Christine Gregory: One dream leads to the next

“I never imagined I’d be working with shelters and hosting pet adoptions,” reflects beautiful Christine Gregory, owner of Queen of Paws at Trendz in Leawood, Kansas, has a fulfilled life behind her. “I studied ballet, tap and jazz from age four. My dream was to be a ballerina.

“At fourteen I developed orthopedic challenges with my legs. I was told I should quit or be crippled by the time I was old. I didn’t quit, which is why I am suffering today. I minored in dance in college and danced with the KU (University of Kansas) Dance Company. Dance was my love. It’s a way of expressing myself.

“Mom got me into Greek Folk Dancing. Before I was born and after, she held me and danced to Greek music.  It’s in my blood. Twenty-five years ago I was asked to head the dance team at my church, St. Dionysios Greek Orthodox Church. I enjoy teaching and directing everybody to perform the dances I choreograph. After an event I am happy and proud of everybody. Dad has ten siblings. But I was the first on the Gregory side to dance. I taught all my cousins and their kids. In Greece, Greek dance is part of the physical education curriculum. But here, they don’t learn the dance. I love teaching them.”

Christine’s minor was Dance. She temporarily ended her college career when her dad observed that she was not really that interested in her major, Biology.

But she didn’t stop being busy and productive. “I started doing modeling and got into The Miss America beauty pageants for six years. I liked the pageants because of the glamour. Both dance and the pageants helped me with poise and confidence.”

After the pageants, she was ready to go back to school. “All along I was working in collections, which is still my day job. I was designing jewelry on the side. My degree is in Fashion & Merchandising Design from Johnson County Community College.

“I have had a dream my entire life to meet Baryshnikov or Cher. In 2001, I learned that Baryshnikov was coming to town. I said, I have to meet him. If anything, I am at least going to the after party some way. I called a woman at Leid’s Center in Lawrence, Kansas. She said Baryshnikov would be holding auditions for the production. I said, ‘Well, I am old and I have not done ballet for quite sometime now.’ She reminded me that it doesn’t hurt to audition. I was at home with my dad when I got the call that I made it. We had two weeks of rehearsal for The White Oak Dance Project. At the end of the performance we danced free style. I danced my way up to him. My mom and friends watched and knew exactly what I was doing as I made my way across the stage.”

The Cher dream? The closest she ever came to her was the third row at a concert. “Yes, I have fulfilled my dream.”

Christine’s Shih Tzu, Tashi, passed away in April 2004. “I wanted to carry on her name and started designing Foo Foo Collars that look somewhat like a ballet tu tu. I started a wholesale business called Tashi Tai Treasures, carrying them as well as dog clothes. My mom and I traveled to dog competitions all over the Midwest, selling from a booth. In August of that year I got my Shih Tzu Myko, named after my favorite Greek Island Mykonos; he joined us. We loved it. We did the shows together from 2004 to 2008. Then Mom got sick. I put the business aside because I was so sure she would make it. And then Mom died in 2009. I said I would never do another dog show again without her. That was our thing and it just wouldn’t be the same.

“I walked into a boutique one day to pass the time, and the girl there said, ‘You look like you shop at Trendz.’ I had never heard of it. I visited Trendz and thought, Oh, my gosh, Mom would love this.”  Christine began spending Saturdays at Trendz, glad to have a place to go because she and her mom used to shop every Saturday.

One day someone suggested she open a booth at Trendz. Confused, Christine responded, “A booth with what?”

“With your doggie stuff.”

“They called me to interview on April 26, which was the date Tashi had passed. I thought, I have to go.”

Queen of Paws made its debut at Trendz on May 1, 2010. At Queen of Paws, dog owners find high quality leashes, collars, beds, toys, organic & natural treats, spa products, and bakery fresh treats. Gift items for two legged customers are a favorite, too. Christine and her mom had always wanted a storefront and Christine is confident Mom would agree on Trendz.

“Mom said when she got well we would do support groups together and give hope to people with cancer and their families. I promised I would continue to fight lung cancer.” After much research, Christine discovered Lung Cancer Foundation of America. “I called and told them about my fund raising ideas. The day they flew me out to meet with their board was one year to the day that Mom was diagnosed. I do a lot of charity events for them at the store.

