WARREN — Taking time to showcase how business in Macomb County is excelling, a half-dozen companies were honored at the 2014 Home in Macomb Business Awards at the Andiamo Celebrity Showroom Feb. 11.

Stephen Cassin, director of the Macomb County Department of Planning and Economic Development, said this is the second year of the awards, which they give out as part of their Home in Macomb Program to retain and attract businesses to the county.

That’s a lesson Clinton Township residents Josh Garrison, 31, and Jacquelyn Monastero, 28, have been living for the past 10 years.

In January, their story captured national attention when they were named as one of five finalists for a Hawaii wedding giveaway from the ABC morning talk show “Live! With Kelly.” It was too fitting an opportunity to pass up, considering they met 10 years ago on the island of Oahu, Hawaii.

CLINTON TOWNSHIP — With the installment of a new gate system at the township’s dog park, township workers will have a more active log of the canines accessing the park.

Township Parks and Recreation Director Linda Walter said the gate system upgrade, which uses plastic key fobs in place of key cards to enter the dog park, will allow them to track in real time who accessed the park. More than 560 people have passes to the park, which is located behind the Clinton Township Adult Senior Life Center on Romeo Plank Road.

CLINTON TOWNSHIP — Whatever their stories or reason for coming, the men who attend a once-a-week parenting workshop have at least one thing in common.

They’re all trying to grow as fathers.

By the time the workshop, aimed at helping men build healthy relationships with their children, begins at 7 p.m., the Macomb Intermediate School District building is all but empty for the night. But in a back room of the building’s second-floor library, the men convene around a table for two hours every Thursday for 14 weeks.

But she wasn’t done living yet. Feeling inspired by a pottery display at Greenfield Village, the mother-daughter duo signed up for a pottery class together at Oakland Community College.

“She was a very positive woman and wanted to do something new,” Bertolini-Fox recalled of her mother, who overcame her diagnosis to live another 12 years before passing away in 1995. But pottery, it turned out, had a much longer impact.

CLINTON TOWNSHHIP — The Moravian Bridge was reopened to motorists Oct. 14 after about 10 months of construction work on the structure shut it down.

The bridge, which goes over the Clinton River between Cass Avenue and Harrington Boulevard in Clinton Township, had to be completely rebuilt, said Bob Hoepfner, director of the Macomb County Department of Roads.

“When you keep busy, it keeps you young,” said Donna, who is 80 years old.

This is the motto of arguably two of the hardest working people in Fraser. Even though the couple technically retired in 2001 after working together for 42 years as gas and water meter installers, they never really did.

“When we retired, we just couldn’t sit around,” said Fred, who is 86 years old. “It started as a hobby, kept growing. Now the whole family is involved.”

CLINTON TOWNSHIP — Topics like assisted living, medical care and in-home help are a given at a vendor fair organized specifically for retirees. Less expected would be information about yoga and tai chi, dance classes and music lessons for senior citizens.

The Macomb County Wellness and Retirement Expo offers all of that and more.

The free expo April 29 features 65 vendors specializing in services for senior citizens of all types, including the new breed of retiree who wants to keep their youth as they age.