The Marketplace Magazine March/April 2023

Where Christian faith gets down to business

A beautiful business partnership

Pennsylvania couple overcome challenges to build flourishing quilt trade

Ethiopian sauce success

Goshen’s community bookstore

Kansas Electric prioritizes relationships

Wooden Boat navigates changing food sector

Demand for portable fire halls lights up

Why MEDA still needs your donations to create business solutions to poverty

MEDA recently announced its largest-ever project, heading up the $200 million MasterCard Africa Growth Fund project.

That initiative will create 15,000 jobs in sub-Saharan Africa over the next five years.

Hearing about a project of that scale may lead some people to wonder whether MEDA still needs their financial support.

The answer to that question is a resounding yes, for several reasons.

First, all of the $200 million will be used in the seven targeted African nations — Senegal, Ghana, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda. The project will invest $150 million in 20 investment vehicles that fund small and medium-sized businesses. Another $50 million will be used for support services such as business development training, support for gender lens investing, and results measurement.

Returned funds will be reinvested as the initial investments mature over the next 10 to 15 years. That will help other companies grow and create additional employment opportunities.

Second, MEDA needs to raise $5 million from its individual donors as its contribution to the project.

Third, while the MasterCard Africa Growth Fund is the largest impact investing program of its kind, it is only a start. MEDA will need many other initiatives to achieve its strategic goal of creating 500,000 decent work opportunities in the agri-food sector.

Given the young average age of Africa’s people and projected population growth, many more jobs will be needed.

A recent article highlights the importance of agriculture to sub-Saharan African economies. Business Daily (Africa) notes that agriculture employs 70 percent of Africa’s population. The sector accounts for almost a quarter of sub-Saharan Africa’s gross domestic product.

The story describes the challenges facing the agricultural supply chain. A lack of sufficient inputs, sustainable storage facilities and transportation services, limited market access, and limited training all prevent the sector from achieving its potential.

All of these problems can be reduced and perhaps solved with better access to financing. .

Staying the course

Perseverance in business is a

common thread running through many stories in this issue:

• Ethiopian entrepreneur Maheder Admasu’s efforts to build a spice and sauce business over the past decade (pg. 12).

• Kevin Neufeldt’s long-held belief in the potential of portable fire halls for Haul-All’s Extreme Modular Buildings division (pg. 20).

• Jan & Dean Mast’s remarkable business journey with The Old Country Store (pg. 6) includes buying the business after surviving two bankruptcies as employees under previous ownership. They also had to navigate pandemic crises and showed remarkable grace to a thief by choosing restorative justice instead of punishment.

• Thompson Tran’s pivots to cope with changes in the food industry (pg. 17) demonstrate extraordinary resilience and passion for his work through the Wooden Boat Co. .

Sparking a mentoring culture

Tim Sweigart has grown Kansas Electric into a powerhouse that values relationships with its customers and employees.

Cooking up new possibilities

Maheder Admasu developed products to make cooking easier for Ethiopian women. Now she aims to create hundreds of jobs by exporting her products across the continent.

9 Features 12 14

A new chapter for a Goshen shop

When Brad Weirich’s former employer folded, he got friends together to ensure his city still had a community bookstore.

Maheder Admasu heads Maheder Food Processing.

Thompson Tran

photo by LOF Photography

Change transforms us

Birds teach us that we all have different strengths when responding to life’s inevitable changes.

By Paul J. Loewen

Since my early teen years, I’ve harbored a more than mild interest in our feathered friends. My ninthgrade teacher had a remarkable love of the outdoors, particularly birds. He helped us observe the markings of birds, pushing us to be attentive to a bird’s location by listening for the chirps, whistles, and screeches unique to each species.

One of the greatest gifts given to me as a young pastor was learning how to identify the primary “personal styles” of individuals the pastoral staff worked and interacted with. One of the components of an effective team was exploring our various gifts and personalities, seeking to use each part to contribute to the team for greatest “wins.”

Social scientists have identified four personal styles each of us demonstrates in varying degrees and combinations. You may be familiar with CRG’s Personal Style Indicator, DISC, or Enneagram. To help me remember, I use birds to identify these four styles.

As we “learn from the birds” (Matthew 6:26), let’s ask ourselves

which bird — or combination — most closely corresponds with how we receive information, interact with others and approach new opportunities — change.

Four personal styles

The eagle sees the big picture and has a prevailing tendency to envision things well into the future. These individuals tend to ask the “what” question: “What will we do? What will we become?” Eagles are change agents and call for action.

The parrot seeks to influence his or her surroundings and relationships, often calling others to come on board with change, especially if it creates excitement. Expressive and articulate, these people ask “who” questions: “Who is coming with us? Who will be there?” Parrots rally others to join the party.

The dove is adept at responding to his or her environment, promoting harmony and understanding. Often balanced between reason and feeling, they ask the “why” questions: “Why is this change good? Why will this be better?” The dove’s interpersonal

skills bring others along; their commitment to be steady keeps everyone moving forward.

The owls pay attention to details and facts, often contributing to the group by providing analysis. They value safety and security and have a remarkable ability for correct processes, outcomes, and clear articulation. An owl will often ask the “how” questions: “How will we make this change? How can this be done well?” Owls enter change with caution and reason.

We’ve heard it said, “Change is our only constant.” Wired by God in different ways, we may try to push for change, come on board with it, resist it or analyze it. The fact remains — change happens! Staying “as-is” is a choice to perish. The birds teach us that we all have different strengths and methods for responding to life’s inevitable changes.

Change transforms

The speed of change in the last few years has caught us offguard and most of us have a hard time keeping up with it, even

the change-makers. For those who would like life to go back to normal, I’m sorry to inform you that it just will not happen.

Think about the new cultural ideas or words that have entered our vocabulary recently: cancel culture, woke, gender identities, global elitism, vaccine injury, drag for kids, health passports, lockdowns, censorship, misinformation, conspiracy theories, MAGA, hashtags, BLM and the list goes on. These words represent ideological shifts.

For some people, change offers the promise of new opportunities, while others can only see danger. Some people quickly rally to a new cause, while others are doubtfully critical. Still others hesitantly hang back to care for those who get lost in the shuffle, while others retreat into depressing seclusion. All of us will respond differently depending on our personality styles, the character traits we have been developing or how we have learned to trust God.

One thing is certain, change transforms us.

• Change forces us to consider how we view truth and while some personalities are more apt to “go along with it” others evaluate or even challenge what they may have held to be true. What we might consider to be common knowledge suddenly is not so common anymore.

