ANDERSON — Two local businesses were honored this month with Gov. Mitch Daniels’ Half Century Awards, commemorating their 50 years in business.

Bestway Cleaners and Cooper’s Sport Bowl each received an award from the governor’s office. Both started in Anderson in 1959.

“It’s obviously something to be proud of,” said Tony Thanas, who is the third generation running Bestway Cleaners. Thanas’ grandfather, Anthony, and father, George, ran the business before he did.

The governor honored 69 Indiana companies with Half Century Awards and 28 companies with Century Awards for being in business at least 100 years. Honorees were chosen based on their years in service and their commitment to the community.

Thanas said Bestway Cleaners had done community service throughout the years, most recently participating in Community Hospital’s Coats for Caring program, for which the dry-cleaning business has cleaned almost 10,000 donated coats to date.

Thanas credits his father and grandfather for much of the business’ success. He has worked there for about 25 years.

“In the infancy stage, it was a shoe-shine, hat-cleaning business with a little bit of dry cleaning,” Thanas said. “The focus slowly became on dry cleaning as hats weren’t as popular. It was kind of an evolution, I guess, into dry cleaning.

“My father was pretty instrumental in making that changeover to modern-age dry cleaning.”

Bestway has had to keep up with technology changes over the years, including a major change in dry cleaning technology in the 1980s. Thanas and his employees also have to pay attention to changing fashion trends to know what kind of materials they likely will be cleaning.

“That’s another thing to kind of keep up with,” he said, noting that the business cleaned a lot of polyester in the 1960s, “how styles and fabrics are going to help us know about the equipment we are purchasing.”

Cooper’s Sport Bowl also has been in business for 50 years, starting out as a 16-lane bowling alley in a facility built by founder Charles Cooper near the corner of 53rd Street and Scatterfield Road. Today, the bowling alley has moved into a larger building across the street, which Charles Cooper also built, and added 28 lanes, a pro shop, an arcade and a bar and grill called Shouts.

Although Charles Cooper died in 2004, his son and daughter-in-law Denny and Cathy Cooper and their daughters, Stacey Cooper-Hill and Cheree Cooper-Fillmore, run the business today. Major changes have happened in the business since it started in 1959, including computerized scoring, lanes made from synthetic materials and the invention of cosmic bowling.

“We’ve had a lot of dedicated employees throughout the years,” Cooper’s Sport Bowl Facility Manager Cindy Ornes told The Herald Bulletin in September. “It’s a grind; it’s not for the timid. Being in this type of business, we’ve seen the community grow up. You make a lot of good friends being in this business.”

The owners of Cooper’s Sport Bowl also have opened a bowling center in Noblesville, and Bestway Cleaners has expanded from its original location on Nichol Avenue to include facilities on Scatterfield Road and in Pendleton.

“That’s done well,” Thanas said of the Pendleton location. “It’s been a nice surprise. Even in the so-called tough economic times, we’re seeing some good things.”

Thanas said his employees are an integral part of making Bestway Cleaners successful.

“I know for me, it had helped having two generations before me,” he said. “A lot of the foundation was put into place. It’s certainly been a commitment to stay with it, and we’ve been blessed with having some pretty good employees. I would not have been able to do it without some key employees that we still have.”

More than 1,300 Indiana companies have been recognized during the 19-year history of the Century and Half Century Awards, according to an Indiana Department of Economic Development press release.

“Simply speaking, building a business takes drive, business acumen and sometimes a little luck,” Daniels said in the release. “Building a successful company which spans decades and generations, however, is a truly special accomplishment. It is my honor to recognize Hoosier entrepreneurs who have left permanent marks on their communities through their homegrown enterprises.”

Contact Aleasha Sandley: 640-4805, aleasha.sandley@heraldbulletin.com.