Tracy Myers, owner of Frank Myers Auto Maxx in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, has been honored with the Carolinas Independent Automobile Dealers Association’s prestigious Servant’s Heart Award for the second time.
Myers received the 2026 honor during the 71st Annual CIADA Convention & Expo in South Carolina.
Sponsored by Greenville Auto Auction, the Servant’s Heart Award recognizes an independent automobile dealer who demonstrates servant leadership and makes a positive impact on the people around them and their community.
For Myers, who turned 55 this year and has now spent more than 35 years working full-time in the automotive industry, the recognition has taken on an even deeper meaning.
“Truthfully, when I first got into the car business more than 35 years ago, I wasn’t thinking about awards,” Myers said. “I was trying to learn, survive and hopefully make my parents proud.”
Myers credits his parents with teaching him lessons that went far beyond selling cars or running a successful business.
“They taught me that if you’re fortunate enough to have success, you have a responsibility to help someone else along the way,” Myers said. “The older I get, the more I understand just how important that lesson was.”
As part of the honor, Greenville Auto Auction is making a $10,000 charitable contribution to an organization selected by Myers.
His choice was Cases For A Cause, a North Carolina nonprofit serving children in foster care.
Myers has personally worked with and supported Cases For A Cause founder Alex Hiatt for more than four years.
“I’ve had an opportunity to see what Alex and the Cases For A Cause team do up close,” Myers said. “I’ve seen what they mean to these kids. When you actually witness it firsthand, you understand that this isn't just another charity doing good things. They're changing the way children feel about themselves during some incredibly difficult times in their lives.”
Cases For A Cause began with a simple but powerful mission: help end the practice of children in foster care carrying their belongings from placement to placement in trash bags.
Through its Carry The Cause program, the organization provides foster children with full-size personalized suitcases containing essential items. Its work has since expanded to include Operation Fresh Feet, which has provided more than 1,000 pairs of new shoes; programs that help fill gaps in resources for foster families; Christmas assistance; and experiences designed to allow foster children to simply be kids and create happy memories.
“Think about what a suitcase means to most of us,” Myers said. “It's something we throw in the closet until our next trip. To a child who has been carrying everything they own in a trash bag, that suitcase can mean dignity. It tells them their belongings matter. More importantly, it tells them they matter.”
That made Cases For A Cause an easy choice when Myers learned he would be able to direct the $10,000 donation.
While the award bears Myers’ name, he is quick to share the recognition with the team at Frank Myers Auto Maxx.
“None of this belongs to me alone,” Myers said. “Every customer we’ve served, every opportunity we’ve been given and every good thing we've been able to do in this community has been made possible by an incredible group of people at Frank Myers Auto Maxx.”
The Myers family has deep roots in the automotive business, and community involvement has remained an important part of the dealership’s philosophy throughout its history.
For Tracy Myers, however, reaching 55 and looking back over 35 years in the car business has caused him to think more about what comes next.
“If the first half of my life was about building businesses, I want the second half to be about building people,” Myers said. “Encouraging them. Investing in them. Opening doors when I can. Giving more than I take.”
It is a goal Myers says extends beyond himself.
He wants Frank Myers Auto Maxx to continue being known not simply as a used car dealership in Winston-Salem, but as a local business that remembers why it exists in the first place: because generations of people in Winston-Salem and the surrounding Piedmont Triad have chosen to support it.
“Our community has allowed my family, my team and me to serve them for a lot of years,” Myers said. “You don't repay something like that with words. You repay it by being there when somebody needs you.”
After more than three decades in the automotive industry, Myers admits his definition of success has changed.
Sales still matter. So does growing a business, creating jobs and taking care of customers.
But they aren't the whole scoreboard anymore.
“At 55, I'm thinking a lot more about legacy than I did at 25 or 35,” Myers said. “Someday nobody is going to care how many cars I sold. They're not going to remember a sales record from a particular month or year.”
“They'll remember how we treated them.”
For Myers, receiving the Servant’s Heart Award for the second time is less about adding another trophy to a shelf and more about being reminded of what he wants the years ahead to look like.
“I'm grateful to CIADA for this incredible honor and to Greenville Auto Auction for believing enough in this award to put $10,000 behind it and allow the recipient to help an organization they care about,” Myers said.
“I'm grateful to Alex and everybody at Cases For A Cause for reminding us what serving other people looks like. I'm grateful to my parents for planting those seeds in me a long time ago. And I'm incredibly grateful to the Frank Myers Auto Maxx team because they're the people who make it possible for us to make a difference.”
Then Myers returned to the lesson he says has become clearer with every passing year.
“In the end, people aren't going to remember how many cars you sold. They're going to remember how you made them feel.”
“I hope that's always what we're known for.”
Frank Myers Auto Maxx is a family-owned independent used car dealership serving Winston-Salem, Forsyth County and the Piedmont Triad of North Carolina. Led by owner Tracy Myers, CMD, the dealership continues a multigenerational Myers family tradition in the automotive industry while focusing on helping customers find automotive solutions and supporting the community it serves.
Cases For A Cause is a North Carolina nonprofit dedicated to supporting children in foster care. Its programs provide personalized suitcases and essential items, new shoes, assistance for foster families, holiday support and memorable experiences for children in care. The organization works with foster families, social workers, community leaders and other organizations to identify unmet needs and provide practical support that gives children dignity, confidence and opportunities to simply enjoy being kids.
