Mainebiz

W W W. M A I N E B I Z . B I Z 15 S E P T E M B E R 1 6 , 2 0 2 4 A U G U S TA / WAT E R V I L L E / C E N T R A L M A I N E In 2020, she returned to Franklin County. "When I got here, I was floored by what I was seeing," she says. "I was witnessing and feeling the exact same things in Franklin County that I did at a much larger scale in Los Angeles." at was a growing community of startups and initial programs to support them. One of them was CES, which quickly attracted Coolong's attention. "When I first came back, I started to do some research to see what's out there," she said. "Bonita's name popped up everywhere." Coolong offered her expertise. Now the board is taking a deep dive into CES's mission, vision and values, while planning, fundraising and identifying partners. "Right now we're in the early phases of struc- turing our focus around three key pillars at CES: life skills and leadership, business education and social enterprise," Coolong says. " We've shown proof of concept with our Changemakers launch- ing micro businesses where they're learning every- thing from branding and marketing to pricing, inventory and sales. We've been tracking their outcomes, and they're thriving." Now the board is firing on all cylinders to get shov- els in the ground at the Whittier Road site. "We have wonderful community support already," Coolong says. "It's definitely coming together and we're seeing momentum." L a u r i e S c h r e i b e r , M a i n e b i z s e n i o r w r i t e r , c a n b e r e a c h e d a t l s c h r e i b e r @ m a i n e b i z . b i z F O C U S P H O T O / F R E D F I E L D Alicia Phillips, right, works with Layla DeCastro as she teaches her the new cash register system at the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies in Farmington.

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