• Change can invite — and often motivates — us to assess our relationships. Most people prefer being with others who see the world in similar ways. Like the surrounding culture, many Christians have jumped into cancelling others who disagree with them. Have you noticed how difficult it is to disagree with others? A difference of opinion can easily shut down the conversation or terminate a relationship. Open

dialogue, listening carefully to each other, and learning from one another helps us get closer to the truth and invites us to live in grace toward one another. As we navigate challenging relationships, let’s do our best to listen and love others well, despite our differences.

• Change pushes us to think about our spiritual well-being. We evaluate how we view the world, truth, our understanding of God. In the face of change, some of us question God’s timing or strength and even his promises to us while others find comfort and confidence in God’s timing, strength and promises.

We may think COVID-19 is behind us, but its effects remain. Perhaps you continue to struggle with your health, now live without a loved one or are facing an unexpected financial difficulty. You may be afraid of what might be coming: increasing family misunderstandings, food shortages, a church split, global disaster, political conflict. Maybe you see the opportunities for evangelism, a new career or expanded relationships. Whatever your situation, change around you will transform you on the inside — for good or for evil.

We need the flock

Back to the birds. No matter what “bird” we are, our perspectives, insights, questions and advice are important. Now more than ever, the flock matters. As the apostle Paul reminds us, “For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.” It is easy to divide over our differences rather than focus on the One who unites us through the work of the cross.

In times of change, we need one another to help us be transformed into the image of Christ (Romans 12:1-2). Depending on our personalities, experiences,

or the depth of our faith in Jesus Christ, we will respond differently to what is happening in our world, and so we need to give each other grace. Let us encourage each other to continually be transformed into the image of Christ and to live out the character qualities of the Spirit — love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. .

Volume 53, Issue 2

March April 2023

The Marketplace (ISSN 0199-7130) is published bi-monthly by Mennonite Economic Development Associates at 532 North Oliver Road, Newton, KS 67114. Periodicals postage paid at Newton, KS 67114. Lithographed in U.S.A. Copyright 2023 by MEDA.

Editor: Mike Strathdee Design: Ray Dirks

Postmaster: Send address changes to The Marketplace 33 N Market St., Suite 400, Lancaster, PA 17603-3805

Change of address should be sent to Mennonite Economic Development Associates, 33 N Market St., Suite 400, Lancaster, PA 17603-3805.

To e-mail an address change, subscription request or anything else relating to delivery of the magazine, please contact subscription@meda.org

For story ideas, comments or other editorial matters, email mstrathdee@meda.org or call (800) 665-7026, ext. 705

Subscriptions: $35/year; $55/two years. Published by Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA). MEDA’s economic development work in the Global South creates business solutions to poverty. MEDA also facilitates the connection of faith and work through discussions, publications and conventions for participants.

For more information about MEDA call 1-800-665-7026. Web site www.meda.org

Want to see back issues or reread older articles? Visit https://www.meda.org/download-issues/

The Marketplace is printed on Rolland Enviro® Satin and is made with 100% post-consumer sustainable fiber content, FSC® Certified to help meet client sustainability requirements, Acid Free, Elemental Chlorine Free

Cover photo of Dean and Jan Mast by Mike Strathdee

Paul J. Loewen is the Alberta MB Conference pastor and is an organizational change consultant. He is a 2000 graduate of MB Biblical Seminary.

This article originally appeared in the Christian Leader magazine. Reproduced with author’s permission.

Patchwork success

Unexpected events take Masts from employees to owners of Pennsylvania quilt shop

Jan and Dean Mast had worked at The Old Country Store in Intercourse, Pennsylvania, for almost three decades when they got the chance to buy the business.

But after going through two bankruptcies with the previous owners, they were not interested. Their longtime bosses walked away from the business after the second bankruptcy.

“We answered that we have zero interest, and I remember saying, I don’t even want to work in the town, thank you very much,” Jan Mast recalled.

“After 30 years with one company and such a sour note to end on, we were getting out of Dodge and not looking back.”

The bankruptcy trustee hired Dean Mast to monitor the building. When a solid offer from a reliable party came through, the trustee awaited a signed sales agreement to close the deal.

Jan Mast had several job offers. But then the prospective buyer for the store backed out. Dean was told to prepare the building for public auction.

The Masts realized that they had enjoyed working together. They reversed course and decided to make an offer for the business.

Nine years later, they oversee thriving retail and online operations in the small community 10 miles east of Lancaster.

As with most businesses, there have been bumps along the way.

The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 and 2021 brought them

Dean and Jan Mast

photos by Mike Strathdee

surging sales, stress, and surprises.

After working hard during the first six years of owning the store, Jan Mast was happy to spend a few days focusing on home sewing projects when the initial mandate for non-essential businesses to shut down came through.

Her staycation was cut short by the realization that quilters stuck at home were shopping online for fabric. “It was like the bread and milk of a snowstorm,’’ she said.

The Masts returned to work, watched orders pile up, and knew they had work ahead of them.

The next day, double the orders arrived. They recruited a daughter to come in and help but found themselves going in earlier and staying later each day.

“When masking became the expectation, the demand for fabric skyrocketed. Customers were buying popular fabric for sewing or hobby and then tacking on... fabric to make masks.”

Feeling like gerbils on a treadmill, they asked a second daughter to come home from college and help.

“We came home every evening exhausted, and we had to get up and do it again the next day, six days a week, sometimes seven if things were out of control.

“It took a toll on our marriage while we had always loved working together. We had done it our entire married life. Suddenly we were in each other’s business 24 hours a day and all the while under an appreciable amount of stress.”

The stress wasn’t just caused by the workload. They worried about the unemployed staff. When could they safely bring them back? Were they collecting unemployment? Would staff want to return?

Eventually, the Masts brought a few staff back that they knew needed the income.

The first rehire was a widow

Retailers choose reconciliation over retribution in dealings with a thief

With retail comes shoplifting, Jan Mast admits.

It’s a huge issue. A 2022 study by the National Retail Federation found that US retail stories lost $94.5 billion from “retail shrink.” Most of that loss came from external theft.

The fact that The Old Country Store’s owners caught a clumsy thief may not be unusual.

How they handled the situation was. A customer told them someone was selling their fabric online at a deep discount.

“The merchandise was some we had very recently received and were only selling at full price and certainly not at a discount,” Mast recalled.

The woman was also stealing from other local quilt shops. Police said they needed proof to act. But they agreed to pay a visit to a woman Mast calls Roxanne. Another local quilt shop owner contacted Roxanne and read her the riot act. She told Roxanne that stealing is a sin and that Roxanne was going to Hell.

