President Obama Congratulates Beatrice
Hair at Rose Garden Celebration
Front Page Newspaper
Article
As President
Barack Obama urged Congress to pass a $30 billion small
business jobs package while also honoring the Small Business
Association's (SBA) business persons of the year in the
White House Rose Garden, Salisbury business owner Beatrice
Hair sat in the front row.
"This is
an issue that involves putting our government on the side
of the small-business owners who create most of the jobs
in this country," Obama said Tuesday.
Hair, the 2010
North Carolina Small Business Person of the Year and founder
of Salisbury Tutoring Academy, is celebrating her accomplishment
all week in Washington, D.C. during National Small Business
Week.
"The Small
Business Association has rolled out the red carpet,"
Hair said. Meeting Obama and hearing him speak, was "unbelievable,"
she said.
"It was
surreal to actually be sitting there," she said. "He
encouraged us that we are the people that run the small
businesses, and that he was there to honor us."
Hair was one
of about 12 people who Obama shook hands with, and the only
one he got a photo with.
"I was
awestruck," she said. "You can see a person on
TV. But when you're literally there, it's close contact.
I could see everything he was about as a person, and the
strength in which he was conveying his message."
Hair said Obama
stressed that America's economy was counting on the small
business owners.
"He taught
us the economy is riding on people like us to take risks,
which has been the across-the-board message," she said.
Sunday night,
upon her arrival to the week-long event, the SBA welcomed
all 2010 business persons by flashing their businesses on
large screens, along with a banner with her name and business.
Hair said the
reception Sunday and events since have been filled with
many different people, "who are just excited about
their work."
"Hundreds
of people here are actually passionate about what they do,"
she said. "It's very refreshing and inspirational.
I feel like I've just made lifelong friends here."
Hair has also
met several congressmen and senators, and was interviewed
by a local television station, with the reporter asking
her what it was like to start a business from scratch.
"I feel
really proud to be a North Carolinian."
During a gathering
party in the same room where the president holds events
such as the inaugural ball, Hair and other business people
received a special message from Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton.
"She was
videotaped in China telling us to keep doing what we're
doing, share your ideas and take your business global,"
Hair said.
She said her
students back in Salisbury were anxious to hear the stories
about her trip, and for her return.
Her biggest
thanks for the entire experience goes to the University
of Phoenix, she said.
"They customized
my master's degree for me so that I could get my master's
while I was working," she said, noting that the University
of Phoenix customized her online learning just as she does
for Salisbury Tutoring Academy students.
"This is
like an unbelievable, once-in-a-lifetime, breathtaking experience,"
she said.
Hair was nominated
for the North Carolina Small Businessperson of the Year
award by Jenifer Flatley of the University of Phoenix Alumni
Association.