“Through my grieving process I felt the need to give back to the community. I know what Myko has done for me during this difficult time. People don't realize how many ways pets help us. He's really saved me. I feel like it’s my turn to save the animals that can't save themselves.” In February 2011, Christine starting working with kill and non-kill shelters by hosting pet adoptions at her store. The program is called Ruffs to Riches and hosts two to four adoptions each month. “I’ve also become a middle person to help find and place dogs with rescue groups or foster care.”

It’s a journey this woman with a caring heart never imagined. “I never thought I would actually be working for homeless pets. It’s a very rewarding feeling to find homes for them. When one gets adopted the people at Trendz and I cry. A lady from Olathe came in. Her house had burned down. Sonny, a Papillon, was here. She fell in love with him. He loved her, too. She ended up adopting him. Trendz gave her gift cards to help re-build, some shops gave her merchandise. She was a single parent of three daughters and was in treatment through the Mayo Clinic for cancer. It was the best feeling knowing how happy we made her.”

Does she have any future goals related to pets? “To open a Doggie Resort and Spa.”  That’s a treat every pet and their owner is looking forward to.

You don’t have to need a doggie treat or pretty collar to visit Queen of Paws and know your time was well spent. You don’t even need to have a dog or want one.  Christine’s kind demeanor and sincere interest in all Trendz customers will do your heart well. “I have many regular customers who send me pictures of their dogs.”

On November 12, 2011, Queen of Paws is hosting Sniffin’ & Struttin’, a combination Fashion Show & Pet Adoption, to benefit Heartland SPCA. Only shelter dogs will be brought in who will be available for adoption.

Naturally, she has an ongoing program to help fund lung cancer research. Bark for all Cures is a black tank top for dogs and humans alike, whose logo is exclusive to Queen of Paws. Ten Dollars from each sale helps fund lung cancer research. On November 17, 2011, Queen of Paws is hosting the first annual “Bling, Breathe & Believe” event to spread awareness and raise funds for lung cancer research at Trendz. “It’s in honor of Mom. Bling is my mom.”

Queen of Paws FaceBook

Julie Ellis: Proving What Women Can Do

The talk around town in 1993 was, “Oh, I don’t know about a woman buying this business. Afterall, this is mostly for men.” That’s when Julie Ellis and husband Gary bought Grandview Barber Shop. Julie has proved it was a very good move not only for her but also for her customers.

Born at Ft. Bragg, Julie was a “military brat” as a young child. Eventually she stopped moving around and at about age thirteen moved to Belton, Missouri with her mom and stepdad. This chipper, high energy woman has had a life filled with ups and downs that she has learned to ride very well.

By nineteen, Julie had two young children and was on welfare. Her stepdad supported her being on welfare with one caveat: “The objective of being on welfare is to get off welfare.” She didn’t blame anyone but herself for needing to support three on an income of $280/month.  She found a way to change that.  Though she never had an interest in doing hair, when a friend started at the old Grandview Beauty College on Main Street and invited her to attend, she thought,  “Why not?”  Julie was surprised that she enjoyed doing men’s cuts, which she had a knack for.

Grandview Plaza Barber shop was one of the first businesses to open at Grandview Plaza in 1971.  It was owned by Tommy Compton, who has since passed. Tommy hired the first woman to work there, Julie. It’s the only place she’s ever done hair.

In the early years it was not easy being a woman in a man’s working world. She recalls when John Brownfield, now a retired barber, had a customer come in with his son.  John said, “Well, Julie can cut your son’s hair.” “Oh, no,” the customer replied and twice repeated,  “A man’s gotta do it.” Julie burst into tears and ran out of the shop.

Husband Gary was a barber at the shop.  They bought the business in October 1993 and were married the following year. Gary now does all the shop’s accounting. Julie cannot stop talking about what a great husband Gary is and how she owes much of her success in life and business to him. Gary is older than Julie. As she says, “I’m young enough to keep him from being too ‘codgy’ and he’s old enough to keep my feet on the ground.”