That got the Masts wondering what the responsible thing would be to do. They did not want to press charges.

“We believe Jesus extends mercy and grace to everyone and that the way of love conquers darkness,’” Jan Mast said. “A monetary fine, a sentence, or jail time weren’t going to get Roxanne the help she needed. We followed our beliefs and opted to try the way of grace, mercy, and love. We trusted Jesus to guide the process, along with the professional assistance of Advoz.”

They reached out to Lancaster-based Advoz Mediation and Restorative Practices.

A staff member came to hear their side of the story. “Our staff was angry and disheartened as they thought someone was stealing under their watch. “

“Word spread to some of our customers. They were mad and wanted the person caught. We were frustrated by the amount of time and emotional energy we had already sacrificed with the situation, not to mention the monetary loss.”

The restorative justice staffer phoned and met with Roxanne. By then, the offender had been visited by the police and knew she had been caught.

Roxanne was new to the area. She was a quilter and had a history of shoplifting.

Roxanne didn’t need the money. She and her husband lived in a nice suburban home. They attended a nearby, large, non-denominational church. “She looked like your neighbor or mine.”

The mediator negotiated a visit with Roxanne. Both parties shared their stories and expressed their feelings.

They worked out a plan for monetary restitution. The Masts appealed to Roxanne to teach them her shoplifting techniques, so they could train their staff.

“Here’s what we learned. She would come in on a busy Saturday, she would carry a large bag. She found what she wanted to take, went to a corner, pocketed it and left. By that evening, she had everything listed for sale, by Sunday morning she was entertaining inquiries about the goods and by Sunday evening everything was generally gone.”

The Masts listened and encouraged Roxanne to get counseling and hope. “We told her she’s welcome back in our store, but we prefer that she carry a small purse, and most definitely, she needed to know that all of our staff have seen her picture and know who she is, we will be giving exceptional customer service,” Mast said. “We’ve not seen her back.”

They now pay attention to less visible corners and customers carrying large bags. “We also recommend the restorative justice route to others.”

To hear stories about Advoz’s work, visit: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=gFcObVMXOyw .

“We believe Jesus extends mercy and grace to everyone, and that the way of love conquers darkness. A monetary fine, a sentence, or jail time weren’t going to get Roxanne the help she needed.” —Jan Mast

who had worked for them full-time and had yet to file for unemployment benefits. Then they called an Amish employee who worked in the online store and was eager to return.

That second choice was costly. “Turns out, COVID was rampant in her church, and the first day she got into our car, she got a ride with us to work, she coughed,” Mast said.

The employee claimed her spring allergies were just acting up. But soon, the Masts were experiencing COVID symptoms when “home testing wasn’t (yet) a thing, and we were mostly communicating with others through Zoom.”

“So, we kept on our gerbil treadmill and pushed through as best we could, all the while selling more and more fabric that we couldn’t re-order. Online sales, however, were our saving grace. They kept the business alive. We can realize (that) despite our exhausted state, we have much to be thankful for.”

“We eventually opened the brick-and-mortar store. Thankfully our staff all returned along with our customers.”

The Old Country Store employs 18 people, many part-time.

Re-opening the store required a series of decisions, like what churches, clubs, restaurants, other businesses, and schools have had to negotiate. Mask-wearing, time off for workers, whether to offer sewing classes and how to make that space feel safe. “It was a challenge.”

“Most importantly, we learned to extend grace, grace to those who

felt differently about the pandemic than we did. We came out the other side relatively unscathed.”

Mast describes the pandemic as “a banner couple of years for the quilt and fabric industry. We gained customers, we gained sales, we hired additional staff, and, for the most part, had good numbers.”

Those numbers include online purchases that account for nearly 40 percent of The Old Country Store’s revenue. Fabric, quilt books

and patterns, thread, and “sewing notions” — the small instruments and accessories used to complete sewing projects — are all available.

Orders placed by one p.m. get shipped the same day. Online store inventory is separate from the inventory of the brickand-mortar store.

The Masts’ online store also offers longarm (machine) quilting services.

“The hand-quilting tradition runs strong in our community, but for many quilters, the prospect of spending weeks or months on hand-quilting isn’t possible (they’re working full-time; they were never taught how; they don’t enjoy that aspect of quiltmaking), so machine quilting is becoming more commonplace and accepted,” Jan Mast explained.

The size of the quilt or the limitation of the machine often limits quilting on home sewing machines.

The store ships finished quilts across the United States. At the time of this writing, they had a three-to four-week backlog for their longarm quilting service.

New ventures include a quilter’s retreat space above a classroom building adjacent to the store.

Dean Mast sees several years of growth ahead, particularly for fabric. There are between 10 and 12 million quilters in the United States. He said that the retail market is expected to grow to nearly $5 billion by 2025 or 2026.

To learn more about The Old Country Store’s quilting services, visit: https://theoldcountrystore. com/services/quilting/faq .

“Online sales... were our saving grace. They kept the business alive.”

— Jan Mast

Nurturing people on the prairies

Electrical contracting firm forges relational culture

By Laurie Oswald Robinson

NEWTON, Kansas — Tim Sweigart rubbed his tired eyes while steering the semi towards his failing hog farm in rural Minnesota.

While working as a trucker in the late 1980s, he often prayed for a new career path to meet his family’s needs.

Reminiscing about those tough years, Sweigart, Kansas Electric’s CEO and owner, said his prayers were answered in 1989. That’s when his wife, Mary Jean, was accepted into Hesston College’s nursing program.

They headed south with four young kids, a dad without a job, and deep in farm debt. Despite the gnawing sense of worthlessness that often comes with financial failure, there was a glimmer of hope for the road ahead.

“After launching out in blind faith, we faced a lot of unknowns,” he said.

A semi-trailer provided by the trucking firm helped with the move. “Our belongings were in the front half, and 10 tons of frozen turkeys in the back.”

Once they settled into a run-down rental, Sweigart went knocking on doors for a job.

Finally, in desperation, he stopped into Harms Electric, a small electrical contracting business with three employees. Fortunately for Sweigart, they had just acquired another small electrical contracting company and needed more help. Unfortunately, he had little electrical experience.

“Larry said he would try me out for two weeks,” he recalled. “If I passed the test while working under one of their toughest guys, then they would hire me for $6.50 an hour.”

After working during the day and reading Wiring Simplified after

the kids went to bed, Sweigart passed the test and was hired. “The starting wage wasn’t nearly enough to keep our family afloat, but it offered hope,” he said. “I was beginning to recognize new gifts in myself. It was refreshing.”

