FUN FACT

the class led them through developing a business plan, marketing, insurance, setting up a business bank account, the need for a lawyer and related resources.

“We learned from each other in class,” Ron said, noting that such prominent businesses as Advokate, Up River Cafe and Tony DeFranco Landscaping, among others, emerged from his group. “Some of the people you meet in that class become business associates by the nature of what you went through together.”

“One of the reasons we thought there was a market out there was Kathy’s family’s legacy on the lake, it’s repeated thousands of times around this lake,” Ron said. “There are people whose families have been coming to the islands to go camping for generations, people who have places on the lake that have been in the family for three or four generations.”

Kathy always asks customers about their connection to the region. “I love to hear their story of how they’re connected to the Adirondacks, Lake George or Saratoga.”

“That’s what it’s all about: just making people happy, really,” she said. “Live where you love.” www.loveisonlakegeorgecruises.com

RON AND KATHY MILLER HAD FRONT-ROW SEATS TO COUNTLESS PROPOSALS ON LOVE IS ON LAKE GEORGE, INCLUDING A PARTICULARLY MEMORABLE ONE IN WHICH THE GROOM-TO-BE PLANNED TO PROPOSE TO HIS BELOVED ON AN EARLY-MORNING HOT AIR BALLOON RIDE. TWO DAYS BEFORE THE PLANNED PROPOSAL, THE BALLOONIST CANCELED BECAUSE OF THE WEATHER FORECAST.

“He was scrambling,” Ron said of the young man. Ron arranged to pick up the couple at Castaway Marina at dawn.

“We were out on the water and, finally, he got around to it and proposed,” Ron said. “But that wasn’t the end of it.”

The groom arranged breakfast at Blue Water Manor. As Ron steered the Lyman into dock, both sides of the couple’s families were there, awaiting their arrival after driving up from Long Island that morning.

“She still didn’t know what was going on,” Ron laughed. “She realized who they were, stood up, threw her left arm up in the air and yelled, ‘I got engaged,’ and everyone on shore said, ‘Yeah, we know!’ It all happened real quick and it was really fun.”

After a fire destroyed the business he owned with his son, Bert Weber was humbled by the outpouring of support from his neighbors.

Once Common Roots Brewing Company rebuilt its South Glens Falls restaurant and tap room, Weber and his family created The Common Roots Foundation to give back to the community that supported them.

Bert Weber

2013 STARTUP ADK PARTICIPANT, PRESENTER USE THE QR CODE TO READ BERT’S ORIGINAL STORY IN THE DECEMBER 2020 ISSUE