Printer Friendly Version - Amy Cameron: Not Bored by Trade

As president of the Essex Board of Trade, Amy Cameron believes a rising tide lifts all ships, or in this case, next month’s Connecticut Spring Boat Show at Brewer Essex Island Marina will boost business throughout Essex Village. Photo by Rita Christopher/The Courier

Amy Cameron is looking forward to the upcoming Connecticut Spring Boat Show from Friday to Sunday, May 4 to 6 at Brewer Essex Island Marina, but not because she is a boater.

She is president of the Essex Board of Trade and thus is delighted when an event brings people to town.

“It’s very exciting that people who have never been to Essex will come to town and they have to go along Main Street to get to the boat yard,” she says.

There will be free parking at Essex Boat Works for the Windcheck Magazine-produced event, which last year attracted some 2,500 people to view boats, both new and brokered, as well as marine accessories and exhibits devoted to what the organizers describe as waterfront lifestyles, including waterfront real estate. This year there will be some 60 boats, power and sail, of all sizes from 10 feet to more than 60 feet, including family cruisers, performance boats, daysailers, and inflatables.

“Local business will make them feel welcome. We’ll put out American flags [on shop fronts] earlier, before Memorial Day; maybe some stores will have nautical window themes. We want people to love Essex and come back,” she says.

But there is more than loving Essex to Amy’s enthusiasm for the Connecticut Spring Boat Show. This year there is a suggested donation of $5 for those attendees older than 13, all of which will go to a charitable organization working in an area in which Amy has a very personal interest: SailsUp4Cancer. Amy herself is currently receiving treatment for stage four metastatic breast cancer. SailsUp4Cancer, a Mystic-based organization, sponsors regattas and maritime events that raise funds for cancer research.

Amy first developed breast cancer in 2013. It was an early, not late stage, diagnosis as the result of a mammogram. She had a double mastectomy, underwent chemotherapy, and thought she had beaten the disease.

“I did all the things I was supposed to do,” she says, but to her surprise the cancer developed again in 2017.

“You don’t know it can happen until it happens to you,” she says, noting that as many as one in four breast cancers, even with treatment, can metastasize.

Amy is now receiving chemotherapy again; the first two therapeutic strategies, which targeted the specific cancer cells, were not successful. She is about to start on a third course of therapy, a more generalized approach. She remains optimistic.

“There’s lots of new research; lots of new treatments being developed,” she says.

Still, to look at Amy, one would not know she is a cancer patient. She is not emaciated. She has a full head of hair.

“People think hair loss is the hallmark of cancer treatment, but stage four cancer is different for every person. The treatments that I have had do not cause hair loss,” she says.

If she had known that her cancer had reappeared, Amy says she might not have accepted the Board of Trade presidency, but the diagnosis came several months later.

“I want to keep on as president. That’s my plan, but that depends on the side effects and where I have to put my energy,” she says.

And energy is what Amy needs because she and two partners operate three stores, combinations of boutiques and gift shops. All are called Newbury Place; one is on Essex Main Street, another is in Southbury, and the third in Washington Depot.

The name, Amy explains, really tells the story of the shops. The trio opened the first in Newtown, where they all lived. The two of the partners moved to Southbury so they combined the names of the two towns: ergo, Newbury Place.

Amy, who grew up in New London and majored in graphic design at Franklin Pierce University in New Hampshire, had no experience in retailing. Her partners didn’t either. But she saw a need they could fill when she was looking for a hostess gift in Southbury and was unable to find one.

Amy is the merchandise manager for the three stores and travels between them, though she now lives in Essex where her fiancé is a longtime local merchant, Jim D’Alessio of J.Alden Clothiers. The two have known each other since college. Amy’s Essex store shares premises with J. Alden and D’Alessio is the vice-president of the Board of Trade.

Small businesses face particular challenges competing with big box stores and Internet giants, but Amy says she can still offer something they cannot: personal service.

“We greet everybody; we know people; they have a personal experience—things you cannot get online,” she says.

Still, she expresses caution about starting a business and has some suggestions. First, she says, know what specific need the business is fulfilling; second, remember the business is not a hobby, it’s a job.

For many people, the Essex Board of Trade is best known as the sponsor of one of the town’s best-known annual events, the Essex Ed Groundhog Day Parade. Amy points out the group also sponsors the Halloween scarecrows that decorate the fronts of many shops in October and pays for holiday lights and decorations along Essex Main Street in December.

This year the Board of Trade will initiate a new merchant event: Sip, Shop, and Stroll on Thursday nights in June, July, and August, with shops open until 7 p.m. and offering drinks to patrons

Amy sees the Board of Trade as one vital component in the life of the community.

“It takes a whole village to make things happen—businesses, residents, not-for-profits, visitors. We need them all to create a place we want to stay and live,” she says.

Amy says that, given her cancer, people often talk to her about the uncertainties of life.

“They say, ‘Who knows if a bus is going to run me over tomorrow?’” she notes. “For me, the difference is I have already been hit by the bus.”

Her cancer diagnosis has focused her attention on how she lives her life. She does not have a bucket list of things she wants to do.

“I don’t want to see the wonders of the world. My wonders are my children and my partner,” she says.

“I wake up with an attitude of gratitude. Joy is the center of my life. I know my illness makes life shorter, but I don’t want to be focused on dying while I’m living,” she says.

Now, Amy is looking forward to the Connecticut Spring Boat Show and the opportunity it will provide through SailUp4Cancer to contribute to research on the disease.

“Any time a small organization gets a benefit from a large event, it is a win-win situation,” she says.

“We had a good crowd even with the weather, so I’m hoping with good weather we will have a great turnout,” Amy says. “People love the beautiful town and they love the free parking at Essex Boat Works.”

Brewer Essex Island Marina, 11 Ferry Street, hosts the Connecticut Spring Boat Show from Friday, May 4 to Sunday, May 6. Parking is at Essex Boat Works, 9 Ferry Street. A suggested $5 donation for attendees over 13 goes to SailsUp4Cancer.