What Tim discovered in learning the trade was a knack for the trade and a gift for building and inspiring a team. He became Harms’ right-hand man, providing leadership to all the crews.

Harms eventually invited Sweigart to buy the business. Reluctant at first, he eventually took the plunge in 2005.

Sweigart’s son, Brent, also joined the team. They renamed the company Kansas Electric. After a few years, the business steadily grew as new opportunities emerged, primarily hotels, nursing homes, and many schools.

Kansas Electric outgrew its

Photo by Laurie Oswald Robinson

Tim Sweigart's care for workers and customers has grown along with his business.

downtown premises and moved to a new, much larger shop on the outskirts of town. The company eventually focused on industrial customers, working on grain elevators, manufacturing plants, and food processing facilities.

Kansas Electric is one of the largest industrial electrical contractors in its region. Their employees and enterprise customers are well nurtured and supported, say several employees.

“My favorite part of working here is the relational culture we strive to build within our crews and with our customers,” said Shane Jeffery.

Jeffery is one of the company’s six project managers that oversee electrical crews. “We are encouraged all the time to grow personally and professionally and to make sure the needs of the people we supervise and serve are being met.”

Jeffery, hired at Kansas Electric a decade ago as an apprentice, has experienced Sweigart’s affirming, relational mentorship.

“As I was growing into more responsibility, he invited me to lunch with him along with some customers,” he said. “It’s where I witnessed how he made sure those relationships were strong, and ensured the customers had everything they needed.”

Garrett Butler began as an apprentice over 16 years ago. He now serves as the lead project manager.

“Today, Tim trusts you to take care of your job and really values your gifts and lets you grow,” Butler said, “but he wasn’t always that way. He used to be much more controlling. He’d come on a job site and make snap decisions without getting your perspective. Now, he asks questions first and tries to understand the journey you took to get to where you are at.”

This change in style didn’t come easy, Sweigart admits. It took a season of feeling empty and lost, even amid a successful balance sheet.

In 2014, his business consultant suggested that Sweigart seek help at an intensive psychological retreat in Scottsdale, Arizona.

In Scottsdale, he invested eight days with therapists exploring the most guarded places of the soul. He examined the emotional effects of growing up in innercity Saginaw, Michigan as a white preacher’s kid in a Black neighborhood.

The therapists also helped him discover the roots of anger which lingered throughout his life from unresolved emotional wounds. “It

was the hardest week of my life,” Sweigart said. “I felt like a dissected frog.”

However, he also found new awareness and appreciation for the places of peace and refuge in life, especially as a teenager, when he had a profound spiritual encounter with Jesus.

This intensive process helped Sweigart to look at life through a different lens. He started to remove the blinders that had formed a negative worldview.

Before this transformative encounter, he expected others to perform at unrealistic levels rather than draw them into their passion and best selves. He also started to embrace more positive self-esteem, which had an enormous spiritual and emotional impact.

It didn’t take long for a new vision and purpose to emerge at Kansas Electric. “If our focus is on building the bottom line along with profit and power, the product is going to be self-centered every time,” he said. “But if the focus is on serving the needs of others to help develop them, it can make a transformational difference both in our workplace and among our customers.”

Sweigart believes his current perspective is founded in his faith, which leads him to look out for others’ interests. This ‘servant leadership’ mindset has turned many first-time customers into multiyear relationships. It also keeps employees satisfied and

Photo by Laurie Oswald Robinson

Tim Sweigart (centre) with longtime employees Garrett Butler (left) and Shane Jeffery.

engaged year after year.

“I often tell our employees, if we aren’t positively impacting people’s lives in small ways every day, we have failed,” he said. “Our mission is to enhance the quality of lives of those we serve every day. Being electricians is only the vehicle that we use to accomplish this mission.”

Sweigart is impacting not only the lives of his colleagues at Kansas Electric, but in other

places as well. He donates supplies to local Habitat for Humanity building projects every year and is passionate about helping mentor pastors who are open to developing leadership skills.

He loves encouraging small business owners worldwide through his involvement with Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA).

Sweigart’s executive assistant, Tori Hilton, expressed it best. After

working as a restaurant manager at Texas Roadhouse, Hilton was hired in November 2021. “During the interview, I wasn’t asked about what I could do, but about who I am as a person,” Hilton said. “That signaled to me immediately that this place was different.”

“If I ever moved for some reason, I would always come back and visit these people because of who they are and who they’ve helped me to become,” she said. .

Turning a pandemic shutdown into community service

Shane Jeffery was skeptical when he first heard about Kansas Electric crews packing 500,000 meals for food banks during the 2020 COVID-19 downturn.

What could his boss, Tim Sweigart, be thinking? How would it work to have guys hired to do electrical wiring stuffing bags with dried oatmeal or Minestrone soup?

Later, Jeffery realized there was a meaning beyond the creative “madness” of the man who runs a big business with a big heart.

Sweigart’s big heart turned out to have a big impact. During eight days in October 2020, when his service crew employees were low on work due to pandemic slowdown, Sweigart’s decision to think outside the box kept his team on the payroll.

In partnership with The Outreach Program, his employees helped supply food pantries across the country with food for families struggling to make ends meet during the pandemic.

“The Outreach Program was having a hard time finding organizations willing to pack meals,” Sweigart said. “I viewed this as a great way to keep my people productive, which was an answer to my prayers for meaningful work for our crews.”

His idea was a hard sell in the reality of pandemic fears. “I began calling dozens of organizations seeking volunteers, but one by one, they turned me down, feeling it was too risky,” he said. “But I kept at it, and eventually, we had enough takers to make this viable.”

More than a thousand volunteers came from all over the community: Wichita State University dental hygiene students, a variety of faith groups such

as Mormons, Seventh Day Adventists, and all varieties of Mennonites. Members of Hesston College and Bethel College sports teams also joined.

For eight days, his staff and other volunteers packed box after box of dried mixes of apple oatmeal, soups, rice and beans.

They donned masks, practiced social distancing, and worked with oldies music blaring over the loudspeaker. “You should have seen some of the more conservative folks dancing!” Sweigart said, a huge grin spreading across his face.

Sweigart still smiles about that event as he remembers with joy how the bright light of generosity provided hope during

a very dark time.

“Generosity is a state of mind,” he said. “You can train your heart to get into the habit to ‘see a need then fill a need’. Instead of expecting someone else will do it, just do it if you can. ... We could have focused on how terrible it was that we were all struggling with COVID. Instead, we chose to serve others, which blessed those who participated. As a result, I often get asked by folks in the community when will we do it again.”

