AT SAARIE AUTO BODY, NEXT GENERATION SETTLES IN

Thirty-seven years after his dad, Blaine, started the business at the age of 24, another 24-year-old — Shay — has returned

For Blaine Saarie, something that has meant a great deal to him since starting his business, Saarie Auto Body, 37 years ago is the opportunity to staff his business with young adults getting their start in the world of mechanics and other automotive work.

“Mentoring them is something that we’ve always been proud of,” he says. “And I still keep in touch with many of them.”

But it is the newest young-adult hire that is among the most meaningful and one that hits closest to home — literally.

Shay, the 24-year-old son of Blaine and his wife, Penny, is now a key cog in the family business wheel, working full-time as shop manager, estimator and the connecting point between customers and insurance agencies. In doing so, it’s giving Blaine an opportunity to step back from the management end of the business he started in 1987 and return to his true passion — getting his hands dirty.

“I started this business to work on cars,” said Blaine, who turns 61 at the end of the month and will begin trimming the hours he is at work. “The insurance aspect of it is getting harder and harder and you have to keep up on it, and as you get older, that gets harder to do.”

Shay is willing and eager to make sure things get done and communicated correctly, Blaine continues, “and he’s energized to get after it.”

Return to the business

For Shay, his path back to Saarie Auto Body wasn’t exactly complicated, but it wasn’t a straight one, either.

After graduating from Freeman High School in 2019, he enrolled at Dakota Wesleyan University in Mitchell to begin work on his undergraduate degree in business administration and management, and in 2022 — his senior year — he started his own business, Skilled Appraisal Services.

“I was motivated to get into the automotive industry and grow my knowledge on the estimating side of things,” he said. “I had been in the mechanic shop; I had been in the auto body shop, into the parts room, but I wanted to come full circle on the estimating part of it.”

Skilled Appraisal Services started as a solo venture but grew in scale, all while Shay was earning his master’s degree from DWU in business administration, something he knocked out in a year. Before long he and two other employees were traveling the Midwest covering South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa and Nebraska appraising “anything wheels.”

Work included looking at damage and what it would take to fix it, communicating that information with the owners and the insurance companies, and then working directly with body shops “making sure everybody was being taken care of fairly.”

While the work was exceedingly rewarding, Shay indicated it was always in the back of his mind to one day return to Freeman, and with his dad looking to slow down, the Saaries started talking about a transition last year.

“We had a conversation,” Shay says. “He was wanting to spend more time in the shop, and I like the community of Freeman, so the pull to come back here, work with my family and grow this company, was strong.”

“This is something we’ve been looking forward to, but we were never pushing him into it — at all,” says Blaine. “We made sure it was his choice and that he would get the respect that he’s owed.”

Shay ended up selling Skilled Appraisal Services to a larger corporation that retained his employees — something that was important to him — and started working full-time at Saarie Auto Body in December of last year, all while commuting from Mitchell.

“We’ve been taking it day by day and adjusting accordingly, but we’re excited for the future,” Blaine says. “We’ve been a test pilot for the last few months, and so far so good.”

Shay says the estimating aspect of the job is no different from what he was used to when he had his own business; the software he uses is even the same. But there has been a lot to learn outside of that, from managing schedules and efficiencies to dealing with everyday challenges when they come up.

“There was a learning curve, as there is with anything, but the insurance side of it goes hand in hand with what I’ve been doing,” he says. “I’m very happy to bring the skills I learned back to Freeman and apply them here.”

Now and into the future

Today, Shay occupies the office previously used by his dad, and Blaine is being more selective in what he chooses to do, “because before I was doing everything.”

“But I’ll still be around to answer questions and help out as needed,” he says. “I’m still able and willing.”

And Saarie Auto Body will continue to be a vital part of the business community just as it has for the better part of three decades, only with a different Saarie calling the shots.

“This is a great time,” says Blaine. “We have a great, capable crew and (Shay) already has a clientele of people who want him to take care of them; that’s the small-town aspect.”

It’s that “small town aspect” that motivated Blaine to start Saarie Auto Body in the first place, and it’s what keep him going after a devastating fire gutted his business just seven months after opening. Blaine said then, and he confirms it to this day, that without the support of Freeman, he probably would have thrown in the towel.

Shay feels that, too.

“I have always had a really good relationship with my parents and the people of Freeman,” he says. “I care about the community and I want to make sure I can help keep a business here for future generations to enjoy, and provide quality work for the people here.”

“We all have the same goal here — to set it up for success for Shay and to keep a business open in Freeman,” says Blaine. “We are so fortunate to have the automotive repair facilities we have in Freeman, and they’re all good. A lot of towns don’t even have one.”

Blaine and Penny both say Shay’s return is a good fit for that collective advantage.

“If he sees something that needs to be done — if a car is supposed to go out by the end of the day — he’ll go out and wash it,” says Blaine. “He’s not too above the ladder to wash a car.”

“Everybody needs to be able to grab a broom and sweep the floor,” says Shay.

“Very proud of the man he has become,” says Penny, who will continue to work on the accounting side of the business as she has always done. “Very proud of his personality, his care for other people, and his care for the product that we put out.”

And she is confident he will continue to grow what the Saaries have established, giving another nod to the Freeman community.

“I don’t think we could have done better anywhere else,” she says.

“Thank you for 37 great years,” Blaine says in a message to the community. “I’m not going anywhere, but it’s exciting to see the next generation come in. I don’t know how much prouder you can be to have that happen.

“This has been my dream, and now I want it to be his.”