Tell Us Your Story. What motivated you to start your business? Why are you passionate about what you do?

Big Eddy Glass Works (BEGW) was founded from love. Leah Allison, the founder of BEGW, fell in love with the art of glass blowing on a trip to Mexico and decided that she was going to dedicate her life to it. This decision took her to Invermere, BC, where she worked in a glass shop for 16 years. But love struck again while visiting the town of Revelstoke, BC for a stand up comedy show, when Leah met her husband in the crowd. Relocating to Revelstoke meant leaving glassblowing behind, or founding her own shop. And so, Big Eddy Glass Works was born. Beyond a love of this town, the people in it, and glassblowing, Leah loves the functionality that glass blowing provides. Creating art that has a function makes it accessible. We like to say that everything tastes better in a handmade glass, but truly using a piece of art in everyday life elevates the normalcy. That is the inspiration behind the work that is made in our shop. We create art for a home, to be admired, but also to be used.

Describe and demonstrate, including metrics, your community support. How do you support and uplift your community, and how do they show that support in return? Minimum 25 words, maximum 2500 characters.

In collaboration with Big Eddy Glass Works' goal of making accessible art, we try and support other artists in the surrounding community. We do this by collaborating, making art pieces with metal fabricators and woodworkers to make everything from small singular art pieces, or large scale art installations, some of which can be seen around the streets of Revelstoke. Another way we do this is by hosting events, welcoming local vendors to sell their wares while we market the event and their presence. Over the past two years these events have expanded greatly, from 12 vendors to 48. Usually taking place twice a year, they bring in thousands of shoppers, and generate tens of thousands of dollars in income for local artists, makers, and food and beverage vendors. We have supported local charities and non-profit organizations by donating a portion of our profits after a large event. We frequently donate goods for silent auctions and event raffles. We have recently begun a program of giving $5 from every “Revelstacker” cup sold to be donated monthly to a local charity that we have selected. We understand that while financial support is incredibly important, we have also donated rentals of our cups to special dinners and events in the community. We have felt this support given back by the continued presence of shoppers in our store, dancers on the dance floor of our events, and customer recommendations aplenty.

Why do you deserve to win the Business Impact award?

Big Eddy Glass Works is a unique business, not just geographically being one of only a handful of open to the public glass blowing studios, but also being an extreme art form in a community of extreme outdoor enthusiasts. We are a woman founded and led business, and we have grown steadily over the past 5 years, and hope to continue this growth in the future. Why do we think we deserve to win? In many ways we are the under dog, a small team of artists collaborating to run a welcoming space of art and learning. We have maxed out our current space, but we still have huge plans. We have created a landmark that competes with the mountains around us. We have big dreams, big hearts, and huge amount of love for our community above everything else.

Tell Us About Your Culture. How are you creating a sustainable and healthy workplace where everyone feels welcome? Provide examples of leadership you show in interactions with clients, vendors, contractors, staff and others.

At Big Eddy Glass Works we like to prioritise fun, and we believe that this overarching theme is what helps maintain our positive workplace culture. Creative freedom, a collaborative approach to projects and events, encouragement to expand, learn and explore, all through the lens of maintaining a fun workplace, makes for a welcoming and inviting space for both staff and customers. When visitors walk in and see the staff having a good time while creating, it becomes contagious and they also leave with a smile on their face and a pep in their step. We also like to continue expanding our knowledge and trying new things, so Team Beads is a regular occurrence where the staff get together after hours and learn new techniques and further their skills. We also realize that its important to have a work/play balance, and break up our working calendar with fun staff events, such as ‘staff ski days’ in the winter, ‘staff paddle days’ in the summer, staff parties and other team social events. This is important as it celebrates the staff and their contribution to BEGW, and helps to bond the team together even more, as everyone feels appreciated, seen and valued. When clients and visitors come into the studio with custom request, we do our very best to accommodate in any way we can, even if we are not sure how the outcome will look, we are always up for a challenge! We recognize that these moments are an opportunity to challenge ourselves on a small specific level that increases our trust in each other. This trust can then be applied to our bigger goals. For the community we also offer a range of workshops so that people can be involved in the process and try something that is so unique. We also offer rental time for people that have completed our flame working workshop, encouraging them to be a part of our team and to continue their exploration of glass.

Why do you think you should win the Premier’s People’s Choice Award?

Big Eddy Glass Works was built with our community in mind, encorportating an open viewing studio to encourage and invite the community inside, where they can watch and interact with us, while we make our products. Supporting other local artists, makers and charities is a big priority with Big Eddy Glass Works, as we know how important community is, and in doing so we like to contribute and give back. As previously mentioned, donations raised from our summer and winter markets are made to local food banks, a percentage of purchases made each month are donated to a local chosen charity (that changes each month). Our annually held family friendly markets and events draw large crowds and generate a lot of exposure and income for our local vendors that attend. Some of who are emerging artists, and some established local favourites. We have an open door policy when it comes to collaborating with other artists, not just around Revelstoke but the wider BC interior. We are super passionate about glass and want to make it accessible to the community of Revelstoke and those travelling through. We endeavour to welcome everyone who walks through the doors as a friend, answering any questions and sharing our love of glass with them and inviting them to participate. We would love to continue doing this every single day, and continue growing into a bigger operation. Glass is like magic, and we want to share it with everyone!