February 14, 2022 People/Dining/Shopping/Events/Culture All defining Livonia
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To Livonia with Love from FridayMusings
There can be no doubt that in Livonia earth's great treasure lies in human personality. We can say we live in Livonia but just what does that mean? To this typewriter the definition of our hometown can be seen in our individual people, young and old, our businesses, small or large, our faith community, our volunteers working without seeking acknowledgment.
Twice a year Livonia takes a step back and salutes those individuals and businesses who give meaning and purpose to Livonia's existence. In October the 1835 Livonia City Hall of Fame recognizes those who during the 187 years since the founding of Livonia in 1835 have made a difference.
In February Dan West and his team at the Livonia Chamber of Commerce provide us with an Annual Leadership and Awards celebration recognizing local educators of the year, Livonia Public Schools will honor Coolidge Elementary third-grade teacher Peggy Brissette, Western Wayne Skill Center special education teacher Amy Munday and Garfield Community School building supervisor Eric Raymond.
Also at the event, Diane Montes will be recognized as the Livonia First Citizen, Harish and Oviya
Jaisanka will receive Livonia Outstanding Youth awards and Basilica of St. Mary’s Pastor Fr. George
Shalhoub will receive a Livonia Legacy Award. Madonna University and F&PA will be recognized as large and small Business' of the Year.
The Greenleaf Commission on Sustainability will recognize Storch Products. Masco's commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion results in recognition by the Livonia Human Relations Commission. The Livonia Chamber will recognize Perrmella Harris its Ambassador of the Year
The Leadership and Awards Celebration, set for 5-7:30 p.m. Wednesday, February 23, is sponsored by
Embassy Title Agency, AlphaUSA, St. Mary Mercy Hospital, MASCO, Bill Brown Ford, LaFontaine
Imports of Livonia, and Madonna University. Admission is $40 per person for dinner and the program.
For details, call the Livonia Chamber office at 734.427.2122, visit www.livonia.org or e-mail
So on this Valentine's Day join the typewriter in sitting back and enjoying the stories of those who have and are helping define Livonia as one special hometown.
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First Citizen turned tragedy into community vocation |
Diane Montes comes from a service-oriented family who found ways to give back to their community.
She found her role through the heartbreak of losing her 22-year-old son to a drug overdose. She discovered Brian lying in his bed after taking a fatal mix of heroin and Fentanyl on June 29, 2006.
As she processed the horror and grief, she started a mission of making others aware of the dangers and support for those dealing with addiction. Then her determination intensified to urgency as she learned there was little public awareness 15 years ago about the growing epidemic with opioids.
“It was a taboo subject to discuss at the time, but drug use was so prevalent in the suburbs,” she said. “There was an urgent need to wake people up and do something.”
This led to the formation of the Livonia Save Our Youth Coalition, a nonprofit organization connecting people to substance-abuse education, prevention and support, and building a healthy community. With education programs, financial support, and key partnerships, Livonia Save Our Youth Coalition programming reached many families and young people over the past 15 years.
As the founder of this valuable community resource, Montes was selected as the 2022 recipient of the Livonia First Citizen Award, an annual honor given to a Livonia resident for extraordinary community service.
“Diane followed the light of her faith to learn everything she could about how such a tragedy could impact her family,” said Karen Bonanno, the executive director of the Coalition since 2015. “The inspiration of Diane’s insight continues to shine brightly through continued conversation and meaningful collaboration, with the goal of preventing similar heartbreak in other families.”
Montes credits her mother, Marge Slattery, with setting an example of serving others. As a nurse in 1985, she created a nonprofit, Domus Vita (Latin for “House of Light”), that provides long-term care and assistance for patients with special needs. The Livonia-based organization operates several facilities across Metro Detroit.
“Everyone in our family worked for the company in some capacity, and we all followed her example,” Montes said.
With Livonia Save Our Youth, Montes formed partnerships with St. Mary Mercy Hospital, local schools, local church groups, Livonia Police, Livonia Fire, and city officials.
“Some were reluctant at first, but it is a testament to those involved that all these sectors got involved,” she said.
