This is part of a year-long ‘Love for Local’ series called NB365: portraits of New Brunswick entrepreneurs, businesses and organizations. Huddle is a media partner with Love for Local. Today, we hear from Riannon McVay of Hanson Road Flower Co. in Fredericton.

WHEN I WAS A LITTLE KID, I DIDN’T WANT TO PLAY DRESS-UP OR KITCHEN, I WANTED TO PLAY SHOP OWNER. I ALSO WANTED TO SPEND ALL MY FREE TIME IN THE SUMMERS PICKING WILDFLOWERS ON THE SIDE OF THE ROAD (HANSON ROAD OF COURSE!) AND MAKING BOUQUETS FOR MY MOM AND OUR KITCHEN TABLE. SOMEONE ONCE TOLD ME THAT WHAT YOU LOVE DOING AS A CHILD, IS OFTEN WHAT YOU END UP DOING AS AN ADULT.
Even though it took me a couple of degrees, a few career changes, and living in another country for several years to figure that out, I know it is what I was always meant to do. Finding Fredericton, this wonderful community that sincerely supports local and empowers small business owners, especially womentrepreneurs, was the final reassurance I needed to take the leap.

Have you ever heard the phrase “you get what you give?” That is what it means to support local. By giving to your community, in return, you get a self-sustaining economy, a creative business sector, and a beautiful city to live in filled with exciting things to do, eat and see.

Hanson Road 2.0 is coming! We are ready to bloom into a bigger space and expand our products and services. We want to be more than a flower shop, we want to be a destination.

Supporting local businesses has a real impact because you are supporting the humans that you talk to at the counter when you purchase your product. Additionally, you are often talking to the very person who made that product with their bare hands.

The circle of impact is complete, there is no corporation between you, your decision to spend money somewhere, and the people who poured their heart into the product you chose. It feels so good as a consumer and a business owner to support, and be supported, by Frederictonians that care. Plus, by shopping at our local business, you are also supporting the 20+ other Boss Babe’s whose products we carry at Hanson Road!