First-ever Best of Middletown awards … and this group isn’t spoiling the surprise

The best of Middletown will be unveiled next month by an organization working to highlight all that the city has to offer.

Middletown Young Professionals is holding its inaugural Best of Middletown event + awards ceremony from 6 to 8 p.m. Sept. 6 at The Windamere, 2 South Main St., Middletown. There the group will announce and celebrate the winners of the 2018 Best of Middletown polls.

That effort kicked off March 21 at www.bestofmiddletown.com and ran until May 31 to give people ample time to vote for their favorites in a variety of categories, according to Mallory Greenham, the organization's president.

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“This initiative was a way to locate and celebrate all of the great places, people, activities and amenities that Middletown has to offer,” Greenham said. “We had lists to start, but also accepted write-ins, which was a great way for us to capture hidden gems and new local favorites in our data.”

So how trustworthy was the voting? Greenham said the Middletown Young Professionals carefully analyzed all voting data to determine the fair winner of each poll in every category.

“One vote is counted for each device used to vote on bestofmiddletown.com in a 24-hour period,” she said. “Our polling system automatically filters out devices and votes that have cleared cookies or attempted to refresh the page and vote (beyond one vote).”

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Middletown Young Professionals, which was formed in 2013, is geared toward those who are between 21 and 45 years old living or working in Middletown. The group is involved in various activities and community-based initiatives.

The voting process garnered 74,720 votes from 6,196 users, the vast majority (75 percent) voting on a cellphone, with the remainder voting on a desktop or laptop computer (18 percent) or tablet (7 percent).

Greenham did not answer in regard to what each winner receives.

“We can’t spoil the surprise,” she said. “All will be announced at the event.”

A ticket for the Best of Middletown event costs $25 and includes admission, hors d'oeuvres, a free drink, music, entertainment and more. Dress is cocktail attire. For more information, visit www.bestofmiddletown.com.

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