Ken Germain, 48, is the owner of Race Graphics Plus, located on 4th Street in downtown Coleman. He provides screen printing, embroidery, direct to garment printing, vinyl graphics, signs and banners.

Race Graphics Plus serves individuals and commercial accounts including the Coleman, Farwell, Meridian and Clare schools. They also do baseball, softball and basketball uniforms for customers statewide. Germain’s mother-in-law, Sharon Harnick, helps out part-time.

Germain and his wife, Jackie, live in Coleman. They’ve been married for 25 years. She’s a patient care navigator at MyMichigan Health in Clare. They have two children, Tyler and Alexis. Ken grew up in Rosebush and is a graduate of Mount Pleasant High School.

How long have you owned your business? We opened Jan. 1, 2000, so 22 years. In April, we marked our fifth year in downtown Coleman. It was a home-based business prior to that.   

What inspired you to start this business? When we started, we did all race cars, vehicles and trucks. Then the people wanted shirts to match that. I raced 20 years ago. I could not get anyone to do the lettering the I way I wanted it, so I went to the bank, got a loan and started to do it myself. It grew from there.  

What makes Coleman a great place to own a business? Tight knit community, lots of community support, even through the 2020 year when we were closed for eight weeks. We’ve had our best two years since then.

What are some ways your business is active in the local community? We do many fundraisers with the schools, Little League, the Veterans Memorial — we’re doing the shirts for their concert this weekend — cancer benefits, 5K’s. We have five to six stores at a time rotating online that are fundraisers. They buy the shirts, and we make a donation in return.

What are some of your interests and hobbies? I'm very involved in baseball, coaching every age from t-ball to being an assistant at the high school. My son played college baseball, MidMichigan College. I’m now back coaching 14U and 12U for the Coleman Little League. It's my 16th year coaching at some level. When we’re not at baseball, we go to Silver Lakes and take our Jeep out on the sand dunes. I’m also the announcer for every sport for the Coleman schools.

What are some local businesses you work with that help make your business a success? Mears Group out of Rosebush, Metal Arts Construction out of Mount Pleasant. Locally, pretty much every business in Coleman: Bombers, Pizza Man, Curt Gordon, the pharmacy. The schools are my number one customer.

Final thoughts to share with the community? I want to thank the community. I’ve had a couple of high school students help over the years. Without the community and schools support, we wouldn’t be here.