Better Business Bureau serving Dayton and the Miami Valley hosted its annual Eclipse Integrity Awards dinner this evening. About 400 people joined the organization at the David H. Ponitz Sinclair Center to honor five organizations with the prestigious Eclipse Integrity Awards, five Students of Integrity Award winners, as well as its Community Honor and local Torch Award recipients. It also presented its third class of Spark Award winners.
The BBB’s Eclipse Integrity Awards are about ethics, honesty and integrity. Here are the 2021 awardees:
Eclipse Integrity Award Winners
The Eclipse Integrity Awards are presented to businesses featuring strong leadership and team members. Their leadership is committed to ethics, building a culture of high character ethics and unifying team members around ethical practices. The team is dedicated to performance management practices, ethical human resource practices and committed to the community as demonstrated by their community service and support of the BBB ideals.
Schenck Furniture & Appliances, winner in the 0-3 employees category, does business the old-fashioned way. Its philosophy is to provide quality merchandise at a fair price with unmatched service as they treat everyone as a friend not just a customer. These actions develop customers’ trust and gets them to recommend the business to others. Generation after generation of customers turn to the company for their furniture and appliance needs. The business gives back to the community it serves by supporting youth and school athletic programs and being involved annually in the Montgomery County Fair, sponsoring the 4-H king and queen contest and purchasing 4-H Jr. Fair youth livestock projects. In addition, it donates pre-owned appliances to families in need. Schenck Furniture and Appliances is leaving a legacy of integrity for future generations of the business.
DryTech Exteriors, the winner in the 4-6 employees category, provides roofing, siding and gutter products, free inspections, repairs and installation services for both residential and commercial properties. It’s proud to be a Platinum-Preferred Owens Corning contractor, an honor awarded to 1% of contractors nationwide. Integrity is woven into every facet of the business as validated through positive customer satisfaction surveys, reviews and conversations that has allowed it to continue to grow and meet customer needs. DryTech Exteriors looks for opportunities to give back where and when it can. For instance, it provided roofing materials, labor and installation for a Habitat for Humanity home earlier this year. And, it’s beginning a Habitat For Humanity project called Roofs For Troops, which will provide a full roof replacement for a veteran in need. Unity, passion, transparency and community define DryTech Exteriors.
Choice Comfort Services is the winner in the 7-20 employees category. The company, which provides HVAC, plumbing and electric service, believes listening to understand, taking thoughtful action and investing wisely in its future will strengthen the team and continually create unparalleled customer experiences. Delivering comfort and peace of mind is a top priority. In fact, it created the “Touch-less Tune-up” to allow the business to do A/C tune-ups without having to enter customers’ homes during the pandemic. The company’s devoted to improving and supporting the communities in which the team lives, works and plays. Team members volunteer on boards and committees and the company supports many school sports programs. It’s even started a new initiative to help a different nonprofit each month with up to $400 in donations and volunteer time. The Choice Comfort Services team is self-aware, accountable, responsible and truthful in its actions.
Waibel Energy Systems, which took home the award in the 21+ employees category, is a technologically driven mechanical contractor providing HVAC system install and service, non-proprietary building automation system installation/monitoring/service, commercial plumbing, building access control and security cameras. The team promises they will do what they say they will do. They are committed to delivering the best service with expected excellence. And, if they make a mistake, they own it and make it right. They follow the Golden Rule. Waibel focuses on making a difference and makes it a practice to give back. Agencies that benefit from its generosity include the Victory Project, ABC TOOLS and the Life Enrichment Center. It’s also donated equipment to HVAC programs at Sinclair and Upper Valley JVS. The company strives to be a trusted advisor to clients and believes integrity starts with shared values and accountability.
The Nonprofit Eclipse Integrity Awards are presented to nonprofits or charities, which demonstrate outstanding community service through their mission and accomplishments, demonstrate excellence in programs and fiscal stewardship, operate with integrity through ethical leadership and a strong team, are transparent in their communications and value the power of collaborations/partnerships. Their actions make a positive impact on the vitality and overall health of our community while supporting the ideals of BBB.
The winner in the nonprofit category, House of Bread, provides meals to people in need. It began serving lunches a few days a week to 20 people laid off from GM. Today, it serves a hot, nutritious meal in two dining rooms 365 days a year. The team believes no one deserves to go hungry and everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and respect. The organization’s culture is whatever needs done can be done by anyone in the organization. No job is beneath anyone’s abilities and no challenge is beyond what the team can handle. Even COVID-19 couldn’t stop the team from its work. It had to stop using volunteers and find funding to hire staff to provide carryout meals to those they serve. House of Bread strives to provide confidence to donors that the organization is here for the long term to tackle the issues of poverty and hunger.
