Small-business owners from across Maine feted at SCORE awards luncheon

Courtesy / SCORE Margen Solimen, owner of Mug Buddies, speaks at the 2019 SCORE Success Awards in Portland Thursday. Solimen won the woman-owned business award.

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By Staff

PORTLAND — Nine Maine business owners were recognized at SCORE Portland’s Maine Success Award luncheon Thursday.

“SCORE’s Success Awards are a testament to the innovation, diligence and dedication of these small businesses and entrepreneurs," said Nancy Strojny, SCORE Portland Chapter chair. "SCORE Portland’s volunteer mentors and resource partners work hard to help our clients thrive."

The Portland chapter earlier this year was named 2019 National Chapter of the Year by the U.S. Small Business Administration "largely due to our excellent mentors and volunteers," Strojny said in a news release.

The business owners' SCORE volunteer mentors were at the side of winners as they accepted their awards.

Awards went to:

•   MTI Innovation Award: Nearpeer – Dustin Manocha, Portland;

•   Encore Entrepreneur: Dental Lace – Jodi Breau, Cape Elizabeth;

•   Nonprofit: The Yellow Tulip Project – Suzanne Fox, Falmouth;

•   Woman-Owned Business: Mug Buddy Cookies – Märgen Soliman, Biddeford;

•   Green Small Business: Upcycle Maine Home Furnishings – Stephanie Sands, Gorham;

•   Young Entrepreneur: Ivy Berlin – Tessa Holbrook, Portland and Berlin, Germany.

•   Innovative Small Business: coworkHERS – Heather Ashby, Portland;

•   Business Plan Execution: Seedlings to Sunflowers – Meghann Carrasco, Gorham;

•   Home-Based Business: La Cebolla Roja – Christina Charette, Scarborough.

Devin McNeill, co-founder and CEO of Flowfold, was the keynote speaker at the event.

About the winners

Manocha, winner of the the MTI Innovation Award, is founder and CEO of Nearpeer, a platform/application that connects college students around the world and encourages peer-supported success. The Nearpeer platform includes student mobile apps and a peer network that fosters healthy engagement between students based on shared context, background, interests and classes. Nearpeer is proven to improve persistence and academic performance, according to SCORE.

Breau is president of Dental Lace Refillable Floss, a fashionable refillable eco-friendly dental floss that is sold in stores in 39 countries.

Fox's Yellow Tulip Project focuses on breaking down the stigma that surrounds mental illness and building community. YTP holds community events to plant Hope Gardens at schools and community organizations. In addition, it's building a network of ambassadors to represent The Yellow Tulip Project in schools around the country.

Soliman is founder of MugBuddyCookies, which specializes in handcrafting 3D mug topper cookies. The company operates in the business-to-business and direct-to-consumer channels, and has representation in shops throughout New England.

Sands is founder of Upcycle Maine Home Furnishings, which provides locally crafted home decor, furnishings and gifts, with a storefront in Gorham featuring home furniture and decor items as well as items from local artists and vendors. Over the past year, the business has expanded to include services such as interior design, kitchen remodeling, kitchen cabinet refinishing and custom furniture refinishing.

Holbrook's Ivy Berlin makes clothing that is intentionally edgy and highlights the female body. Holbrook, a full-time university student in Berlin, Germany, started Ivy Berlin in 2017 in collaboration with her mother, Lisa Brenner, in Portland.

Ashby is founder of coworkHERS, a shared work space and social club designed to support female professionals.

Carrasco is co-founder and operations director of Seedlings to Sunflowers, which is a learning center built to nurture and support the development of children and the community using the experiential learning model for curriculum, the Circle of Courage for philosophy and Conscious Discipline for behavior interventions. "The organization approaches child care and early childhood education in a more holistic way, utilizing the outdoors and their greenhouse as learning tools," the release said.

Charette's La Cebolla Roja produces and sells pickled red onions in small batches. Each jar is hand-crafted and provides an elevated flavor to ordinary dishes.

About SCORE Maine

SCORE is Maine’s largest business mentoring and education service, dedicated to helping any small-business person succeed. SCORE has 120 volunteers in the state, who donated more than 18,665 hours in 2018 to help clients start or grow a small business. In 2018, there were 346 new businesses started and 1,261 jobs created with SCORE Maine’s assistance. Score has Maine chapters in Auburn, Augusta, Bangor, Belfast, Ellsworth, Portland, South Paris and Rumford. Nationally, SCORE has 300 chapters and more than 10,000 volunteers throughout the U.S.