Who is Leslie Fournier?

I’m Leslie Fournier, and I live in Orillia, Ontario.

You’ve been involved both in the business and the arts in Orillia, do you think of yourself as a business woman first, or an artist first?

I’d say I think of myself as an entrepreneur first, with a love of the arts, that led me to get involved in the arts, but I don’t practice any art. I just love the arts.

You moved to Orillia and you started Jack and Maddy’s kid store, how did that get started?

When we first came to Orillia I was teaching. I was teaching Phys Ed on contracts, and between contracts I was hired by a cycling tour company and doing cycling tours around the world. Because I wasn’t teaching full-time, after six years or so, I was driving downtown like I always did, or walking the streets, and I noticed that the Mariposa Kids Store had closed. It used to be in Orillia and Otter Tales and Toys had closed. This was one winter, and I had this Eureka moment and I just went, “wow, I think it could work to combine those two ideas into one kids store”.

At this point my children were born, Jack and Maddy were my kids and so, just in a very spontaneous moment the idea came to me and a few months later I opened Jack and Maddy A Kid Store. I had the store in Orillia for 10 years but at about the fifth year we were approached by Interwest who had opened Blue Mountain Village, and they scout stores that they’re hoping they can entice to open in Blue Mountain Village. So they came into our store, they invited us to go do a presentation and we ended up opening a second Jack and Maddy in Blue Mountain Village, which continues to this day.