Along with Bonanno’s work, Montes also praises fellow original board members Jason Schwartz, Dr. Mark Menestrina, Jerry Kwas, and Bob Douville for their work the entire time. Donations, grants, and an annual race generates the money for the Coalition’s work each year.
The Coalition has provided more awareness and resources in Livonia, and Montes said she believes there is less stigma about discussing drug use – which is vital with the community’s increased mental health and addiction concerns in the aftermath of the pandemic.
Montes and her Bentley High School sweetheart, Andy, have been married 43 years, had three children and seven grandchildren. Many of her community-minded relatives continue to live in Livonia. They play golf together each year to raise money for the Brian Montes Foundation which provides scholarships for those in need of treatment programs and recovery group homes.
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Fr. George Shalhoub’s legacy
grows in his 50th year
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Within the first couple of months in 1972, shortly after Fr. George Shalhoub immigrated to the United States, he was married, ordained as a priest, and assigned to start a new Antiochian Orthodox Christian church in Livonia.
He admits he didn’t fully realize what he was getting into when he started this new mission serving Christian Middle Eastern families living in Western Wayne County. He didn’t have a building. He didn’t know anyone. He had to explain the church’s culture and heritage to his new neighbors.
He started with faith and ambition to build “a gift to support immigrant families” moving to the area.
“We struggled…but it was a sign of growth,” he said. “It was God who brought us together and inspired us to bring a piece of Christianity, from where Christianity started in Syria, and bring it to the heart of Livonia.”
This year marks his 50th anniversary on his journey to build this influential faith community. The Basilica of St. Mary on Merriman Road is the only basilica in the Antiochian Orthodox Basilica Archdiocese of North America, and it serves 5,000 families in southeast Michigan.
Currently the longest-continuous-serving pastor at the same church in Livonia, Fr. Shalhoub is this year’s recipient of the Livonia Legacy Award honoring individuals who accumulated a long-sustained record of exceptional work and service in our community throughout their careers.
Aside from his direct ministry work, he taught classes at Madonna University and Antiochian House of Studies, he authored several books about the Orthodox faith, served on the state’s Mental Health Advisory Board, supported a family of four children and nine grandchildren, and became a trusted advisor to his church members and elected leaders in Livonia.
The first services for St. Mary’s occurred at rented spaces at various Livonia churches for three years until its first permanent church was constructed in 1975. The church community constructed the cultural center next door for social gatherings in 1991. A fire razed the original church in 1996, and the new basilica was built in 2002.
The church began a new campaign this year to raise money to build an independent senior living facility, Montessori school, and family and youth center near the basilica to create a tighter-knit faith community.
“When you have children, youth, and elderly around you in one place, you have a great way of sustaining their life,” Fr. Shalhoub said. “This will be a lighthouse for many, many generations to come, long after I leave this Earth.”
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Siblings’ work makes difference around
the world
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Harish and Oviya Jaisankar collected returnable cans and bottles to raise money for a school for deaf children in India.
At the time, 10-year-old Harish and six-year-old Oviya were proud they raised $700 for the school. Then, they visited that school and met some of the children who benefited from their efforts during a trip to India. That was a powerful experience that stuck with the young duo.
For Harish, a senior at Churchill High School, meeting the beneficiaries of the project inspired him to do more. His sister felt the same.
“I love helping others and then seeing how we helped them,” said Oviya, an eighth-grader at Frost Middle School.
The brother-sister team is the 2022 recipient of the Livonia Outstanding Youth of the Year Award for years of fundraising for those in need, increasing public awareness of various causes, volunteering for food banks and community clean-ups, and more. Their parents, Jaisankar and Priya, immigrated to Michigan from India.
When Covid restriction took place in spring 2020, the duo started raising money for another special needs school in India. With phone calls to family, friends, and educators, and outreach via internet services, they raised $7,000 for visually impaired children. And with their growing network of supporters, they raised another $10,000 for the same school late in 2021.
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Also during the Covid lockdowns, they recruited 10 friends, arranged for a TV report on Channel 7, and raised $5,000 for St. Mary Mercy Hospital that was used to buy protective equipment for hospital staff.
