In the words of the great Shania Twain, let’s go girls! It’s time to grab your crown and head to downtown Millbrook for the annual Ladies’ Night on Thursday (August 3). King Street is already well on its way to being transformed into a celebration of women for the fun-filled event hosted by the Millbrook Business Improvement Area (BIA).

First held in 2004, Ladies’ Night is one of the Millbrook BIA’s longest-running and most anticipated events of the year. After two years of pandemic restrictions stopping all festivities and last year’s extravaganza being held on a Sunday afternoon, the event is back where it belongs — on a Thursday evening — and, according to Millbrook BIA’s treasurer and the event’s organizer Sherri Soucie, it’s “better than ever.”

“It’s always been geared towards letting the ladies have a night out by leaving the kids at home, leaving the husbands, and getting out to socialize and unwind,” Soucie explains. “It gives women a chance to socialize with other women from town who they wouldn’t have a chance to meet otherwise because of their daily lives.”

From 4 to 9 p.m., King Street in downtown Millbrook will be closed to make space for the stage, chairs, and vendor tables at the event. Though Ladies’ Night will commence at 4 p.m. with live music and events, Cavan Monaghan Township Mayor Matthew Graham will make opening remarks onstage at 6 p.m., where he will introduce the new board members of the Millbrook BIA.

Continuing until 9 p.m., the event also includes a fashion show, line dancing, and karaoke, while vendors, personal services, and food and beverage establishments will be accessible throughout the entire evening.

“We want Millbrook BIA members to know that we are there to support them,” Soucie says. “Our goal is not only help the members by hosting these events, but to encourage people to support our local businesses too.”

To further encourage women to attend, Ladies’ Night will also include a chance to win two “Diva baskets”, one for a pampered day with personal services and the other filled with goodies donated by local retailers and vendors, with every purchase getting you a ballot for the basket of your choice.

You can find the Diva baskets and ballots at the Millbrook BIA table located by the stage. At their table, the Millbrook BIA will also be giving out 50 reusable shopping bags with coupons and promos from local vendors and stores.

There will also be draws for Millbrook BIA bucks (that can be redeemed at downtown shops) as well as other items hourly. Home Hardware will also be handing out promo items. Donations will be collected and distributed to local non-profit groups in the community.

To get you in the right spirit, a committee of women have already started decorating the downtown strip, adding flowers to lampposts and installing stunning new planters on the bridges. Luminous Expressions will be adding their personal touches to the event to give it some sparkle.

So, ladies, leave the partners and kids at home, and follow these fun steps to fully unwind at Ladies’ Night in downtown Millbrook.

Get pampered

Ladies’ Night wouldn’t be the same without some “me time” spent getting pampered.

Get either a 10-minute ($20) or 15-minute ($30) massage from RMT Erin O’Ray or 15 minutes of reiki ($10) from Patti of Body & Soul Wellness. Marianna from Vivacious Beauty will also be downtown, offering brow tint and facial waxing ($10), hydra facial ($20), and henna brows ($40) for interested women.

For something a bit different, a 15-minute reading from medium Deb Stantion is available for $30, and a 15-minute reading from psychic Flo Burton is available at the same cost.

Each service is offered on a first-come first-served basis out of bridal shop Menzie’s House (30 King St. E.). Guest are encouraged to book their appointments early, and the enjoy Ladies’ Night events while waiting for their appointments.

You can also drop by Blank Canvas Hair & Art Studio (12 King St. E.) if you would like to have a professional photo by local photographer Peter Marcelli. Donations are welcome.

Let loose on stage

Start warming up your singing voice, because this year’s Ladies’ Night includes karaoke!

Doug MacKenzie will warm up the crowd from 4 to 6 p.m. with original tunes and classic folk, rock, country, and pop songs from the 60s until now.

Then he’ll pass the microphone to emcee and DJ Mike Pantalleresco from ProSound Productions for some karaoke fun.

“We encourage everyone to go up, be funny, and just show yourself,” says Soucie.

