“It’s a great family and they’ve built this company into a family.”

Bob Zurcher, a 25-year employee of Whirley-DrinkWorks!, spoke highly of the company built by Bob Sokolski and Hal Conarro over the last 55 years during an annual milestone event Thursday at the Conewango Club.

Events Coordinator DiAnn Savko said employees reaching 15, 20, 25, 30 and 35 years with the company were honored during the event that has been going in its current format since 2003, along with a speech by Sokolski about the history of the company.

“It was special for us this year with Bob and Hal being there 55 years,” Savko said. “We want to honor as many people for their service as possible. For me, it’s a chance to have everybody here. It’s a chance for the younger people who have been here 10 or 15 years to hear about what went on with people who are celebrating the older years, what it was like those years.”

Savko showed a Power Point before each milestone group including pop culture from “Back to the Future” and “The Empire Strikes Back” to music, national news, local news and Whirley news. “I wanted to put that year in perspective as far as what was going on,” she said.

And, with name tags decorated with characters from Pixar’s “Toy Story” trilogy and a final toast to the song “You’ve Got a Friend in Me,” Savko said it was all about Hal and Bob’s friendship.

“Bob and Hal developed a friendship that grew into a business that became our livelihood,” Savko said. “It was a way to give that kind of toast to them and their friendship. You think about your best friend and, when you’re in your 80s, will they still be your best friend?”

In a room packed with employees hitting milestones, only two employees were honored for 30 or more years-Bruce Shreve, 30 years, and Judy Anderson, 35.

Shreve said he was “proud of the company” in a short speech, while Anderson recounted her last 35 years with poem-something she said she’d done five years prior as well.

Sokolski spoke of his friendship with Conarro that sparked the business found in amusement parks and stadiums all over today.

“We’ve been together for many, many years,” he said after a slide show of photos featuring Sokolski and Conarro with their wives Sally and Mary.

He gave a brief history that ranged from laundromats to car washes, including a time when he and Conarro had to repair the laundry equipment themselves.

Sokolski said he stuck a screwdriver into one of the machines…before he hit an electrical component that “threw me off the damn thing!”

“We are a family business,” he said, after having everyone at the tables shake hands with each other before moving to greet other tables as well, “but more importantly, we’re a family company.”

It was that sentiment that really described the essence of the event.

“Our fathers are great businessmen and great community leaders,” said Sokolski’s son, and Whirley President, Lincoln Sokolski, “but more importantly to their kids, they’re great fathers.”