Local businesses honored for community service

Three local businesses within the Smyrna-Vinings Patch coverage area are among 11 honored by the and Georgia Trend Magazine for their outstanding service to the community with one business taking home the top honor, the Sam Olens Business Community Service Award.

To be eligible for the award, businesses had to be nominated by a not-for-profit organization. The three local honorees, Digital Insurance, Printpack Inc. and Balfour Beatty Construction, were nominated by Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, The Center for Children and Young Adults and SafePath Children’s Advocacy Center respectively.

The highest honor, the Sam Olens Business Community Service Award named for the Cobb county native and Georgia attorney general, went to Balfour Beatty for its volunteer work with SafePath and the nearly $210,000 in donations given to 32 not-for-profit organizations in 2011 alone.

"We are honored to receive this award,” said Jim Taylor, Balfour Beatty division president for military housing. “The Military Housing Division of Balfour Beatty is passionate about giving back to the communities where we work and live.”

The eight other business nominated were:

• Cobb EMC; nominated by The Tommy Nobis Center
• Comcast Corporation/Comcast Foundation; nominated by The Center for Family Resources
• Elite Telecom Services; nominated by American Cancer Society
• General Electric; nominated by Communities in Schools of Marietta/Cobb County, Inc.
• SA White/Mobilized Fuels; nominated by YWCA of Northwest Georgia
• Star-Tech, Inc.; nominated by Reconnecting Families
• Vulcan Materials Company; nominated by Kennesaw Police – Law Enforcement Torch Run
• Zenith Design Group; nominated by Kiwanis Club of Marietta Foundation, Inc.