February 2012

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NESSA Awards Dinner Held

he North East Souvenir Salesman’s Association annual awards dinner was held during the New England “The Souvenir Show” in North Conway, N.H. recently. The organization honored Brian Tonis of Bass Resort Sales Corp. as Salesman of the Year. The association has been recognizing salesmen with the award since 1988, when Hardy Scheib of Fairway Mfg. was honored

Top Center: Brian Tonis, Bass Resort Sales, was named Salesman of the Year. Top Right: Andrew Miller of Blair Cedar and customers. Bottom Left: Jan Carine of Minnetonka. Bottom Center: Harry Chernan of Beachcombers with a customer. Bottom right: Ron Rubin of NE Gift Association.

Living Legends Association Meets, Installs New President

he Living Legends Association, the national group for the souvenir industry, installed Lew Domonkos as its new president at the annual Golden Lily Awards Dinner during last November’s Smoky Mountain Gift Show in Gatlinburg, Tenn.

Domonkos has had a long and distinguished career, both as a buyer for major attractions throughout the country and as a sales manager. He was awarded the president’s job by Phyllis Goldberg, president of Meier & Frank. Goldberg also paid tribute to the memories of Bobby Epstein, Jack Belvoir and her late husband Meier Goldberg.

Brad Wheeler, Rob Wheeler and Alan Silverman were recognized with the Golden Lily award at the event. Future winners include Bill Budge, Dario Farnese and Pete Smith, who will be presented with the honor in Denver in February, and Lew Domonkos and Dan Moreno, who will be inducted in November, 2006.

Also at the meeting, Al Bass, the master of ceremonies, installed Jim Petit of Ore. as first vice president and Joe Goldberg of Fla., as second vice president. New members of the board of directors are Bill O’Meara of N.H., Harvey Streinacher of Ariz. and Carolyn Turkelson of Mich.

Left: Rob Wheeler addressed the group at the Living Legends dinner. Center: Lew Domonkos was named the new president of the Living Legends Association last November. Right: Al Bass at the Living Legends awards dinner, which was held last November during the Smoky Mountain Gift Show.

Polar Graphics USA Opens New Denver Showroom

A view of the rustic-themed Polar Graphics USA showroom at the Denver Merchandise Mart.

olar Graphics USA has opened a new permanent showroom at the Denver Merchandise Mart. It is the fourth such location for the Kent, Wash.-based company. The firm also has showrooms in Juno, Anchorage and Seattle.

The new showroom opened last August, and was remodeled by an Albuquerque, N.M. firm. “It’s really beautiful with a rustic and barn feel. It really looks nice,” said Shuji Murasaki, Polar Graphics’ co-owner and president, in a telephone interview.

The company’s merchandise includes all types of apparel, gifts, mugs, cups, socks, kitchen items, pens, plush and many other items. “You name it,” he said of the company’s offerings. “You can fill up a whole gift shop. We have over 5,000 items.” The company is introducing over 200 new items in 2006.

The firm is one of the largest souvenir, resort and gift wholesalers in the country, Murasaki said. The company is a division of the 55-year-old Arctic Circle enterprises, which is based in Anchorage, Alaska.

Murasaki said Denver is an ideal location for the firm’s merchandise. “We have lots of wildlife nature graphics, and that’s a main area for wildlife and nature,” he said.

Magnet America Wins Laurel

Magnet America’s Cherith Pattisall, custom specialist, Gigi Condon, project coordinator, Dwight Gullion, owner, Micah Pattisall, operations director and Jennifer R. Burgess, marketing director, (left to right), pose with the company’s award.

agnet America, the creator of the yellow “Support Our Troops” ribbon magnet, was honored to receive Time Warner Cable’s first annual Business Accelerator Award in recognition of business innovation and excellence in the Piedmont Triad of North Carolina.

For the award, Time Warner Cable accepted applications from small local businesses less than five years old, and with fewer than 100 employees, which demonstrated excellent growth as well as community relations. Magnet America provides custom products made solely in the United States, as well as popular stock products such as “Support Our Firefighters” and a new Hispanic line of bumper strip magnets.