Woodward, Pontiac, and Children's Village boosters honored at Q2 event

Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson honored three individuals Wednesday who are improving the quality of life in southeast Oakland County, in Pontiac, and at Oakland County's Children's Village. This year's honorees at the 24th Annual Quality People/Quality County (Q2) Awards breakfast included Jean Chamberlain, a member of the boards of the Woodward Dream Cruise and Woodward Avenue Action Association; Dr. Myra Danish, board member of the Children's Village Foundation; and Ed Lee, founder of Lee Industrial Contracting in Pontiac.

"Our three honorees exemplify what's best about Oakland County," Patterson said. "They have leveraged their success in a way that improves the quality of life for many in Oakland County. They selflessly give of their resources whether it is time or money."

More than 300 people attended this year's Q2 Awards Breakfast at the Auburn Hills Marriott Pontiac at Centerpoint. Proceeds from the breakfast support Boost Oakland Business, a 501(c)(4) organization that promotes business and stimulates job creation through economic development initiatives.

Jean Chamberlain and the quality of life in the Woodward Avenue corridor will be forever linked. She's been a champion of revitalizing local communities. Among Patterson's first assignments for her was to address the concerns of southeast Oakland County communities that felt they were being left out of the county's growth and prosperity. He appointed Chamberlain as an ambassador to those communities. She was the founding president of the Woodward Dream Cruise, serving in that role for seven years. Under Chamberlain's leadership, the event grew from 250,000 spectators the first year to more than 1 million from all over the world. She continues to serve on the Dream Cruise board. Chamberlain also is an advocate and board member for the Woodward Avenue Action Association, a group of almost 2,000 diverse businesses which make Woodward Avenue a premier destination for shopping, dining, entertainment, and more. Among the projects she tackled was fixing the confusing way in which addresses of businesses were numbered on Woodward, converting them to a consistent numbering system.

Dr. Myra Danish is a Children's Village Foundation board member who has invested her time and personal resources to improve the quality of life for at-risk kids at Oakland County's Children's Village. The Foundation's mission is to raise funds for projects that promote, enrich, rehabilitate and offer educational support to Children's Village residents, family and staff. Danish also is one of the leading facial plastic surgeons in the Midwest. She was educated at Johns Hopkins University, the University of California at San Diego, and Wayne State University. During her residency, she found her calling in facial and reconstructive plastic surgery, especially for cancer patients. Despite Danish's demanding work schedule, she volunteers her time and energy to help raise funds for Oakland County's Children's Village. An offshoot of those efforts is the Dale Carnegie Teen Program. Her son suggested the idea after he had taken the course as a freshman and saw an improvement in his grades, confidence, and peer selection. Danish brought the course to Children's Village with the help of her good friends Rock N' Roll icon Bob Seger and his wife.

Ed Lee's 25-plus years of business investment in the Pontiac area is not only bringing much-needed jobs to help revitalize the city, but also enhancing the quality of life. As founder of Lee Industrial Contracting, he has grown the Pontiac-based company from 43,000 square-feet to over 710,000 square-feet. The company's mission statement says that they want to be "an indispensable asset" to their customers. Lee is indeed indispensable to the future of Pontiac. Lee Industrial Contracting is a mini-empire of seven separate companies. His businesses saw tremendous growth this past year. Lee is transforming that success into investment in the Pontiac community. He purchased the old Wisner School, Wisner Stadium, and the former Pontiac Central High School to turn those buildings into usable space for a variety of purposes. Lee is constantly on the lookout for people of good character who are willing and eager to learn, work hard and respect others. Given the chance, his staff can turn them into great skilled tradesmen.

Published: Fri, Oct 28, 2016