Eat and drink to your heart’s content

Endless food options will be available for those in attendance at Ladies’ Night, ranging from comfort foods on the outdoor partio at the Millbrook Legion (9 King St. E.) to hefty charcuterie boards from Millbrook Mercantile (28 King St. E.). The Lions Club will also have a food truck at the event.

Just around the corner from King Street, Moody’s Bar & Grill (3 Tupper St.) and Millbrook Pizza (13 Tupper St.) will also be open to welcome the swarm of Ladies’ Night visitors. Licensed establishments will be serving up beer, wine, and mixed drinks.

For after-dinner snacks, Pastry Peddler (17 King St. E.) and Millbrook Valley Chocolates (32 King St. E.) are both sweet-tooth satisfiers, and a must for any girls’ night out.

Shop ’til you drop

From homeware to fashion to antiques and gifts, there is no shortage of places to shop on King Street.

Alongside the local brick-and-mortar shopping opportunities presented in the downtown core, like Exit 38 (38 King St. E.), The Village Apothecary (36 King St. E.), and The Joneses Store (15 King St. E.), there will be more than 30 vendors setting up tables downtown to provide even more opportunity to find exactly what you’re looking for — and the things you don’t need as well.

Vendors include Pillow Talk, Lex Wall Décor, Cove Antiques & Art, Millbrook Winery, Lasting Impressions, Crazy Water Girls, Thirty One, and plenty more. Note that many vendors are cash only (there is a TD bank machine in Millbrook Foodland at 6 Centre St.).

“We’re really trying to encourage shopping local,” Soucie explains. “We want people together again and enjoying our local retailers.”

Strut your stuff

Perhaps one of the most memorable moments of the annual Ladies’ Night is the fashion show, where models of every age, shape, and size strut their stuff on stage.

The models will get dressed up by local clothing store Exit 38, with make-up done by Blank Canvas Hair & Art Studio (12 King St. E.).

At 7 p.m., following the fashion show, the street will be turned into a party zone as line dancing begins, hosted by Community Cares and featuring the Millbrook Country Gals Line Dancers, who will be encouraging anyone who wants to participate to learn a couple of steps and join in.

For more information on the Millbrook BIA and Ladies’ Night, visit millbrookbia.com and check for event updates at facebook.com/MillbrookBIA/.

This branded editorial was created in partnership with the Millbrook BIA. If your organization or business is interested in a branded editorial, contact us.

Shay-Lynn Hutchings and Sarah Comer have been best friends since they were in high school. Over the years since, they’ve been college roommates, classmates, travel companions, and co-workers. Now the two women are business partners.

Eight months ago, the duo opened Haliburton’s Wellness Hub, a “one-stop shop” for all things wellness. Acting essentially as a landlord, the Wellness Hub is made up of a collection of independent businesses operating out of available studio and office space. Each business is centred around physical, mental, or spiritual health, including practitioners and fitness professionals.

Both born and raised in Haliburton, Hutchings and Comer’s friendship grew from a shared interest in fitness and well-being. While Hutchings made a career as a Registered Massage Therapist (RMT), first working in clinics before establishing her own practice, Comer became a Progressive Pilates and Movement Educator, and also found her own business.

Together, the women say they make a good team, with their opposing strengths balancing each other out. While Hutchings is labelled the “backbone” of the Wellness Hub, Comer is the “energy.”

The best friends’ commitment to their own well-being is one of the major factors that ultimately led to the opening of their business. Hutchings explains that though she knew she wanted to stay in Haliburton her whole life, she would really miss the ease of finding fitness in bigger cities.

“I always loved the convenience of when I was in the city to be able to go to yoga, go to spin, go do all these workout classes,” she says. “But living here, I felt like it was very hard to find something like that.”

So the women decided to create their vision, and it wasn’t hard to find other small businesses to support their venture.

“There is a pretty awesome community that’s been built here and we’re all like-minded,” adds Comer. “It’s just a very positive environment and community.”

It’s not the first time the women have begun entrepreneurial projects. After working several years in various clinics, Hutchings began practising as an RMT on her own last year, operating out of the building that would soon become the Wellness Hub. Similarly, Comer is the co-founder of Reform, a progressive Pilates method inspired by music and movement.