Sweigart deeply believes that when one is blessed with resources, they are called to bless others. “Resources are not an end in themselves,” he said. “They are meant to profit others.” .

Photo courtesy Kansas Electric

Kansas Electric staff and community volunteers packed 500,000 meals for food banks.

Getting to the root of business success

Onion sauce adds extra spice to Ethiopian entrepreneur’s life

Juggling graduate studies, a small business, and caring for her three children didn’t leave Maheder Admasu much time for cooking.

Those challenges provided the inspiration for what has become a thriving enterprise, providing jobs for 38 employees. If she gets her way, employment at Maheder Food Processing will increase 10-fold or more.

Admasu’s journey to entrepreneurship began during her master’s degree studies in project management. As she neared graduation in 2011, she started a small business while working as an intern with the European Union

Maheder Admasu has grown her sauce and spice business into a thriving firm.

The multitasking of doing all these things at once required the Addis Ababa resident to be creative. Her idea was to develop a business to prepare basic sauces and spice mixes for Ethiopian dishes that could considerably reduce the cooking burden for women.

At about the same time, Ethiopia’s Ministry of Trade announced a business plan competition with prizes for the applicants with the best business ideas. Admasu submitted a business plan to the competition. To her surprise, she was

announced as a winner. Winning meant she had access to trade fairs and bazaars and was given a working space and financial support via the Addis Ababa city administration. She also started a food TV show to promote the products she was developing.

“I started a small onion and spice (processing and packaging) business with a business loan,” she said. My husband at that time was not supportive of this idea. He was expecting that I should do some corporate-level job, be well dressed, and have a nice office. But I was adamant to build my own identity.

“That was the start of Maheder Foods: small but ambitious. But it

took me 10 years to have a strong footprint in this industry.”

She now describes her husband as being “my number one supporter.”

Admasu developed food show programs to promote her products on YouTube. “I am now producing not only onion sauce but also paprika powder, Shiro (an Ethiopian stew), onion powder, and am expanding to new things.”

“In connection with MEDA, I do contract farming with MEDA onion growers in Dera and Fogera districts (Amhara Region) with 27 producers, six of whom are women.’’

Her dream of buying a large onion sauce cooking machine

Photos courtesy MEDA EMERTA staff

to produce bulk onion sauce encountered several roadblocks. “I searched for different options, but due to COVID and a political crisis, it looked like a shattered dream.”

“But then I met some MEDA people at a trade fair and explained to them my business and invited them to my factory. MEDA then provided me with a grant to buy an automatic onion sauce cooker that can cook 350 liters of sauce a day.”

Admasu describes the new machine as her fourth child. “I am so happy to have this modern technology added to my factory,” she said.

She attended several trade fairs to promote her products, including an agriculture trade fair in Berlin. Through those efforts, she found new interest in her products and a new challenge. Potential orders depended on a food safety certification that she didn’t have.

Admasu did that work. She received a robust, internationally accepted food safety certification within the food and beverage manufacturing sector. She still needs additional support for lab testing.

Maheder Food Processing is

currently selling only to the domestic Ethiopian market. Admasu plans to gradually enter neighboring countries and reach a wider international market.

“I have already started talking to Ethiopian Airlines and some other big corporates to sell my products,” she said. “In addition, I deliver 2,000 meals daily for returnees to Ethiopia.

“Also, I have opened three branches to display and sell my products. As of today, my total investment is over $200,000, and my annual turnover is about $77,000. I expect this to grow over time.”

So far, Maheder’s business has created jobs for 38 employees, 34 of them women. Thirty of these jobs are credited to the support from MEDA, including the grant support provided by MEDA’s EMERTA project.

EMERTA stands for Ethiopians Motivating Enterprises to Rise in Trade and Agri-business. The project is based in the Amhara region. It aims to benefit 16,000 women and men and over 275 small businesses. For more on EMERTA, visit https://www.meda. org/projects/emerta/

“I don’t have any competitors in this market, I am the only entrepreneur doing this in Ethiopia,” Admasu said. “But I am not afraid of competition. As an entrepreneur, I want to show a path for others, and that will be my success.

“My simple motto is ‘smile, keep silent, and work for success.’ My next dream is to build my own factory by recruiting 300-500 employees and delivering quality foods in Africa. This is just the beginning.” .

“My simple motto is smile, keep silent, and work for success.”

— Maheder Admasu

Maheder Admasu with employees Fikirte Eshetu and Tesfanseh Desalegn

Believers in books renew retail location

After one store folds, Indiana group finds a way to build a thriving “community” venture

By Marshall King

Goshen, Indiana — Fables Books arose like a phoenix from the news that another independent bookstore was closing.

In 2008, Better World Books, an online book retailer, opened a brick-and-mortar store along Washington Street in Goshen. Brad Weirich, who worked for the company, convinced the owners that such a store was viable. A few years later, it moved to a larger location at 215 S. Main St.

That store continued operating until March 2019, five years after Weirich quit working there. The same day the closing was announced, Weirich conversed with other former employees about establishing a new bookstore.

Even as customers lined the store for the going-out-of-business sale, Weirich and a collective of others started dreaming. “For me, it was kind of unthinkable not to have a bookstore in Goshen,” he said.

“There was a fairly large group of people talking about opening a bookstore in town,” said Veronica Berkey, Weirich’s sister.

Dreaming soon gave way to actual planning. Weirich, Berkey, Kristin Saner and another couple were having serious conversations in June.

Landlord Dave Pottinger was excited to have another bookstore fill the space. When word got out that a new bookstore was in the works, community members started dropping off books at nearby businesses to help with the opening.

An Indiegogo campaign helped fund the startup. Some people loaned money at a reasonable interest rate. Others simply gave cash.

“The goal was a community bookstore that reflected the values of a community: welcoming, curated new and used books,” said Berkey.

Fables Books opened in July 2019 and was well-received. The ownership team includes Weirich, who curates the books. Berkey and her husband, Gary, handle the finances and she also works on the floor of the store. Kristin Saner works the floor and oversees marketing and events, and her husband, Mark, handles the

computer and IT functions. All of them work other jobs, either parttime or full-time.

“It’s working,” said Veronica Berkey. “It’s hard. We do it because we believe in bookstores.”

Their children ask their mothers where they’ll be working on a given day.

The spring after the store opened, the global COVID-19 pandemic presented challenges for every business, including the new bookstore. Their newly established sense of normal and hopefulness was replaced with a focus on staying solvent.

“That was never a problem,” said Berkey. “There was never a time I was worried we weren't going to make it.”

Downtown Goshen Inc., a nonprofit that markets downtown and plans events, helped spearhead sales of gift cards for businesses. Kristin Saner said that customers turned to their local bookstore to order new books they heard about while they were sheltering in place.

