Your Evergreen Chamber of Commerce has inducted some amazing women into the Mountain Area Women in Business Hall of Fame last week. Thank you to all who reached out with nominations. It is with tremendous honor that we present to you the inductees….
Alexa Cowley, owner of Mountain Home and Alexa Interiors, has called Evergreen home since moving here from Canada in 2000. Her community involvement started early when her kids were at The Bergens, including being on the Bergen Leadership Council at Bergen Meadow Elementary, as well as being a founding member of the North Evergreen Activity Trail (responsible for bringing to fruition safe trails and paths between the schools and activity centers in the Bergen Park area). Alexa currently serves as a board member for the Evergreen Legacy Fund Foundation as well as Center for the Arts. Both of her businesses are members of the Evergreen Chamber of Commerce and Evergreen Downtown Business Association. Using the Mountain Home barn as a unique venue, Alexa offers free events for the community throughout the year, including the Annual Artist Reception and Holiday Open House. Both Mountain Home and Alexa Interiors donate to numerous local nonprofits and fundraising events throughout the year to help our community.
Beth Riser is the owner of The Evergreen Gallery. In 2018, Beth took over the Evergreen Angel jewelry collection from Evergreen Fine Art Gallery and continues the tradition to this day. They are sold online and in The Evergreen Gallery with proceeds benefitting Mount Evans Home Health Care & Hospice. Beth has been assisting the Downtown Evergreen’s “Art of the Egg” event for many years, which creatively inspires Evergreen’s families and professional artists to share their artistic abilities. This fundraiser always brings understanding and benefits to a local nonprofit. This year, proceeds go to Resilience1220, which gives free counseling to young people. This summer, Beth will be conducting a call-for-artwork called “Blooming Evergreen,” in which a community art show of flowered artwork will be on display at The Evergreen Gallery bringing proceeds and awareness to benefit the Evergreen Garden Club. This show will coincide with their biannual Garden Show. Every other year, The Evergreen Gallery hosts “Tails of the Painted Cats” at the gallery, which is a large fundraiser for the Cat Care Society in Lakewood.
Pandora Erlandson is one half of PandoraJohnProperties, a top producing, local real estate team. Pandora loves her community and is actively involved. She created “Genesee Entertains,” an annual fundraising event that ran for seven years raising funds for Blue Spruce Habitat for Humanity. When she began working for Blue Spruce Habitat, Pandora created the “Hard Hats & High Heels” fundraiser, which continues today. With her husband, Pandora has been instrumental in producing many music benefit events for local causes, including the “Boogie at the Barn” series, which started in 2012 and has raised close to $100,000 for various nonprofits in our community. After completing the Leadership Evergreen program in the Class of 2011, she served on the board, and is currently part of the Leadership Evergreen Advisory Board. Pandora has served on the board of Mountain Area Land Trust since 2014, completing one term as board president, and is currently serving again as president for 2022. She is very engaged with a variety of other nonprofits in the community, such as Center for the Arts Evergreen and the EPRD Special Needs program, among others.