'I needed to keep the music in Amherstburg': 21-year-old musician turns into entrepreneur
Bethany D’Alimonte didn’t want the music to end.
“He was going to close up shop and I couldn't let that happen,” said the 21-year-old who was an employee of Musicland in Amherstburg.
She had also been a student at the store when she was young.
“I started playing music when I was seven right in this very building right in that back room was my first piano lesson,” she said.
The owner was planning on closing the business which has been there since 1986 but D’Alimonte wasn't about to let that happen.
“I needed to do it to keep the music in Amherstburg,” she said.
Bethany grew up around music. Her dad, at one point, was a partner of Musicland.
“Taught music here in the store. Had many students and we were playing in the band five-six nights a week,” said John D’Alimonte.
In February, Bethany, a business and marketing student at St. Clair College, made her pitch and took over the music store.
It was a full circle moment for her dad.
“It makes you feel proud. She's now got students. She's teaching. She has teachers here,” he said.
One of the teachers, Mrs. Farmer, is a lady who taught piano to Bethany when she first started.
“She's taught me all of the things I needed to know about music and applying my knowledge from school into the real business world. She’s awesome,” D’Alimonte said.
The young new boss is part of a revitalization that continues in and around Richmond Street and this business will now become a hub for music and creativity.
“Giving the community a space to learn and create is something special just because I had that when I was a kid,” she said.
Anne Creery, general manager of the Amherstburg Chamber of Commerce, is hopeful the growth in the area continues.
“There's a number of other things that I'm sure will come because when you have this kind of business it tends to attract more business,” Creery said.
Also on the horizon for the district are a boutique hotel and the re-development of the old Duffy site.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Cuban government apologizes to Montreal-area family after delivering wrong body
Cuba's foreign affairs minister has apologized to a Montreal-area family after they were sent the wrong body following the death of a loved one.
What is changing about Canada's capital gains tax and how does it impact me?
The federal government's proposed change to capital gains taxation is expected to increase taxes on investments and mainly affect wealthy Canadians and businesses. Here's what you need to know about the move.
'Anything to win': Trudeau says as Poilievre defends meeting protesters
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is accusing Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre of welcoming 'the support of conspiracy theorists and extremists,' after the Conservative leader was photographed meeting with protesters, which his office has defended.
Fair in Ontario, flurries in Labrador: Weather systems make for an erratic spring
"It's a bit of a complicated pattern; we've got a lot going on," said Jennifer Smith of the Meteorological Service of Canada in an interview with CTVNews.ca on Wednesday. "[As is] typical with weather, all of these things are related."
Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
Police tangle with students in Texas and California as wave of campus protest against Gaza war grows
Police tangled with student demonstrators in Texas and California while new encampments sprouted Wednesday at Harvard and other colleges as school leaders sought ways to defuse a growing wave of pro-Palestinian protests.
Bank of Canada officials split on when to start cutting interest rates
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Northern Ont. lawyer who abandoned clients in child protection cases disbarred
A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients – many of them child protection cases – has lost his licence to practise law.
'My stomach dropped': Winnipeg man speaks out after being criminally harassed following single online date
A Winnipeg man said a single date gone wrong led to years of criminal harassment, false arrests, stress and depression.