ONE INTO THREE DOES GO

Mary meets a young woman who has set up three businesses during the last few months

MANY OF YOU

'You would think that two businesses would be enough, but no, Holly has now also set up a third one. Dog lover Holly has now opened a dog groomers.'

having my business destroyed so I needed to diversify. I had been thinking for some time about a sustainable clothing business as there seemed to be very little sustainable gym clothing available. I had more time with the business being shut down so did my research and have launched Euphoria Fitt.

‘I have leggings, gym tops and hoodies for sale. The leggings and tops are made out of recycled plastic bottles and plastic waste and branded locally. I wanted to create starting at £28. The leggings are proving particularly popular and everything can be bought either online or via click and collect knew exactly what she wanted her leggings in particular to be like; high waisted so and 7/8 length in sizes from XS to XXL.

Euphoria Fitness is now back in full swing and clients love the new premises as there’s a lot more room but classes are still kept small with a maximum of 10 per group. Holly kept hold of most of her clients because, as well as cancelling memberships and refunding fees during the lockdowns touch with everyone. The small classes means that Holly can keep a close eye on you and push you on, but it also encourages friendships. She now runs up to 20 classes a week, starting at 6.30am including HIIT, spinning and circuits and has clients of all ages, up to 73. She also runs evening classes as well which are popular; all can be booked online.

You would think that two businesses would be enough, but no, Holly has now also set up a third one. Dog lover Holly has now opened a dog groomers. ‘I love dogs, as my clients will know. Euphoria Fitness is active mainly early in the morning and then again in the evening so during the day I have a gap. I decided to train as a dog groomer and because I have plenty of room where I am I’ve set up a grooming parlour. The dogs come in through a separate entrance so clients and dogs never meet. Basil’s Barbers is in an ideal location as it’s quiet down here so dogs don’t get stressed. There’s plenty of space to park, which is good for all my clients and I’m not rushing dogs through allowing plenty of time between appointments so nervous dogs don’t get stressed.’

I don’t know about the dogs being stressed, Holly should be with all that’s going on! But she seems to take it all in her stride and has planned her days well good to see entrepreneurial spirit shining through the dark days of lockdowns.

www.euphoriafitness.co.uk www.euphoriafitt.com @basilsbarbers (instagram)

Travers Rising stars

Local young musicians have the chance to perform on one of the biggest stages in the region. Kate met Terry Forsey, founder of The Travers Foundation to find out more

LAST YEAR THE Foundation launched the competition and to give them the chance to perform at Glastonblaby, one of the biggest stages in the region. Out of 27 entrants, the photographic session. unedited audition tape. ‘These videos do not need to be of a August this year.

It is a fantastic chance for a young musician, giving them a real leg team of trustees to provide such an opportunity? arts. There are no apprenticeships, no government grants and no

‘So in 2012 on my 60th birthday I told my family and friends I leading the launch of this competition as the event Chairman.

'Out of 27 entrants, the independent judging panel chose local singer/ songwriter Nick Hart as the winner.'

and instrumental in getting us motivated. Kieran and I both played

The Travers Foundation is a local volunteer-run charity that dreams in sport, music and the performing arts. In 2019 they competitions. Despite Covid it raised the same amount of money last year as 2019 despite not being able to run as many events. The Gretton Sportive sponsors and donations to fund coaching, studio, performance and competition costs.

www.travers-foundation.org.uk

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Phone box fever

Active reader Stephen Martin is on a mission to encourage the use and preservation of the red phone box

THE RED PHONE box is now an iconic sight, but they used to be on many a street corner, and were very well used. I think it is vital that the remaining ones are put to good use rather than be scrapped.

Many of you will remember using the red phone boxes for their original purpose; making a phone call. At one point there were nearly 80,000 of them in use. Do you remember queuing up outside them to phone relatives or dial-a-disk? You needed loose change (2p at one point) and had to feed the coins in when the pips went, to carry on with the call. We all used them and with one usually easily found when it was necessary to make a call. Oh how those days have changed!

Now everyone has a mobile phone and phone boxes are now virtually obsolete with very few still actually used for their original purpose. Sadly many of these iconic phone boxes became derelict and were removed. Nowadays, in the UK, there are now only just over 10,000 old phone boxes left.

In 2008, BT introduced a scheme to ‘Adopt-a-Kiosk’ for just £1 and since then more than 4,000 communities have adopted their local phone box and transformed them exchanges; local history and information places and, in a small number of very inventive cases, even into advertising; art; food banks; museum; recycling points and seed banks. Just under half have been put to alternative use with another 27% still actually working as phone boxes. The remaining 24% are currently unused, but this is reducing as more communities take over their own phone box.

There are about 1,700 book exchanges across the UK which usually have a selection of over 100 books which can be taken and swapped. Anyone can come and choose a book and in return leave one for someone else to enjoy. The book selection can be very wide ranging from childrens’ to

When Stephen moved from Canada to Wittering in April 2021 he wanted to Doing this he noticed the book exchanges in Thornhaugh and Yarwell and began using them, swapping books. ‘When I’ve read a book I always want to pass it on to someone I think might enjoy it,’ he says. Steve was interested to see what people might recommend so designed a bookmark with a simple rating system and put them into his two local village boxes. Very soon this expanded to over 20 local book exchanges and over 2,000 bookmarks so far. Steve is now seeking sponsorship to expand this throughout the East Midlands and maybe even further.

Steve sees these red phone boxes as iconic symbols of our heritage which are worthy of preservation. To make this happen Steve feels it is essential that they have a purpose As well as the bookmarks he has also installed four second-hand bookcases. He is going to team up with us and put Will’s Walks into some of the local phone boxes too.

Next time you pass an old phone box have a quick look inside; if it is being reused then information in there.