Two high profile and long-time businesspeople in St. Albert were recently given a prestigious award from a local service club.
Art and Joan Jenkins, owners and operators of four Tim Hortons franchises in St. Albert, Morinville and Edmonton, were recognized with the Paul Harris Fellowship award from the Rotary Club of St. Albert last Friday evening. The award, named after the founder of Rotary International, is given to members who embody the quality of community giving that was so important to Harris himself.
The Jenkins’, through their coffee and doughnut outlets, have been major sponsors of the Northern Alberta International Children’s Festival. Along that same token, it was only three years ago when their restaurants were honoured with a Corporate Volunteer Award of Excellence by the Government of Alberta and the Wild Rose Foundation for being an outstanding business that provides funding to worthy causes and encouraging their employees to volunteer in their communities.
Art, now 70 years old but still very active and involved in his business, insists the key to his own success has been keeping that community spirit alive.
“We’re involved in so many programs here,” he began, reciting a list that only started with the children’s festival. “That’s a big deal for us. When I got in this business — and I’ve been in it for 27 years now — I quickly discovered that you can’t take the money and run. You’ve got to put something back into it. The reality in this situation is that if you don’t put nothing back in, then you’re going to get nothing out.”
Formerly in the steel industry, he said that he came to better understand a business’s role in the fabric of society once he opened his first Tim Hortons and started to see more and more people every day.
“When I got into this business I had some ideas about where I was going and what I was doing. Some worked out, some didn’t work out, however, I was left up to my own devices because Tim Hortons was not a known commodity the way it is today. The end result of that you had to use your brain. You couldn’t wait for somebody else to do it for you. So that’s what I did. That’s where all this comes from.”
He said that he learned quickly to get involved with various community organizations like the chamber of commerce and the Rotary Club and get to know the people and what’s important to everybody.
“That’s really the bottom line of the situation.”
He ended by saying that he plans on continuing his support of the festival.
“Absolutely!”
