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June 16, 2000/13 Sivan I 5760, Vol. 52, No.41
Witensteins vie for business award
ELIZABETH DIETERLE
Editorial Assistant
When Dan and Julie Witenstein began coaching gymnasts in 1989, they had no idea that they would one day be chosen as finalists in a business competition.
Now the couple, who run Arizona Sunrays in Phoenix, a national team training center for gymnastics and dance, are up for the Small Business Person of the Year Award, sponsored by the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce, which recognizes businesspeople who display innovation, response to adversity, staff development, exemplary customer service and a sense of community.
Finalists were chosen from a pool of businesses that completed a questionnaire. The panel of judges will include sponsors of the event and past winners of the award. Winners will be featured in the Chamber of Commerce's monthly newsletter and in the local subsidiary of the national Business Journal. They will also be interviewed live on KFNN radio by Valerie Manning, president and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce.
The Witensteins attribute the success of their business to their professional treatment of employees, parents and the children who attend the training center.
The couple are active in the Jewish community, through Beth El Congregation and through charity for Jewish concerns.
"We raise thousands of dollars for nonprofit organizations," says Julie Witenstein.
"Recently we sponsored a movie night for Jewish Family and Children's Service. And (our students) have performed (gymnastics and dance) at Beth El carnival for the past couple of years," she adds.
"We are very hopeful and we are thrilled to have been nominated and chosen as a finalist," Julie Wittenstein continues. "When we started ten years ago, we established our main goal: to be as professional as possible, to look at our program as a business and not just a gym."
According to Patti Swisher, vice president of small business at the Chamber of Commerce, the Witensteins are innovators in their industry in the Valley they are the first Phoenix-area entrepreneurs to treat a gymnastics and dance program as a business.
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