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s economist suntribune community news saturday march 25 2000 3 business community celebrates success whitchurchstouffville chamber of commerce honours local business owners for their drive determination commitment by joan ransberry staff writer success is knowing how to work with your hands with your head and with your heart according to three stouffville businessmen norm clements owner of the stouffville country market gary bouwmeister owner of a dutch touch and doug watson manager of the stouffville cooperative have been recognized for business and individual success they are this years recipients of prestigious awards presented by the whitchurchstouffville chamber of commerce almost 100 guests mosdy from the stouffville business community attended the 2000 business achievement awards night at meadowbrook golf and country club wednesday night good corporate citizen norm clements the sole owner of the stouffville country market located on the 10th line was cho sen corporate citizen of the year accomplished in the business world clements does riot overlook the needs of others for the past five years clements has hosted a christmas dinner for more than 500 people thanks to clements generosity another 125 dinners were delivered to those unable to attend the big event at the market clements also told the audience about his special grandchild born on his 50th birthday jennifer ashley was diagnosed with spinal muscu lar atrophy and died six months later soon after clements launched the jennifer ashley foundation to help families with chronically ill children both emotionally and financially but tragedy struck the family again clement lost another grand child to the same fatal disease today the jennifer ashley foundation raises more than 500000 a year each summer in honour of his grandchildren clements opens his home to hundreds of people including disabled kids he makes sure everyone enjoys a picnic every sunday morning a church service is held at the stouffville countrymarket clements makes a point to offer the spiritual opportu nity to vendors and customers alike on the first sunday of the mil lennium clements hosted a church staff photojoan ransberry norm clements above of stouffville country market receives his corporate citizen of the year award from chamber sec retary lisa jones doug watson right of the stouffville coop celebrated his companys business of the year award service at the country market enabling more than 1000 stouffville residents to worship together a dutch touch theres been a special dutch influence in stouffville for years and it comes to us from the bouwmeister farriily gary bouwmeister owner of a dutch touch was recognized by the local chamber of commerce as the business entrepreneur of the year award gary bouwmeister got his first grasscutting job at age 10 his cus tomer was more than satisfied with the work and bouwmeister was invited back this especially pleased his father an accomplished landscaper and businessman the senior bouwmeister taught his son all about strong ethics hard work and having the good sense to recognize that the customer is the most important player in any business arrangement as a young adult bouwmeister attended humber college after m 2sss9 graduation he bought an old pick up truck and with a limited num ber of tools a little knowledge acquired at college and lots and lots of energy he launched his lawn maintenance and landscaping business sticking to the principles taught to him by his father bouwmeister has seen a dutch touch grow by leaps and bounds over the past three years the company has more then tripled its sales volume and today a dutch touch employs 40 people while accepting his award bouwmeister recognized his father other family members and in par ticular he thanked his wife for her ongoing support the stouffville landscaper has won numerous awards of excel lence throughout ontario over the past two decades bouwmeister has shown he cares about his adopted home by taking part in enriching the quality of life he has donated trees to stouffville schools made a land scape gift for the gazebo in down town stouffville and donated work and equipment for the york- durham heritage railway as well bouwmeister has spon sored many events projects and charities and helped local service clubs in particular the mobilitytransit golf tournament receives special support from a dutch touch coop celebrates 58 years next week the stouffville co operative association will pause to mark its 58th birthday on behalf of the coop its man ager doug watson accepted the business of the year award a few years ago the coop expanded from a single store loca tion with sales of 59 million to a diverse operation that manages gross business sales in excess of 107 million the coop now operates two retail locations one in stouffville and one in uxbridge each stacking in excess of 7000 products the coop also has a fertilizer blending service as well the awardwinner has a thriving feed operation and a ser vice that involves soil sampling and field grid mapping while its petro- staff photosjoerd witteveen leum division includes a bulk plant three tandem trucks and a burner service department while the coop is a growing business moving forward with the technological times it still values its roots watson pointed out the coop is founded on a strong and growing membership base proud of the coops long associ ation with its members with the agricultural community and with whitchurchstouffville watson asked the audience to recognize the hard working and dedicated staff several workers have been with the stouffville coop fur more than 20 years while one employee has been there for more than 36 years volunteer recognition the chamber also recognized the volunteer efforts of the follow ing people who have helped out at golf tournaments networking meetings and dinners in the past yean joan marshman sandy johnston jim boynton and cliff dunkeld ifiue chrysler jeep 8280 woodbine ave markham south of hwy 7 west side 9054152260 s c highway 7 o 8280 407 401 fmall stouffville markhanhipnvlllereslmt servicespecial peace of mind driving inspection 1 tire rotation suspension inspection brake inspection electrical system cooling system inspection check levels exhaust system inspection plus much more plus road test all this for only mm