JACKSON BUSINESSMAN RECEIVES WALTON AWARD

Jim Maevers, vice president and co-owner of Maevers Foods Inc., received the 1999 Sam Walton Business Leader Award Thursday.

The award is sponsored by the Wal-Mart Foundation and the Wal-Mart Supercenter at Jackson, which received a $500 grant in the honoree's name.

Wal-Mart established the Sam Walton Business Leader Award in 1995 to recognize local business people who best exemplify the principles of its founder Sam Walton: Respect for the individual, service to customers and a commitment to strive for excellence.

Maevers is one of more than 1,600 business people in Wal-Mart and Sam's Club communities around the country who were selected by their local Chambers of Commerce to receive the award.

"I accept this award in the spirit in which Sam Walton started the Wal-Mart Company in 1963," said Maevers, who accepted the award from Jackson Wal-Mart manager Rich Boyd.

The late Sam Walton often said, "Exceed your custoemrs expectations. If you do, they'll come back over and over again."

Maevers said he has strived to live up to that philosophy.

Maevers returned to his hometown of Jackson in 1987, after serving four years in the U.S. Marines and five years as a field engineer for Telex Computer Products of Tulsa, Okla,

Currently he is part owner of Maevers Foods Inc.