As the old shopping center slowed down, she moved the business to Main Street. For two reasons Julie is fortunate that barbers Roy and Frank, with the shop since 1973 and 1978 respectively, are still with her today.  She can leave the shop for a day and fully trust them and all the customers know them. Today many of Grandview Barber Shop’s adult customers are the children of original customers.

When Julie is not cutting hair, she is spending time with their three adult children who live nearby and her five year old grandson, the cherry on the top of her life whom she lovingly calls buggerhead.  And when she’s not involved with them, she’s active with the Midwest Chapter of the Young Marines Unit or sewing blankets for friends, family or charity.  Her biggest sewing project was thirty-five blankets for the VA Hospital. She loves to make them as much as give them away because, as she says, “I’m a giver.”

Reflecting on her life and her journey as a business owner, Julie comments,  “It’s been long, hard and great. I’m the eternal optimist. I don’t carry things around.  And I’m fortunate to buy a well established business with a good reputation.” Her advice to people, “Don’t give up. Try hard. Life can always be worse. I’ve had some rough times but I can’t complain.”

When you need your next haircut, head over to see Julie, Roy and Frank at 713 Main Street in Grandview, Missouri from 8 to 6 Tuesdays through Fridays, 8 to 3 Saturdays.  You’ll likely know why generation after generation continues to do business with them.

Ailene Hartz: Makes Everything Crystal Clear

“Because of the type of leadership skills I have, I did not ever see myself working for someone else. I had to spearhead my own vision,” Ailene Hartz, co-owner with James Davis of Crystal Clear Services in Grandview, says with assurance.

Born and raised in the picturesque island of Barbados, Ailene wanted to be a nurse from the time she was quite young. But when her cousin cut himself badly one day when she was ten, and her knees grew weak at the sight of blood, she knew nursing was not her calling. In high school she was involved in the fashion design industry, which she thoroughly enjoyed.

Ailene was one of ten applicants chosen out of over two hundred as an exchange student to Grandview High School. Being a person who loves to travel, during her year at Grandview she visited New York, Boston, and Florida. “I found the Midwest to be the most friendly and relaxing.”

Back in Barbados after her exchange year, she was an apprentice to a well- known fashion designer. Crop Over Festivals are the most popular and colorful summer festival in Barbados, with origins back to the 1780s. There are many festivities and competitions, including one for king and queen of the entire extravaganza. “When I was an apprentice I had the opportunity to help design the queen’s costume, at the university level. That design was the winning costume.”

In 1993 she returned to the United States for the high school graduation of the youngest daughter of her exchange host family. “I began exploring my options and stayed on.” Also, her host sister introduced her to her future husband. Ailene's parents and two brothers live in Barbados.

She discovered that her plan to attend college in the US was more difficult than she had hoped. She worked for a local janitorial service for three years. Much of that time was behind a desk, not the favorite place for a person who calls herself adventurous.

In 1997, Ailene knew the best way she could treat both employees and clients with respect, as she was raised, was to start her own business. Also, because she has a business partner, she could concentrate on sales, marketing and networking, leaving operations management to him.  "I like to be out meeting people."

Crystal Clear Services is the flagship of three related companies.  Crystal Clear, JSI, and Extra Hands provide customized commercial janitorial services and supplies, in addition to temporary housekeeping staff to hospitals. Their high tech system appeals greatly to people who are budget-conscious.

It was a wise move from day one. "When I worked for the other company, I used to clean the Grandview Police Department. When I left the company, naturally I stopped cleaning for GVPD. Their quality of service went down immediately.  One of the police captains called and asked if we could help them out until the job went out for bid. We won the award. Next, two other companies that were using the previous company called. They became contract number two and three. I never contacted any previous clients."

Crystal Clear celebrated fourteen successful years on October 6, 2011. Innovation, diversification including the temp services and housekeeping training for organizations, and commitment to customer service has contributed to their business growth through the recent tough economy.