That’s how Fables began to offer more new books than the owners originally intended. During the pandemic, publishers marketed differently, which helped booksellers.

Customers also wanted more than books, so Fables began curating and offering literary gifts, including socks for readers, bookmarks with snark, and stickers. Pens, notebooks, and stationery are on the shelves, as well as items from local artisans.

Brad Weirich co-owns Fables Books.

photo by Marshall King

Fables started selling used games and found vendors who could help them offer games that aren’t available at a big-box store.

The owners also didn’t plan to offer books online, which has become a key part of the business. Weirich had started making a little money for the business by dipping his toe into online sales. After losing his full-time job because of pandemic-related downsizing at the company he worked for, he had more time to figure out systems and how to overcome problems.

Fables’ owners encourage customers to bring in used books and give a $5 store credit for every box of them. Sometimes Weirich will buy books from bookstores or other places that get them donated, such as The Depot, a Mennonite Central Committee thrift store in Goshen.

He assesses the books and knows that esoteric and academic topics may not appeal to customers

photo by Kristin Saner

Fables seeks to be a welcoming community bookstore.

Veronica Berkey and her husband, Gary, handle Fables' finances.

photo by Marshall King

in Goshen but are of interest to customers looking online.

Weirich has built a stable and successful business wing by offering books online and shipping directly. He’s enjoying that success. “It’s a pleasure,” he said. “It’s a pleasure to do.”

They survived 2020. Business in 2021 was fantastic. In 2022, the vibe was different as customers were more careful than they had been about purchases, said Berkey.

They can offer customer service and connection that isn’t possible with online transactions. Saner operates four book clubs that attract fans of various genres to gather around drinks at nearby businesses. A silent book club for introverts who wish to gather and read together without discussing the book happens at the store on the first Saturday of every month.

Saner loves how people gather

in and around Fables. “I enjoy it. I enjoy getting to be around books and talking with people about books and helping them find that thing they want. It feels like giving back to and being part of the community by being here,” she said.

Most of the owners attended Mennonite high schools or colleges, and several are part of local Mennonite churches. Their faith informs how they operate Fables, which happens to have large religious sections, including Anabaptist-related material, because of their clientele.

With several part-time employees who share their values, they operate a store where everyone is welcome. “Faith informs who we are as people,” said Berkey. “We talk about wanting to be honest, wise, and fair.”

The Black Lives Matter sign they have in the front windows doesn’t

thrill every customer. That leads to conversations about wrestling with faith and hard questions. Saner said her wrestling with white privilege is done with a faith perspective, particularly Anabaptist.

The owners work to support the community by giving books to Little Free Libraries, hosting field trips, and sponsoring a local high school musical. They hope they can do even more of that as they continue to grow.

In 2019, the closing of one independent bookstore in Goshen made residents realize how much they wanted one in their community.

Like the mythical phoenix, Fables Books rose from the remains and continues to fly.

https://fablesbooks.com/ .

Marshall V. King is a writer and journalist based in Goshen, Indiana. You can read more of his writing at https://hungrymarshall.substack.com/

For the love of good food

Wooden Boat Co. owner juggles multiple businesses

Running a takeout restaurant during the pandemic sparked career highs and lows for Thompson Tran.

“You know how glorious that (COVID) was for me? It reset the clock,” the Kitchener, Ontario entrepreneur recalls.

His Wooden Boat Co. operation was the most profitable it had ever been.

With people in lockdowns or afraid to venture out, he changed his business model to pre-order only, Thursday through Saturday.

Business doubled despite being open only half as much. His

offerings of Vietnamese sandwiches, fried chicken, and wood-fired pizzas regularly sold out.

Better cash flow allowed him to buy more equipment and pay down debts. Still, he realized the good times would be fleeting.

“I knew, from the moment I started making money, that this was not forever. I knew for a fact that once things got regular again, business would go down, and it did.”

His staff found new jobs, ingredient prices soared, and Tran knew he needed a change. After his second surgery for carpal tunnel

syndrome, his left hand did not recover as well as his right hand had.

“The margins were still there, but the physical aspects were too challenging. I realized I couldn’t do this anymore.”

Those challenges, plus fatigue from working 60-hour weeks, led him to shutter his restaurant this past summer.

Tran is far from done with the food industry. He juggles multiple businesses and looks forward to a future as diverse as his careers have been.

Tran’s parents are Vietnamese.

photos by LOF Photography

Thompson Trans bottles Vietnamese sauces, rents out kitchen space, and teaches cooking classes.

His father, who fought for the losing side in the Vietnam war, was imprisoned there for three years in the mid-1970s.

The Tran family came to Edmonton, Canada, in 1979, where Thompson was born.

They lived there for four years before settling in Langley, British Columbia, where Thompson was raised.

Like many immigrants, the family worked long hours at their tailoring business.

Thompson learned to do serging — the process of seaming or stitching the edges of a fabric to prevent it from unraveling — and hemming at a young age. Those skills later came in handy when he was the only male teacher who could teach culinary arts and sewing in home economics classes.

Other jobs connected him to food. From age seven, he worked on farms in the summer, picking strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries. He also helped to bale hay and perform other menial tasks.

In 1995, the Tran family became co-owners of a Vietnamese restaurant. Thompson, age 14, washed dishes, bussed tables, and did some food prep five hours at a time, three days a week.

“I loved it, he said. “It was really interesting.”

He couldn’t get as much exposure to the restaurant business as he wanted, however. His mother discouraged him from being in the kitchen, saying that was “not a place for a boy.”

“At most, she would let me pick herbs.”

The family, not wanting to charge customers too much, didn’t understand margins. The restaurant was sold two years later.

Another passion, playing classical guitar, would influence his first career path. That led him to study music performance at university.

Tran got more hospitality industry experience while studying at the University of British Columbia. He worked at a campus bagel shop, held supervisory roles, and was a cook at an arts club lounge.

Subsequent studies for a teaching degree taught him how to juggle multiple roles. He taught private music lessons. “I was teaching, and cooking and studying at the same time.”

He also played guitar and keyboards and sang in the contemporary rock band Splitting Adam. The group released several recordings and won a Grammy nomination in 2010 before disbanding later that year.

Some of the band’s songs were used in a video game and NBC made-for-TV movies. Tran still gets royalty cheques.

He started teaching at the 3,400-student New Westminster Secondary, B.C.’s second-largest high school. When the department head took a leave, Tran was called to colead the program with a colleague.

