May 7, 2021 FridayMusings is your source for what we love about Livonia
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As Livonia Returns to Normal: A Hometown Leadership Special Edition
FridayMusings appreciates when community volunteerism, both within the private and public sectors, are recognized. One of the reasons the typewriter founded the 1835 Livonia City Hall of Fame in 2005. That evening of recognition is always the first Thursday of October. But at the beginning of the year, our Livonia Chamber of Commerce acknowledges and salutes another group of hometown hero's at the Leadership and Awards Celebration.
This edition of FridayMusings presents the 2021 award recipients. Residents, leaders, businesses, and educators, those who make our community the hometown of which we are all proud and thanks Dan West and the Chamber of Commerce for this important event.
The Leadership and Awards Celebration, set for 5-7 p.m. Tuesday, May 11, is sponsored by Embassy Title Agency, AlphaUSA, St. Mary Mercy Hospital, MASCO, Bill Brown Ford, and Madonna University. There are a limited number of seats available for $10 in this socially distanced program. No meal will be served. For those who are unable to attend, there will be a live stream of the event available.
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Former mayors honored
Jack Engebretson and Dennis Wright have a lot in common beyond being among only 11 people in Livonia’s 71-year history to hold the position of Mayor.
Both gentlemen are U.S. Air Force veterans, both were successful small business owners, have a rich history of community involvement, and both will be honored as 2021 recipients of the Livonia Legacy Awards, honoring individuals who accumulated a long-sustained record of exceptional work and service in our community throughout their careers.
Both Engebretson and Wright have been inducted into the 1835 Livonia City Hall of Fame.
Engebretson was Livonia’s Mayor from 2004-2007, after serving on the Livonia City Council for six years.
“We just have a great city and so many people contribute to that,” Engebretson said. “It is humbling to be recognized like this.”
The Eau Claire, WI, native served in the U.S. Air Force for four years. He eventually moved to Washington, D.C., where he worked as a U.S. Capital Police Officer and studied at George Washington University.
His career path changed as he learned about emerging technology with computers in the early 1960s. He would become a software designer, programmer, and sales manager. Work eventually brought him to the Detroit area when he took a job with a company that hired him to manage an account for General Motors.
He later created his own computer system and software company, Central Data Systems, based in Farmington Hills, that focused on small businesses. He sold the business in 1992 and planned to play more golf; however, community issues got his attention.
In the mid-1980s, plans to construct high-rise buildings in the Seven Mile-Newburgh area moved Engebretson to become a voice against such construction near residential neighborhoods.
Mayor Bob Bennett appointed Engebretson to the Livonia Planning Commission where he served for 10 years and advanced a policy requiring double-stripped spaces in parking lots to adjust to the influx of larger vehicles.
Engebretson later ran for elected office and was elected City Council President in 1997 and 2001, and elected mayor in 2003. As mayor, he led a restructuring of the city’s public safety agencies designed to keep them strong during an economic recession.
Since leaving elected office, he has been a fixture on the Livonia Brownfield Development Authority Board and grew his involvement in church activities. He co-founded Christ Presbyterian Church 15 years ago and helped it establish a permanent building in Novi five years ago.
Engebretson and his wife of 63 years, Senie, have two grown children and three grandsons. He said they are proud to call Livonia home for more than 50 years, a place that has given him the opportunity to enjoy his family, faith, and political life.
“My motto is to serve with honor – not for honor,” he said. “I never thought my contribution was for myself. I just enjoy the servant role."
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Wright was Livonia’s Mayor from 2016-2019, after serving as Livonia City Treasurer for eight years.
“Being elected mayor was the greatest honor of my life,” Wright said. “It gave me another way to help people. I just like helping people.”
Prior to holding elective office, Wright was an active volunteer for the Livonia Junior Athletic League in roles that ranged from coach to director to board president over two decades. This involvement led to Wright being selected to serve on the committee that led to the financing and development of the Livonia Community Recreation Center that opened in 2003. He said seeing this effort from conception to reality was the most gratifying work he did in Livonia.
