The Spring meeting of the East Bench Business Association was a wonderful gathering of friends old and new. Randall Curtis generously offered up his beautiful Harbor Restaurant as our venue. If you haven’t had the privilege of enjoying a dinner at the Harbor, you need to treat yourself to a night of his signature fine dining.
What a pleasure it was to hear Emily Bell McCormick speak about work-life balance. She told the compelling story of her serendipitous sidestep from the marketing industry to the fashion world where she founded the successful Shabby Apple dress company. Despite it’s rampant success, she eventually stepped away from Shabby Apple in response to growing health concerns and the needs of her young family. Emily has five beautiful children, two who were adopted simultaneously in 2014. Since leaving Shabby Apple, Emily has been a marketing consultant for several companies including Extra Space Storage. When the opportunity to grow another fashion company recently fell into her lap, she once again found herself making a difficult choice between the glamour and intensity of the fashion world and other, less-glamorous work that better dovetails with her family commitments. Her story was a great example of making hard choices for the people that are the most important in our lives. Sometimes following your bliss means following the bliss of those you love!
Emily Waltman spoke about the innovative non-profit organization, Go Jane Give, where she serves as a consulting board member. Go Jane Give provides women with a social-media platform for promoting events that benefit charities of their choice. Emily recently used Go Jane Give to throw a favorites party in her home to raise money for the International Refugee Committee. It’s inspiring to see members of our community having this kind of widespread, global impact.
We look forward to seeing you at our fall mixer on September 18th, 8:30 am at the Harbor Restaurant.
