Candy Bar Party Favors

Pueblo: Sweet place for a new business

One of Pueblo's biggest challenges in the past 25 or so years has been retaining its top young people.

   Many of our outstanding young adults have left our community; that's evident when one looks at the leaders of our city, who typically are middle-aged or senior citizens.

   Many young people, beginning in the mid-1980s or so when the steel mill scaled down significantly and unemployment hit high double-digits, simply left and never came back.

   They went away to college, took jobs elsewhere and return here only to visit family and friends.

   We've all heard that story, and there's a lot of truth to it.

   Here's a different story, a tale of a young woman who left Pueblo but decided her heart and future were here. So despite significant personal obstacles, she returned. And even in these difficult economic times, she's betting that Pueblo is and will be a good place to own her own business.

   Maggi (Groves) Koval grew up in Belmont and graduated from East High School in 1994. She attended Pueblo Community College and then-University of Southern Colorado (now Colorado State University-Pueblo).

   After graduating, she was hired as a district sales manager for a large hair-care company, and lived in several places: Minneapolis, Kansas City, Mo., Omaha, Neb., and Denver. But she knew those homes wouldn't be permanent.

   "Pueblo has always been home to me and even when I chose to leave for a career as a young woman, I never said I wouldn't be back," Koval said.  "I always knew the time would come when I would return."

   She met her future husband, Gary, a 1998 graduate of the automotive program at then-USC in Pueblo, in Minnesota and they dated long-distance. They decided to marry, and debated where to locate her dream business: a candy store.

   "He immediately said, 'I have always loved Pueblo. Let's move there and start working on your candy shop,' ” Koval said.

   They married in 2008. Gary already had been working in Denver for Hyundai Motor America. He spent 10 years in Denver — commuting from Pueblo for the past three years — and now works in Salt Lake City as Hyundai's district sales manager.

   It's not the best arrangement, but the two are used to spending time apart.

 "Gary travels Mondays through Thursdays," she said. "The Pueblo Candy Company, which we opened in March of this year (at 130 S. Union Ave., Suite 110), is something that I wanted to do and decided if I can put in 70-plus hours for someone else, I certainly can work that much or more for myself.

Personalized Candy Bar Wrappers – Perfect Party Favor

Am I the only Mom out there that feels like once my daughter hit age seven she needed a separate day planner just to keep track of the birthday invitations she received? Between dance class, the soccer team, neighborhood friends and school classmates, our weekends have become an exercise in how to transport one child to 5 different parties across town…all in the span of 3 short hours. By the end of a Saturday afternoon, my minivan looks like a personal storage unit for plastic party bags full of random trinkets. Yo-yo’s that don’t yo, slinkies that don’t slink, and Polly Pockets with unbearably small shoes float around hitting my feet, wedging themselves into my door jams and taunting me until I find myself screeching off the road, pulling up to the closest gas station garbage can and dumping all the birthday party favors for good…or at least until next Saturday.

When my daughter’s birthday rolled around, I was determined not to sentence the parents of my child’s guests to the same fate I experience each and every weekend. I decided, even if it was the last thing I did, I was going to find a party favor that wouldn’t find its final resting place in the garbage can of the neighborhood Amoco station. My daughter selected a monkey theme to commemorate her 7 year, and my ideas started flowing. Bananas! Perfect! Not so much. For some reason my daughter thought this healthy snack would strip away her “coolness” factor quicker than anyone could say “Curious George”. Ok, strike one. Zoo passes! Awesome! Unfortunately we live in an area without a local zoo. Fail. Strike two. I was running out of options. I could feel my fate getting closer and closer to purchasing a bag of bouncy balls, some pixie sticks and monkey themed pencils. Then I found it. Personalized candy bar wrappers from BigDotOfHappiness.com. Complete perfection! Matching the chosen theme…check! Unique and personalized for my specific event…check, check! Something the kids will love, but isn’t destined to linger in the back of a minivan for weeks to come (who can’t eat a candy bar as soon as they receive it?)…check, check, CHECK! I couldn’t make the purchase fast enough. The wrappers came super fast and were wrapped around a standard size chocolate bar in no time! I was left with an amazing and personalized party favor that also decorated the party table in a super cute design that matched the entire theme! Mission accomplished.

Personalized candy bar favor wrappers are the perfect choice for many different events. Whether you are planning a birthday party, baby shower, wedding shower or just giving fun and unique “job well done” treats, a delicious chocolate candy bar wrapped in your unique and personalized message is a win-win solution! Check out how cute this favor is and how easy it is to put together in the helpful (and entertaining) video above!

Party Favors

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