Downtown Highland Park boasts more than 140 women-owned businesses. You can visit 33 of them at the 2nd Annual Women-Owned Business Whistle Stop Trolley Tour, 4-9 p.m. May 7.
Sandy Saldano, owner of Therapeutic Kneads, is the event coordinator and the originator of the event.
“The goal of the tour is to highlight the many women-owned businesses in Downtown Highland Park and to know the heart and the passion that a lot of these women have to have some unique businesses,” Saldano said. She added that the event is also designed to bring the women business owners together for a common goal.
Saldano said. “I came up with the trolley tour because Downtown Highland Park is spread out and the businesses can be a little bit far for somebody to walk in a short time frame.”
The event was planned for May, because it is women’s health month, and is scheduled just before Mother’s Day.
At the trolley stops, “Each business is going to have their own little promotion, demo, free products, a spin-to-win,” Saldano reported. Her Therapeutic Kneads, which opened in 1997 offering clinical massage therapy, is going to do massages.
“Everybody’s doing something a little different,” Saldano explained. The objective, she noted, is to give people the incentive to come back and visit the business again.
From 7-9 p.m., there will be an afterparty at Dayhouse Coworking.
Owner Jen Luby reported that the afterparty will have raffle prizes from all of the participating businesses. In addition, there will be a chance to sample foods from several Downtown restaurants and mingle with the business owners and patrons.
Luby opened Dayhouse Coworking in 2019. She described it as “a serene and supportive co-working space. We focus on hospitality and holistically serving our members and guests. We have private offices, we have conference rooms, we have open spaces where the Trolley Tour party will be.”
More Top Picks Best Fidget Toys For Autism
Luby decided to participate in the Trolley Tour because, “I really love supporting other women-owned businesses, especially those here in Downtown Highland Park,” she said. “It’s a great event. It’s a chance for our community to come together and recognize what makes it special and then celebrate it.”
The importance of an event like the Trolley Tour, Luby said, is that “you’re actually meeting the person behind the business and it strengthens the ecosystem, which is good for all of us.”
Sherry Levin is co-owner of Style Shack, which opened twenty years ago.
“Style Shack is a lifestyle boutique,” Levin said. “We offer gifts and all kinds of things for the home. Also, some accessories. It’s a well-rounded collection of hard-to-find items.”
When Levin was asked to participate in the Trolley Tour last year, she said yes because “Whatever we can do to promote the retail community in Highland Park we’re willing to do,” she said.
For this year’s Trolley Tour, Style Shack is offering a 10 percent discount. They will also serve some light bites.
Last year’s event benefitted Style Shack, Levin said, noting, “We attracted new customers.” In addition, she added, “It was a feel-good event.”
Ellie Nottoli opened Atelier by elliestyled ten years ago. “We are event planners, event designers, event stylists,” Nottoli said. “We plan weddings and bar mitzvahs and showers and intimate dinner parties. We offer full-service planning. We also have a rental component.”
At her business, you can rent anything you need to throw a party.
Nottoli decided to participate in the Trolley Tour because, “We are big advocates of women in business,” she said. “We root for our fellow female entrepreneurs and businesswomen. We’re also really community-driven.”
They have an event space where about a dozen small businesses will have pop-up shops during the Trolley Tour. Last year, they donated that space for the afterparty.
The event costs $23.18 and registration is required at Eventbrite under Women-Owned Business Trolley Tour Downtown Highland Park.
Myrna Petlicki is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.