When Erin and Nancy Risdon, along with their sister Holly Hill, decided to open Sweet Threads on Main in downtown Okotoks, their timing couldn’t have been worse, though it didn’t seem that way when they opened in September 2019.
“We wanted to start a higher end children’s clothing store,” Erin said. “Holly had lived in Edmonton and noticed that Okotoks lacked both that and a candy store at the time. So, we thought we’d put the two together.”
The name Sweet Threads on Main was derived from a bit of jargon. “Kids call clothes ‘threads’ and with the candy component ‘sweet’ just seemed to follow,” Hill explained. “And because we’re located on the main drag, Sweet Threads on Main just rolled off the tongue.”
Less than six months later, the COVID-19 pandemic totally shut them down. New to the business world, with bills to pay and nobody coming through the door, they had to figure out what to do to survive, and fast. They decided to branch out into the lawn sign business.
“During the pandemic, when you saw all those ‘Lordy, Lordy, Look Who’s 40’ signs – that was us,” said Nancy. “We spent many a night roaming around town putting pink flamingos on people’s lawns. Sometimes we set up three or four a night. It brought fun and happiness to people during a difficult time.”
It was also remarkably successful. Hill, who had resigned her job as a dental assistant to run the store, became the sign lady, a role she fulfills to this day.
The others, fortunately, hadn’t yet given up their previous jobs. Erin has been a dental assistant for more than 25 years, while Nancy is employed by Foothills Community Immigrant Services, helping newcomers from around the world settle into life in the foothills area.
Before that, she worked with United Nations African peacekeeping missions for 10 years, at first in the prosecutor’s office at the Special Court for Sierra Leone where she helped investigate the so-called ‘blood diamonds’ which were a source of funding for both sides during a brutal civil war that claimed more than 100,000 lives and left millions of others homeless.
“We were the only international war crimes court in the world that worked in the country where the war crimes happened,” she said.
Nancy later moved on to Khartoum, Sudan, where she lived for more than five years, working with United Nations Boards of Inquiry looking into injuries and deaths of peacekeepers.
Her passion for community work is reflected in the way she and her sisters talk about Sweet Threads on Main.
“We have gotten to know so many people – customers and other business owners – I think it’s just our personalities,” said Hill, who also worked in Ghana for three months in 2005 as a volunteer dental hygienist aboard the hospital ship MV Africa Mercy. “We work hard at all aspects of our lives, and that’s what we’re doing here.”
