Bob Maxwell Walk-A-Ways, Inc.
70 years in business
They are: Rob (president) and JoAnn (secretary) Maxwell are second-generation owners of Bob Maxwell Walk-A-Ways Inc., established 70 years ago this year. Rob runs the business full-time, but the year’s main event is the Dutchess County Fair. In order to run their 13 fair stands, the family employs 70 local teens; for years, this included their own two children. “They started working here at 14 because they had no choice,” JoAnn says with a chuckle. Rob Sr. says proudly, “Karisa, 27, is a deputy editor at Sporting News in Charlotte, and Bobby, 23, is an assistant superintendent with Summit Contracting in Jacksonville, [but] they both still come up to work every summer.”
What they sell: Bob Maxwell Walk-Away Sundaes, for which the company was founded and named; sausage & peppers; foot-long hot dogs; Philly steaks; corn dogs; pork rib sandwiches; hamburgers; cheesecake on a stick; frozen bananas; ice cream; Sno-Cones; Karisa’s What’s Shakin’ Lemonade; orangeade & lime fizz; and Southwestern rice burrito bowls
Where they travel from: Middletown