Students of Integrity Winners
These five high school seniors demonstrated high moral character and outstanding ethics. All high schools in your BBB’s service area received invitations to nominate two outstanding students from their senior classes. Each of the winners is recognized as a BBB Student of Integrity and will receive a $1,000 scholarship to a college of his/her choice.
Maiya Dilbone from Troy Christian High School has not only served on Student Council, but she’s also served as team captain of the women’s varsity soccer team and attended Chick-Fil-A’s Leadership Academy. Through that program, she created and executed community service initiatives and volunteered at a local assisted-living program. This is in addition to her time teaching Sunday School at church, serving as a teacher’s assistant at school and maintaining a 4.38 GPA. Maiya hopes these skills will benefit her as she goes forward to attend Ohio Northern University in the fall to major in business.
Student council president and vice president, National Honor Society vice president, model UN delegate, Interact Club secretary and president are all titles Alexis Gastelu from Piqua High School has held during her high school career. And, that is only the tip of the iceberg. While never sacrificing her academic goals, Alexis is an awarded athlete, poet, performer, blood donor, organizer and all-around school leader. Her long-term goal is to use what she learns from the Darla Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina to open a shelter for women and children.
Centering her actions on unity and respect, Arielle Johnson from Yellow Springs High School was ready to step up last spring as a leader of a Black Lives Matter organization called YS Speaking Up for Justice. Through that experience, Arielle got to listen to people of many different backgrounds and beliefs, discuss how the social justice movement impacted them in disparate ways and how to find validity and empathy in everyone’s experience. Through this tumultuous year, she maintained a 4.0 GPA. Arielle plans to attend Case Western Reserve University this fall and follow a pre-med track.
Grant Klopfenstein from Troy High School has attended the Hugh O’Brian Leadership Camp and Chick-Fil-A Leadership Academy. He’s been a Key Club officer and National Honor Society president. He spent four years as a WACO Aviation Summer Camp mentor and was recognized by Troy High School staff as Best Male Citizen. He’s also played varsity football and remained in the top five of his class. With all this leadership potential, it’s no surprise Grant is considering a career in higher education, specifically teaching mathematics. He also hopes to work in mathematic research and to work in the field of unknown mathematical problems. Grant’s thirst for wisdom and knowledge helps shape his views on leadership.
Zurie Pope from Piqua High School will admit no one can truly know for sure the path his or her life is going to take, but he is sure of at least one trajectory for his – writing, specifically, journalism. Though he has been involved with his school newspaper throughout high school, in the last year, he has also written for Youth Journalism International, The Hub and Unpublished. His goal is to align his love of journalism and global politics, and work as a conflict journalist for an independent news source. Zurie has also been a delegate of Piqua High School’s Gay-Straight alliance, speaking openly about finding his own truths.
Community Honor Recipients
BBB’s Community Honor recognizes organizations that make significant contributions to enrich the lives of others. It spotlights the honoree’s efforts to realize not only their own missions, but their role in making the Miami Valley a thriving community, taking care of its citizens – individuals and organizations.
The Community Honor Award, sponsored by Randd Associates Printing and Promotions, was presented to Public Health – Dayton and Montgomery County. Every day the staff of this organization strive to improve the quality of life in our community by achieving the goals of public health through prevention, promotion and protection. The organization protects many environmental elements, such as air, food and drinking water. It works with schools, hospitals, community organizations and neighborhood groups to help people make healthier choices in their everyday lives. It provides birth and death records, nuisance abatement, disease reporting and control, etc. The team continually evaluates the changing needs of our community and implements new strategies to meet those needs.
The pandemic put the team’s talent, expertise, skills and resources to the test and they rose to the challenge, always keeping the health of Montgomery County residents a top priority. Staff jumped into action, hosting news conferences to share the latest information, conducting contact tracing, sharing best practices, hosting mass vaccination clinics and much more. Despite the stress of the job, they did what was right for the health of our community and lead the charge to protect our citizens from COVID-19.
Torch Award Recipient
The local Torch Award is dedicated to the legacy of great Miami Valley business pioneers, such as John Patterson, Wilbur and Orville Wright, Charles Kettering and Colonel Edward Deeds. It was through their ingenuity, leadership, generosity and mentorship to others that the Miami Valley has stood the test of time and recreated itself again and again. This award honors businesses, which have inspired, mentored and provided valuable support, education and guidance to staff, businesses and community leaders that have went on to make their successes in the Miami Valley.