The Detroit Cooley High School alum served in the U.S. Air Force for two years. He worked as a manager and in sales in various retail industries until he opened his own hardware store in 1989. His family operated Wright’s Ace Hardware on Five Mile near Middlebelt for 18 years. When people would call the store and struggle to explain the problem with an appliance or electrical issue, he would drive to their house and personally take care of the problem.
As the business grew, he worked on various fundraising efforts. While at Livonia City Hall, he helped create the Livonia Kids and Families charity, which provides food and other needs to families of school-age children.
In his first year as mayor, the city learned that a long-term care facility was suddenly shut down by the state, and residents were forced to immediately move out. This initially caused a chaotic scene that grabbed media attention. Wright immediately went there and helped police and fire personnel as people were moved out. He helped connect residents with their families and carried boxes to people’s vehicles well into the evening.
“Whether I was mayor, treasurer, hardware guy, coach, or neighbor,” Wright said, “I tried to treat everyone the same.”
Since he left office, Wright retired. He has two grown sons and two grandchildren.
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Awards for Livonia and Clarenceville Public Schools
Livonia Public Schools will receive the 2021 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 district received an $844,000 state grant to purchase 22 propane-fueled buses that provide a quieter ride and fewer carbon emissions. The technology was developed by Livonia-based Roush enterprises.
“The school district saves money, our students get a safe, quieter bus, and our community gets a cleaner environment,” said Rick Martin, fleet garage supervisor for LPS.
The Leadership and Awards celebration will also recognize local educators of the year. Livonia Public Schools will honor elementary school physical education teacher Lorraine Giorgino, middle school special education teacher Mimi Higgins, and food services supervisor Pat Schuchardt. The Clarenceville School District will honor middle school teacher David Lengel and elementary school teacher Melissa Handschumacher.
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Free time used to work for homeless, human trafficking victims
The Howell Family regularly supported their church’s efforts to make lunches, hygiene kits and collect winter clothes to help those trapped on the streets.
Charlotte and Brooklyn Howell took that passion to another level last spring after the Covid-19 outbreak closed schools.
Charlotte, a seventh grader at Holmes Middle School, and Brooklyn, a fourth grader at Hoover Elementary School, started asking their neighbors and friends for returnable cans and bottles to support Love Runs, a ministry coordinated by Northridge Church to support awareness and support for victims of human trafficking. For this and other volunteer projects, the Howell sisters will be the 2021 recipient of the Livonia Outstanding Youth award.
“I just hate the feeling that kids are taken from their homes and sent somewhere they don’t want to be,” said Charlotte, 12. “I want to do all I can to prevent kids from going through that.”
People were happy to give the girls their empties, especially when returns were banned at stores during early Covid orders. They started leaving bags on the Howells’ front porch.
When cans and bottle were allowed to be returned again in June, their 2-car garage was nearly full with empties – except for a narrow path for the girls and their younger brother Austin to park their bikes.
Then, they began converting the empties into cash for the charity. Just about each Friday evening last summer and fall, their parents, Gary and Charisse, would take the girls to a local grocery store and spend at least two hours putting empties into the machines. It would take the girls about 20 weeks to empty their garage. The result: Nearly $8,000 raised for the ministry.
The girls’ work inspired others at their church to do the same thing. The church rented a 53-foot trailer to collect empties for the cause and the church members regularly filled it.
“I liked how we were leading by example,” said Brooklyn, 10. “I was crying when I saw other people were doing the same thing.”
For several years, the family collected cash and supplies from local businesses to package lunches and hygiene kits to support All Worthy of Love (AWOL), a nonprofit group that directly distributes items to homeless people.
“With the donations we got, we have been able to put kits together at least once a month,” Charisse Howell said.
The girls said they are thrilled when they occasionally see someone receive a kit they packaged. And their parents are proud of what they are doing.
