Here is a local business success story: Mike and Sara Ervin and Mike’s sister, Mary Ervin, began selling chocolate at the Woodstock Farmers Market in 2011.
In November 2011, they opened Ethereal Confections at 203 Main St. in Woodstock. Their chocolate business has grown so rapidly that in July they will move to bigger quarters (3,000 square feet) at 113 S. Benton St. Woodstock residents may recall this building as Harvest Moon Café and O’Leary’s Pub.
All the candy is made on the premises, including chocolate bars, truffles and a series of different chocolate bark using organic ingredients. Their products are dairy- and gluten-free. Plans for the new location include a dessert café style with coffees, teas, hot chocolate and a variety of desserts such as French silk and lemon meringue pies. Sara Ervin of Woodstock said the store uses only dark chocolate because it’s healthier and contains less sugar.
The new location will allow Ethereal Confections to grow its wholesale business, which sells to grocery stores, wine shops and olive oil stores.
“We have a healthy storefront business and an online store,” Sara Ervin said. “The Woodstock community has been supportive, and we’re excited to be part of it and help make the Square active.”
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Monsignor Aaron Brodeski, pastor at St. Mary’s Church, has been assigned by Bishop David Malloy of the Diocese of Rockford to become pastor of Holy Cross Church in Batavia effective Feb. 25. I have known Brodeski to be a kind and generous pastor for the past four years in Woodstock. He will be missed. His homilies stimulated my reflections and thinking about why we really are on this Earth.
“I loved every part of our parish as well as my time working at Marian Central,” he said. “I would have been most happy to stay here for many years, too. I believe that for priests our promise of respect and obedience toward our bishop is a wonderful safeguard for following the will of God. So it is my intention to embrace this new assignment with peace and joy.”
Malloy has assigned the Rev. Burt Absalon, pastor at St. Bridget Parish in Rockford, to become pastor of St. Mary.
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Family Alliance received $10,000 from the Mental Health Resource League for McHenry County (MHRL). The grant was in response to an application filed by the Family Alliance Center for Adult Care for partial funding of its scholarship program.
Family Alliance is one of 19 agencies and organizations sharing a total of $200,321 raised and allocated during 2012 by the MHRL for services to thousands of McHenry County residents.
• Don Peasley has been editor, columnist and historian in McHenry County since October 1947. He began his association with Shaw Publications in 1950. 815-338-1533.
