Lisa Briggs

Owner of Living the Dream - Alpaca Farm

Putney VT | http://www.livingthedreamalpacafarm.com

What does your business do?

Living The Dream Alpaca Farm that will be a large alpaca farm located in Brownington, Vermont in Orleans County, the North East Kingdom. The Farm is located on 52 acres of land and we are planning to purchase an abutting 52 acres. We are building a large alpaca farm to produce the heavily sought after alpaca wool. We will be breeding and selling the Alpaca animals, selling wool, clothing and rugs from the wool, and other gifts in our country store. Also taking our products to all major fairs, flower shows, and Christmas fairs throughout the country . We are also setting up with local and regional schools in the district to bring students in to educate them on farming, daily care, and birthing of the alpaca animals. We will also set up with some colleges, internships in educating college students looking to major in agriculture programs and farming. A large scale farm ed program is our goal.

How would you use the grant money?

The Grant money would help us get this start up off the drawing board and take the next step necessary to turn it into a reality. We own the farmland already and are seeking funding to start construction on several barns and purchase equipment and supplies. The grant money would fund development of a professional website and advertising and marketing materials.

What would the grant enable you to do that you can't now?

The website design and marketing material that the grant would cover will give us a way to begin building our customer base. The advertising credits, free publicity and national recognition generated by the grant will give us a huge boost in getting our name and our product out to the general public.

If Idea Cafe's Grant helps your biz reach greater success, how will you "pay it forward" to help others in some way?

We are currently active participants in local and regional charities such as Make-A-Wish Foundation of Vermont and the Boston Children's Hospital, where we will donate 10% of the clothing made from the wool. We will be collaborating with local school districts for educational tours of the farm and our success would guarantee the continuation and expansion of these programs, which we consider as being an integral part of our business mission.