In business and out, this attractive single mom lives her philosophy of treating people as she desires to be treated.  Her advice to new business owners is,  "Above all, love what you do. Next, pay attention to customers' needs and always respond in a timely manner to your customers' requests. We treat every call as an emergency. No matter what it is, it's important to the person who made that call."

After a life-threatening illness several years ago, Ailene lives the reality of knowing that life is, "too short to be mean, grumpy or miserable. Everyone should follow their dreams. I tell my employees, life is too short to stay in a job you are unhappy with. Go find another job. Even if it pays less. If you are happy doing what you're doing, you have fulfillment regardless of the payment." 

With eyes that laugh when she talks about life, her daughter, her strong faith, and even her business, she adds, "I love the janitorial business. I meet people from all walks of life. I've never wanted to quit because I love what I do. I'm not saying there are no rough moments. That will always be. You just have to work through them. I heard a saying once. 'Skillful sailors are not made on smooth seas.'"

When you're considering services that the Crystal Clear group offers that needs to fit your budget, contact Ailene Hartz and James Davis.  You will be more than satisfied with your decision to participate in Ailene’s vision of exceptional quality service. Guaranteed.

Jeff Addison: Ice Sculpting is his Niche

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He smiled brightly from a chapped face and greeted me with a cold, but firm, handshake. “I just couldn’t figure out what I wanted to do when I grew up. I always liked working with power tools and making things out of wood. In high school when you take those surveys and they ask where you see yourself in ten years, I said I’d be married and working construction,”  Jeff Addison reflects on his professional journey as he takes me on a tour of the Cool Carvings operation.

        

Ten years, or more, finds Jeff married to his college sweetheart, Brooke, with two beautiful young daughters. He does work with power tools, though what he builds is not what he anticipated. Addison is a sculptor, one of the most ancient of artisan trades. Unlike the artisans of eight thousand years ago, Addison sculpts ice for his company, Cool Carvings.

        

He said hello to this world in Michigan but his father’s work took the family to many towns while growing up. Where does he think this love for ice carving came from? “As a kid my favorite things were camping, anything with scouts, everything outdoors. When I lived in Minneapolis across from our house was a city lake. In the winter, it was frozen and we ice skated all winter long. I always loved winter. In Lincoln we lived in an apartment with big parking lots. We seemed to always have a lot of snow. The plows would come through and make piles five and six feet high. I spent hours making tunnels through those big snow hills. I always had fun with the ice and snow.”  Maybe that love of snow and ice was inborn.

        

The handsome Eagle Scout graduated high school in St. Louis and went on to Southwest Missouri State (now Missouri State) in Springfield. He was still undecided about his major, let alone what he wanted to do with his life. But he found himself cooking to support himself and liked it.

In 1993 his sweetheart graduated and moved to her hometown of Blue Springs, MO. Unable to be so far from her, Addison moved into a studio apartment in the metro. His first job was to cook at Kauffman’s Stadium Club.

        

He wasn’t there long when one of the French chefs said, “You really like this don’t you?”

        

 “Yes, I do.”

        

“You need to do something with it. You need to go to culinary school.” 

        

Sensing the chef was right, Addison enrolled in the Johnson County Community College three year culinary program.

        

“I liked the creative side of cooking. One day in Kansas City, my Executive Chef got all the apprentices together and said, ‘I need somebody to do ice sculpting for Sunday brunch.’ I volunteered.

        

“He did one sculpture that I watched. And then he said, ‘You’re on your own.’ He supplied me with all the necessary tools but I thought, I can’t do this yet. Blocks of ice cost money. For this chef to give me a block of ice each week was saying a lot. For the first ten sculptures I was pulling my hair out. I could only see a block of ice. And then I was able to see through it and see the cuts I needed to make and cut through to the sculpture. I have to go through each and every cut from the finished piece and work my way backwards to know where to start.”

        

In the meantime, Jeff and Brooke were married in 1995. In a few years he was Executive Soux Chef and invited to move to Austin where he would have been Executive Chef. Did he jump at the chance?

“I had lived in 26 residences by the time I was out of college. I said, this is it. I am married and my kids are gonna have roots like my wife did.

