The Gracious Gardener's Summer Adventure

Who is Gracie?

• She is the owner of the ‘Gracious Gardener’!
• She is the daughter of Emilly, a claims adjuster with Middlesex Mutual.
• A student who competed, and won out of 50 contestants in the Be Your Own Boss contest put on by Huron County Economic Development last year. She was in Grade 4 at the time.
• A young girl who saw an opportunity to help her school by pitching a business plan to grow and sell her own vegetables. Gracie’s plan was to donate 25 per cent of her earnings to her school’s snack program.

How did Gracie’s garden grow?

Well…

Seeds were bought. Corn, tomatoes and other vegetables were planted and Gracie tended her garden throughout the summer. She was off to a promising start!

As many entrepreneurs will tell you, even the best laid plans can sometimes go astray…

Gracie went away one weekend and when she got back, wouldn’t you know it, raccoons found their way into her garden and ate up all her corn!!!

And to make matters worse, most of the other vegetables she planted just weren’t growing.

What did Gracie do?

She adjusted her plan!

Even in the face of adversity, Gracie stuck to it and found a way to make sure her plan didn’t fail.

Gracie enlisted the help of her grandmother and other family members and made relish using the zucchinis she was able to grow this summer. With the sale of Gracious Gardener’s zucchini relish, she was close to meeting her goal.

We asked Gracie to come into the office and tell her story, which she did very well. We knew we wanted to help her reach that goal of donating funds to her school’s snack program and as our way of saying thank you to a young entrepreneur that did not give up decided to match her donation.

Congratulations on a job well done, Gracie!