100% Eastern Townships

Knowlton is home to a brand new business - etownships - 100% Eastern Townships is the brainchild of Virginia Wilson.

‘I am a native Townshipper that grew up in a family of 5 on the countryside of Dunham, Quebec. My father, Norman Wilson, was a janitor at Heroes Memorial School when I was young and became a carpenter later in life. He was a continually active community member and volunteer that taught my sisters and I about our social responsibilities at a young age.’

Losing her father had a tremendous impact on her life.

‘He passed away when I was fifteen, so I became self-sufficient and entrepreneurial at a young age and tried to never to lose these great values. I went to school at Massey-vanier and then Montreal, but my heart has always been in the Townships.’

When post-secondary school was complete, Virginia ‘escaped the city, and moved back to the country where she belonged.’

Virginia is a renaissance woman – much of her resilience and need to forge ahead has become a great slice of her life’s purpose.

‘I have family in Knowlton and decided to move my own young family to Brome Lake from Frelighsburg in 2006. There is something special about Brome Lake and the people that live there. The sense of community and support is indescribable. I began volunteering and helping with Canada Day and the Duck Festival. These were activities near and dear to my heart growing up and I loved that they brought our community together. I worked for a few years at the Brome County News and The Record and became involved in local and federal politics. I grew close to the merchants and spent a lot of time going door to door promoting our Shop Local campaign which was organized then by the Brome Lake Chamber of Commerce. I knew my passion was to help the community, promote businesses and link people together. There were a lot of hardships and challenges and budgets were not exceptionally large. I wanted to do something to help improve communications in town and help the businesses, so I created the Facebook groups Knowlton.com and later, Sutton.com, Job – Emploi Brome-missisquoi and others, but these projects did not pay the bills for my family and me, so I needed a plan B.’

There is flexibility woven into Virginia’s resilience, determination and also drive to set an example for her two teenage daughters.

‘I went back to school to study marketing in Montreal 3 nights a week and landed a couple of great positions in large companies that taught me a lot, but something was missing. I wanted to find a way to merge my passion for helping the community and the businesses in the Eastern Townships with my passion for marketing and sales. I decided to take a chance and launch my own marketing company Lead Prospect in January 2020. With my background and skill set, I was able to win some larger contacts right away. This was better, but I was still missing something. I had always dreamed of united the best of the Townships in one location and have a place where the community could easily find what they need or wanted in one place. My goal was to launch my project etownships inseptember of 2020…but COVID 19 had other plans.’

So many projects, plans and businesses have been derailed or rerouted by the current pandemic.

‘When COVID 19 struct our community, I decided to put my project in override and launch it earlier than expected. My goal was to have Facebook groups and create an e-commerce platform where the community could start shopping for local products in the Eastern Townships and have them delivered or shop for the same products that we offer online at our physical store. I launched the Shopify platform E-townships right away in March, bought a trailer and began picking up inventory from some of my favourite vendors and artists. The problem I was having was locating the perfect location for our physical store.’

The tricolon ‘location, location, location’ is often misattributed to Lord Harold Samuel. Whoever originally affirmed this was making an important point. A large part of success isn’t just the right place at the right time……but where is that place?

‘I reached out to the community and received a tip of a location near the Knowlton Pub on Knowlton road. It was perfect. I could have a portion from my marketing company and the rest for the etownships physical store. It is amazing the feeling that comes over you when you know you have done the right thing. When I signed my lease, I felt it. It was finally all coming together.’

That little strip of businesses is known has been known as the Boardwalk, and has featured many different small shops over the years – Pikenya’s beautiful wares, a barbershop, Tammy Lace’s thrift-shop, known as Karma.

Virginia’s trailer, with the etownships logo boldly featured on the site is a perfect rolling advertisement for this new Townships business hub, and can now often be seen parked in the Boardwalk’s strip of parking spots.

‘I will be promoting products, producers, farms, artists, and businesses in the Eastern Townships full-time. My store will be located in the heart of my favourite town and I will be doing what I love 7 days a week with my team. I will be hiring and shopping locally and offering paid training to my employees to help them get ahead and gain valuable experience in marketing, communications, event planning and sales. We are working hard to complete all the renovations and decorations for the launch of our new store which will take place on Canada Day – July 01 at 5pm. We may not be able to celebrate at Lions Park like we normally would each year, but I will do my best to incorporate some of that community spirit on my special day in July.’

Now more than ever, such a community-spirited grouping of the best business the Townships has to offer is very welcome. When exploring how to shop local and support our local businesses, look no further than etownships.

For more information on etownships, to have your business featured and to learn more about how you can support Townships businesses, (and to contact Virginia Wilson), please visit the e-townships Facebook page, www. etownships.com or call 450-955-9505.