Lögberg-Heimskringla - 10.03.2006, Page 11

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David Jón Fuller
Helga Johnson is fi rst in a line of Arborg family en-trepreneurs — and each
generation has started its own
company.
Helga, who has owned and
operated Yarn Paradise since
1971, not only knits and sews,
she also repairs sewing machines,
makes clothing alterations, and
designed a traditional Icelandic
women’s outfi t from scratch with
only pictures for reference.
Helga learned knitting from
her mother, but adds that much
of what she knows is self-taught.
Some early diffi culty with a
sewing machine prompted her to
sit down with it and work on it
until she had fi gured it out. She
is now one of few people in the
area with the expertise to repair
the machines, and says in addi-
tion to working in her store she
is kept quite busy. She’s also the
oldest entrepreneur in Arborg, at
87 years old.
She started Yarn Paradise
on the present site of the Arborg
Credit Union, in a building that
had formerly been a restaurant
and with “only a few balls of
wool.” Her business grew until
she had to fi nd a new location.
She bought property near to the
town offi ce, was granted permis-
sion to have it rezoned for com-
mercial use, tore down the house
that had stood on the property,
and moved a new building onto
the site. In 1985, she expanded
the space by a third to make room
for her still-growing business.
Helga was born on a farm
one mile east of Arborg, the sec-
ond youngest of 10 children and
the only one still alive. Helga’s
parents were Benjamin Gud-
mundsson and Julianna Thor-
steinsdottir. Her father Benjamin
immigrated at the age of four
from Iceland with his parents
Stefan and Gudrun. Her mother
Juliana was born on Hecla Island
and was the daughter of Þorste-
inn Kristjánsson and Valgerður
Sveinsdóttir Jónsson. Icelandic
was Helga’s fi rst language and
she still speaks it today.
She and her late husband
Snibjorn had three children: Ber-
dine Thorunn, Valdimar Julius
and Rick.
Helga’s drive has clearly in-
spired others in her family; her
son Rick went into business for
himself as well. He owns and
operates Ventrix Heating and
Ventilation.
Rick has worked in many
places over the years. In the
1970s he plied his trade in Bran-
don, MB and Winnipeg, and
when commercial work in the
province slumped in 1979 – 80,
he got involved with his wife’s
family dairy farm, where he
worked for ten years. “It was a
nice change from the trades to be
able to come back to Arborg,” he
says. “I had lost track of a lot of
people.” He also appreciated the
opportunity to raise their chil-
dren in the area.
Following a divorce, he re-
turned to his vocation in heating
and ventilation and started his
own company. On his property,
he has a full workshop, which
he plans to expand, where he
makes and does all the assembly
of parts and custom fi ttings. In
addition to building ventilation
systems from scratch, he also
repairs and upgrades them, and
works on other systems such as
air conditioners, wood and elec-
tric heating, and ground water
heating. The majority of his
work is in the Interlake area, but
he also goes further north, in-
cluding Lynn Lake, Thompson
and Flin Flon.
The biggest problem is
scheduling and dealing with the
weather, he says. As well, when
he is subcontracting from a larger
project, that project’s problems
can become his.
He mentions one project he
was subcontracted to about ten
years ago that caused severe fi -
nancial problems for Ventrix.
He was able to build up his busi-
ness again, and his outlook is
generally positive. “There’s al-
ways work out there,” he says.
“You just have to go and get it.
The challenges make it interest-
ing.” Aside from the logisitics
of balancing function, building
codes and aesthetics, it’s clear
he enjoys the creative aspect of
his work: “I like to leave a job as
picture-perfect as I can.”
His son Todd works for him
at Ventrix, but his other son Den-
nis has gone into business on his
own as well, making three gen-
erations of entrepreneurs.
Dennis Johnson started his
business roughly ten years ago,
when Ventrix was experiencing
its fi nancial troubles and he was
let go. He says his new company,
Polar Vac, turned out to be a great
business. He cleans ventilation
systems throughout the Inter-
lake and also works as far south
as Winnipeg and Stonewall. He
estimates he distributes between
60,000 and 70,000 brochures for
his business every year, and it
has enabled him to buy a home
and raise a family.
Lögberg-Heimskringla • Föstudagur 10. mars 2006 • 11
Three generations
of entrepreneurs
CLOTHING
FOOTWEAR
HOUSEWARES
LINENS, TOYS
AND MUCH MORE
266 Main Street
Arborg, MB
R0C 0A0
Ph: 204-376-5230
STORE HOURS
Mon-Wed: 9 AM - 6 PM
Thu-Fri: 9 AM - 8 PM
Sat: 9 AM - 6 PM
Sun: Noon - 5 PM
Helga Johnson
Left: Chantel Jonasson and Dennis Johnson, Helga Johnson, Rick Johnson and son Todd, and
Chantel and Dennis’s daughters Savannah and Tessa, who wears the Icelandic costume Helga
made. Right: Rick Johnson builds parts and fi ttings of all kinds in his workshop.
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