LETTER FROM BOARD PRESIDENT DAVE DEBLANDER Springtime is around the corner and it could not come at a better time. We are all so glad to say goodbye to 2020 and welcome in 2021 and the springtime season. With spring comes new life, warmer breezes, flowers, garden planting, and this year, more than ever, a sense of optimism. We all went through an incredible year of trials and tribulations with the pandemic, the hurricane, the election and the bridge disrupting our lives. Now a fresh spring arrives and what better time could there be than now to get control of our lives and health and determine to make a healthy, happy, grateful start to the new year. We all at Ever’mans are wanting to be a part of your plans and your healthy ways. We just celebrated the first-year anniversary of our Nine Mile store and it was a huge success. So many people showed up and had a wonderful time, including many folks who had never been in the store before. The vendors and the entertainers were great and the staff at Ever’mans did a wonderful job of keeping it safe and having the event maintain social distancing. I think people were ready to celebrate something and they really did. I recently read that there was a pandemic in the time of Shakespeare in the early 17th century and for two years the theaters and the economy was shut down, much like today. The good news is that after the two years when everything opened up, there was a groundswell of activity and theaters and stores were booming. I can certainly envision that happening to us and let us all hope that it does. We are happy that things are slowly getting back to normal. For instance, we are sampling many of our wonderful products again and that is something everyone loves. We have staff that take care of samples and please make sure you stop by and try out their samplings and say hello. They are friendly folks. Also, you may have noticed both hot and cold bars are open again and I know, if you are like me, that is a great thing. I usually eat 4-5 times a week at the café and I really missed it when they were closed. Have you tried our new sushi? We have a great new company making wonderful sushi and make sure you give it a try. 4 | THE HEALTHY ALTERNATIVE
Your Board of Directors are still meeting monthly, but we continue to meet via a combination of live and zoom. Hopefully, that can change in the upcoming months but if you want to come, you can still be at the meeting because the staff is there at the Educational Building and they are participating live while the board members are on zoom. This year your board would like to be able to reach out to other local organizations in order that we might be able to work together and help each other. If you are part of an organization that would be a good partner with Ever’mans, feel free to contact us or to contact me, we would love to talk. You can contact any board member at board@everman.org. Happy springtime to one and all!!
