One of the many things Ernie Jaeger is known for is his generosity. He not only donated money to local arts and sports programs, participated in fundraisers, and was active in his community, but Ernie also donated his time – a very valuable resource in today’s busy world. Both Ernie and Lisa are very passionate about advancing and promoting individuals in the skilled trades. They offer opportunities for jobs, apprenticeships, and mentoring to all who are interested or recruited. Their family, friends, employees, and the youth in their community have benefited from their efforts to help and pass on their entrepreneurial knowledge and experiences. Passing on positive energy and contributing to a worthy cause was and still is an integral part of Ernie & Lisa’s philosophy, both in business and their personal lives.
One of the programs that Ernie and Lisa were involved in is the INCubator@BHS – Batavia High School’s INCubator Entrepreneurship Program
Ernie and Lisa decided to participate in the BHS Incubator program with a team of 4 boys to help start Elevation (a student-led entrepreneurial business). I say started because Ernie’s battle with cancer abruptly stopped his involvement with this group. After contacting one of the BHS members of Elevation, they had nothing but good things to say about Ernie and how influential and motivating he was for them to continue on, even though it was only a short time he was able to help out.
Team: Elevation consists of 4 group members: Tyler Piron, Keegan Miller, Matt Rash, and Michael Kelly.
Here is their story…“Team Elevation works with sports and clubs, including Football, Soccer, art, and band, in order to create a fun party experience for kids that helps to strengthen the bonds between current and future Batavia athletes and programs, as well as help kids connect to their peers in a way that best fits them. What we provide to parents and people who purchase our service is a location, discounts on food, and access to athletes or club members and equipment from the high school activity of their choice at a low price. Both the sports and programs, as well as the athletes and club members who work with us, receive donations for their work with the children and with us.
While that’s a summary of our business, what our goals are are much greater. We, as a company, hope to be able to work with children and provide activities that help get them involved and become a part of their community, and the best way we were able to discover was by using high schoolers as a middle ground and support to let the kids interact and create bonds with kids who have the same interests. While it’s not the program we originally intended and workshopped with Ernie and Lisa, it was the best solution to ultimately reach our final goal of helping others.
I could not express how much Ernie and Lisa helped our business grow. They were fantastic to work with and were the ones who made our project change from an idea to a reachable goal. And while, unfortunately, we weren’t able to work with them as much as we’d like due to a situation beyond our control, the time we had with them was invaluable and something we will never forget as an organization. They helped us with both the business and emotional aspects of what we wanted to achieve, with their expertise in running and business, and Lisa’s expertise in emotional health and children. Again, I could not express our gratitude to them during this process.
Currently, our company has just competed in a business pitching competition through Batavia High School. We went up against 20 other teams and placed 3rd, earning $1000 to get our company off the ground. For the future, we hope to continue expanding our business and begin to branch out nationally.
We want to make sure our story, as well as the ways Ernie and Lisa helped us, gets heard.
Our team would like to add, however, that there were multiple times during the process where we had a lot of doubt in ourselves and our ideas, and they were always the two that kept us on the right path and made us motivated to continue even after bad experiences throughout our journey. “
