Johnson named to head Springfield business group

Jenevieve Johnson, the owner of the Jennywren Cafe in downtown Springfield, is the new executive director of the Springfield Regional Chamber of Commerce.
http://rutlandherald.com/article/20140225/NEWS02/702259952

Jenevieve Johnson, owner of the Jennywren Cafe on Main Street in Springfield, is also the new executive director of the Springfield Chamber of Commerce. Photo: Len Emery PhotoPublished February 25, 2014 in the Rutland Herald Johnson named to head Springfield business group By SUSAN SMALLHEER Staff Writer SPRINGFIELD — Jenevieve Johnson has owned Jennywren Cafe for the past five years, rising early in the morning to do the daily baking and cooking, working hard to make her business succeed. That tenaciousness has now landed her another job as new executive director of the Springfield Regional Chamber of Commerce. Johnson, 30, still gets up early to do the baking and cooking at the café, but she walks across Main Street to the Chamber office and starts her new career of promoting Springfield and its businesses. “I always supported the Chamber,” said Johnson during a recent interview. When the job became open, she talked to friends and decided to apply. “I know what it’s like to run a business in Springfield,” said Johnson, who noted the first couple of years of owning the café were tough, but things were improving. “Business has definitely been increasing,” she said. “Ninety percent of our customers I know by name and what they eat,” she said. “I really love my connections to the community,” Johnson said. “With the Chamber, I will meet even more people.” “There are so many great things happening here that haven’t been promoted enough,” she said. “My job is to really show the wonderful things we have in town.” Johnson first came to Springfield seven years ago when she bought her house on South Street. Johnson grew up in Barnard and attended Woodstock Union High School and graduated from St. Lawrence University. She came back to Vermont with a dual degree in studio art and art history. She tried to buy the café, then called Apron Strings Café, when it came up for sale then, but lost out to another bidder. When the café came back up for sale five years ago, she said she acted quickly. “In high school, I was never interested in baking or cooking, so I came in pretty cold,” she said. She used her “trusty” King Arthur Flour cookbook and taught herself to bake. Johnson is now using that same energy toward upgrading the Chamber’s website, she said. “My biggest goal is to promote the businesses we have here, the amazing businesses we do have,” she said. Too often, there are only complaints about the lack of business in town, she said. While Springfield is struggling to fill the vacancies downtown, she said her job was to let people know about the existing businesses. She said she would be starting new events in town “to highlight what we do have.” Johnson listed the Gallery at the VAULT, The Great Hall and the renovation of One Hundred River Street, Woodbury’s Florist, and the Springfield Food Co-op as enormous positives for the town, along with Black River Action Team and the public art of Jamie Townsend, the town library and the Howard Dean Education Center 2014TopNewStories “It’s so awesome to live in a town with a food co-op,” she said.