It isn’t often that somebody in a city the size of Provo wins a “one of a kind” national award. Thus the “Small Businessman of the Year” award recently won by two local couples has attracted a great deal of attention and catapulted the four into the spotlight in a big way. Mr. and Mrs. Steven Mitchell and Mr. and Mrs. Donald Stone are the honored couples. Besides the award itself, they have received the personal plaudits of President Gerald Ford and an award from Governor Calvin J. Rampton of Utah. The two couples – who teamed up to build one of the largest bean bag and miniature animal toy companies in the country traveled to White Sulphur Springs, W. Va. to receive the SBA award. Their latest honor came Wednesday when they were honored at a luncheon sponsored by the Utah Valley Industrial Development Association. Among the speakers were the governor and Dr. Reed Powell, dean of the College of Business of California Polytechnic University at Pomona, who chairmans the Small Business Administrati0n’s advisory council. In explaining why the two couples were chosen by the advisory board to receive the SBA award, Dr. Powell said the Provoans “had created something special” and more nearly reflected the criteria used for judging. The success earned by the S.& M. Toy Company demonstrates effective teamwork as well as progressive manufacturing and marketing methods on the part of Donald and Virginia Stone and Steven and Alma Mitchell, the firm’s owners. in 1970 the women started the business in their homes. The business has grown rapidly, with sales last year of $750,000 and a substantial Utah County payroll. The Herald joins in congratulating the two couples. They have underscored the importance of small businesses in the nation’s economy and demonstrated that America is still land of opportunity for those willing to pay the price in hard work and come up with the necessary resourcefulness, ingenuity, and initiative. The Mitchells and Stones have set an example which others of Central Utah might well emulate as they set out to achieve business successes under the American system of free enterprise. So They Suy “in 1971, the year of the record harvests, the world produced enough grain to lay a highway all the way around the equator, 55 and one-half feet wide and 6 feet deep. Each year another 78 million people are born, and to feedrthem we have to grow enough grain to extend that highway 625 miles.” – Dr. Norman E. Borlaug, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 for his work in “The Green Revolution.”