Small business with a big heart, Modern Image Salon honored as Chamber’s Business of the Year

DOVER-FOXCROFT — For more than 25 years Modern Image Salon on Lincoln Street has served its clients, many of whom staff regard as family, and given back to the community. For these reasons and more Modern Image Salon has been selected as the 2024 Piscataquis Chamber of Commerce Business of the Year.

The salon was formally honored during the Chamber’s 40th anniversary/Business of the Year celebration on the evening of Monday, Nov. 18 at the Central Hall Commons.

“Small business, big heart and that is exactly who they are, they are a small business with a big heart,” Chamber Director Denise Buzzelli told those gathered for the presentation. 

“Between 2023 and 2024 Modern Image Salon received 42 nominations for Business of the Year,” she said. “Now that may not sound like a lot but sometimes we have only 17 nominations total for all the businesses that were nominated.”

Showing a plaque listing previous Business of the Year recipients dating back to 2005, Buzzelli said many of those benevolent honorees are larger with deeper pockets and more employees. “So it’s really unusual for a smaller business to be so honored,” she said.

“The reason they kind of bubble to the top, besides all the nominations, is because we look for business owners who are very community-minded, who aren’t just focused on what’s happening inside their own four walls and missing what is happening in the community,” Buzzelli said.

“They use the platform that they have to promote the needs of the community, to promote what’s happening with the nonprofits. If a new business opens, they are all about it,” the director said. She said most Fridays at 8:30 a.m. Shari Sage and Robin Brasslett of Modern Image Salon go on Facebook Live. While mentioning part of their own lives, they also use the platform to support events, businesses, fundraisers, and significant needs that exist in the area.

Buzzelli said last month she stopped by the salon near the intersection of Lincoln, North and Main streets on a Friday morning to surprise them with news of the Business of the Year honor. Before Buzzelli informed them, she heard Sage say to the live audience, “It just feels really good to give.”

“We are so blessed to honor you Modern Image Salon and we thank you for having just a big heart and you care so much about community,” Buzzelli said.“People say when they are in the salon they feel like they are home, they care, they are always looking for ways to give back to the community.” 

Examples include food drives, the Dover-Foxcroft Kiwanis Community Christmas Program, free hair cut days, and supporting other businesses.

Following a video message from U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine and certificates presented from the offices of U.S. Sen. Angus King, I-Maine and U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, Buzzelli and Chamber Board of Directors Vice President Brenda Kelley presented a plaque to Sage, Brasslett, Lisa Brasier, Julia Shaw, and Haley Wooddell.

Sage thanked the Chamber for the honor. “I feel very deeply rooted in this community, I have had my business for almost 26 years and we do give back to the community but that’s what we want to do,” she said. “This is where we live, our customers have become family.”

Looking out at the crowd, Sage mentioned some of the familiar faces she saw and said, “Without them I wouldn’t have Modern Image Salon.”

“We don’t just cut hair, we celebrate births and weddings and when people pass we are there for customers,” Sage said. She said in 2022 a second story was added to the building and for several months they had to relocate.

“All of my loyal customers followed us,” Sage said. “It was a different space, it was just awkward because it wasn’t our space but we made it the best we could for our customers and we got through those challenges.”

“All of these opportunities helped me to learn and grow over the years, and make Modern Image Salon into what it is,” she said. Sage said having her own business provided her with flexibility to volunteer when her daughters were young and coach the cheer team at Foxcroft Academy for 17 years.

“I have been able to work with my sister for 20-plus years and Lisa for 20-plus years and now my niece Julia is working and Haley is in the shop,” Sage said. “My team there is just outstanding because we all have the same goal to create a place that customers can just come in and feel very good and peaceful. I owe a lot of that to just the support I have from my family and my friends and also my faith in the Lord. He has blessed me so much over the years and my business and I am forever grateful.”

“I just can’t thank this community enough for the support, it’s unbelievable,” she added. “I appreciate from the bottom of my heart the recognition for the things that we do and we are going to do, it gives me strength to keep the doors open at Modern Image Salon.”

“What an honor it is to get this award and just feel these wonderful feelings that we are being supported,” Brasslett said.

She thanked their loyal clients and said they are a vital part of giving back to the community, “When we collect food for the food pantry it’s our clients who bring the food in for us to donate. When we had the angel tree from Kiwanis it’s our clients who come in and pick a name and help us support the community. A lot of these things we couldn’t do without our clients so we are extremely grateful that we can lean on them.”

“I always say I didn’t grow up with one mother, I grew up with two mothers because Shari is my much older sister,” Brasslett said. “So I have always received the love from Shari that everyone else gets to feel and she is literally what everyone has talked about with Modern Image. She has a big heart, she would give anyone the shirt off her back. If anyone needed anything, they could go to Shari and she would find a way to help and that is just her spirit of who she is and not everyone has that loving, giving kind of spirit.”