Eight of the eleven participants in the popular LEAP! Program put their entrepreneurial skills on display at Casey’s Community House last Tuesday. Four of them walked away with awards.
“LEAP! is an 11-week program designed to help you kick-start your inspired idea and test it live,” program coordinator Amber MacGregor said. “Kootenay Employment Services and Simon Fraser University are collaborating for the fifth year to bring Creston Valley entrepreneurs access to a powerful startup launch program. The Local Entrepreneurship Accelerator Program program is designed to help entrepreneurs evaluate their business idea, test their model, and modify it to create a sustainable business.”
All 135 tickets sold out, and the annual Barnraiser took up the main floor of Casey’s for the evening, that featured appetizers, live music and, of course, displays by the LEAP! participants.
Rick Brown, the owner of The Venue, was the recipient of the People’s Choice Award, as voted by ticketholders. He walked away with a $1,000 cash prize.
Voters were also asked to rate each entrepreneur on three values—passion, authenticity and knowledge/expertise.
Yvonne de Laive gets her choice of one of three prize packs from The Source, valued at over $700, for the passion she brings to her business, Successful Mindset Habits.
Singled out for her authenticity, Esme Gloster, whose Esmeric Art features mixed media and pewter, gets an office startup kit valued at over $700 from Creston Card & Stationary.
Tara Mehrer was recognized for her knowledge and expertise by voters and won a $200 cash prize. Mehrer is a doula who operates Mountain Valley Doula, which offers prenatal and labour support, as well as postpartum support and infant care.
The startup businesses were described on the Kootenay Employment Services web site:
Esme Gloster
Meet Esme of Esmeric Art, a mixed media and pewter artist who recently moved to Creston. Her passion is to teach the art of pewter and a variety of different mediums. She loves to introduce people to new techniques and art forms they might not have encountered before.
Esme offers workshops in her studio that give people the opportunity to develop their skill set and become more comfortable to explore their creativity with confidence. Besides gaining specific skills they are also encouraged to use these different mediums in one project or art piece. Sign up to the Esmeric Art mailing list or follow on social media to keep up to date on the latest workshops and events. You might discover a passion you didn’t know you had.
Tara Mehrer
Meet Tara, a Doula who has a passion for supporting people as they journey into parenthood. She has been teaching Prenatal Classes for the past six years and offering labour support services since 2006. Tara is now offering Postpartum and Infant Care to help those new parents get off to a good start by walking with them through the hard stuff, so they don’t feel like they are alone in what can sometimes feel like an overwhelming journey. Bringing with her many life experiences, and knowing that a Doula is a huge benefit to the birth team, and the new family; she is looking forward to serving future Crestonites.
Rick Brown
He’s lived in the Creston Valley for almost five years. During that time he has been actively involved in the local music scene. From an early age, experience has taught him that music and the arts are a universal language that can touch each of us profoundly and bring us together as a community. His dream is to create a society and venue where the inspired, the creative and the passionate can join together and share their stories that are waiting to be told. One community, many stories.
www.thevenuecreston.weebly.com
Samantha Martens
Meet Samantha Martens of Smart & Simple Social Media Management. Recognizing the trend is away from complex websites and toward engagement and connection with clients, Samantha is taking her passion for developing a media presence and customer engagement to Facebook and Instagram on behalf of her clients. She writes and posts on these platforms developing much-needed traffic and activity. This translates into sales and customer satisfaction and the business owner can gain back their much needed time to deliver products and services. It’s a win-win and Samantha loves it. Check her out online.
https://smartandsimplesocialmediamanagement.weebly.com
Frieda Draxlir
Meet Frieda Draxlir, a young entrepreneur who moved to the Creston valley last year. Frieda’s first ever business was stationed in the basement of her home when she was 8. She sold paper food on paper plates, knowing this created little to no overhead and operating costs. She then took this business to a whole new level when she convinced a friend to franchise her restaurant into her friend’s home, and collected a hefty royalty. When she was 13, she started a rabbit breeding business and successfully ran this business for 4 years now. Since then, she discovered the world of Yerba Mate and is excited to share with everyone the health benefits, the community and the culture of mate through her business. Frieda is eager to make a large impact in the world abroad and the community she lives in by integrating her values for community, environment, and fair pay into her business. Frieda runs Mountain Soul Mate selling Yerba Mate tea and handcrafted gourds. She works to integrate plastic-free packaging and shipping as well as local orchards into her business operations.
Kerry MacArthur
Kerry is a communications professional who’s recently discovered the joys of working with stone fruit and berries from the Creston Valley. She is strongly committed to helping reduce fruit waste in the region through the creation of Frisch Frozen Fruit Bars, a hand-made, preservative-free, low-sugar treat that can be enjoyed any time of the year. Kerry joined with new colleagues in STREAM2 to learn about the business channels and processes available in the region, and to establish a network of fruit suppliers and customers for her Frisch product.
(Watch for the delicious and healthy Frisch Frozen Fruit Bars at the Creston Valley Farmers’ Market.)
Lynn Dressel
Meet Lynn Dressel a long time Crestonite who has taken her design skills and her organizational skills and blended them into a renovation business that clients are raving about. She realized early on that not everyone thinks like her. Either they don’t have the design experience and struggle with confidently picking from the endless options at the stores and online OR they don’t have the contractors, suppliers and project connections they need to confidently get the dream built on time and on budget. She has both and is providing Design and Renovation Consulting to the region. She is excited about getting software to better support her clients in seeing their visions before they are built to establish confidence and direction early in the process.
http://lynndressel4.wixsite.com
Yvonne de Laive
Meet Yvonne de Laive, a motivational author and speaker on building Successful Mindset Habits.
Born in the Netherlands and a globetrotter, Yvonne has resided in Creston with her two kids for almost four years. During the LEAP process, Yvonne was healing from the inside out by building successful mindset habits one step at a time to compound for transformational results!
This turned into a practical self-actualization book called HIGH FIVES with five easy steps to make Space in your World!
Her emphasis is to provide her audience with intuitive content to support their journey in self-love and forgiveness, and to give the world a very human look at what growth and transition look like.
As well as her new book, Yvonne will be adding workshops and retreats to her business.