The chatter of excited customers, Town representatives, Cornerstone board members, and staff filled the air as you entered Vermilions new Cornerstone Co-op’s Pharmacy location on November 29th for its Grand Opening. The store is located across the street from the current Cornerstone Co-op Grocery store in the administration building. General Manager Graham Getz is thankful for all the support they have received throughout the process of the pharmacy setup. “On behalf of the entire senior leadership team, we wish to welcome you and thank you for coming out today to unveil our grand opening of our Vermilion Pharmacy and Active Living location. I would like to thank our board of directors for their strategic guidance and insight and support through the project planning phases. I would like to thank our team that brought this concept, this vision, this dream to life in Vermilion. I would also like to thank our local contractors for helping us open this world-class facility. Our FCL Region team and home office team for their assistance throughout this entire project. Finally, I would like to thank our owners of this community for their longstanding support over the past generations and for their continued support over future generations” stated Getz. According to Getz the location is the first of its kind in Western Canada and truly focuses on making life better in the communities and noted that Co-op is a different kind of business and that the day was about being proud of our Co-op, our roots and our history and our future. “Today is about being 100 per cent locally owned, we understand that we must grow and evolve and compete, and be relevant. We are committed to our vision, our purpose and live our values when operating a co-operative model. We understand that it is about relationships and full-service experiences and it’s not about the basic transactions. It’s about top-notch employees and services and showing our commitment, our teamwork, and our integrity. We understand what it takes to invest locally and being a true community builder,” said Getz. Board member and Vice Chair of the board Keith Brower was also on hand to say a few words during the Grand Opening of the new Cornerstone Co-op Pharmacy. “It is indeed a pleasure for me to be here in Vermilion today in this great town. As Vice Chair of the Cornerstone board, I am very happy to be here, I’m very happy that we are investing in communities, not only here but up this east side of Alberta from Provost all the way to St. Paul and this is just the next step in the investment we will do. On behalf of our member-owners, we think it is important that we invest in things that build the communities. It is part of our mandate to do things that build our communities and keep the money in our communities; and so I am pleased to be here on behalf of the board. I’m just wanting to say that we have invested nearly $20 million in this community in the last five years and I think you have probably seen some of that. We think that Vermilion is important, we think that this is an important town and an important pillar in part of what we are doing as Cornerstone; so thank you very much,” said Brower. Mayor Caroline McAuley, Deputy Mayor Justin Thompson, and Councillor Greg Barr were in attendance to welcome the new Pharmacy. “I just want to welcome a great addition to the Co-op Cornerstone family to our community. I’m pleased to say they identified a gap in our community and one of the things we have been trying really hard this year as we support our business incentive program and our businesses is really looking at what are the gaps and niches that need to be filled. Thank you to Cornerstone for coming to the plate and identifying that opportunity for our community so that we really can keep our residents in our community shopping in our community to support jobs and growth so thank you to Cornerstone and on behalf of the town and the council congratulations on this new adventure,” said Mayor McAuley. Throughout the day customers had the opportunity to spin a wheel for giveaways such as fridge magnets, gift cards, earbuds, Frisbee’s, calendars etc. Customers also have the opportunity to enter a draw for two $500 gift cards with no purchase necessary.