo, St. Albert, Alberta, who serves on the ARA of Canada Task Force — an advisory team made up of Canadian members that works to further the American Rental Association’s (ARA) presence across Canada — received the 2023 Leadership Impact Award for ARA’s Region Ten.
The Leadership Impact Award recognizes an individual in each of the ARA’s 10 regions whose leadership benefited members over the past year.
This year’s award was presented during the Canadian Hospitality Reception held at Generations Hall.
“I’m appreciative of the award and glad to be part of a team that is reinvigorating the ARA in Canada with the ultimate goal of supporting the rental industry in the Great White North,” Boddez said.
The ARA Foundation Awards — C&T Rentals & Sales and The Rent-It Store
Left to right: Kelly Brincheski; ARA Board Chair Steve Mau, ECP-SM; and ARA President Jeff Crotto, CERP
The ARA Foundation’s mission is to provide opportunities for the equipment and event rental industry and the communities they serve.
For their generous support of the ARA Foundation during 2023, C&T Rentals & Sales, Winnipeg, Manitoba, and The Rent-It Store, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, were awarded:
- The James Keenan Commemorative Award — Named after the ARA past president and the ARA Foundation’s first president, who led the philanthropic arm of the industry for 10 years in the 1970s and 1980s, this award recognizes those who have contributed $10,000 to the ARA Foundation during a five-year span.
- The 1976 Club Award — Presented in honor of the year the ARA Foundation was established, this award goes to those who have contributed a total of $5,000 or more to the ARA Foundation in a single year.
The awards were presented during the ARA Industry Awards Lunch at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center.
“We like helping out because it’s the right thing to do,” said newly-installed ARA Region Ten Director Kelly Brincheski of Collective Event Rentals, Winnipeg, Manitoba, on behalf of C&T Rentals & Sales. “Supporting the ARA Foundation means making good things happen for people. It’s like being part of a team that’s all about making life better, and that just feels right.”
Doron Broadfoot, right, with immediate past ARA Board Chair Scott Irwin
Doron Broadfoot of The Rent-It Store said the ARA Foundation’s underlying principles and programs have motivated his company’s longtime support.
“From the very impressive array of scholarship offerings that help get youth involved in this great industry to the disaster preparedness and relief programs, the ARA Foundation is representative of the great community and fellowship that seems to be an inherent part of our industry,” he said.
The outpouring of support from industry peers following a disaster suffered by The Rent-It Store also is at the core of the company’s priority of giving back.
“The people within the rental world are the most caring and helpful people anywhere,” Broadfoot said. “We found this out when we had a devastating fire at our location in 2003. The offers of help came from local competitors, national supplier partners and, of course, from the great professional people at ARA. In our own small way, we are trying to repay such blessings and to hopefully ‘pay forward’ in a manner that can help the most fellow rental people.”