Nurses Care, Inc. is committed to providing the highest quality home health care services, such as skilled nursing, physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, IV therapy, medical social work services, personal care, homemaking and respite care, with Christian values and compassionate hearts. When COVID-19 hit the region, office staff were offered the opportunity to work from home, but no one elected to do so. The team was in the office every day without fail. Field staff heroically continued to see patients seven days a week, not missing one day of care. In fact, the company hasn’t missed one day of caring for patients in 30 years.
Always striving to be the best they can be, the company earned a BBB Eclipse Integrity Award in 2016 and was a finalist in the Dayton Business Journal’s Woman-Owned Business of the Year Award in 2019. Nurses Care has earned The Joint Commission’s Deem Status since 1997. The team always takes time to assist students interested in learning about the industry. The company’s leader, Sheila Rush, has served as a mentor for the Dayton Business Journal’s BizWomen’s Mentoring Monday for several years.
The award selection committee marveled at the company’s philanthropic efforts. Beneficiaries of its support include the Billy J. Rush Foundation, TJ’s Place of Hope, the Marines Toys for Tots and more. It has even lent its support beyond our local region as it donated water to first responders during 911 and Hurricane Katrina, donated coats to survivors of Hurricane Sandy, as well as sent medical supplies to its own nurses in Haiti. It hosts holiday parties for the residents of several local residential buildings, takes gifts to the needy and provides meals to them for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Spark Awards
The Spark Awards recognize entrepreneurial organizations whose leaders demonstrate a higher level of character, generating a culture that is authentic about its mission and connect with community.
Battle Sight Technologies’ motivation, calling and duty is to spearhead technology for the frontline, whether it’s warfighters, law enforcement agencies or first responders. It strives to enhance day-to-day operations, well being and productivity for our frontline through revolutionary products. The work they do saves lives and there is no margin for error, putting competence, caring and communication at the core of the business. It’s imperative that the team listens to the boots on the ground, implements their feedback and communicates back to them that the company has their backs as they risk everything in service to our freedom and safety. The team also believes its investment within the local community only strengthens the region and provides a better environment to build the business and raise the team’s families. Therefore, it works alongside and partners with local companies whenever possible. It’s also committed to the Dayton Dragons, the Dayton Chamber and various events sponsored by Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and Wright State University.
The Matthew Tamerisk Collection specializes in crafting unique, live edge and dimensional wood products for residential and commercial environments. The team’s goal is for its custom décor to catch the attention of all who see it and for it to become a catalyst for community for generations to come. The team views every new project as an opportunity to build a reputation for excellent service through the process of designing, crafting and delivering not only a quality product, but a quality experience for every client every time. Team members operate with humility and curiosity, always welcoming others’ input and being willing to ask for help to help them grow. They know experiencing grace and truth over time leads to personal and professional growth and an atmosphere of trust. In its efforts to give back to the community, the team has trained Victory Project students in wood-working skills and hired them to work on specific projects alongside them. The founder was a Clothes That Work role model, is involved in the Westside Makerspace Community and is slated to speak at the Greene County Career Center. The team has also given time, labor, finances and expertise to Narrow Gate Exchange, based in Nashville, Tennessee, to help the ministry continue to thrive.
Noticing a demand for prepared meals, Picnk – a company that offers convenient, nutritious and affordable options for customers – got its start. The founder focuses on emotional intelligence, communication and transparency and recognizes the constant need for improvement is vital to the success of a leader, the team and the business. Taking care of team members is considered the absolute greatest investment for the business. The leadership empowers and cultivates individuals who strive to be the best versions of themselves. And, team members’ input is valued. Community is a top priority. The company never hesitates to give whenever it can to a wide variety of causes either by catering a charitable event for a free or at reduced rate, monetary donations to various organizations, as well as raising awareness for a variety of community and social issues. For instance, it has partnered or supported Dayton Foodbank, National Guard, KIND Dayton and East End Community Services. Since the global pandemic began, Picnk has given out over 15,000 free or reduced meals to the community. All this was done despite a fire in its facility in June of 2020.
John North, president/CEO of BBB serving Dayton and the Miami Valley, says, “The actions of these honorees, whether a business, nonprofit or student, are inspiring. They make others want to emulate them, which in the long run make our marketplace better. What an honor to recognize them.”
