The siblings behind the Missouri Star Quilt Company have been named the Missouri State Small Business Persons of the Year by the U.S. Small Business Administration.

The company, based in Hamilton, Mo., is owned by the brother-sister team of Alan Doan and Sarah Galbraith. Missouri Star operates a brick-and-mortar shop and a thriving e-commerce site, where it offers quilting tutorials and quilting supplies. Founded in late 2008, the company now employs more than 25 people, making it one of the largest employers in Caldwell County.

The siblings were motivated to pursue entrepreneurship to help their parents.

“Our dad, Ron Doan, commuted an hour and a half to work each way as a mechanic at the Kansas City Star newspaper,” Galbraith wrote on Missouri Star’s website. “He worked long hours and many night shifts to support Mom (Jenny) and us seven children.

“In 2008, when (Dad) lost a hefty portion of his retirement savings in the market crash and at a time when the newspaper industry, a sinking ship, was laying off people every month, my brother Alan and I had the idea to start a business that could help our parents towards retirement.”

Doan and Galbraith are now in the running for the National Small Business Person of the Year, an award that will be announced in early May as part of the SBA’s National Small Business Week Celebration.