(Washington, DC - Midwest Communications News) - Charles Reid has come a long way in six years – all the way to the White House.

The owner of interior designer and manufacturer Charter House Innovations came to Washington yesterday as Michigan’s Small Business Person of the Year. Reid and two others from the 50 such invited national award winners were singled out by President Obama for a special briefing in the Oval Office, and the Holland man told reporters afterwards that the experience was “beyond words.”

The President used the backdrop of a Rose Garden ceremony, with Reid standing alongside, to press Congress to pass a 30 billion-dollar loan and tax relief package for small businesses nationwide, calling them a very important part of the economy. Governor Granholm also attended the festivities, and told reporters afterward that she was headed to Capital Hill to lobby Michigan’s Congressional delegation for extending unemployment benefits.

-John McNeill, News Director, Midwest Communications of Michigan, Kalamazoo