That role was a less than pleasant experience. “It destroyed me,” he said. “Administrative work was so heavy.”

After that difficult year, he and his wife went on a 6.5-month world tour. While enjoying tapas at a pub in Grenada, Spain, he thought, “This (food preparation) is what I should be doing.”

Returning to Canada, he switched to supply teaching plus cooking. “I was more passionate about food than I was about music.”

He was able to teach students culinary skills in home economics classes. But he knew he wanted to become an entrepreneur. “It’s in my blood. Every single member of my family are entrepreneurs.”

In 2014, he started The Wooden Boat Food Company as a catering firm in a commercial kitchen. Seeing other people making products and selling to retailers, he searched for a unique selling proposition.

He realized that stores didn’t have Vietnamese sauces and discovered his niche. And he made an unusual barter along the way.

A friend who is an Asian Elvis impersonator and graphic designer produced the Wooden Boat logo and packaging design. Tran provided guitar lessons in exchange.

Tran tested 10 versions of what would become Nuoc Cham sauce — the name translates as water dipping — with focus groups. Everyone picked the same formula as their favorite.

Nuoc Cham is popular with second-generation South-East Asians. But Tran understood that he needed to target North American-born consumers. “I knew that none of the people in my life would ever buy it.”

The business was difficult in the early going. Tran didn’t pay himself for five years. Catering income paid for sauce packaging and inventory but not living expenses.

Stores that bought the sauce were often late in paying.

“My wife (a public health nurse) floated us,” he said.

Educating consumers and doing marketing proved to be expensive. Retailers were receptive to putting Wooden Boat sauces on their shelves. That was only part of the battle.

“How do you get it off (shelves)

“It’s in my blood. Every single member of my family are entrepreneurs.”

— Thompson Tran

into the hands of consumers?”

Sampling was key to getting people to buy.

Eight years later, two types of sauces are sold in 250 retail stores in B.C., Alberta, and Ontario. Most of these are independent. Sobeys, Canada’s second-largest supermarket chain, stocks Nuoc Cham in some of its stores.

Tran still makes some products in B.C. and is considering working with a co-packer in that province.

He did the paperwork to export to the U.S. But after starting a rentable commercial kitchen business and sharing his space, the details of the original plan were no longer valid.

U.S. sales could still develop. He is in talks with a US co-packer who has a buyer in Boston that wants to distribute Nuoc Cham.

The product “is exactly where Sriracha (sauce) was 30 years ago (in terms of public acceptance).”

It will take another ten years for Nuoc Cham to become a household name, he predicted.

He has resisted offers to private label his sauces for retail chains. Tran doesn’t want to give up the opportunity to promote his brand.

Significantly ramping up volumes would also force him to invest in a new bottling line as well. “Profit and loss are really hard to control when you’re growing (rapidly),” he said. “Sometimes it’s

better not to grow a lot.”

A few years after starting Wooden Boat, Tran moved to Kitchener with his wife and two children. They moved to develop a bigger market for his Nuoc Cham sauce and to be closer to his wife’s relatives.

He found a warehouse for lease, originally for bottling and housing his products. A side venture making simple sandwiches to pay bills grew much more than he expected.

Customers started asking for catering and different styles of food.

In 2018, he opened a 14-seat restaurant, with 70 percent of business coming from take-out. A second location followed, a collaboration with a St. Jacobs microbrewer.

Tran had ten employees between the two places but wasn’t turning a profit.

Other business opportunities have arisen. Tran had one renter sub-leasing part of his space, then another asked, and then a third appeared. “Now I’m actually making money (that helps to pay for kitchen and equipment maintenance).”

He has a handful of others waiting in line to use the kitchen for their business ventures. That could lead Tran to lease a second warehouse.

He is doing catering or special pop-up cooking events in several

southern Ontario cities, roughly bi-weekly. “I can do that. It doesn’t destroy my hands.”

His well-loved Wooden Boat gourmet pizza has led an investor to suggest Tran open a “hole in the wall” pizza shop.

He would consider the idea if he could act as operations manager and hire a young chef who could buy into the business.

For now, he will focus on the sauce business and rearrange warehouse space to become more efficient for more renters.

He is also considering a return to full-time teaching, perhaps as early as September.

He wants to teach culinary arts to high school students, not college programs where people are about to enter the industry. “It really is about empowering them early on, so it (love of food) is innate.”

He hopes he can get students to make better food for cafeterias than what is served in restaurants. “How cool would that be?”

However he divides his time between various ventures, quality food will continue to be his guiding principle. “I have never done anything to become rich.”

His main goals are making a living, doing what he loves, and giving back to the community.

Having grown up in a family that had to use food banks often, he understands the needs. .

Thompson Tran does catering and pop-up cooking events in several communities.

An overnight success 10 years in the making

Alberta firm perseveres to tap need for temporary, portable fire halls

For more than a decade, Kevin Neufeldt has thought success was just around the corner for Extreme Modular Buildings.

“We’ve been building these units for over 10 years,” said Neufeldt, who heads operations and engineering for the Lethbridgebased business.

EMB is a division of Haul-All Equipment Systems.

“For that whole 10 years, we’ve always felt like we were two months away from really breaking through.”

Now, in a year when many businesses are trimming costs amid recession fears, his division is in expansion mode and looking to hire. The source of the new business: portable fire halls.

“We were always selling enough that we knew that we had a good product, and we knew there was a demand, but not enough to really make money or get really good at it (production),” he said.

Neufeldt is a partner in HaulAll, North America’s leading producer of bear-proof garbage bins. Those bins are used in national parks in western North America.

By keeping food litter out of bear paws, Haul-All’s bin “has done more to save the lives of bears and people than any single

thing I can think of,” bear expert and University of Calgary professor Stephen Herrero once said.

Haul-All manufactures many other waste containment, collection, and transfer systems and on-site heaters for the construction industry.

Haul-All began working in the modular building market through a partnership with a New Brunswick entrepreneur who needed funding to expand his business. When the partner’s business failed, with debts owing to Haul-All, it took over the patent for modular buildings.

The units were originally

designed for the oil and mining industries. They were also set up as welding and carpentry training stations, so people in small communities could do their apprenticeships.

A utility bay was leased to Sturgis, South Dakota. An annual motorcycle rally swells the population of that community from a few thousand people to 500,000 for two weeks each summer.

The leased unit was used as an ambulance bay and command station for several years. Eventually, United Rentals bought it and moved it to Peterborough, Ontario, where it is a support bay for some of their projects.

But slowdowns in the oil industry meant the units never sold in quantity. “We kind of missed the market (cycle),” Neufeldt said.

