News / Business

Camas-Washougal Chamber to honor two at banquet

Art McCallum is Business Person of the Year and Rene Carroll named top citizen

By Gordon Oliver, Columbian Business Editor

Published: June 2, 2015, 12:00am

2 Photos

The Sixth Avenue Commercial Center in Camas hosts a variety of businesses and has room for more. Art McCallum, owner of the center, is receiving recognition as the Camas-Washougal Chamber of Commerce's Business Person of the Year. (Natalie Behring/The Columbian) Photo Gallery

? What: Camas-Washougal Chamber of Commerce annual awards banquet.

? When: Social hour at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, with dinner at 6:30 p.m.

? Where: Camas Meadows Golf Club, 4105 N.W. Camas Meadows Drive.

? Tickets: $35. Available 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Chamber office, 422 N.E. Fourth Avenue in Camas, or 360-834-2472.

The Camas-Washougal Chamber of Commerce will honor Camas business owner Art McCallum as Business Person of the Year and Washougal community volunteer and consultant Rene? Carroll as Citizen of the Year at the chamber’s annual awards banquet Wednesday evening at the Camas Meadows Golf Club.

The two honorees are well-known in their communities and active in volunteer activities.

“Both have done great things in giving back to Camas and Washougal,” said Brent Erickson, the chamber’s executive director.

McCallum, 67, and his family own and operate the Sixth Avenue Commercial Center at Northwest Sixth and Norwood streets in Camas. The development includes a gas station, car wash, a Coffee Shak drive-thru and retail tenants iQ Credit Union and Verizon Wireless. The McCallum family also operates a Shell station and a convenience store with postal service at that location, and a Shell station, Coffee Shak and independently operated oil change business at Southeast 164th Avenue in Vancouver.

Carroll’s wide-ranging history of community involvement includes leadership in supporting a successful $57 million bond measure for the Washougal School District and 15 years of service as a docent for the Two Rivers Heritage Museum. On the business front, she is active in pursuing a Main Street program designation for downtown Washougal. Through the business she founded in 2013 called Rene? Carroll Consulting, Carroll has worked with city officials on an initiative to attract visitors to the Washougal area.

“Washougal’s downtown is emerging and there’s actually more there than what even some of the locals realize,” said Carroll, admitting that she was humbled by the community recognition. “Now is a really great time to be from Washougal.”

McCallum said his wife, Sandra, and sons, Sean and Justin, operate the family businesses while he devotes much of his time and effort to volunteer activities in support of miliary service members as they return to their homes and families following overseas service. He is area chair for the government-funded program Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve, and is involved in numerous other support programs for military veterans and their families.

“This is an award for our family,” he said on Monday, on his return from a program for veterans in Bend, Ore.

McCallum was a corporate manager at a local telecom until he became interested in opening his own business. That led the McCallums to develop the Shell gasoline station and small retail complex on 164th Avenue and 34th Street in Vancouver, which opened in 1999. The family business expanded in 2008 with the opening of the Sixth Avenue retail center in Camas.

Greg Goforth, a broker at Windermere Crest Realty who nominated McCallum as the 2015 Business Person of the Year, said McCallum’s heavy community involvement prompted his nomination. “Art’s main mission, and we must say passion, is to give back to the community. His goal in life is to help others be successful.”