A successful business career with an almost unbelievable impact on many areas of his community make Dothan’s Mike Schmitz a worthy recipient of Alabama’s 2008 TIME Quality Dealer Award.
Mike entered the car business in 1978 in the Dealer Development Program of Key Royal Automotive. He became the dealer principal of Toyota of Enterprise in 1986. He joined Rahal Buick in Dothan as a partner and then in 1995, majority owner. He currently owns the Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai, Mazda, and Suzuki franchises as Mike Schmitz Automotive Group in Dothan along with John Mitchell owns Toyota of Dothan.
All of Schmitz dealerships have won numerous factory awards for sales and customer satisfaction while selling more than 3,000 new and used vehicles in 2006. Plans are now underway for a new Toyota building, the move of Hyundai to the current Toyota building, and long-term plans to build a new Mercedes-Benz facility.
Mike has served his industry as Past Chairman of the Wiregrass Automobile Dealers Association and currently serves as ADAA’s District 2 Director.
What is perhaps most impressive in this whirlwind of business activity is Mike’s active participation in many Wiregrass area community organizations. He is the Past Chairman of the Dothan Area Chamber of Commerce, Dothan Area County Rotary Club, Wiregrass Children’s Home, American Heart Association’s Heart Walk which raised $80,000 last year, and the five-county United Way which raised a record $2.5 million in 2006. |
Mike is currently the Chairman of Envision’s Regionalism Task Force, a panel made up of 25 area mayors and the chairmen of 8 area county commissions working together to identify and correct community problems. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Foundation for Southeast Alabama Medical Center and is the Chairman and organizer of Trinity Bank.
Mike’s good work has not gone unnoticed as he has won numerous awards from the many organizations he has served, including the Freedom Friend Award from the NAACP, the Alabama Education Association’s Public Servant Award, the Dothan Fire Department’s Building Community Partnership Award, the United Christian Fellowship Good Samaritan Award, and the Paul Harris Fellow Award presented by the Dothan Houston County Rotary Club.
He received the Community Leader Award presented by the Dothan Area Chamber of Commerce the year he led a city-wide campaign against illiteracy. He was presented the Greater Beulah Angel Award for building parks in a poor section of town, and the Celebration of Diversity Award when he retired the unpaid bills and provided two year funding for the Hawk Houston Boys and Girls Club, a refuge for children living in a local housing project.
Mike is a 20-year competitor in the Ironman Triathlon and last year joined three other local businessmen to ride bikes more than 3,000 miles across the country to raise $100,000 for his favorite cause, the Wiregrass Children’s Home. And last month, he raised $25,000 for the organization by walking 80 miles over a three-day period.
Mike and his wife Sandy are the proud parents of 17 year old Mike, Jr., a high school senior who was just elected President of his school’s student council.
Congratulations to Mike Schmitz who epitomizes what is great about new car dealers. He will compete in the national TIME Magazine Quality Dealer Award competition next February at the NADA Convention in San Francisco.
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