Denise Callaghan had been working for more than a decade as a waitress and then dining room supervisor at the historic Anchor Inn when the people that had owned it for a quarter century began talking about selling the business.

The Inn, located in Little Current, Ontario,  is one of the oldest buildings on Manitoulin Island, and is celebrated by locals for its food, nightlife and history.

Denise, afraid that she and her fellow employees would lose their jobs, began thinking about buying the business from Bruce and Kelly O’Hare and their partner/building handyman Rob Norris. “I took a full year to think about it and right after Labour Day last year I started to work on if it was going to be doable for me.”