Estevan's business community is welcoming a new addition to the family.
Regina's Karen Mah chose Estevan as a location for her second Inspiring Young Minds to Learn store, opening this spring. The new store will provide a big variety of supplies for funny and exciting early learning, helpful for teachers and parents alike.
The Mercury spoke to Mah about her business and her plans for Estevan, which appeared to be a great location, since it is pretty much in the middle for many surrounding southeast communities. Besides, Mah has family in Estevan, so she had some understanding of the area.
The new store will open at 1209 Fourth Street, which was previously the office for the Buffalo Party of Saskatchewan during the provincial election. The business owners signed a lease in early March, and are starting to set up the store. There is currently a banner with contact information on the window, but the business owners soon will put a full storefront up.
Mah said she assumes it will take about six weeks to clean and organize everything, so they will be ready to open around the end of April.
"I'd say it will be six to eight weeks and we'll be up and running in Estevan," Mah said.
The Estevan location will offer a lot of learning resources available for parents and teachers.
"We are going to have things that teachers are going to need in the classroom and items that parents could use at home with their kids. Lots of sensory items, etc.," Mah said.
Inspiring Young Minds to Learn stores provide supplies for elementary school, which is usually suitable for pre-school to Grade 6 students.
"We have different building toys and games, just different things where they are learning through play," Mah said.
She opened the Regina store back in 2018, and it's been going really well ever since. Back then one of her friends mentioned that a store owner was retiring, and alongside other teachers, she was concerned about where to get good supplies for classes, as she was a teacher herself. Mah has been in retail her whole life, and she ended up purchasing the store and getting pretty deep into early learning. Now not only does she run the business, but she also decides on what products to bring.
The store supplies a lot of pre-school and kindergarten-age games and learning tools. Besides they have a good variety of activity options.聽
"There will be a great selection for sure," Mah said.
The Estevan store will be smaller than the one in Regina, however, Mah said she knows how to maximize the space to fit more product in. Besides, there will be an option to order stuff online with a pick-up in Estevan.
Mah plans to employ three people at Estevan's location. She also will be driving to the Energy City on regular basis.
"I'll be in Estevan probably six or seven days a month," Mah said.
"We are really excited to come to Estevan. We are excited to bring some things out there that people may not have an opportunity to see hands-on. So we are excited about that," she added.
Inspiring Young Minds to Learn aspires to make learning a fun-filled adventure in the classroom and at home with the toys, tools and resources found only at the store. Kids young and old will have a blast learning about arts and culture, science and language, life and technology with their supplies. More information can be found at www.inspiringyoungminds.ca.
