Personal Experience Leads to Meaningful Ownership

​This article was originally published in Dayton Daily News on April 13, 2026. 

Many of today’s seniors want to “age in place,” and remain in the homes they love. But without help from family or caregivers, this may not be possible.

When Pat Luers of Springboro decided upon a business opportunity, he was intrigued by this concept. Having lived in Springboro since the age of two in a large family of six boys, he developed strong family values.

“When I was growing up in Springboro, it was still very small,” Luers said. “There was one flashing stoplight at routes 741 and 73.”

He grew up “running around” 24 acres and attended Bishop Fenwick High School (then in Middletown), graduating in 1986. He still remembers Heatherwood Golf Course being developed, along with the community that sprung up around it.

“I didn’t know what I wanted to do for a career,” Luers said. “We all went to UD (The University of Dayton), but I didn’t have a whole lot of direction.”

Luers graduated from UD in 1992 with a degree in communications. Because a neighbor had joined the Marine Corps, Luers decided he wanted to do the same. He joined the reserves, went to bootcamp and training and then was deployed during Operation Desert Storm and Sheid to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

“I ended up over there for about five months,” Luers said. “When I got back, I still had about 22 credit hours to finish to graduate college.”

Even with the degree and the military experience, Luers struggled with figuring out his next steps. He started out working for John Hancock Financial Services selling life insurance.

“When you are only 23 years old, it’s hard to convince people that they should buy life insurance,” Luers said.

So he left John Hancock and moved on to selling advertising in the Yellow Pages and then selling uniforms for Cintas. He said one of his best blessings during that time was finding a job with Kinkos in commercial sales in 1997.

“There was a lot of opportunity there and we had a great sales team,” Luers said. “But the company was going through a lot of transition.”

In 2002, Luers left Kinkos for a job coaching financial advisors. He struggled initially in the job, but after receiving valuable sales training, he ended up doing well. He remained in the same job for four years and during that time he noticed how businesses were treating their employees. It struck him that he could do better.

“I decided to look into buying a business so I would have more control over building a team,” Luers said. “I had no idea what and that’s when I came across franchising.”

Luers worked with a broker who helped him determine his interests and potential businesses that could be a good fit. The broker came to him with five potential companies. One of those was BrightStar Care.

Luers’ wife Kelly, whom he married in 1997, had lost her mother to Lou Gehrig’s disease and Kelly’s father had been her primary caregiver. In addition, Luers’ own aging parents, who also live in Warren County, needed caregivers they can count on. Kelly, who is a teacher at Bishop Fenwick High School, agreed the opportunity seemed a perfect fit.

“Kelly and I went to Chicago for two days to look at two different companies and were very impressed with BrightStar,” Luers said.

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Pat Luers (Right) with his wife Kelly in Alaska in 2023. Married in 1997, Kelly and Pat built BrightStar Care of Dayton and Centerville together from the ground up after they were given an opportunity to buy out a previous franchise owner and expand the territory in 2009.

Though Luers said he knew little about health care, the concept of helping people remain in the homes they love and providing them with expert care seemed perfect. He also loved that he could hire his own employees and build a team.

“Honestly, I felt like God called me to do this,” Luers said. “We decided to jump in.”

The couple launched BrightStar Care of Dayton and Centerville in August of 2009. At the time, Kelly was a stay-at-home mom raising their three children, Dave, Dan and Christie so before going back to teaching, she helped her husband build the business from the ground up

“I feel like there is so much more opportunity with BrightStar since we offer non-medical as well as medical care,” Luers said.

Luers hired a full-time branch manager to handle the office while he was out in the field selling the company and its services. Since the launch nearly 17 years ago, Luers has grown his business through trial and error.

“I made mistakes, but I learned from them and kept going,” Luers said. “The industry also changes a lot and so do hiring practices. But for me the big aha moment was understanding this is all about people. You have to have to have the right team to be successful.”

Today, he has 100 employees and has just become certified with the Department of Developmental Disabilities so the company can work with high-needs children and youth.

Most importantly for Luers is how he is impacting people who truly need help in order to remain in the homes they love.

“It’s a gift to be able to help these folks,” Luers said. “But all of this depends upon how we help our employees get over challenges and conflicts so they can go into family’s homes and do the same.”

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