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St. Louis City Resolution Number 377 March 12, 2010 |
| Resolutions adopted during the 2009 session by the St. Louis City
Board of Aldermen have been converted to electronic format by the staff of the St. Louis
Public Library. This electronic version has been done for the interest and convenience of
the user. These are unofficial versions and should be used as unofficial copies. Official printed copies of St. Louis City Ordinances may be obtained from the Register's Office at the St. Louis City Hall. |
WHEREAS, we have been apprised that Emma Forrest will be receiving an award from Grace Hill and her name will be placed on the Wall of Fame of the Grace Hill Women's Business Center; and
WHEREAS, Emma Forrest was born and raised in St. Louis. She is married and has four children, two of whom are still at home. She took business classes at Sawyers Business College. After taking classes she worked for A.G. Edwards and Boatmen's Bank (now Bank of America) working in security and MacDonnell-Douglas, engineering support on the F-15 for 7 years. When MacDonnell-Douglas started layoffs, she had just given birth to her youngest son and realized that she needed to be thinking about how to make money and take care of her baby at the same time. So "New U Infant & Child Care" was born in her home, and she began her relationship with Grace Hill; and
WHEREAS, she ran her day care, starting in one bedroom of her house and slowly growing. Through the Women's Business Center she completed a business plan, applied for an ARCHS (Area Resources for Community and Human Services) grant as well as a small loan from the Women's Business Center. "None of this even happened, however," she said. "I did everything on my own when I could get the money together;" and
WHEREAS, when new building for moderate income began in neighborhoods of mid-town St. Louis, the family decided to buy and move back to the city. Emma went into real estate sales successfully, until a market crash. Then she began preparing tax returns for Jackson Hewitt Tax Service. She was the manager of a south side office on Jefferson Avenue when she became aware that there was no place to get anything to eat in the neighborhood. She had to drive to get a snack and people without cars living in that area had to take a bus to shop; and
WHEREAS, she found a vacant storefront near the tax office and rented it. She knew the neighborhood could use a convenience store but did not realize then that the area also had many senior citizens' apartments. These people immediately came through the door she really filled a need in the neighborhood. M & M Market is open six days a week from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Emma worked on a business plan with the help and advice from the WBC and she took all the classes she could on running a business.
NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED by the Board of Aldermen of the City of St. Louis that we pause in our deliberations to recognize Emma Forrest for her outstanding achievement and we further direct the Clerk of this Board to spread a copy of this Resolution across the minutes of these proceedings and to prepare a commemorative copy to the end that it may be presented to our honoree at a time and place deemed appropriate by the Sponsor.
Introduced on the 12th day of March, 2010 by:
Honorable April Ford-Griffin, Alderwoman 5th Ward
Adopted this the 12th day of March, 2010 as attested by:
_____________________
David W. Sweeney
Clerk, Board of Aldermen____________________________
Lewis E. Reed
President, Board of Aldermen