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Missouri Star Quilt Co. is an
extended family operation that includes, left to right, Mom Jenny
Doan, Dad Ron, daughter Sarah Galbraith, daughter Natalie Earnheart
and son Alan Doan. Other family members have given their time,
muscles and advice.
Success of local quilt
shop is bringing new money, building community
By Anne Tezon
News flash: Big
successes do come from small towns, even in Northwest Missouri, and
even in the nation’s worst economic downturn in decades.
The evidence
resides on Business Route 36 in Hamilton, in an old brick building
that first housed an automobile dealership, way back in the 1950s.
Missouri Star
Quilt Company is quickly gaining national and international star
status due to its unique combination of an extended family operation
with a niche product and the use of social media and technology for
marketing.
It all began
with Mom Jenny Doan’s love of sewing. When the Doans lived in
California, she was a costume designer for a theater company. When
Ron Doan left his job as a machinist for the Smucker’s Co. in
California to become a machinist for the Kansas City Star, Jenny got
involved in Hamilton theater productions, but didn’t get to indulge
her love of sewing. Finally she took a quilting class at the
Chillicothe Vo-Tech school and admits she was “smitten.”
Meanwhile, the
Doan children, all of them out of the nest, were looking for a
retirement business for their parents. As daughter Natalie
Earnheart now recalls, “We’ve been throwing around business ideas
for years.” Son Alan had a decent job as a globe-trotting consultant
and really wanted to help his parents out. He and his sister, Sarah
Galbraith, started working on a business plan centered around a
quilting business, using a computerized quilting machine. He hastens
to specify that the quilting machine is not your basement variety,
but instead a computerized “robot” that could turn out a finished
quilt in a day.
The business
plan originally was intended as a machine quilting operation only,
but it wasn’t long before the family decided they would need a
storefront, or something “away from the dining room table.” With
that, Jenny and Sarah decided to go to the quilting market in Texas.
They went armed with $2,000 to buy fabric for their starting
inventory. They called back home and told the family they couldn’t
buy “anything.”
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New baby ministry
helps young moms and its organizers
Phyllis Miller,
Polo, had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2000. In 2004,
diabetes was the new malady. Then last year she suffered through
five knee surgeries after a loader in a huge discount store ran into
her.
She may have
identified with the Biblical stories of Job, but one night Phyllis
woke up from a vivid dream and asked husband Paul, “What about a
baby ministry?”
Despite her
trials, Phyllis always had the impression she was supposed to do a
ministry in Caldwell County and the dream gave her the guidance she
needed.
Almost
immediately, Phyllis enlisted the help of friend Tammy Tucker, the
designated driver, and the two scouted every garage sale that had
baby clothing, furniture and toys. They scoured the sale tables at
discount stores and waited for the deep price cuts at season’s end.
For several
months, they took the items to the county health department in
Kingston and when they had WIC clinics there or young mothers come
in for vaccinations, they were told about infant clothing available
through Phyllis and Tammy. It wasn’t long before the inventory of
good used and new baby items was spilling over the health department
offices. So when Phyllis and Tammy moved their operation to Polo to
occupy the former pre-school owned by the Christian Church, they
already had a track record of serving 59 families.
Today they call
their ministry “Godmothers for Babies and Children” and word is
spreading and “baby fairies” are leaving donations of baby items at
their doorstep. Tammy and Phyllis still go to garage sales and bring
the clothing, toys and bedding back to the pre-school building,
conveniently located next to the church’s “Christ’s Cupboard” food
pantry. When expectant or new mothers come in, they both delight in
helping them pick items out.
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