Jun 8, 2009

New owner at Love Your MotherBy WLKM.com

Love Your Mother has a new owner.

The store – located at 39 North Main Street in downtown Three Rivers – is now owned by Peggy Deames. She took over on June 1st from Larry Farris, who opened the store in 2005.

Deames is familiar with the store, which features “Earth-friendly goods,” having worked there part-time for Farris since 2006. She said, “Larry was looking to move on to other things and offered me this opportunity – and I have done it!”

Deames has a background in nursing and commuted to the north side of Kalamazoo for 13 years while employed by Kalamazoo County. She said ownership of the store is “a totally different change,” but it fits in with her philosophy and the concept of Love Your Mother that “the choices I make with my everyday purchases affect other people in terms of how the planet is treated. That’s really a health issue in a lot of ways so it does – in that way – connect with my background in health.”

Deames said Love Your Mother sells a variety of Earth-friendly goods – items that are “either organic, all natural, or made out of recycled products.” She said, “We have a wide variety of things” such as personal care products, cleaning products, pet supplies for cats and dogs, office supplies, gift items, household items and clothing. The store also carries items from local artists and Deames is trying to find more local suppliers. She’s also in the process of developing a bridal registry and a baby registry and said, “Down the road, I would like to become kind of a resource center for folks looking for where to recycle things.”

The ownership transition will be celebrated Thursday evening, June 18th, from 6 to 8 p.m. That’s the first night of this year’s Three Rivers Water Festival and also an evening when Michael Beauchamp, “with his powerful voice and mournful guitar,” will be performing in the bar at the Riviera Theatre. Deames said, “We thought it would be a good time to put our best foot forward as people are gathering for all the other events that are happening” that evening.

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