ModernFamilyExpo: Sunday, Feb. 23, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. at North Vancouver’s Pinnacle Hotel at the Pier. Tickets: $10/$8/free for children under 12. modernfamilyexpo.com
Angela Santoro, a busy North Vancouver mother of two, knows firsthand the challenges of finding the time and means to check all the boxes when it comes to living a healthy life.
Knowing she's not alone, Santoro has teamed up with two other moms to present the inaugural ModernFamilyExpo, Sunday, Feb. 23 at North Vancouver's Pinnacle Hotel at the Pier. The event, suitable for all ages, is intended to offer solutions to families to help them become more active, healthy and eco-friendly.
"I am our target mom for this event. I am the one who would love to be better in all these areas every day and I struggle every day. Our goal is to introduce families to companies who give them quick and easy things they can add to their daily lives to be a little bit better," she says.
A lawyer by trade, Santoro is also the owner of Modern Mama North Shore (modernmama. com/northshore), a branch of the Canada-wide social and educational resource for local mothers that she launched locally in 2012. For next weekend's
ModernFamilyExpo, Santoro partnered with Kay Protheroe and Betty Sheehan, Squamish residents who run the annual Sea to Sky Family Fair in their community through Busy Mums Media.
"We connected to bring a bigger show to North Shore families," says Santoro.
The upcoming ModernFamilyExpo will feature: more than 75 exhibitors, including healthy food and beverage sampling; Modern Mama workshops led by a variety of parenting and health experts; fitness classes, including prenatal yoga by Yogapod and Griffin's Boxing and Fitness' Boxing Babes program; and a kid zone, offering a bouncy castle, face painting, a Cinderella meet-and-greet, arts and crafts, and other activities.
Ticket sales are going well and Santoro is expecting a strong turnout, and hopes to make the expo an annual event.
When asked what she's taking away from organizing the expo, Santoro says, "I am connecting with hundreds of businesses in my local community, which I do already through Modern Mama, but this has taken it to a whole new level. I'm connecting with so many companies that give back to the community. They provide such important resources for families. It just feels good to be promoting them."
Among the local businesses featured at next weekend's ModernFamilyExpo is Clearly Prepared, a North Shore-based company specializing in emergency preparedness and first aid kits for the home and vehicle.
Clearly Prepared was founded by North Vancouver residents Jennifer Jacquart and Carissa Boudreau in 2012.
"We didn't just want people to have the supplies to be prepared, we wanted. .. everyone in the household to have a clear vision, a clear idea, a clear plan of what to do and how to respond in an emergency," says Jacquart.
Their idea for the company came after Boudreau had expressed an interest in putting together an emergency preparedness kit for her young family. She shared her plan with longtime friend Jacquart, who previously worked for the Red Cross teaching first aid and CPR, and she thought it was a great idea and decided to make one for her own family.
Boudreau's parents heard what they were up to and asked whether they'd make one for them, as they were unsure how to go about it.
"It just seemed like the more and more people we were talking to, it seemed like nobody really had any type of preparedness for their families or for their household or any type of plan," says Jacquart.
"We just also found that when we tried to build our own kits, it was very expensive and very time consuming and so that also helped form the company," adds Boudreau.
The duo conducted a survey to gauge whether community members were prepared for an emergency and if not, whether they would consider getting prepared if a product was readily available to help them do so. The results gave them the green light they needed to move forward confidently with the company.
"It seemed like we were really on to something at that point, and a bit of a niche," says Jacquart.
The entrepreneurs spent months conducting research, took seminars at the North Shore Emergency Management Office, as well as underwent other training courses before launching their business.
Clearly Prepared is intended to make it easy for families and is a one-stop shop offering a variety of emergency kit options (each of which comes with a workbook to guide families in creating emergency plans) via the company website, getclearlyprepared.com.
Jacquart and Boudreau are pleased with the opportunity to showcase their company at the ModernFamilyExpo.
"Families - and families on the North Shore in particular - that's our biggest target market. These are the people that we really want to help get prepared," says Jacquart.
"We find that people, everyday, tell us how much they've had it on their list of things to do and it's been there for a while but it's not a top priority. The more people we touch and the more people that buy our kits and are getting prepared, I think we just get really excited that we're helping somebody else do something for themselves and their family," adds Boudreau.
