Local student earns CBT scholarship

By Steve Hubrecht steve@columbiavalleypioneer.com

A David ompson Secondary School (DTSS) graduate is among the small handful of Kootenay students to be awarded the Neil Muth Scholarship from the Columbia Basin Trust (CBT) this year.

e annual scholarship is given to four or five graduates from the Kootenay region to help pursue post-secondary education. Invermere’s Summer Bradford is among the five 2023 recipients to share $10,000 and she will use her share of the money to head off to business school at the University of Calgary.

e teen started and ran e Nest Gathered Goods in downtown Invermere for more than two years. e boutique shop was initially a storefront location on Invermere’s main street, from which Bradford could sell her resin jewelry and other handmade crafts. But from that first purpose, it quickly expanded into offering all sorts of giftware.

Bradford credits her entrepreneurial streak to her stepmother, Tara Morgan. Morgan is the owner of downtown gift shop Bird’s Eye Boutique. “She (Morgan) came into my life when I was five or six years old,” Bradford told the Pioneer. “She really inspired me. Whenever I was in Bird’s Eye Boutique, I would get excited by seeing how much people loved going into that store. I learned how to put a smile on people’s faces while watching my step mom there, and it definitely fostered a desire in me to

Summer Bradford is this year’s CBT scholarship winner. Photo submitted pursue business.”

Bradford has long been interested in handicrafts, and began by selling her resin work at the Friday night market on Main in Radium Hot Springs years ago. In 2020 she decided to expand by opening a bricks-and-mortar store- front. She found the location (conveniently right next door to Bird’s Eye Boutique) and with Morgan’s help e Nest Gathered Goods opened in November 2020.

With the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated restrictions still in full force back then, Bradford concedes it was perhaps not the easiest time to open a retail shop, but said that also forced her to hone her business skills quickly.

“It was crazy. I went in blind. Working the market in Radium had taught me the marketing aspect — how to draw people in, how to talk to them, how to figure out what they want,” said Bradford. “But with a store, there is so much more. e ordering, staying on top of the finances. To do all that while going to (high) school, of course it was a lot, but I am very grateful for the opportunity. I really believe having business experience before going to business school will help me get more out of the program.” e scholarship was set up by the CBT in 2017, in memory of Neil Muth. Muth was CBT president and CEO from 2005 through 2016. He passed away in November 2016.

Bradford said she was hopeful when she applied for the Neil Muth Scholarship, but she knew many other great candidates from across the Kootenay region had also applied, so she was “shocked and delighted” when she learned she’d won.

She will begin business school at the end of this coming August.