FAIRMONT — Small businesses from across West Virginia gathered in Fairmont Wednesday afternoon for an awards luncheon.

The U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) West Virginia District Office presented the awards luncheon to celebrate National Small Business Week at the Robert H. Mollohan Research Center.

“Each year since 1963, the president has issued a proclamation calling for the celebration of National Small Business Week,” the SBA press release said. “This is an important time when we honor our nation’s 28 million small businesses and renew our commitment to fostering the entrepreneurial spirit that is central to small business success.”

SBA’s West Virginia district director Karen Friel was joined by West Virginia Department of Commerce Secretary Keith Burdette; Congressman David McKinley, R-W.Va.; U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va.; and keynote speaker Jon Hammock. president and CEO of Keylogic.

McKinley said that West Virginia has gone through a major transformation.

“If you understand for decades we were dependent on basic industries: coal, steel, chemicals, glass,” McKinley said. “There has been an emergence over the last decade or so of small businesses located in West Virginia who are expanding.”

He believes that is so pivotal because not everyone wants to work in the basic industries of coal mining, steel and chemical.

“So this is very important for us to continue to work with the SBA (and) put people together so we can try to make connections,” McKinley said.

“I was a small businessman for 50 years. That’s a long time, but for 50 years of being a small business, I know it is about networking. So the SBA and everyone getting together, there is a way that they can talk to each other and find out how they can share business and expand this because this is going to be the new West Virginia.”

McKinley hopes coal never goes away.

“... But if we are going to grow as a state and emerge back where we are leading again, then we have to find other businesses,” he said. “That’s why I am very encouraged that small businesses have that possibility of leading that charge.”

McKinley says it is important to honor small business winners so they can be an inspiration for the next group.

“People have to be willing to take a risk,” he said. “I can remember I was one year out of college, (and) I started a home-building company because I knew I needed more experience in the field in which I was practicing to identify having a home-building company.

“Well, what they are doing is taking a risk too. By them taking a risk, employing people and showing that it can happen, then other people are going to follow that.”

He said a starting business can be very small, but it can grow into something very powerful.

“We started with one person,” McKinley said. “We grew to be the largest architectural engineering practice in the state of West Virginia all by working with small businesses.”

McKinley said everything people do in life has some reflection of risk.

“We have too many people that want to sit back,” he said. “But there is a special breed of people, and we are seeing it today. The groups are being recognized because they are willing to take a risk. … There has to be somebody that is going to lead.

“I am going to be sleepless on Thursday night to make sure I have money for payroll the next day, how I am going to sell the next widget or whatever those issues might be. You’ve got to be willing to take a risk. People follow if you show them how successful you can be with that.”

Burdette said his mission Wednesday was to say thank you.

“Not just to the winners — the winners are incredible people who are doing amazing things — but it is to say thank you to all of you who are invested in our state, creating jobs, opportunities and investments in West Virginia,” Burdette said.

Capito said small businesses are crucial to the United States economy.

“I think certainly the West Virginia Small Business Administration folks are very good stewards of our dollars and are obviously maximizing that,” she said.

Capito said her mission is through issues with the Internet abilities all over the state.

“The one area that will help our small businesses, will help our schools, will help our health care is full, broader and more high-speed broadband connection throughout this state,” she said.

West Virginia Small Business Person of the Year Arria Hines with Allegheny Science & Technology Corp. in Bridgeport said winning her award is an incredible honor.

“The thing is, it is the SBA Small Business Person of the Year, but it truly is a small business award for the company that you have,” Hines said.

“I feel that there are a lot of other companies in the state of West Virginia who deserve such a great honor, and so I feel really wonderful that I got selected for that. But at the end of the day it takes a whole team and not only the team members that I have at AST, but also the SBA. The SBA has helped me immensely along the way since 2009, when we started the company. But it is a wonderful honor.”

West Virginia Minority-Owned Small Business of the Year, Francisco Guerrero, owner of the El Rey Mexican Restaurant in White Hall, was surprised by the award.

“I didn’t expect that,” Guerrero previously told the Times West Virginian. “I didn’t do too much to deserve being the winner. It means so much because that means I am doing something well.”

West Virginia Woman-Owned Small Business of the Year, Lisa Levendosky Fritsch, with Agile5 Technologies Inc. in Fairmont the award is incredibly rewarding.

“This award is incredibly rewarding as it confirms that all of the hard work, dedication and sacrifice that my partners and I have made to start Agile5 and guide it in its current direction has been a success,” Fritsch previously told the Times West Virginian.

“Starting a business is fraught with uncertainties, and this award confirms that starting the company was the right decision.”

Other winners included: West Virginia 8(a) Graduate of the Year (national winner), Diane Lewis Jackson – Action Facilities Management, Morgantown; Exporter of the Year, Scott Hedges – Power Sonix Inc., Martinsburg; West Virginia Family-Owned Small Business of the Year, Doug Kreinik – Kreinik Manufacturing Co., Parkersburg; West Virginia Young Entrepreneur of the Year, Nesha Ashok Sanghavi – University Girls, Charleston; West Virginia Encore Entrepreneur of the Year, Ralph and Amelia Garcia – Garcia’s Latin Market, Morgantown; West Virginia Veteran-Owned Small Business of the Year, Douglas Edward Tate – Alpha Technologies, Scott Depot; West Virginia Small Business Champion of the Year, Jens Kiel – Made in Germany, South Charleston; West Virginia Director’s Choice Award, Tina Shaw – Marion County Chamber of Commerce, Fairmont; West Virginia Lender of the Year, Huntington National Bank, approved 56 SBA-guaranteed loans worth more than $4.4 million; West Virginia Community Bank of the Year, MVB Bank, approved 11 SBA-guaranteed loans totaling more than $3.6 million; and West Virginia Microlender of the Year, First Microloan of West Virginia, approved 11 SBA-guaranteed loans for $394,000.