Harish, 17, has a weighted 4.5 grade-point average and plans to go to college to study biomedical engineering. He has been the president of the Churchill Rotary Interact Club for the past two years and grew the club from six to 40 students. More people led to more impact locally as the group worked with the Livonia Goodfellows and Livonia AM Rotary Club for food drives. The Interact Club is in the midst of a one-year effort to raise $5,000 to make care packages for victims of natural disasters.
“I love seeing the people we’re helping, but I also love getting other people involved,” he said. “It is always more fun and gratifying working with other people.”
Oviya, 13, is an all-A student and aspires to study aerospace engineering. She is active with the youth volunteer global nonprofit organization VT Seva, where she worked on food banks, road clean-ups, and supporting senior centers. She also makes videos and flyers to promote various public causes. For example, she made a video detailing “do’s and don’ts” of recycling that played in loops at her school to promote Earth Day.
She also rallied 26 volunteers to collect 210 towels that were donated to the last Day Dog Rescue animal foster home and Michigan Humane Society.
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Storch Products, a 70-year-old global supplier of commercial magnetic products, responded to the Covid
pandemic by inventing a magnetic frame that holds standard-sized air filters to easily install over air ceiling
vents to significantly filter out microparticles that flow into offices and stores.
For this innovation, Storch
will be honored with the Livonia Greenleaf Award, an honor selected by the Greenleaf Commission on
Sustainability to recognize a Livonia business or organization that successfully balances environmental
and economic strategies.
The AiroTrust was invented by Storch CEO Matt Carr, and manufactured at the company’s Globe Street
facility.
“When the pandemic lockdowns started, we were looking to establish a safe environment for people to
return to work,” said Carr, a welder by trade. “We were looking to get people back to work and we felt this
was a path to do that.”
He initially developed one for his office. Then his colleagues wanted them for their workspaces. Then friends at other businesses wanted them at their places. This moved the company to start commercial production and marketing in August 2020.
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Masco's commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion results in recognition by the Livonia Human Relations Commission |
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Masco Corp. will be the first recipient of the Livonia Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging Changemaker Award, a new award developed by the Livonia Human Relations Commission.
Masco, a worldwide producer of home improvement products, moved its world headquarters to Livonia in 2017.
Founded in Detroit in 1929, Masco manufactures nearly a quarter of all inventory in Home Depot stores, including Merillat cabinets, Behr paint, and Delta faucets. Long-known for its philanthropy, Masco increased it contributions to diversity and inclusion initiatives in recent years as part of a focused strategy.
“At Masco, our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion is rooted in our values around the importance of treating all people with respect,” said Masco president and CEO Keith Allman. “We strive…to cultivate a sense of belonging for all our shareholders, employees, customers, suppliers and community partners.”
Among its internal and external work with diversity and inclusion, the company allocated $1 million to fund nonprofit organizations across the country committed to breaking down barriers, offered numerous forums and learning experiences to enhance belongingness within its workforce, and ensured inclusive talent practices to mitigate potential biases during hiring and decision-making processes.
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St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church, which has been a fixture on Plymouth Road since 1931, will receive a 2022 Community Enhancement Award, which honors businesses that made a recent investment to develop a new enterprise, improve the appearance of a property, or upgrade services that notably enrich the Livonia community.
The church community – which serves nearly 1,500 families and 500 students at its elementary school – raised $4.1 million to expand the church entrance and atrium by 3,500 square feet, add a second crying room, renovate the altar, sound system, and choir loft. The current church building was built in 1961 and had little work done before this project, said Msgr. William Tindell, the church’s pastor for 19 years.
“The discussions started several years ago when talking about repairing our leaky roof and some dated restroom, and it grew into more,” Tindell said. “We were fortunate to have so many donors, and some significantly large donations.”
Church services were moved into the school gymnasium for a year to make room for the work. When Mass returned to the renovated church in summer 2021, Tindell said he sensed the pride in the “more reverent appearance” of the church.
“I am happy for the parishioners,” he said. “There were a lot of issues that had to be addressed. They developed an appreciation for what they have.”
