2010 Car Wash Hall of Fame
Mike Mountz, Cloister Car Wash
Each year since 1962, the International Carwash Association has sought to honor a distinguished leader in our industry with our highest recognition, the Hall of Fame Award. Past winners have included such prominent car wash operators and suppliers as Joe Dahm, Dan Hanna, Herman Deal, Ron Peterson and James A. Belanger. Each of these recipients has not only demonstrated success in their own companies, but they have truly advanced and changed our industry.
This 2009 Hall of Fame inductee is Mike Mountz of Cloister Car Wash. Upon accepting this award, Mr. Mountz shared heartfelt words with those in attendance:
"In all honestly, the 27 years we’ve had has just been phenomenal and I’m honored and humbled by this opportunity to work with you."
"There are many people I’d like to give some credit to. Number one, I’d like to give credit to my God. With him, through my life, everything has been possible. My wife Rhoda, for all the years. She’s not only my wife, she’s my lover, she’s my soul-mate, she’s my everything. So, I love you Rhoda. To my kids Elton, Weston and Tonya, that have all helped out within the business. They’ve just supported me the whole way through. To a sister Rosemary who lives in Terre Haute, Indiana. She’s a Carmelite nun. She’s actually a Cloistered Carmelite nun, she’s one of 12. She prays for me, my family and my business everyday. The truth is: they pray for us all everyday. So I certainly want to send a thank you out to them. To all the past and present employees. It’s not only the present employees we have but the past ones that have went on and found something else they love as much as we love car washing. We couldn’t have done it without them."
"One of them is Del Burkholder, he’s with us today. When I bought the business in 1984 I paid $380,000 for it, and I tell everybody I paid $10,000 for it and the rest was just for Del and I got a bargain. So God bless you Del and I’m glad you’re with us."
"I think everybody needs a mentor. My mentor sits right behind Del. His name is Tom Hoffman; just a true, true friend; the best."
"Beyond that, I want to lastly thank the ICA. They’ve just been excellent over the 27 years. They’ve been very helpful with the educational opportunities. Putting things like this, we can network together, it’s just been phenomenal. I don’t know, out of the 27 years we’ve probably made 18 at least and, boy, if you can’t come to one of these shows and walk away without learning at least one thing that’s going to pay for your trip then you probably weren’t looking."
"Wrapping up, I just want to mention something about the Grace for Vets program. It’s a wonderful program. Last year in 2009 we washed 60,744 cars, we did 252 car wash companies; and that’s hand wash companies and big automatics. Anybody can wash a car on Veteran’s Day; on November 11 we did 44 different states and it just turned out to be phenomenal. Our 2010 goal is 100,000 cars."
"I would love to tell you, I could almost guarantee you, you’ll be happy if you do join in on the program. The nice thing about the Grace for Vets is everybody’s doing it together under one umbrella, under the car wash program. It’s not me getting the credit, it’s the Vets that are getting the credit. I just happen to be the spokesperson."
"God bless you. God bless the car wash business. Thank you very much."