KINGSTON — Olympic Printer Resources, Inc. was recently honored by the state American Legion as the state’s Small Business of the Year for hiring veterans.

The award was presented July 21 at the Legion’s state convention in Wenatchee.

Olympic Printer Resources remanufactures Brother, Canon, Hewlett Packard, and other brands of printer, fax and copier laser toner cartridges. It recently released the standard CE390A and high yield CE390X cartridges for the new HP Enterprise LaserJet 600 series printers.  Company president Jeff Petersen, a 1974 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and a former nuclear submarine officer, was presented the certificate of appreciation at the convention by state Commander Jake Cabuag and Bob Theal of Poulsbo Legion Post 245, who nominated the company for the award.  “I was impressed that seven of the company’s 10 local employees are service veterans and another was the wife of a retired Navy CPO,” Theal said.

Petersen said he likes to hire veterans “because I know that based on their previous military service, they are mission oriented and really get the concept of teamwork.”

Olympic Printer Resources was founded by Pete DeBoer, a retired U.S. Coast Guard officer, in 1993. It was awarded a Kitsap County Earth Day Award for Environmental Leadership in 2008. Last year, it reported to the State of Washington that it keep 22.89 tons of empty cartridges from going into landfills.