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Sheldon Center on the southeast corner of Farmington and Plymouth roads will also collect a 2022
Community Enhancement Award. Anchored by Larry’s Foodland, this shopping center was redeveloped
with new brick façade and the construction of three new out-lot eateries which significantly changed the appearance of this busy Livonia intersection.
The property has been owned for years by Grenadier Properties based in Bingham Farms.
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The Livonia Chamber will recognize Perrmella Harris, business development director for the SMS Group of Companies, as its Ambassador of the Year as a leading volunteer and advocate for the 950-member on partisan, nonprofit trade organization that has served Livonia since 1950.
Harris is the director of business development for the Detroit-based SMS Group of Companies, which is a
full-service staffing and human resources agency. She previously owned and operated the Metro Cheer
Training Center for 25 years, which was based in Livonia when she sold the business to a former student
in 2019.
She has been a chamber ambassador for several years because she loves opportunities to help others
while building direct links to the community. In 2021, she was the most active supporting events, grand
openings, and referring members for the chamber.
“I love meeting people and learning from them,” Harris said. “It gives us a chance to shine a light on our
new businesses with grand openings and a chance to celebrate with each other.
Harris, and her husband of 27 years, Glenn, have three grown sons.
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Madonna University, F&PA
land business of year honors
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Madonna University grew its footprint in Livonia while Financial and Portfolio Advisors continued its decades-long resume of community giving over the past year.
Both companies will be honored this month with Livonia Chamber of Commerce business awards that recognize their business excellence and community contributions.
Madonna University will receive the 2022 Outstanding Large Business of the Year Award. The Catholic university was established in Livonia by the Felician Sisters 85 years ago. Over the past year, the school made two notable expansions of the campus.
The school completed the construction of the new Madonna University Welcome Center, which will also be the home of a new Felician Sisters heritage center. Madonna also repurposed the former Ladywood High School for an expansion of facilities for the school’s athletics department, and share part of the building for a new facility for the Grand Rapids-based Hope Network Center for Autism.
This is a continuation of the school’s efforts in recent years to expand the campus atmosphere for students with the construction of new residence halls, outdoor recreation spaces, and the addition of the NAIA college football program.
The school, with leading programs that include nursing, education, criminal justice, and social work, serves some 2,500 undergrad and graduate students this school year.
“Madonna University is proud to partner with the City of Livonia and its people,” said Madonna President Dr. Michael Grandillo. “Our growth is Livonia’s growth and we are honored to receive this distinguished award.”
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Financial and Portfolio Advisors (F&PA), will collect the 2022 Outstanding Small Business of the Year Award. The business was established in Livonia by Bob Hardies in 1989 and grew with effective financial, estate, and tax planning services rooted in a philosophy of quality over quantity. With success, Hardies invested in community causes rather than direct marketing, and he was generous to local groups that advanced his passion for the arts.
The Livonia Symphony Orchestra, Greenmead Historical Village, Livonia Civic Chorus, Wilson Barn, and various other student and art groups were among the beneficiaries of F&PA contributions for three decades. Hardies died suddenly in August 2019, but his directed estate plans will continue to provide for community groups for years to come. The Hardies Family Trust recently announced $300,000 in contributions to 14 local organizations.
“And more great things are going to come in the future,” said Dan MacIver, whom Hardies hired as a high school intern in 1995 and took over the business after his passing. He is one of three people who work at the F&PA office located on Farmington Road between Five Mile and Six Mile roads.
Aside from supporting the Hardies legacy of giving, MacIver and his family are also active volunteers in the Clarenceville School District where his wife teaches, youngest daughter attends high school, and two oldest children are in college and graduates of the district. For 10 years, he has been an active fundraiser for the school and athletic needs and he helped form the Clarenceville Education Foundation.
“We want to continue what Bob built,” he added. “He loved paying it forward and just doing the right thing. We are just going to try to continue doing the same things.”
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The Leadership and Awards celebration recognizes local educators of the year.
Livonia Public Schools will honor Coolidge Elementary third-grade teacher Peggy Brissette, Western Wayne Skill Center special education teacher Amy Munday, and Garfield Community School building supervisor Eric
Raymond.
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