From Harford County government:
The 19th annual Harford Award Program was held Wednesday, September 22 at the Richlin Ballroom. Over 365 business and community leaders attended the dinner event that recognized five Harford County firms for their outstanding contributions to the community, the economy and their employees. Since its inception, the event has honored over 87 Harford County companies. This year’s theme was “The Long and Winding Road.”
The 2010 winners were: RTR Technologies, Inc., The Harford Mutual Insurance, The Highlands School, Total Urgent Care, and Vulcan Materials Company. Each organization represents the best in each of the following respective business categories: Technology, Retail, Non-profit, Service and Industrial.
2010 Harford Award Winners:
RTR Technologies, Inc.
RTR Technologies, LLC was established in Maryland in July 2003 by founders: Randy Rippin, Reed Rippin and Earl Thies. Their firm started in one of their homes, was launched out of Harford County’s incubator at the HEAT Center, and expanded into space in Aberdeen. This innovative firm is a technical service firm and leading provider of simulation modeling, 3-D animation and data analysis services. The company served the federal government and industry in the evaluation of complex operating environments such as border station inspections for the Department of Homeland Security to aircraft carrier operations for the Navy.
In 2009, RTR Technologies, LLC was awarded the distinguished “Small Business Person of the Year” for the State of Maryland by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and was invited to the White House to meet with the President and his staff.
The Harford Mutual Insurance Company
Founded in 1842, The Harford Mutual Insurance Company has maintained a continuous presence in Harford County offering many types of insurance such as car insurance for the last 168 years. The company’s quiet consistency and its ability to serve a long term market for insurance agents, has been the Company’s hallmark.
A.M. Best Company, the insurance industry’s preeminent rating organization, recognized Harford Mutual in 2009 as one of the relatively few insurance companies whose economic outlook was actually favorable and improving.
The Harford Mutual Insurance Company is a community leader and has been able to make many contributions to many of the organizations in Harford County.
The Highlands School
The Highlands School opened in September 1996 in the former Highland Elementary School in Street, Maryland and moved in September 2007 into a state-of-the-art facility and campus on Creswell Road in Bel Air. The school serves children (Grades K through 9) with learning differences such as Dyslexia, Language Processing Deficits and Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder. Their distinctive mission helps students discover how they learn, brings them up to grade level, and then returns them to a traditional education setting usually within two to three years in The Highlands School.
At the formation of the Highlands School, they had six students in grades 4-8. Currently the school maintains an average of 75 students during their full year program. To date, they have made it possible to have 645 students go through The Highlands School. The school has played a vital role in serving our community through different activities that increase public awareness of ways to advance literacy, encouraging outside use of their own tutoring program to help children with special needs, and opening up the facility to many community organizations. The Highlands School represents a Harford County dream brought to reality in which a “child who learns differently needs to be taught differently.”
Total Urgent Care
When Total Urgent Care, a full service medical clinic, opened on June 1, 2004 owners Bruce and Theresa Lewis had no committed customers or signed contracts and went out on a limb. However, the entrepreneurs managed to make their business a success with the mantra of “medicine the way it should be…friendly and affordable.” As the service winner of the Harford Award this firm has donated a lot of their time and has encouraged their employees to also be part of the fabric of the community.
Total Urgent Care’s employees have served as medical advisors, preceptors and mentors for Harford Community College’s and Towson University/Community College of Baltimore County’s programs as well as several others.
The owners have become role models and are being recognized for their leadership and mentorship to other businesses in the community.
Vulcan Materials Company
Vulcan Materials Company, located on the banks of the Susquehanna River in Havre de Grace, is a unique asset as an aggregate facility since it can ship product by barge. The firm has been able to produce many jobs for the citizens of Harford County and has remained stable during an economic downturn.The company has made a commitment as being a good steward of the environment through its pattern of actions and achievements as an active industrial steward in the community.
Vulcan Materials Company is also the 2009 recipient of the National Stone Sand and Gravel Association’s Community Relations Award, one of six recipients nationwide.The Harford Awards program, produced by Harford County Government, the Office of Economic Development; Harford Community College; and the Harford County Chamber of Commerce, continues to be a celebratory occasion to honor these prestigious companies who give back to the community.
Activities were videotaped by Comcast, a corporate sponsor and major contributor to the evening.
Comcast videotaped segments for each award winner, which premiered during the awards ceremony and will be broadcasted at 7 pm every Friday evening in October on Harford Cable Network on Comcast Channel 21 and Armstrong Channel 7. For more information on Harford Award Winners or to nominate a company for consideration of the 2011 Harford Award, contact the Office of Economic Development at 410-638-3059 or visit their website at www.harfordbusiness.org.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.