When starting a small business in a small community, it is extremely important to have support from your surrounding towns. While Emma Schweitzer was working part time at the Medina Street Vault in Cairo, Nebraska she started becoming interested in the massage business at a young age. She began to give her family and friends massages before her college experience began. Schweitzer completed her college degree at REN Institute of Massage Therapy located in Kearney, Nebraska. She was the first class to graduate from this college with a Massage Therapist Degree.

Schweitzer is glad that there is now a program in this career pathway closer, so students who live in the Cairo, Nebraska area can attend the college easier. She graduated in 2020 and then started her own business known as Grace Massage. As she started her career she had a small list of clientele. Her business eventually began to grow. She wanted to get her name out to more surrounding communities, which is where the Centura FBLA Chapter offered to help. “We wanted to advertise the existence of her business to the surrounding communities of Cairo, St. Paul, Boelus, Farewell, and Dannebrog,” stated Haley Hellwege. The Centura FBLA Officer, Hellwege, and an FBLA Member, Bri Rasmussen, teamed up with Grace Massage for their Partnership with Business Project. The two FBLA members have been actively posting on Grace Message’s social media pages. The teens created a website for the business and invited Schweitzer to talk about her business at the February FBLA Meeting.

Hellwege and Rasmussen have completed the website and a report, which will both be submitted for competition at FBLA’s State Conference held in Kearney this April.