Every business has a colorful backstory, and for Up North Gifts, which took home the Business Leaders of Coos (BLOC) Award for Woman Owned Business at the June 13 annual meeting of the Coos Economic Development Corp. in Whitefield, it was the gentle nudging by Kim Fauteux of her daughter-in-law, Kelly Dabillis, that transformed a barn in downtown Pittsburg into a thriving gift store.
Both originally from Massachusetts, and now partners in Up North Gifts, Fauteux and Dabillis were among the first class of BLOC-award recipients, taking home the honor during the CEDC’s gathering in the Crystal Ballroom at The Mountain View Grand Resort.
The event included a lot of networking; the empaneling of new officers for the Lancaster-based CEDC; a keynote address by Sarah Waring, the USDA state director, Rural Development for Vermont and New Hampshire; as well as the presentation of BLOC awards for Outstanding Start-Up; Young Entrepreneur; Agriculture; Veteran-Owned Business; and Woman-Owned Business.
Open since 2021, Fauteux said Up North Gifts sold some 600 shirts celebrating the April 8, 2024 total solar eclipse that included Pittsburg and most of Coos County in its “path of totality,” which was quite the feat, but didn’t factor into the BLOC awards, which only recognized the accomplishments of 2023.
Nominations for the awards, according to the CEDC, were based on resilience and growth; community impact; innovation and creativity; job creation; and collaboration.
Dabillis, who as a designer has worked with well-known brands such as Adidas, Puma and J. Jill, admitted she was initially lukewarm to the idea of helping her mother-in-law open a gift shop in Pittsburg, which is New Hampshire’s largest and northernmost town.
“She (Fauteux) had this dream of changing her barn into a gift store,” said Dabillis, who, after designing a logo for Up North Gifts, joined Fauteux in selling products online.
Recipients of the Coos Economic Development Corp.’s first Business Leaders of Coos (BLOC) Award pose for a photo after the June 13 ceremony in the Crystal Ballroom at The Mountain View Grand Resort in Whitefield. From left: floral designer Jamie Samson, the owner of Bouquet Boutique in Lancaster, who received the BLOC award for Outstanding Startup; Ryan Charest and Ellen Mikesh, who own the Live Free Food Store on Main Street in Berlin, and who received the Young Entrepreneur BLOC award; and Kim Fauteux and Kelly Dabillis, who are co-owners of Up North Gifts , who received the Woman-Owned BLOC award. (Photo by John Koziol)
Despite the fact that the business opened in the midst of COVID-19 lockdowns, it took off right from the start, she said, and “people were coming” to physically pick up their purchases.
“Our core consumer, Fauteux said, “is the snowmobiler’s wife,” who may not want to go riding with her hubby but who wants to have some other fun instead.
The women said despite the winter of 2023-24 being a mild one that was not always conducive to snowmobiling, the snowmobilers came nonetheless, as did the eclipse watchers.
“The eclipse, for us, was huge,” said Fauteux, and included not only shoppers, but live interviews with TV news stations.
“We had NASA across the street,” she recalled, adding that she and Dabillis met “eclipse chasers” who took in the celestial display in Pittsburg while already making plans to move onto the next eclipse.
Dabillis and Fauteux thanked the CEDC for their BLOC award, calling it a pleasant surprise and an honor.
Ellen Mikesh and Ryan Charest, who own the Live Free Food Store on Main Street in Berlin, had the same thoughts after winning the Young Entrepreneur BLOC award.
On its website, the Live Free Food Store’s motto is “Scratch Food Made With Love” and the business calls itself a hybrid eatery in which “A deli meets cottage style bakery.”
After the CEDC event, Charest, who is Berlin native, had another descriptor for what his and Mikesh’s business offers: “Elevated comfort food.”
Floral designer Jamie Samson, the owner of Bouquet Boutique in Lancaster, received the BLOC award for Outstanding Startup; while the Agriculture award went to White Mountain Apiary and the Veteran-Owned Business award went to Adam Hammill, a retired U.S. Coast Guardsman, who opened Exile Burrito in downtown Berlin in 2020.
Waring saluted both the BLOC award winners and the multiple nominees in each category, telling them that they and their businesses are a part of the future and that small businesses make up some 90 percent of all businesses.
“You are an important economic engine and this (Vermont and northern New Hampshire) is one of the best places to be” in the U.S., said Waring, because of the resources available to small business, including through the CEDC.
“We are here because there are hundreds of you out there,” she said, adding that while only five businesses received BLOC awards, there are many more worthy recipients in the wings.
Tim Egan, who is a member of the CEDC board of directors and who served as emcee for the BLOC awards, said he was “amazed” by the number and variety of the nominees.
Sarah Waring, the USDA state director, rural development for Vermont and New Hampshire, delivers the keynote address at the June 13 annual meeting and inaugural Business Leaders of Coos (BLOC) awards ceremony that was held in the Crystal Ballroom at The Mountain View Grand Resort in Whitefield. (Photo by John Koziol)
A part-time faculty member at Vermont State University and at White Mountain Community College in Berlin, Egan, who resides in Sugar Hill, was a co-director of Without Walls, a business incubator at the former Northern Vermont University-Johnson.
Ericka Canales, the CEDC’s executive director, said that success in business often requires the cooperative efforts of several people, and she noted that in the audience before her, there were “so many husband-and-wife teams.”
The CEDC, which is online at: www.coosedc.org, is one of nine Regional Development Corporations (RDCs) in New Hampshire. It provides resources to both for-profit and nonprofit organizations “to assist in stimulating growth resulting in sustainable jobs in Coos County.”
The unstoppable New Hampshire economy of the post-COVID years is running into economic headwinds of higher unemployment and inflation, a nonpartisan economic research firm said in late August. No definitive evidence points to a recession, the New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute said in an economic issues brief.
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