Looking for related opportunities, they came upon the idea of fabricating fire halls about five years ago.

“There’s a big need for new fire halls. A lot of the fire halls were built in the 1950s,” he said.

As cities expand, fire protection in strategic locations is needed, sometimes sooner than communities can build new fire halls, he said.

What goes into a fire hall has changed over the years as well. There’s a lot bigger need for

“There’s a big need for new fire halls. A lot of the fire halls were built in the 1950s.” — Kevin Neufeldt

chemical decontamination bays. Fire halls that originally housed only male firefighters are ill-suited to serve crews that include both male and female staff.

Various factors make leasing a transportable fire hall, at a cost of a few million dollars, a viable alternative to spending $7-8 million on a permanent station that can take several years to complete.

The modular bays weigh close to 80,000 pounds. Two pilot vehicles accompany moves, one in front and one behind.

The company’s first sale was to the city of Calgary. Another unit was purchased by resources company Cenovus for an oil sands

project near Fort McMurray. This past fall, long-awaited U.S. orders began to materialize.

Extreme Modular Buildings now has deals to deliver three-toseven bay units for communities in Massachusetts, Florida, Oregon, and Idaho. “They’re starting to come in from all over.”

Some bays are for office, kitchen, and training center use. The company has a patent on its building design.

Extreme is now booking into 2024 for new orders. Neufeldt plans to add a dozen new staff to HaulAll’s 100-person workforce to help increase capacity. He is looking for welders and carpenters.

Robots are not an option for fabricating 60-foot-long fire stations.

He said Haul-All has one robotic welder and may buy more, but they would be for the garbage truck and container product lines.

Scaling the modular buildings group will provide some efficiencies that Neufeldt has long been looking forward to.

“Almost every job has so many unique aspects to it that requires a lot of engineering costs.”

Duplicating some of the same designs will eliminate those costs. Having a crew that works on a particular section of a building will enable them to get good at building that area, he said. .

Kevin Neufeldt heads operations and engineering for Extreme Modular Buildings

photos courtesy Extreme Modular Buildings

Reflections for men

Living that matters. Honest conversations for men of faith

By Steve Thomas & Don Neufeld (Herald Press, 2023, 256 pages, $18.99 US)

With Living that Matters, Thomas and Neufeld make an important contribution to spiritual reflection for Christian men. They come well qualified for the task. Thomas is a long-time pastor, arborist, and US coordinator for the Mennonite Men group. Neufeld is a social worker who works primarily with men and is the Canadian coordinator for Mennonite Men.

Mennonite Men is a binational organization of Mennonite Church USA and Mennonite Church Canada. Its mission is to engage men to grow, give and serve as followers of Jesus.

Living that Matters is described by the authors as a guidebook for men searching for identity and meaning. The book is far more accessible and broadly relevant than Peaceful at Heart — Anabaptist Reflections on healthy masculinity, the 2019 collection of essays they co-edited.

Living that Matters is divided into seven sections exploring a broad range of themes: male formation, human needs, personal challenges, sexual wholeness, social practices, conflict tools, and life roles.

Each section contains between five and a dozen two-page reflections on topics related to the theme, followed by questions for further contemplation.

The scope of ideas introduced makes this work ambitious in its

breadth, at times at the expense of depth. The material’s staccato delivery makes the book easier to absorb in shorter reads over time rather than coverto-cover in several longer readings.

Still, Living that Matters provides valuable jumping-off points for small-group study or any men wanting to understand themselves and pathways to inner growth better. Worth buying, reading and returning to. – MS

Understanding why we buy Shopomania: Our obsession with possession

By Paul Berton, (Douglas & McIntyre, 2022, 308 pages, $36.95 Cdn)

In 2013, Winnipegger Anna-Marie Epp-Janzen decided to wear the same dress for a month. She did it because her closets were overflowing, and she wanted to see if she could get by with fewer clothes.

No one noticed, including her boss (me). What EppJanzen was experiencing is what author Paul Berton calls “shopititus” in

his book Shopomania.

According to Berton, shopititus afflicts people who discover their “houses are overrun with stuff.” It can turn them into “anti-shoppers,” people who are fed up with consumerism and their role in it.

Berton, editor-in-chief of the Hamilton, Ontario Spectator newspaper, decided to write the book — a collection of what he calls “shoponyms” — to describe how, when, where, and why we shop.

It’s not a screed against shopping; Berton acknowledges it is necessary and normal. But he also notes the pitfalls of too much shopping (something he calls “shoparrhea”), including its impact on psychological and emotional well-being.

Arranged like a dictionary of sorts into 75 short chapters with titles such as “Shopophobia,” “Upshop,” “Shopoganda” and “Shoppertunity,” the book is a breezy look at the process of buying stuff and how it can sometimes take over our lives.

One drawback for this reviewer is what feels like Berton’s overuse of stories of celebrity shopping habits. And sometimes the toocute titles for each chapter grate a bit. And yet, the message is important: We might all need to shop, but when do we have enough? By reading Shopomania, you might have second thoughts about some of your own shopping habits. .

John Longhurst is a Winnipeg journalist.

On leading ladies

When Women Lead: What They Achieve, Why They Succeed, and How We Learn from Them)

By Julia Boorstin (Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster, 2022, 432 pgs., $29 U.S.)

When Women Lead is, of course, not the first book written about the skills and success of women in business-related occupations. But Julia Boorstin covers so much territory in her 400page tome that leaders, employers, and workers will pick up insights and tips no matter what their careers. As CNBC’s senior media and tech correspondent since 2006, Boorstin invested untold hours researching

and capsulizing the experiences of some 200 women, mostly success stories.

The book covers much more than what happens when women lead. For instance, start-ups using recent technologies will continue to expand in years to come. Boorstin notes that almost all the women in the book have raised venture capital: “Venture capital investment is the magic ingredient that can turn an audacious technology-based idea into a world-changing institution,” she writes, cautioning, “The cycle can continue without anyone ever intentionally trying to exclude women or overlook their ideas.”

The chapter on how to manage a crisis is a must-read for anyone in leadership and offers a probing reminder of what we all went through with the COVID-19 pandemic. Her packaging of how it affected businesses and nonprofits and how these learnings may help us in the future is worth the price of the book. Besides lots of stats and percentages, she heralds women from myriad backgrounds who have used their smarts and bravado to break barriers of gender and race, improve the environment, support, and mentor each other, exude empathy, and champion opportunity in business for all. .

Melodie Davis worked as a writer/producer for 43 years at Mennonite Media in Harrisonburg, Va. Her latest book is Memoir of an Unimagined Career.