Hi, we are Emma + Lynn. We began this EF’s journey a long time ago…
It all started a few years earlier than this photo, but this photo is dear to our hearts. Taken in 2013 at our former store in Tamaqua. It was a gem of a place and we adored offering our goods live and in person in such a beautiful location and at the heart of our town. We even had an hour long manufacturer’s tour produced and aired (for many years, it still runs on occasion, I have heard) on PCN. It featured our products and manufacturing process, but more importantly, our people: our Friends.
Our Friends were at the heart of our business and this young girl is the namesake and reason for our existence. Having served on the Board of our regional United Cerebral Palsy, called Avenues, I realized that I hoped for Emma a future where she could do work she would enjoy and that would be appreciated by others.
She was 4 when the idea began to develop, 5 when it was registered as a business, 6 when Emma’s Friends began to deliver products and 9 in this photo. Oh, my heart!
We did a lot! We had an online store, a brick and mortar store, we packed up and set up our goods to vend at juried craft shows, sold to wholesale accounts, back bar products to spas, supplied a historic 100 room hotel with custom guest room amenities (over 10 tons of soap just for them!) and offered fundraisers in our communities. ALL with the purpose to employ adults with disabilities while advocating for good employment opportunities and showcasing their valuable contributions in their communities.
That’s a lot of tiny soaps!
And then we stopped. And it broke our hearts a bit…
But, we needed to. We began to understand why Emma struggled so much in life. It turned out that a brain-based visual impairment, called Cortical Visual Impairment, or CVI, had been impacting her ability to learn, grow, do, be. When we learned we could actually help her, we realized I needed to shift all of my attention to meeting Emma’s needs before she finished her schooling. And so we did. Which necessitated the closing of our store and ultimately, Emma’s Friends at the end of 2016. It wasn’t in my plan to close EF, we had just undergone a re-branding, had a full staff and we working our strongest year to date. It felt shocking to us all, the swift closing of the store, but it was necessary. I worked from our former soap kitchen to fulfill our commitments to fundraisers and the hotel through the end of 2016.
By the end of May, Emma and I relocated to a school an hour and a half away from home and Don, Emma’s Dad, my husband, to give Emma an opportunity to learn. Then, we moved to Boston and eventually, when Covid hit, we were able to come home and live together again as a family, doing what everyone else was doing at the time too: school at home. We might have been the only people pleased with the shelter in place order; we were home!
And Emma began to flourish. And we were thrilled!
Emma learned to read, to communicate with an iPad via an alternative and augmentative communication (AAC) device; she even became a published author (you can check that out here). She gained independence in her self-care skills and began to walk independently with a white cane, as those with a visual impairment do. It was amazing to see her grow and become.
And then, surgeries. And lots and lots of recovery from surgeries to repair her brokenness.
In Feb 2021, she underwent major, bi-lateral leg reconstruction to correct skeletal errors, so that she would be able to walk into her adult years. What we couldn’t know was that her bone health was so poor that her body wouldn’t heal, it would just continue to break. She endured a tremendous amount of pain through the years of treatments for osteoporosis and hundreds of bone stimulation sessions, intensive rehabilitation, along with additional surgeries. Eventually, Emma’s body began to heal. As of Fall 2024, she is almost completely healed (Praise God!) and we are hopeful for full healing in the upcoming year. It has been so wonderful to see her moving again, regaining lost skills, and mostly, laughing. We missed all the laughing and joy she brought to life in those years.
And now… here we are! Resuming the work of Emma’s Friends! Yay!!
And, we couldn’t be more excited to be back at it! We will be starting small, and we may well stay that way. Emma is still working her way back to her former fullness of life and we are too.
So, here we go! Looking a little different than before to accommodate for Emma’s needs as she works on our goods, but still full of the awesomeness that existed in our goods before.
Over the years we have heard from our incredible customers, so much encouragement and kindness has been shared with us and we are so very grateful to you all for loving our mission, our goods, our girl. Even when there was radio silence from us as we worked through it all, we received your grace, encouragement and love. Thank you, truly.
Thank you for joining us on this journey once again. We recognize how incredibly blessed we are! So, who needs some lip balm??? ; )
Lynn + Emma