Brig Sorber
The 37th Annual Chattanooga Area Leadership Prayer Breakfast will be held on Tuesday, May 5, at the Chattanooga Convention Center, Exhibit Hall A & B. Doors open at 6:45 a.m., the buffet begins at 7 a.m. and the program will be from 7:20-8:45 a.m.
The speaker this year will be Brig Sorber, CEO of Two Men and a Truck International.
Mr. Sorber is one of the original two men along with younger brother Jon Sorber. The two started the business in the early 1980s in Okemos, Mich. to earn spending money. Using a 1966 pickup truck, the brothers placed an ad in a local shopping guide that read “Men At Work Movers…Two Men and A Truck.” The ad also included a stick figure logo designed by their mother, Mary Ellen Sheets. This logo remains the corporate symbol for the now Two Men and A Truck/Internationa, Inc.
After he left home to attend Northern Michigan University, Ms. Sheets decided to keep the business rolling.
Upon graduation, Mr. Sorber worked as an insurance agent in Michigan’s upper peninsula. He also operated his own Two Men and a Truck franchise in Marquette with his wife, Francine.
In September 1996, the Sorbers sold their franchise to come home to Lansing so they could help Ms. Sheets and sister, Melanie Bergeron, restructure the Two Men and a Truck system. Mr. Sorber then served as a field consultant and was also in charge of franchise recruitment. Brig assumed the role of president in 2007 and became president and CEO in 2009. He is currently CEO.
Mr. Sorber feels that his experience as a mover, driver and a franchisee helps him to make well-educated decisions that benefit the Two Men and a Truck system as a whole.
Approximately 38 years ago, John Stophel (attorney with, what was then, Stophel, Caldwell & Heggie, PC); John Wright (president, American National Bank); John Steffner (owner and president, Chattanooga Armature Works); and Ted DeMoss (president, CBMC, Inc.) met with Mayor Pat Rose to share their vision about having an event to encourage morality and ethics in the lives of all people in positions of leadership in business, government and in professions. Originally called the Mayor's Prayer Breakfast, the name was changed to the Chattanooga Area Leadership Prayer Breakfast in the early 1990's. The event has grown from an attendance of several hundred the first year in 1978 at the Chattanooga Choo Choo, with Chuck Colson as the speaker to last year's attendance of approximately 1,700 at the Chattanooga Convention Center. It is the largest community-wide seated event in the Chattanooga area.
Cost to attend is $20 per person or $160 per table of eight. For more information call Carol at Wingfield Scale, 698-0100 or e-mail at cbrown@wingfieldscale.com. Check payment may be made payable to Prayer Breakfast, mailed to c/o Jackson Wingfield, 2205 Holtzclaw Ave., Chattanooga, TN 37404.
The Chattanooga Prayer Breakfast website is www.ChattanoogaPrayerBreakfast.org. Tickets may also be ordered online using PayPal.