2009 Director's Award for Family Business
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The business started in 1863
when great-great grandfather Thomas Kay came
to the Oregon country. And he
was instrumental in a
little woolen mill in Brownsville, Oregon.
So we've been making blankets for
a 100 years in Pendleton, since 1909.
But the family legacy of making fabric
in Oregon goes back a 146 years to 1863.
You know, when you make something that
is beautiful and functional,
it's very satisfying.
For me I think of
my grandparents taking me on
an outing and we would go to the mill.
Here you're just exposed to
the whole operation in kind of a very natural way.
With my children, I would have a weekly
field trip to the Portland Pendelton shop.
And they would be reluctant to go,
"oh dad do we have to go with you"
dududududa. And now they're
in the business in different respects.
And they're very enthusiastic.
So it's good to see that
while they were reluctant children to go with their
dad to visit the Portland Pendleton shop, they're
very intrigued with the whole retail process
and serving consumers and being alert
to market intelligence and
learning how the consumer was
responding to product.
Those interactions and those jobs
which, kind of I guess would say, started
the process, started that education towards
maybe becoming a bigger part of Pendleton in the future,
and really I think set the
standard for, you know again, that
working hard, working for the long pull
just striving to do your best.
And all of us have been raised with
our parents and our grandparents
with just a passion for
our business, and a caring for our
business, a nurturing for our business,
a stewardship for the business.
We're working for the long pull. It's not
just day to day, it's working for tomorrow,
the next year and the year after.
And I think we have all been well schooled by
our forefathers in the ethic and passion
of working for Pendleton.
And this is something that
our parents and our grandparents and
our great-grandparents always discussed. And
that is something that I think is very
relevant today, to seek long-term
relationships and partnerships with
employees, with suppliers, with customers
where there is a win-win relationship.
Knowing Joan and Ken Austin
and our parents knowing Joan and Ken Austin
and knowing that they are
behind this award really means a lot
because they stand for excellence,
they stand for quality,
they stand for ethics,
they stand for giving back to the community.
And receiving an award with their name on it
is very meaningful.
At Pendleton we make products that have
stories, and particularly our blankets.
We call it Spirit of the Peoples and
we dedicate it to all the peoples who have
brought us to this 100 year mark.
So our celebration is
embracing all the peoples
who have brought us to this point in our history.