“We just want to impress on them how blessed we are,” Gary Howell said. “That message is impressing on them and they do this work lovingly.”
As the girls returned to their normal activities – where they are good students and hockey players – they still find time for trips to the grocery store to turn empties into cash for the charity as friends, neighbors, and others continue to leave empties at the Howell home.
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Matt Collins, First Citizen, built a coalition to help hospital workers
Matt Collins has rarely gone without something to do.
Last year when Covid restrictions ended social gatherings, he learned stressed medical workers didn’t have easy access to meals at St. Mary Mercy Hospital with limited cafeteria operations. This made it challenging for them to grab something to eat during a chaotic day of treating Covid patients.
The longtime Livonia Lions Club President engaged his contacts at other service clubs and local restaurants to send two meals a day to the hospital to feed the workers. Cash donations from the clubs and in-kind donations from restaurants kept this operation going for about six weeks until the initial Covid surge eased.
Then on Mother’s Day morning, Collins coordinated a group of volunteers from local services clubs to hand out flowers and candies to hospital workers heading home after their overnight shift so they had something to give to their moms that day.
“It gave us a chance to thank them for what they are doing because they might not have been able to get to a store to get something for their mothers,” Collins said.
Collins has long been known for this type of volunteer leadership, and his career of community service led to his selection of the 2021 Livonia First Citizen Award, an annual honor given to a Livonia resident for extraordinary community service.
He co-owns Kahsar Sales & Marketing, an Ohio-based company that deals with electronic and electromechanical components for manufacturers. He had been a volunteer in Livonia since shortly after moving here in 1986. A neighbor invited him to a Lions Club meeting and it has been an instrumental part of his life since.
“I went to a Christmas Party the Lions put together for multiple-issue handicap children and I was amazed at what they did, how the children reacted, and I wanted to get more involved,” Collins said.
Lions International regularly supports special needs children, especially those visually and hearing impaired. The Livonia Lions Club keeps its resources it collects locally in southeastern Michigan. Collins is in line to be the Lions’ district governor for the 35 clubs and 850 members in Wayne and Monroe counties next year.
Holli Kerkhof, a member of the Livonia Lions Club, said she admires his leadership.
“He gets to know people and explores their passion in volunteering,” Kerkhof said. “He provides opportunities for them to step up and give in a way that makes sense for them.”
In 2012, he led collaboration with several Livonia service clubs to network and coordinate their efforts. Since the Livonia Community Service Forum partners with the Kids Coalition Against Hunger each year for a food packing event that contributed toward distributing 100,000 meals to needy local families.
This collaboration initiated by Collins enabled the groups to quickly maneuver when the pandemic urgency took hold last spring.
“The Lions Club opened the door to this community for me to be of service and connect with the community,” he said. “I am honored to be recognized like this, but I just enjoy helping people.”
Along with his wife of 46 years, Kathleen, Collins has also volunteered as a coach and scout leader while the couple’s three children were growing up.
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Marygrove Awnings, Rock City earn the business of year honors with Anastasia and Katie’s landing community enhancement award
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Marygrove Awning and Rock City Music Company found ways to thrive during the pandemic challenges of 2020.
Both companies will be honored this month with Livonia Chamber of Commerce businesses awards that recognize their business excellence and community contributions.
Marygrove Awning will receive the 2021 Outstanding Large Business of the Year Award as the company has grown in recent years and was able to leverage its advertising investments to promote many metro Detroit restaurants to help them endure prolonged periods of limited operations last year.
As businesses reopened last June, restaurant owners called Marygrove Awnings looking for help to expand and enhance their outside dining. Mike and Sue Falahee appreciated the business but knew their restaurant customers were not able to fully operate. They offered financing and discounts, and free publicity on WJR-AM radio.
“We wanted to use our ad budget to promote our customers,” Mike Falahee said. “We set up a chance for these restaurants to talk on the powerful Paul W. Smith show each Thursday.”
With each restaurant promoted, Marygrove Awnings covered the hors d'oeuvres for the first 25 customers that entered the place that day.
