Grosse Pointe Chamber names
Pointers of Distinction

“Ours is a very special community, filled with extraordinary people,” Ted Everingham said as he opened the Grosse Pointe Chamber’s annual Pointer of Distinction Awards at the War Memorial Tuesday (Jan. 24). Winners for 2011 included three high-achieving high school seniors, a long-time Mack Avenue business owner with a great deal of patience, a successful new advertising agency opened during a recession, and an accomplished professional journalist--the publisher of this website--who has served on more than a dozen local boards and committees.

The Grosse Pointe Chamber has been identifying outstanding Pointers for six years in four categories: Youth Achievement, New Business Enterprise, Excellence in Business and Community Service. Everingham, a local attorney and community television host, served as master of ceremonies for this year's awards presentation, which took place during the chamber’s annual meeting.

YOUTH ACHIEVEMENT
The three winners of the Youth Achievement Award were Michael Meyering, a senior at University Liggett School; Charles Sorge, a senior at Grosse Pointe South; and Suzanne Vyletel, a senior at Grosse Pointe North.

Michael Meyering considers his greatest achievement to be his service to the community through his work in the Boy Scouts. A life scout who is determined to become an eagle scout this spring, he will work on improving a clothing pantry in Detroit’s Indian Village as his eagle scout project.

Meyering has worked as a tutor in the peer tutoring program at Liggett, where he also founded the school’s Quiz Bowl team in 2009 and has been its captain for the last three seasons. He played on the junior varsity baseball team and has played varsity soccer. He is student council treasurer and plays string bass in the University Liggett Chamber Strings. Meyering carries a 4.09 GPA and earned a 35 out of 36 on the ACT. He wants to major in math or science in college.

Charles Sorge has earned a 4.2 GPA and has a long list of academic honors, including three years on the honor roll and academic honors in athletics for 2008 through 2010. He was a DECA state finalist for four years and is a member of the National Honor Society. He is vice president of the student association and previously served as a senator. He tutors a local ninth-grader in Spanish and algebra and helps underprivileged students on Detroit’s east side through the SOAR tutor program at Grace Community Church.

Sorge, who has played both soccer and baseball, has coached a Detroit Little League baseball team the last two summers, and plans to do so again this year. He has been accepted to the University of Michigan and hopes to go on to law school.

Suzanne Vyletel has a long list of academic honors, including National Honor Society membership, an advanced placement scholar award, a journalism writing excellence award and a French excellence award. She teaches a fifth grade Sunday school class and tutors elementary and middle school children in English, science and math. She has taken dance classes for 13 years, has won numerous dance awards and is an instructor at the Grosse Pointe Dance Center, where she teaches beginning-level ballet and jazz.

Four years ago, she and a friend started “Culinary Kids,” a program that offers cooking classes for grade-schoolers during summers and holidays. To support that business, they created a Culinary Kids website. Her experience with that business has taught Vyletel about managing money, online marketing, advertising, menu planning and buying supplies.

NEW BUSINESS ENTERPRISE
Scott Advertising Inc., a new full-service, strategic communications and creative advertising and media agency, was founded in 2009 by Mary Conway Scott. "Scott Advertising," Everingham said, "boasts a national roster of clients who have come to rely on the creativity and energy of Mary and her husband, Bill."

Scott began her career at one of Detroit’s largest advertising agencies, where she served clients such as Whirlpool, Delta Faucet and MotorCity Casino, eventually landing on the Chevrolet Silverado account. In 2009, she became a consultant on some outside projects. By the first quarter of 2010, she and her husband were so busy that she incorporated the business, setting two goals: to employ people locally and to bring dollars here from other markets. Both goals have been achieved: Scott Advertising has worked with businesses in Seattle, Texas, Florida and Chicago, as well as in Michigan.

Scott Advertising recently won three MarCom awards from the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals, including a platinum award, the association’s highest honor.

EXCELLENCE IN BUSINESS
Daniel E. Curis has owned and operated the Big Boy Restaurant on Mack in the Woods since 1978. “It’s a tough business, owning a restaurant, and one could argue that successfully running his Big Boy restaurant for 33 years itself deserves recognition,” Everingham said, “but there’s more to Curis’ story than that.”

Curis has owned Champs Rotisserie & Spirits, also on Mack, since 2007. That part of the story, Everingham explained, really begins a couple of years earlier, when Curis tried to by Champs from Jim Champion. Curis and Champion eventually had a handshake deal, and Curis started the necessary legal work. A couple of months later, Champion called off the sale. Considering the time, effort and expense that Curis had invested, he understandably was upset, but went on about his business, and stayed in touch with Champion.

Then in June 2006, Champion called to ask if Curis was still interested in buying Champs. Curis was interested all right, but feared that he was going to have to start over with negotiations, paperwork, time and expense. But to Curis’ surprise, Champion pulled out the 2005 draft of the purchase agreement and signed it on the spot. Curis said he inked the purchase agreement then and there. “Two men of honor,” Everingham said, “keeping their handshake deal in the depth of a recession.”

Curis now hopes to buy another business on Mack Avenue. It doesn’t have to be a restaurant, he says, adding that he’s working on a deal now. 

COMMUNITY SERVICE
Benjamin J. Burns, a communications professor and director of the journalism program at Wayne State University, and publisher of this website, has had a distinguished career in the newspaper business that spanned more than 30 years. He has held such posts as executive editor of The Detroit News and editor and publisher of The Macomb Daily and the Daily Tribune in Royal Oak, among others. Burns has won numerous professional awards, was inducted into the Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame and the Michigan State News Alumni Hall of Fame, and received the first Benjamin J. Burns award for his contributions to diversity in the media from the Public Benefits Corporation Board.

As busy as he has been, Burns has found time to serve on the boards of the following organizations:

• Children’s Home of Detroit (1986-92)
• Rotary Club of Grosse Pointe, where he also served as president in 2004-2005
• The Grosse Pointe Rotary Club Foundation
• Services for Older Citizens
• Grosse Pointe Senior Men’s Club (president 2011)
• Grosse Pointe Memorial Church
• Grosse Pointe Ecumenical Men’s Breakfast
• Macomb County Chamber of Commerce
• St. Joseph’s Hospital Board
• Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame
• Historical Society of Michigan
• Detroit Historical Society

Among Burns' other community-oriented achievements is the founding of GrossePointeToday.com, a nonprofit community and information website that serves as a training ground for Wayne State journalism students. Presently, Burns is leading the campaign for the Grosse Pointe library millage election on Feb. 28. “He is chairing this community-wide effort,” Everingham said, “with characteristic energy and a commitment that reflects his passion for this community and for books, libraries and the written word.”

THE JUDGES
Judges for the awards were: Shane Reeside, Farms city manager; Vickey Bloom, director of the Grosse Pointe Library; Gary Branceleone, from JPMorgan Chase in the Village; Skip Fincham, Grosse Pointe Woods city administrator; and Ed Lazar, a State Farm agent.

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