PENN TWP — County business owners, their friends and families celebrated business Wednesday night at Butler Country Club, an annual dinner organized by the Butler County Chamber of Commerce.

The event, with more than 200 attendees Wednesday, features the William A. Morgan Jr. Entrepreneur of the Year Award and the Chamber Business Champion Award.

William A. Morgan Jr. Entrepreneur of Year Award

Tom Graham, owner of Frames & Pixels of Butler, is this year's William A. Morgan, Jr. Entrepreneur of the Year.

This award is presented to an outstanding local business owner and is recommended by the chamber's Past President's Advisory Council along with past award recipients.

Past recipients include John and Tom Buckner, David Lloyd, Richard Musko, William McCarrier, N. Lee Ligo and Matthew Diehl.

Frames & Pixels was founded in December 2001, and opened its doors in January 2002 as Graham-DV, short for Graham Digital Video. The company is wholly owned by Thomas and Barbara Graham.

Using Tom's experience in building video production facilities and knowledge of digital media, the company filled a niche in the Butler County market for high-quality, affordable television production.

The Graham's portfolio includes productions for Butler County Community College, Honda North, Friedman's Supermarkets, C.W. Howard Insurance, Butler Health System and Concordia Lutheran Ministries.

In late 2002, the Grahams expanded into long format television programming. In 2006, they began developing golf and travel programming, producing the Telly Award winning “Golfin' Around.”

In 2007, as expansion occurred, the company was officially incorporated as Frames & Pixels, Inc., and the company hired its first employees and purchased and moved into offices on West North Street across from Butler's City Building.

In 2008, the Grahams worked with the Butler Lions Club to create and market “Butler 1940: The Lions Club Films,” helping to preserve a piece of important local history. The 16 mm films were transferred to high-definition DVD with memories and commentary from local personalities.

Tom Graham has served as chairman of the Butler County Chamber of Commerce's board of directors, board chairman and current director of Leadership Butler County, board member for Butler Downtown and co-chairman of that group's Economic Restructuring Committee. Tom also has served in the past as a board member of the Butler Area Merchants Association Auction, a former community fundraiser.

Chamber Business Champions Awards

This year, like last year, two businesses have been named business champions.

The first is Butler County Ford, which started as the McIntire Motor Co. in 1919 at the corner of Main and Wayne streets. This location that we now know as the Butler County Ford Building, has become a Butler landmark otherwise know as “Ford Corner.”

In 1926, Butler County Motor Co., was incorporated, and that year, a new Ford Model A was listed at $426.

Tony Johns joined Butler County Motor Co., in 1948 and in 1956 became the official Ford dealer, and remained active in the operation of the dealership for 56 years until he died in 2004.

At that time, Johns' daughter, Cathy Glasgow, became the Ford dealer and is one of 575 women Ford dealers out of 7,866 dealers worldwide.

Glasgow is responsible for the operation of the 20,000-plus-square-foot facility and employs more than 40 people in sales, parts and service.

The main building is a unique three-story facility with a vehicle elevator for moving vehicles from floor to floor. Through the years, additional service buildings were added to the business.

All service technicians and parts department employees are factory certified and there is a separate truck service garage with diesel trained technicians.

Glasgow has been an integral part of the Butler County business community, and currently serves as president of the board of directors of Butler Downtown, a group that promotes the downtown.

This year's second business champion is the Butler County Tourism & Convention Bureau.

The bureau was established in January 2001 with a mission “to promote and market Butler County as an attractive tourism and business destination.”

This year, executive director Jack Cohen and his staff in Zelienople worked with other county organizations, such as the Butler County Historical Society, the Butler Downtown manager, the mayor of Butler, Butler Fairground Authority, The Rodfathers to organize the first ever Bantam Jeep Heritage Festival.

Cohen long believed that Butler, as the birthplace of the original Bantam Jeep vehicle, should celebrate this distinction. With the success of the inaugural event, it is expected that this will become an annual signature event for the county.

The bureau cooperates with the Butler County Chamber of Commerce, the Community Development Corporation of Butler County and the county's Manufacturing Consortium in support of bringing new companies to Butler County and promoting existing businesses.

Cohen serves on a multitude of boards and committees in Butler County and the national North Country Trail Board.

Cooperation with the bureau's 11 board members is key to the bureau's success. All efforts are focused on bringing business not only to the county but also to bureau members.