Best Of Lynden 2024 by Lynden Tribune

The results are in!

The Lynden Tribune and Lynden Chamber of Commerce extend a huge thank you to all of the readers who participated in our 2024 Best of Lynden Readers Choice Awards. We are pleased to present the awards to the winning local businesses listed throughout this publication. Congratulations!

Best Tires/Auto: Point S Zylstra Tire

Community-minded, service-oriented tire shop serves with kindness

By Racquel Muncy For the Tribune

LYNDEN — Point S Zylstra Tire has been a staple in the Lynden community for as long as anyone can remember, providing service to anything from the family minivan to the tractor.

Recently, Zylstra Tire won a 2024 Best of Lynden award for tires/auto.

Co-owner Gilbert Silva said he has been with the business for about 40 years.

“I’m one of those old-school people and I’m loyal,” he said of the length of his tenure. “I kept with it and really enjoy doing it.”

Silva was hired by Jerry Zylstra when the shop was a part of DeWaard & Bode, back when they sold tires before becoming a local appliance giant.

In the 1980s, Zylstra purchased the business and in 2012 Silva bought the shop from him alongside Zylstra’s son Tyler. The duo has been running the shop ever since.

After all these years “it’s still the same business,” Silva said.

He said it is the community that has kept him in the business and that he enjoys talking with his customers. Over the years, Silva has

Point S Zylstra Tire has been a staple in the Lynden community for as long as anyone can remember, providing service to anything from the family minivan to the tractor. Pictured are Tyler Zylstra and Gilbert Silva, from left.

(Bill Helm/Lynden Tribune)

Cover photo courtesy of Dennis Cairns

Best Cleaning Service: Cleaned by Cortney

Owner says providing a cleaning service is 'an intimate relationship that takes a lot of trust on the part of the customer'

By Racquel Muncy For the Tribune

WHATCOM — Cleaned by Cortney provides north Whatcom County with precision detail, positive attitudes and friendly service that can be difficult to find elsewhere.

Owner Cortney Prosser-Wilson said she started the business just over one year ago and was shocked and humbled to have been voted Best Cleaning Service for Best of Lynden 2024.

She said when she was pregnant with her youngest child she had attempted to hire a cleaner and found it difficult to find someone reliable and friendly that provided a high level of service.

This showed the need in the area, so she decided she would be the one to fill it.

Prosser-Wilson started off in a handful of homes and has grown to serving homes and businesses all over northern Whatcom County.

“I love my clients and appreciate those at the beginning when I was really an unknown,” she said.

She said providing a cleaning service is an intimate relationship that takes a lot of trust on the part of the customer.

“We take that very seriously,” ProsserWilson said. “It’s more than just house cleaning.”

Prosser-Wilson has quickly grown from a one-woman team to having a full crew and serving everywhere from Blaine and Ferndale to Sumas and Everson.

“My dream of this consistent, quality cleaning company has come true,” she said.

Natalie Pike, who was the first person to join Prosser-Wilson’s team, said what makes Cleaned by Cortney stand out is the level of detail they go into on a clean.

“We are very much detail-focused,” she said.

Fellow staff lead Jill Levasseur said it is the connection created with customers

Cortney Prosser-Wilson started Cleaned by Cortney in a handful of homes and has grown to serving homes and businesses all over northern Whatcom County. Recently, Prosser-Wilson said she was shocked and hum-

(Racquel Muncy for the Tribune)

that makes the company stand out.

“Most of our clients, if we do one clean, they have us back,” she said.

Prosser-Wilson echoed those sentiments, adding that about 80% of the cleaning jobs are return customers.

Adrienne Carrie, another staff lead for the company, said it is the level of communication that makes them stand apart. She said they text clients when they are on their way, so they have a reasonable estimated timeframe.

“They know when we’re coming,” Carrie said. “They appreciate that.”

It’s not just the customer service that is exceptional, the staff also said it is a great place to work.

Pike said she enjoys that it is a positive work environment, and the crew always tries to uplift each other.

Levasseur echoed that sentiment, adding that the respect the crew has for each other and the support they give each other goes “above and beyond.”

She said she has also known ProsserWilson for a long time and believes in the dream that has been created.

“I believe in her and I love the way that she leads her team and treats her clients,” she said.

Prosser-Wilson said she appreciates the team and the hard work and positive attitude they bring to work every day.

“It takes a special person to do this,”

she said. “It is so nice to have people working with me that care as much as I do.”

Carrie said she like working for Cleaned by Cortney because it provides the flexibility she needs to work within the hours while her children are at school.

Prosser-Wilson said many of the staff members are working moms, and as a working mom herself, being able to provide that flexibility is important to her.

Cleaned by Cortney is not taking on new clients until after the new year as she works to hire additional qualified staff.

Going into 2025 Prosser-Wilson said she hopes to further expand her business by becoming a presence in Belling-

ham as well.

She said she is thankful for the recognition from the community for the hard work, long nights and many sleepless nights poured into the business that led to bringing home the Best of Lynden award.

“This was huge,” she said.

Lavasseur agreed.

“It’s a huge accomplishment,” she said. “It’s a really big deal.”

Cleaned by Cortney does both home and commercial cleans, as well as postconstruction services.

For more information, Cortney Prosser-Wilson can be reached at 360594-8291or CleanedByCortney@gmail. com.

Cleaned by Cortney provides north Whatcom County with precision detail, positive attitudes and friendly service that can be difficult to find elsewhere. (Racquel Muncy for the Tribune)

Best New Business: Graze and Gather

Mother/daughter owners of charcuterie and bistro business reflect on faith and family after busy year

By Luke Seymour Staff Reporter

LYNDEN — For most people, the phrase “family business,” is merely a title. However, for Lydia Faber and her daughter Kristina Wendt, those two words are a lifestyle. The mother and daughter own Graze and Gather Charcuterie and Bistro, one of the most popular new eateries in the Lynden Commons area.

