Jeff Sherr, Apple Drugs president, in front of the Health Mart Screening Bus.

The owner of Apple Discount Drugs in Fruitland is one of 10 pharmacists nationwide to receive the Health Mart Community Healthcare Excellence Award.

Jeff Sherr, who also owns three other drug stores, was honored for “consistently providing care and services that add measurable value to patient health care and community wellness.”

The award was presented to him Monday, July 14, when the Health Mart Health Living Tour visited his Fruitland pharmacy and offered free health screenings.

The vice president of San Francisco-based Health Mart, Chuck Wilson, said pharmacists are often the first point of care for customers. He praised Sherr, and the other award recipients, as having “proven themselves as go-to resources for those in their community managing these diseases.”

Sherr said his goal is to convince customers to take better care of themselves.

“The way to differentiate ourselves is, where a lot of other stores sell food, frozen goods, photos and those things, we really want to be a health care provider,” he said.

“We’ve tried to basically take care of people. Our vision is caring for you and about you. Nowadays with health care, it’s a new world order and nobody knows what’s going on. You need to have a navigator out there. You need somebody to go to and people can come to use and ask us questions,” he said.

Sherr, whose other pharmacies are in Berlin, Harbor Point in Salisbury and Snow Hill, chose the name Apple for his businesses because of the healthful “apple a day” connotation. “We chose the happy apple that made everybody feel good,” he said.

“We try to see how we can make a difference in people’s lives. You’re not going to save everybody but if everybody saves somebody it makes a difference. We have a diabetes center in Fruitland and we do a lot of classes and 101 training” said Sherr, whose wife Joanne and son Zack are also pharmacists. Zack is newly licensed.

“If you walk in here and have a question about cholesterol medicine or anything, we’ll spend time with you and try to help,” he said.

Sherr, who took over as president of Apple Discount Drugs in 1998 when owner Len Winkleman retired, is an alumni of the University of Maryland. He formed Apple Infusion, a separate corporation that handles home intravenous, chemotherapy, pain management and intravenous antibiotics.

Customers can also be fitted for braces, find mastectomy products, get CPAP fittings and fine supplies, nebulizers and home oxygen equipment.

“We want you to have a healthy lifestyle. Maybe it’s getting some activity daily. If you’re female be sure you take calcium. Maybe you should be taking a low-dose aspirin every day to prevent a heart attack. It’s the little things,” Sherr said.

“And once you see something positive the positive will breed on positive. Then you start feeling good about yourself. “

Contact Susan Canfora at scanfora@newszap.com.