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s t a n l e y • F a i r f i e l d • S h o sh o n e • P i c a b o Wedding & Event Planner Pull Out Section pages 11-18
Blum nominated for Paula’s Prom Girl Page 3
Heart Rock Ranch efforts restore 4,600 acres Page 4
It’s Happy Hour at the Habitat Page 7
M a y 4 , 2 0 1 1 • Vo l . 4 • N o . 1 8 • w w w.T h e W e e k l y S u n . c o m
ahead of the curve
Entrepreneurs? Who? What? How? By JIMA RICE
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ver the past two years, I’ve written for this paper about entrepreneurship from just about every angle I can think of, including profiles of local Jima Rice entrepreneurs; statistics about the role of entrepreneurship in rural economies; the need for us to learn more about economics to appreciate small business; the role of government in economic development; and the entrepreneurial subculture in our valley. Grasshopper Group, a business that creates products to grow small businesses, was founded by two entrepreneurs who know whereof they speak. Their website (worth checking out) states, “If you’re an entrepreneur, you know that ‘risk’ isn’t the reward. The rewards are driving innovation. Changing peoples’ lives. Creating jobs. Fueling growth and making a better world. Entrepreneurs change the way we think about what is possible.” One year ago, Grasshopper Group circulated a petition asking President Obama to declare a “National Entrepreneurs’ Day.” Six months later, the President agreed. The first designated day was November 19, 2010, the last day of National Entrepreneurs Week. This year, November 16 will be National Entrepreneurs’ Day. Jigsaw, whose non-profit mission is to support entrepreneurs, small businesses, and a sustainable economy in the Wood River Valley, has created the only local institutionalized outreach to help local entrepreneurs. And we are blown away by our constituency! In the midst of a terrible economic downturn, entrepreneurs remain an excited bunch of people who are moving ahead, learning with every step, sometimes winning and sometimes having to return to square one. So they struggle, to be sure, but birthing an innovative idea and driven by a desire to make a difference has given them a sense of opportunity that they will not easily yield. Since its inception in The Weekly Sun, this Biz Bio column has profiled 57 local entrepreneurs. Selection criteria include: Businesses that are new and have lasted for at least one year; Businesses owned and run by those under 40; Under-the-radar businesses; Entrepreneurs with technology inventions; Entrepreneurs with an improved or new product; Businesses that have expanded to more than one store; Entrepreneurs who rely on the Internet to do business; Entrepreneurs who live here but do business elsewhere. Meanwhile, everywhere you look in the Valley, you are looking at a small business! Whether they’ve been around a long time or not, a small business was started by an entrepreneur. No, it is not Microsoft or
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Brazilian Songbird By KAREN BOSSICK
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intia Scola Quecada already had plans to introduce Motown to her native Brazil through a concert this October that she will direct online. Now, she’s determined to infuse Sun Valley with a little Latin rhythm. Cintia Scola, as she’s content to be known, is a Brazilian songbird, who made the long migration north to Idaho two years ago to marry a 30-year resident of Bellevue. Since, the 49-year-old singer has leant her voice to the Sun Valley Hallelujah Chorus, performing Christmas and black gospel solos at both of its concerts. On Sunday she will sing a solo at Music n’ Me’s Mother’s Day Concert at 3 p.m. at Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Hailey. And she also has begun teaching voice students at Music ‘n Me, adding to the number of students in Brazil, Switzerland, Portugal, Africa and even South Carolina that she already teaches online. concer t. “That—and meeting Patty Parsons eir black gospel h Chorus at th ja lu lle Ha e th and her choir-- was so important to me ith wn Chariot” w lted out “’Lo Do because I feel like part of the commuCintia Scola be nity now,” Scola said. “I’ve got my kids here singing in have the cars, the buildings. Here you Portuguese—how fun is that,” said Mitzi soundbites with cintia have the quiet, the nature. It is like a Mecham, who owns Music n’ Me. “It will paradise.” be interesting for the kids to have the opScola said she loves Craters of the portunity to learn Brazilians songs—BraMoon, Silver Creek Nature Preserve and zilian rhythms can be complicated, way American food—“the cheesecake is like more sophisticated than American music. heaven.” But kids don’t know any different so you But, she says, the people here are more teach them something new and they just private than Brazilians, accept it whereas adults overthink things “Actually, I thought the differences and have to shift gears because they’re so would be bigger than they actually are. set in what they do.” The world is a little thing now. We have Scola grew up in San Paulo, a city of so much access to American music and 17 million, which she describes as the Manhattan and Wall Street of Brazil. She TV in Brazil—we watch American channels in Brazil.” grew up on lasagna, pasta and homemade Mecham said it’s been interesting bread, thanks to her grandparents who watching Scola in action: “Everything’s came from Italy in the late 19th century. hugs and kisses. The Brazilians are very, She found out she had a natural talent very gracious, loving people. I find myself for singing when she began singing in signing my emails with x’s and o’s for church choir at 15. And for 30 years she –Cintia Scola Quecada hugs and kisses now. And the kids are sang in concert with Silvia Mendonca, a Singer going to come in and say, ‘She really loves popular Brazilian singer. us.’ ” But she also had a penchant for photogScola hopes to sing at Jazz in the Park raphy and it was her photos on her Flickr Russ Caldwell, who’s been known to and other events around the valley this page that drew her to the attention of bang out a few Latin rhythms on his summer. And, she would also like to form Bellevue photographer Joe Bobber. Conga drums, can’t wait: “Brazilian a group of adults singing and playing “I love it here because it is so different rhythms are my favorite—they’re so rich Brazilian music. from San Paulo,” said Scola who has also “My mission is to help people find a love and intricate.” worked with World Vision tending to the tws and passion for music,” she said. poor in Rio de Janiero. “San Paulo you
“I thought the differences would be bigger than they actually are. The world is a little thing now.” “My mission is to help people find a love and passion for music.”
Hailey, ID 208.788.7446 (SIGN)