Worms winners at EG biz awards
Cathy's Crawly Composters owner Cathy Nesbitt,
with husband
Rick, won the new evironmental award at last week's East Gwillimbury
Spirit of Business Awards.
By: Amanda Persico
Who knew creepy crawlers could help an apartment building or a condominium
complex go green?
Cathy Nesbitt, owner of Cathy’s Crawly Composters, took home the new
environmental business award of the year last week for her vermicomposting
venture at the East Gwillimbury Spirit of Business awards at Silver
Lakes Golf and Country Club.
The new award defines leadership in an area of growing importance,
Roberta Fox said, the gala’s MC and owner of Fox Group Telecom Consulting,
one of the sponsoring companies.
“(Ms Nesbitt) has shown how the lowly worm can help the environment,”
Ms Fox said.
Ms Nesbitt accepted her award and asked her business peers to think
of worms as the romantic type.
“Worms have five hearts. In a pound of worms, there could be four or
five thousand hearts,” she joked. “So, next Valentine’s Day, get a pound
of worms.”
But worms were not always crawling for Ms Nesbitt’s affection.
“I was afraid of worms before I started the business,” she said. “They’re
creepy and slimy. Now, I think they’re magic.”
The adamant gardener and composter started her wormy business in 2002
when she noticed the group home in which she worked didn’t have a composting
facility.
“You connect what you do,” she said. “If you have lots of food scraps,
you have a lot of waste.”
Vermicomposting is an on-site solution for composting, especially in
areas not being serviced by the green bin program, such as apartments,
condominiums and schools, she said.
Every day, red worms eat half their weight in food scraps and shredded
paper. Ms Nesbitt recommends a two-to-one ratio, where there is two
pounds of worms for every pound of food. The harvested castings is like
black gold for the soil, Ms Nesbitt said.
“They produce earth’s finest fertilizer,” she said. “They return the
nutrients and the goodness back into the soil.”
This is the first year a business has been recognized for its unique
environmental achievement, said East Gwillimbury Chamber president,
Cindy Thiele.
Winners of the 2008 East Gwillimbury business awards are:
- Excellence in small business: Matthew Clulow, Clulow and Associates
- Excellence in large business: Craig Evans, Pheasant Run Golf Club
- Young entrepreneur of the year: Dino Kotsikas, Atlas Landscaping
- Business community service award: Sharon Bates, Tangles Hair Salon
- Best new venture/start up: Dr. Nancy Mehi, Mehi Veterinary Mobile
- Environmental business of the year: Cathy Nesbitt, Cathy’s Crawly
Composters
- Entrepreneur of the year: Kim Mortson, Body Design
Goto Awards Picture Gallery
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