Located at 115 Duffner Drive, Graze and Gather offers a variety of meats, cheese and fruit platters. The bistro part of the business also serves breakfast, as well as lunch items such as bowls, wraps and specially curated sandwiches.

Recently, Graze and Gather was recognized as Best New Business in the 2024 Best of Lynden awards.

First started as purely a catering business in fall 2020, Faber said she first operated the business out of the Goat Rodeo Kitchen in Bellingham when the COVID-19 pandemic struck Whatcom County.

“That was sort of a blessing for us,” Faber said. “I’d always done a lot of catering for friends and families. I loved the whole graze table form of serving food and when the pandemic hit, there were all these virtual meetings that were happening and we had all these catering items to offer, so the business really took off from there.”

After finding success in its first year, the business expanded in 2021 and moved to the Green Barn in Lynden.

“We started growing pretty quickly,” Faber said. “We suddenly were doing a lot more graze tables, many more charcuterie orders and we expanded into more corporate catering. Two years ago, Kristina joined me to help out with the company.”

Before joining her mother to help run Graze and Gather, Wendt managed Edaleen Dairy for seven years, built up experience and acquired the expertise needed to help operate a growing business.

“That was a big help with the bistro,” Wendt said. “Otherwise I was doing my own thing, just personal training and rais-

Kristina Wendt, left, and her mother, Lydia Faber, own Graze and Gather Charcuterie and Bistro. Graze and Gather is one of the most popular new eateries in the Lynden Commons shopping center, pictured on opposite page. (Luke Seymour/Lynden Tribune)

ing three kids in the last six years.”

After Wendt came on board, her and Faber looked for a place to expand the company.

“It was tough at first,” Wendt said. “We’re picky. It had to be the right building, the right location. We were looking for something specific.”

Although the search for a new location proved difficult, the two were relieved when space in the Lynden Commons opened up. When needing help developing the new location, they once again turned to family.

“My son’s a contractor and my husband is an architect,” Faber said. “That definitely helped. We told them what we wanted, and they made it happen. We made a real family startup.”

After five months of development, construction for the new location wrapped earlier this summer and the company announced its grand opening on Aug. 30.

Since then, the two agreed business has been booming, with Faber attributing much of their success to family, Wendt contributing it to faith.

“Working as a family has been amazing,” Faber said. “Kristina’s sister Joanna helped us with the coffee bar, my daughter Angela has done our web design and graphic design, and my other daughter Emily comes in and works four days a week. That’s five of us who have brought different things to the table here.”

Wendt also said that faith “definitely also plays a role.”

“Every day we practice being thankful, especially when it’s busy on Saturdays and there’s a line out the door,” Wendt said. “We just both look at each other and remember that we prayed for this.”

-- Contact Luke Seymour at luke@lyndentribune.com.

Best Tires/Auto:Point S Zylstra Tire

them to another shop for a service Zylstra Tire does not offer.

seen generations of families come in, with kids growing up, starting their families and continuing to come to the shop.

Silva said community support has been the key to the success over all these years, particularly in the farming and Hispanic communities.

“The ag business is huge for us,” he said, adding that it is a niche many other automotive service businesses do not cater to. “Nobody knows too much about that stuff.”

He said the same goes for the Hispanic community. Silva was born in Texas and moved to Lynden when he was 5 years old and speaks fluent Spanish as it is his first language.

“That clientele has gotten huge over the years,” he said.

Silva said they appreciate someone who can explain what their vehicle needs in their native tongue, and he will often translate for families when he has to send

He said serving the Hispanic community is important to him and the shop has been in search of a bilingual mechanic but finds it difficult to find someone who knows the mechanic terminology.

He said it can also be difficult as there are many dialects in the area, including those from Guatemala, Columbia, Mexico and Venezuela.

Silva said community support comes from decades of high-level customer service and honest work that has been used to form relationships.

He said there is always honest work that needs to be done for someone, so there has never been a need or a want to mislead customers into getting extra work done for the sake of profits.

“Working like that and being able to be truthful and honest is why I stay here,” he said.

He said he has seen many customers over the years try another tire shop

but find out the service and how they are treated is not up to the Zylstra standard and return.

“They find it’s hard to beat the service here,” he said. “They end up coming back because they didn’t get the service they should have.”

Silva said he also takes pride in the diversity of services they offer and the value given. Due to the partnership with Point S, he said they can get a variety of tire brands at varying price points to fit every need and situation.

“Here we’re able to give you a lot of options,” he said.

Silva said it has been the people who have kept him in the business for 40 years, his employees included.

He said he still enjoys jumping into a bay with the guys to help with a job.

“I don’t hesitate to get out there and get the work done,” he said.

While he enjoys it, he said it also goes a long way to morale and added that everyone on the team contributes to high

morale and a good place to work.

He said he also enjoys supporting the same community that supports him, whether it’s donating tires to local organizations, supporting a Little League team or providing used tires for someone in immediate need.

It’s those “quiet things” they do that make a world of difference for the community, he said.

“It’s about the good things you can do for your community,” he said.

Silva said he sees the future of Zylstra Tire continuing on the same path as he eases out of the business.

“I’d really like to start getting some time off,” he said. “There’s more to life than work.”

However, he said he hopes Zylstra Tire will be around to see many more generations of families come through the doors.

Point S Zylstra Tire is at 501 Grover St., Lynden. Visit pointstire.com or call 360354-4493 for more information.