Boco bars

What kind of chemistry did it take for three single women to launch a unique and ambitious business plan? Life experiences have given all three a passion for promoting health and educating others. Add in a willingness to risk and the determination to succeed, and a new business is born.

Jeannette Gaiter of Fort Collins, Linda Mae Fogwell and Erika Chambers, both of Superior, Colorado have formed Boulder Raw, a partnership to produce an all-natural meal replacement bar. Following a carefully orchestrated start, their long-time goals are set high. Each of the women has experienced the loss of family members from cancer and each has a story to tell that led them to become involved in the business which promotes health.

What kind of chemistry did it take for three single women to launch a unique and ambitious business plan? Life experiences have given all three a passion for promoting health and educating others. Add in a willingness to risk and the determination to succeed, and a new business is born.

Jeannette Gaiter of Fort Collins, Linda Mae Fogwell and Erika Chambers, both of Superior, Colorado have formed Boulder Raw, a partnership to produce an all-natural meal replacement bar. Following a carefully orchestrated start, their long-time goals are set high. Each of the women has experienced the loss of family members from cancer and each has a story to tell that led them to become involved in the business which promotes health.

Gaiter and Fogwell met four years ago as members of Summit of Unusual Women, a group that meets annually in a retreat format to share common interests. Fogwell had lost a daughter and her mother to cancer and Gaiter was dealing with her husband Lew’s long-term cancer diagnosis. Fast forward to 2018 not long after Gaiter’s husband had died. She found special solace in her growing friendship with Fogwell.

Gaiter was entering a new phase in her life. For 20 years she had homeschooled her nine children and  been heavily involved in caring for her husband and supporting his 10-year career as a Larimer County Commissioner. Freed from those responsibilities, she found herself with the time to focus on her own passions and interests, a change in her life which she finds, “challenging, exciting and a little unsettling.” She is interested to see where her new path will take her. Besides her new business, she plans to document her journey with her husband’s cancer in a book.

Fogwell, who lost a daughter to cancer at age 26, has been committed to promoting good health for a long time. She has done extensive research in the field. A native of Nashville, Tennessee, she moved to Colorado two years ago and opened a detox spa in Boulder. Soothing footbaths help to remove toxins from the body. She found that following treatment her clients were often hungry. She responded by creating a special bar to satisfy their needs.. A long-time entrepreneur, Fogwell is an educator at heart and has a background in teaching and corporate marketing. She’s a speaker, storyteller and writer and has published Can This Marriage be Saved.

Chambers, Fogwell’s older daughter, has a background in communications and is the creative force in the new business working in design, marketing, website design and social media.

Boulder Raw produces and markets Boco Bars, a high protein bar which is hearty enough to replace a meal. An ideal grab and go food, the bars contains hemp hearts, the shelled seeds of hemp, and come in three flavors, coconut date, cherry cacao and lemon poppy. They are raw, vegan, organic and free of dairy, nuts and gluten. The bars became so popular among her clients that Fogwell tweaked the recipes and researching what it would take to make them a viable product to form a business.

By February 2019, Gaiter had joined the business. Commercial production began in March. They have been sharing the 400 bars the women produce in a week with family and friends. By early summer production will increase to 3,000 a week and marketing will become widespread. The partners have been encouraged by the interest from coffee shops, sporting goods stores and health care professionals in the area.

“We plan to go big,” Gaiter says.