        

“I was learning as much as I could but I realized what I enjoyed most was the catering aspect.” Soon the young couple opened Addison & Company Catering, thankful for her accounting degree. He soon discovered, “There were a lot of caterers, a lot of good chefs, a lot of competition. But not many offered ice carving as a professional business. Ice carving was always something small and done on the side by a chef.”

        

One day one his servers said,  “You ought to do that full time.”

To which Addison replied, “You’re crazy. There’s not enough work to do this full time.” But he looked into it and saw that there was work in this industry. “It’s my niche.” Cool Carvings opened its doors in February 2006.

        

“I am not gonna get rich with this. But I like what I do and I am doing a good job. People are happy with what I do,” shared the young entrepreneur. “Those first years you wonder how we’re gonna handle it and then we remind ourselves that God’s gonna provide. He always has. And if this fails then it does. And He’ll provide a different opportunity. I am not scared. But sometimes I wonder and just when we think we are not gonna make budget, the phone starts ringing.

        

“I am developing my craft. The repeat customers call back. But they want to see something new. There’s a lot of overlap between the two businesses. They both want new menus. Everything I gained knowledge wise – client relationships, selling - in catering, I have been able to use with this. Catering was a trial run. It was there that I established relationships with other chefs and event sites. I was able to call on those contacts when I started. I don’t think I would do anything different. It’s been a lot of hours but I would do it all over again.

        

“I like getting a challenge to do something large or something not done before. Lon Lane’s Inspired Occasions challenges me year after year. I have many large catering clients. But Lon has made me go to the next level. Like one year he said, ‘I would like a player piano that’s also a drink slide and the music cylinder in the piano actually spins’. So I did it. It was a life-size player piano, with individual keys, foot pedals, a cylinder that spun and it had two tubes for drinks.

        

“Last fall I did a display for the Kansas City Southern Railroad Executive Dinner at Union Station. It was a 21 foot long train. A detailed locomotive with 3 box cars. Each box car had one of their three logos carved into it. It was complete with wheels, couplers, rails, ties & spikes. It actually looked real. We delivered 128 pieces to the site and fused them together there. I really enjoy the big displays.

        

“Another client that challenges me is Aramark. They say, ‘this is the party, do what you think’. When they give me that creative license it’s the most fun and I do my best work.”

        

So how does Jeff keep a positive attitude when times are tough? “Prayer and dependence on God. During real busy times I sleep here. I carve for a few hours; sleep for a few hours. How do I make it through those times? I call my family, Brooke and the girls, and they come for a visit with a Waldo Pizza. A visit with them and I’m good to go.

        

“I’ve quit a couple of times but I keep hiring myself back,” he laughs. “You know, an employee has a boss to complain about. I don’t have that. My mascot is that penguin on the side of my truck. I call him Chilly. He becomes the boss I can complain about. You know, he works me too hard and too many hours, he doesn’t pay me enough.” A smile of satisfaction appears under gentle eyes the color of rich coffee.

Plans for the future include the continued enhancement of events in the metro, with expansion well past this central area, by creating new and innovative sculpture designs and display elements. With that will come the building facility expansion with more walk-in freezer space and the installation of an ice CNC machine, which is a computer aided cutting machine, to assist in making logos. And one of these days when his daughters are old enough to work, he’d love to set them up with a snow cone stand at the Cool Carvings site property. That’s one way to keep entrepreneurs in your family line.

What about the slow times? How does he turn them around? “Start a major home remodel project. It works every time. Recently I said to Brooke, you’ve been wanting that new bathroom for a long time now. We’re pretty slow.  It’s time to do the bathroom. I got the bathroom completely gutted and all these phone calls started coming in. Now she has to wait a few months.”

        

Though this young man is a master at his trade, he remains humble. “It’s fun to look back and see God’s plan. I’m grateful to God for the talent he gave me. I didn’t pick that up from school and my own effort. It’s something He gave me and He gave me the opportunities to use it.”

        

Contact Jeff Addison and his apprentice at 13004 7^th Street, Grandview, MO, 816.765.1900 when you’re ready for an exquisite one of a kind piece of art at your wedding, dinner reception or other special occasion.