WRITTEN BY CHERYL WELLS
There is a new business in downtown Le Mars that is really special, as well as the owner! I spent quite a bit of time with Priscilla Kenowith to hear her story and learn about what she is doing, as well as her passion behind it. You all know how I love the stories that explain and bring more context to a situation. Priscilla just opened The Market, and it is right next door to the Wells’ Blue Bunny Ice Cream Parlor. She and her husband Daniel have lived in Le Mars since December 2019 with their children. They were living in California where she was raised near L.A. and they came to check out our little community where her husband Daniel had grown up and left many years ago when he went in the Marines and was stationed in 29 Palms in Joshua Tree, California. They decided to come visit with their children during Ice Cream Days in June 2019, and they fell in love with Le Mars and Priscilla told Daniel that she wanted to move here. Six months later on December 22nd of that year they did arrive. I loved hearing her story of being raised by hard-working parents who loved her well and taught her to know her potential and to rise above circumstances and difficulties. Priscilla’s father had an accident in 1997 and became a quadriplegic and even this has been motivation for her and her siblings to work hard and take care of the rest of the family. Her parents taught her through their actions and words that she can do anything and don’t ever give up. She has so much love and appreciation for her parents and mom was just in Le Mars and surprised her for her grand opening. Dad lived in a wheelchair for 17 years and passed in 2014, shortly after she and Daniel were married in 2012. Dad was such a big part of her life and supported her in all the tough times. A big part of her life is also her spiritual journey and how she and Daniel came to know Jesus Christ as their personal Savior shortly after her father passed. Since then, they have been praying about all the steps that they have taken individually and as a couple, and God has been leading them.
Priscilla gave me more of her backstory and shared that when she was in high school, she got pregnant and raised her son living with her mom and dad. At 18 she moved out and supported herself by getting a job at a print shop and wanted to learn all about it. Her parents loaned her money to purchase a single needle embroidery machine, and she learned how to use it and began to make things and put them in a local market where military wives shopped close to the base. In 2011 she opened a business called Forever His Couture making all kinds of things that were customized to the military community and the wives. It was successful and she was able to grow that, and it was a niche that she could make money at. It’s like the next step in her journey came very organically from what she learned and loved and was good at. When she moved to Le Mars and was looking for what to do next, she found some good things to do that would provide an income for her but also that made a big difference in the community. Daniel was working at NorAm operating a forklift and then left there to work at Wells’ doing maintenance work, and he still works there. Priscilla was doing some laundry for her family at a laundromat and saw a need there and began to ask good questions, which led to her being hired by the owner of several different locations in our area. She is managing all four of them to this day. Shortly after arriving she became very interested in the Le Mars City Wide Rummage and in 2024 she took over the leadership of that when the person that started it couldn’t do it anymore. I think we are seeing a trend here and Priscilla has always been willing to step in and work hard and lead where there might be gaps.
It had always been a dream of hers to have her own storefront since she opened her business in California and so this was the next step for her to continue with her screen printing and embroidery. In September 2022 she opened “Shop Near the Corner” in Le Mars in a building that Michaela Brown owns. She accommodates customers that want one or two items, as well as more. There are print and embroidery shops, but her niche is that she will make as many or as few as you want. It is an untouched market in our area, and it has been a good business for her. She found out from Michaela that she would have to be out of her storefront by March of 2025 because the Browns were doing a restoration of the space that she was in and it would become the Brown Family’s new theater that will hold 450 people. The Browns have relocated all the businesses that were in the space, but it wasn’t going to really be what Priscilla thought she needed for a location. Her hope for the store next was that she would be on Central Avenue instead of Plymouth where she had been located. She spoke very highly of Michaela and is so grateful for the opportunity that she had given her to get started in a storefront. It’s going to be so fun to see what the Brown’s do with that space and that is to come very soon. As the Browns are broadening their footprint, so was Priscilla and she had a dream for more.
Her vision was to do a vendor market where a small business could display their handmade items and sell them easily with a monthly fee but no need for someone to run the shop. Priscilla leased an open store front right on Central Avenue with 6000 square feet of space that she and her husband, along with some friends, built out with 41 booths of different sizes. She interviews and chooses what kind of businesses that she wants so that there is a very wide variety of things. Each booth can be creatively made to look how ever the booth renter wants it to be so that it will reflect what they are selling. There are 8 different sizes of booths priced from $48 to $200 a month with things like homemade pizza, freeze dried candy, all kinds of gift items, sough dough baked goods, home décor, farm fresh eggs, baked goods, candles and more. All the things for sale at The Market have to be made by hand. It’s a great location in a beautiful, small downtown that is thriving. She talked about her bar code system that she purchased that makes it really easy for the vendor to know immediately what they have sold and how many dollars. The booth owner gets 90% of the sales and Priscilla gets 10% as part of their cost for having a booth. They opened the 1st of May, and it is going well! The store is full and there is a waiting list. Priscilla has her embroidery shop also in the building and is taking custom orders, so give her a call. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know this hard-working woman, and there’s nothing that she won’t try. I admire her faith and her obedience to the call when she feels led to pursue something. God bless you Priscilla and I will be in to shop often in the Market!
