When my father, Wilbur Thrush, started this company in 1960, there was no online voting and no awards page. There was a phone number, a truck, and a promise to do the job right. Every recognition since then, including Best of Dayton 2026, traces back to that promise.

I spent my career building on it, and now my son, Corey, is carrying it forward as the third generation. Our crews work in neighborhoods my father and I worked in, sometimes on the very same houses, a generation later. When a homeowner tells us their parents hired us too, that means more to me than any trophy.

So here’s what we’ll do with this honor: keep answering the phone, keep showing up when we say we will, keep cleaning up like it’s our own yard, and keep standing behind the work years after the last nail goes in. That’s the whole plan for the next 66 years.

To everyone who voted, referred a neighbor, or simply trusted us with your home: thank you. We don’t take any of it for granted.

W. Allen ThrushOwner, second generation