Photograph by Kathy De La Torre
Jean and Carl Orr, co-owners of the Colour Shoppe Draperies and Interiors, will be honored Jan. 20, as the Saratoga Chamber of Commerce's Business Persons of the Year.
Couple shares Chamber's Business Person Award
By Rebecca Ray
Carl and Jean Orr have been rewarded for working on the day of their wedding anniversary. The Saratoga Chamber of Commerce chose the Orrs, co-owners of Colour Shoppe Draperies and Interiors at 12361 Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road, to share the 2000 Outstanding Business Person of the Year Award. Carl Orr said he thinks the reason that members of the community nominated him and Jean for the award is because the Orrs have worked on the Chamber's "Celebrate Saratoga!" committee every year during their anniversary--Sept. 26--since the annual street dance began in 1989. A couple of times, the street dance has fallen on Sept. 26, and the Orrs celebrated it with 40,000 people, Jean Orr said.
This year is also the first time the Chamber's Business Person of the Year Committee has presented the award to a couple, rather than to an individual, since the committee started giving the award in 1994.
The committee chose the Orrs for being active in the Chamber, for demonstrating excellence in business, for providing valuable service, and for exhibiting initiative and creativity, according to the Chamber.
"I was certainly surprised and flattered," Carl said.
Carl, an active member of the Saratoga Business Development Council, served as president of the Chamber in 1994 and founded the Gateway Association, a group of merchants in the Gateway business district who advocate for what the district needs at city council meetings. He has also won national sales awards and has been president of the Window Coverings Association of America, the National Decorating Products Association, on which he has served on the board of directors and the Northern California Decorating Products Association, of which he is a lifetime honorary member.
Carl, a Cupertino resident, also belongs to the Cupertino Fine Arts Commission, and has graduated from the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office Community Police Academy, a program in which private citizens learn how the Sheriff's Department works and go through training similar to that officers go through.
Jean has served on the Chamber business awareness committee, the membership committee, which she has chaired twice, and the ambassador and Crab Feed committees, which she has chaired three times. Jean also volunteers for History San Jose, has organized four blood drives with the Chamber and has donated more than 100 pints of blood.
Jean and Carl participate in Call to Protect, a national campaign against domestic violence, by collecting phones at the Colour Shoppe and sending them to the campaign, which distributes them to victims of domestic violence to use for free.
"They give so much to the community being part of so many committees, plus belonging to ... the Chambers they belong to," said Saratoga Chamber member Pearl Medeiros, winner of the Outstanding Business Person of the Year Award last year. Medeiros also co-owns Brannons Party Rentals & Consultants in Willow Glen and has served on committees with the Orrs.
"They're always donating a lot of their time, not to mention their products, to fundraisers," Medeiros said. "They're both great people to work with."
The Colour Shoppe, which the Orrs have co-owned since they married in 1987, specializes in selling carpets, window covers, linoleum and wallpaper. Before that, Carl had owned the business since 1968, when it was located on Bascom Avenue in San Jose. He opened the Saratoga branch in 1977 and closed the San Jose branch four years later.
The Chamber will honor the Orrs at its installation banquet, Jan. 20, at the Toll House Hotel, Los Gatos.
Saratoga, California Since 1955