While pursuing their own professional practices, the women also came together in 2019 to create Project SHE, an online networking platform and mentorship opportunity for female professionals.

“It was just something that we wanted in our lives and in our communities,” explains Comer. “We’ve always been passionate about feminism and females becoming entrepreneurs.”

Hutchings jokes that, though they may not have realized at the time, when they were interviewing female entrepreneurs for Project SHE, they were actually beginning the research that would eventually help them build the Wellness Hub.

Hutchings and Comer expect that Project SHE will now be able to expand even more by allowing workshops like self-defence classes, personal finance, body positivity, and even book clubs happening out of the Wellness Hub.

“That community idea, we always wanted to bring it into like a tangible space,” explains Comer, adding that Project SHE really led to the development of Wellness Hub.

“I always recognize a lot of things young women, including ourselves when we were younger, could have really used in our lives,” adds Hutchings. “Being able to bring in young girls and women into a positive wellness atmosphere — the sooner they can kind of get into that and exercise with a positive mindset, it’s just going to feed into their future. And we think that’s really important.”

Bringing that focus on females to the Wellness Hub, the owners say roughly 90 per cent of the businesses currently operating out of their building are female-led, adding how inspiring it is to see so many women pursuing their own business ventures, even as side hustles.

“It’s so cool to see women come in and work out with their kids for specific classes,” says Hutchings. “That’s usually a deterrent where women feel like the first thing they’re going to give up is their own health or what they need because they have to be home with the kids. You see these women coming in who are moms, business owners, wives — all of these things — and they’re just showing up for themselves. So it’s really inspiring to see that.”

In addition to Hutchings and Comer’s independent ventures, one of the other original businesses to operate out of the Wellness Hub is Sweat Social Health & Fitness, a fitness facility offering personal training, group fitness classes, and personalized programming.

Since then, Hutchings and Comer have enlisted several other wellness businesses to join in the Wellness Hub, including physiotherapist Jillian Mayhew, Blissful Being, Wild Haven Well Being Co., Root to Sun Nutrition, Fern Flower Yoga & Dance, and BGTeach.

The women have also added a pop-up from The Wolf Moon Shop, a Minden-based shop that sells eco-conscious skincare, wellness, housewares, and cleaning products from BIPOC, 2SLGBTQ+, and women-owned small businesses.

Commenting on how many of the businesses are new, Hutchings and Comer are eager to watch them flourish and support them in their growth.

“We’ve always talked about how we’re OK with being an incubator for new businesses,” says Comer. “We’re totally OK with the idea of big businesses expanding and needing to find bigger spaces or finding their own facility.”

“We’ve always believed in collaboration over competition,” adds Hutchings, “Why not work together as opposed to against?”

This is a mindset the entrepreneurs are actively showcasing at the Wellness Hub, with each business supporting each other, throwing ideas off one another and working together to meet client needs.

“Knowing that their success — health and wellness — is key, regardless if they’re doing my program or doing someone else’s,” says Comer.

Hutchings agrees, adding that sometimes people require different forms of fitness or wellness in their lives.

“I would rather people come in here and feel like they’re included wherever they go and not kind of shunned for moving around or changing,” she explains. “There are times for me, I just need yoga in my life. And then there’s times I need heavy weights. So, it’s just like not feeling that shame to go where you need to go.”

The women are always eager to offer or include more businesses and services out of the Wellness Hub. Though they’re still in the early days of growing their business, one plan for the future is to open a juice bar right in the building so guests also have access to healthy food options.

“I want it to be very convenient to come in and do a Pilates class with Sarah and order a smoothie, so that when they go back to work, they can take a protein smoothie or just a smoothie to go,” says Hutchings.

The Wellness Hub is located at 135 Industrial Park Road in Haliburton. Visit wellnesshubhali.com to learn more about the businesses operating out of the Wellness Hub. Follow Wellness Hub on Facebook and Instagram to stay up to date on workshops and events.