In 2005, Catie Sondrol and Colleen McShea — who were complete strangers at the time — decided to ride together to conduct an assigned pediatric evaluation north of Lake Havasu City.

Owners Catie Sondrol, left, and Colleen McShea stand in front of their clinic, Milemarkers Therapy located at 276 S. Lake Havasu Ave. The clinic is one of 13 businesses statewide to be recognized for its success. Jayne Hanson/News-Herald Photo.

During that trip, the two specialists came up with an idea — now five years later, that idea is getting state recognition.

“We are super excited and we feel like really honored to receive such an award for the whole state of Arizona,” said Milemarkers Therapy co-owner Colleen McShea. “We are hoping that more people will see that we exist out there and we want to help out as many kids as we can.”

Milemarkers Therapy is one of 13 businesses in Arizona to receive the Arizona Small Business Development Center 2010 Success Award. The businesses are honored for their “exceptional achievement.”

It was during that car trip in 2005 when the two pediatric speech and occupational therapists started talking about the need for therapy in the Lake Havasu City area.

After spending nights and weekends — outside of their full-time jobs — providing pediatric services to area children, the two decided to start their own business in 2006.

One year later, Milemarkers Therapy found a home at 276 S. Lake Havasu Ave. and has since grown to employ eight full-time people.

The pair and their staff provide speech therapy and help children in Mohave and La Paz counties with daily tasks such as homework, brushing their teeth, getting dressed and feeding themselves. The two said not all of their clients have special needs, and some children just require a little help with their speech.

They said their services work together to help children “decrease their frustration and increase independence.”

The company holds a contract with the Parker Unified School District, where therapists assist about 60 students regularly. Outside of the district, the therapists work with about 25 students a month, in addition to roughly 50 regular children visiting their clinic. They also said they conduct outreach to about 20 families a month to assess delays and educate families, and a new state grant allows them to provide free assessments in rural areas.

The owners said it was the help of the Small Business Development Center that helped their company grow.

Now the pair will be heading to Phoenix Tuesday to accept their award.

“When we started it, it was just a vision that Colleen and I had on a car trip,” Sondrol said. “We just keep growing. We are taking on new contracts. Our employee base has grown. We just feel like we are reaching a lot of kids. We are just really excited about that growth.”

You may contact the reporter at jleatherman@havasunews.com