Mora Business Owner Honored with Award from WESST

WESST (Women’s Entrepreneurial Self Sufficiency Team), a state wide small business incubator recently awarded our local business owner and community advocate, Anita M. Moss, with being one of the 30 faces of WESST for their 30th anniversary. When they came to film Anita in her new venture, The Boutique on Main Street in Mora, they surprised her with a more prestigious honor. During the filming she was awarded a Community Give Back Award! Anita along with 11 other businesses in New Mexico were selected based on their passion for giving back to their community. This came with a small cash award which was made possible by a generous anonymous donor.

Anita has been the coordinator for our local Arts & Cultural Compound for the past 4.5 years. Mora is the smallest of the NM MainStreet Arts & Cultural programs and the first certified. With the limited resources the county has it is also the only program without a paid director. With that dedication, the help of a solid board and volunteers, the annual reviews with the MainStreet program continue to be well received and making benchmarks ahead of schedule.

Anita has run her business, UpcycledFashion.com, for the past 12 years. It began as a non-profit for 9 years. Anita took it over as her own business to avoid writing grants and reports, just at the time she signed on to direct the Mora Arts & Cultural Compound. She finds this ironic as she just jumped back into the grant writing and reporting game. Opening The Boutique has been a big help balancing the two. She can work at The Boutique, which is another venue to sell her creations ranging from quilts, gift, cards, fashions and a Classy Baby line, while she mentors Mora’s new VISTA Volunteer (read previous blog to learn how VISTA is helping Mora). As community comes into The Boutique she has an opportunity to let the community know about opportunities, classes, ways to volunteer and network between programs.

See the WESST promotional video HERE.