The Falahees have owned Marygrove Awnings on Merriman Road for 25 years. They merged Marygrove with their original business, American Roll Shutter and Awning, which they opened on Eight Mile Road in 1984. Marygrove Awning opened in Detroit in 1936, moved to Livonia in 1985, and was owned by two generations of the Bellanger family before they sold to the Falahees.
The company designs manufactures and installs awnings and louvered roofs of sizes that range from small home projects to large commercial sites such as Comerica Park. Over the past three years, Marygrove expanded operations to new markets in Toledo, Columbus, Chicago, and New Jersey. With a total of 70 employees, the company neared $20 million in sales last year.
They attribute the company’s growth to the emerging leadership of their two sons, Jason and Vincent, quality products, a family-like feel for the staff, memorable Christmas parties, and incentive-based pay for employees. The business has long supported youth sports teams, Tom Celani charities that support youth and the hungry, raised money for diabetes research and held blood drives. Also, Marygrove manufactured thousands of masks and face shields to donate last year.
Sue Falahee said she is proud of the business honor. “It makes us feel proud,” she said. “We have worked hard, and it is nice to be recognized, but this is not just for us, it is for all of us in the company.”
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Rock City Music Company, located next to O’Malley’s on the corner of Five Mile and Farmington, found ways to connect more people to music over the past year despite Covid-forced operational limitations.
They provided virtual shopping experiences, helped people learn to play an instrument, expanded their customer base, and supported charities in earning the 2021 Outstanding Small Business of the Year Award.
“A lot of people picked up an instrument for the first time over the past year, and helping those people get into it made the last year a lot more fun,” said Rock City owner Nick Marocco.
Marocco, at age 24, bought the Garden City music store he managed for four years and relocated to Livonia in 2015. The new spot tripled his floor space for guitars, amplifiers, drums, vinyl records, rock posters, and other collectibles. His shop has also been used for intimate performances and meet and greets with rock musicians such as Geddy Lee from Rush and Bruce Kulick, who played guitar for Kiss and Grand Funk Railroad.
Since the time he was forced to close last spring, Marocco and his team grew their business with virtual engagements to show products and online sales with customers from around the country, Europe, Canada, and Japan.
His team has worked with young people who learned to play music to express themselves. He developed a friendship with a talented young guitar player who struggled to communicate since he has high-functioning autism. He encouraged the young man to play in a band with him for benefit shows that raised money for autism.
“He was afraid to get on the stage, and then he was playing in front of 2,000 people with us at the Royal Oak Music Theater,” Marocco said. “It was incredible to watch.”
With donations of money, lessons, instruments, and use of his recording studio, Rock City has also been a regular supporter of the Detroit Dog Rescue, Forgotten Harvest, and cancer fundraisers.
He said he is grateful for the support from the Livonia community and to receive this business honor. “It tells us we are doing something right,” Marocco said.
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Anastasia and Katie’s Coffee Shop and Café, a unique mission-based business, will receive the 2021 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.
Anastasia and Katie’s opened in January 2020 by MI Work Matters, a nonprofit group that supports adults with developmental disabilities in search of employment. The coffee shop was designed to provide jobs for these adults while showing other employers how to employ these adults.
Kelly Rockwell (Anastasia’s mom), Dan Duffy (Katie’s dad), and Gil Wilcox built the quaint shop on Merriman near Seven Mile that sells coffee and sandwiches. Rockwell said the shop had a great response until the Covid-19 orders forced them to close.
“It was such an overwhelming response,” Rockwell said. “We were so grateful for the response. It was motivating to know that many people wanted us to succeed.”
With loans and community donations, the shop reopened as a carry-out-only business and developed a boxed-lunch program where at least 10 homemade meals are prepared and delivered to local businesses.
Rockwell said they are still in business because of the perseverance of her team and customers, and she is grateful for the recognition.
“Things like this keep us moving forward when you consider all the challenges,” she said.
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