Westchester Magazine's Small Business Award

Westchester seniors get to ride in style with The Upper Class, a Mamaroneck-based business offering luxury bus trips to locales in Canada, the Northeast, and down the Appalachians. Since the Lawer family founded the company in 2002, they've expanded the number of annual trips from three to 250 and have served more than 40,000 seniors.

"The Upper Class was inspired by my grandmother," Brooke Lawer says. "She chose the company's name and created our mission, because she said it described the place seniors have achieved in life and the level of service they deserve."

The Upper Class works with local vendors, keeping business inside the county. The company has grown over the years through word of mouth and relationships with local nonprofits that work with seniors. Lawer also says they've successfully generated new business online, showing that Westchester seniors have become quite Internet-savvy. "Our guests are proof that 60 is the new 40, and 70 is the new 50," she says.

The Lawers believe active seniors want to take time to enjoy life and are increasingly looking for safe outlets to travel, which has helped propel The Upper Class' success. They are happy, says Paul Lawer, to give clients "a chance to do fun things they wouldn't do on their own, while meeting new people."