Eight inductees are named to Peterborough’s Business Hall of Fame
Junior Achievement planning ceremony for May 27, but that could change because of the pandemic
A Peterborough business owner says he is humbled and in awe of his acceptance into the Junior Achievement Business Hall of Fame for his outstanding business contributions to the Peterborough area.
“I was just humbled to be nominated for doing whatever I am doing for the community,” said Allan Hill, the franchisee of Domino’s Pizza in Peterborough.
“Honestly, I felt a little bit like an impostor. The only reason I say that is because I get up every morning, I work with my people, I serve my customers, I do the best I can just like any other businessperson does.”
Hill was among the inductees announced this week for the scheduled May 27 ceremony. The other inductees are:
Tony Ambler, Swish Maintenance Group of Companies and Yorkshire Valley Farms;
Simone Dobson, Euphoria Wellness Spa;
John Gillespie, Flying Colours;
Franz Roessl, Franz’s Butcher Shop and Catering;
Amy Simpson, MicroAge Peterborough-Whitby.
Heritage inductees:
Allan Gillis (posthumously) — Milltronics;
Joe Sabatino (posthumously) — Villa Auto Wash.
Hill said he has been loosely involved with Junior Achievement, helping where he could to offer people in the Peterborough area the best possible program to develop young entrepreneurs.
“We have helped out in terms of school lunches while they (Junior Achievement) had their business workshops for intermediate school classes at their facility,” Hill said.
He has been involved with Junior Achievement for about six or seven years and enjoys it, he said.
“That is one of the things I try to do is when I do different service or charitable organizations I say, hey give me a call about anything you think may make sense for me to be involved in,” Hill said.
He has participated in at least one of the workshops through Junior Achievement, he said.
“We (him and his managers) helped with the kids looking at marketing, looking at how they would deal with a particular real-life scenario in business and working through that with them in one of these workshops,” Hill said.
Hill said whenever he can volunteer his time or service to help make things a little easier, he does.
“Very rarely do I say no,” he said. “Because that is a little bit of what Domino’s Pizza is all about.”
The Junior Achievement Business Hall of Fame has been around for about six years now, said John McNutt, CEO of Junior Achievement of Northern and Eastern Ontario.
Junior Achievement launched in Canada in 1967 and has been helping to educate youth about business through 15 locations across Canada and a national office.
The group works with educators, volunteers and businesses to educate students about financial literacy, work readiness and entrepreneurship.
McNutt said he didn’t want to step on any toes in the area of honouring business owners, so he worked out the specifics
“We helped with the kids looking at marketing, looking at how they would deal with a particular real-life scenario in business.” ALLAN HILL DOMINO’S PIZZA
with the Greater Peterborough Chamber of Commerce, which runs the Business Excellence Awards each fall.
“It is a different award,” he said. “(The Chamber) tends to be for actual companies, where ours is for the person who runs the company or owns the company.”
Criteria for induction into the Business Hall of Fame includes many points of the person and how they operate their business in the community.
“People are nominated and provide us with criteria that is centred around business acumen, business growth, business ethics, how they treat their employees, and, do you, through your business and association, put Peterborough on the map,” McNutt said.
“And finally, the smallest amount of weight we put on, the person’s amount of activities in the community.”
The in-person ceremony is slated for May 27 following public health guidelines closely, said Cody Mcintyre, operations manager for Junior Achievement of Northern and Eastern Ontario.
It could be moved to another day if things change with the COVID-19 pandemic, he said.