Celebrating with My Son, Calvin
Last night we attended a Start Gardens business evening to hear our son Calvin’s presentation for his business called G-Wraps, which provides personalized accessories on glasses. He and another Davenport University student, Tyler Essenburg, are co-owners of the business. Start Gardens, the brainchild of Richard DeVos, invests in promising entrepreneurial businesses. After winning the first level of support ($5,000) three months ago, Calvin and Tyler have been working hard to grow their business so as to win the next level of support ($20,000), which they accomplished, by God’s grace, last night. Three of the companies that presented last night won the support and three did not.
Calvin and Tyler
This is a huge step for them as it now gives them the financial backing they need to produce a good number of G-Wraps as well as some seed money to advertise. It was a fascinating evening hearing the six different companies present their businesses and goals, and then hearing Rich DeVos and three other business people respond as to why they will or will not continue to invest in each business.
Esther Back Home with Mary and Me
After going out to eat with Calvin and Tyler and family members and friends to celebrate reaching this milestone, we then went to the airport to meet our daughter Esther, who is returning after home from Lithuania after studying there for sixteen weeks. She had a great time there, and was able to travel to numerous places during her semester for short getaways (Athens, Rome, Paris, Moscow, etc.), but was really looking forward to getting back to her great boyfriend, James Engelsma, and us. And we were counting the days. Though the plane was delayed in Chicago (most other flights from Chicago were cancelled due to inclement weather), she finally landed in Grand Rapids at 1:30 a.m. It was sooooooo great to see her, and so wonderful to have her back home. It seems like she was gone a year.
