On January 17th Brighten Up will celebrate our 8th birthday! We officially opened our doors on January 17th, 2012 and have loved every minute of serving our community in the Town of Erin and surrounding areas. We have built and grown our business in ways we could never have foreseen or dreamed.
We started at 67 Main in Unit D with 700 sq ft of retail space, one tutoring room, a backup tutoring space and a temporary program space. We have now grown to double our retail space and with a separate unit for our education center housing our three tutors and a permanent event and program space. Into our retail store we have jammed every possible space full of amazing product from our suppliers including Outset Media Games, Cobble Hill Puzzle Company, Lion Rampant, Scholastic Canada, FoxMind, Creativity for Kids, Melissa & Doug, Big Jigs Toys Limited, Playwell, Playmobil, Lego and tons MORE!
We are incredibly blessed and grateful for the support of our community and look forward to many more years to come!
We are excited to announce that 2020 is going to be a year of EXCITING changes and growth for Brighten Up. In March 2020, Brighten Up will be growing its community. Not only will Chris and Stephanie be welcoming their first child to their family, but the Brighten Up family will grow to include a new community! We are thrilled to be opening our SECOND Brighten Up Toys and Games location, in Fergus! Evelyn and Tim Gould of Jester’s Fun Factory in Fergus are getting ready to enjoy their well-earned retirement – after starting in the Toy and Game business in 1997 – and we have worked with them to open Brighten Up in their current location in March 2020, following their store closure. We have been working closely with Evelyn and Tim to provide a smooth transition from Jester’s Fun Factory to Brighten Up Toys and Games. This will ensure that Fergus continues to enjoy the fun and engagement provided by an independent Toy and Game Store! We are excited to take on this new challenge as we bring our own unique Brighten Up feel to Fergus and we wish Evelyn and Tim the best in their retirement.
This growth will create changes in Erin. As many have noticed we have welcomed Mary Jo as part of the Brighten Up Team and her friendly and fun energy have been a wonderful addition to our store. We look forward to welcoming some new faces to the Fergus location as well as transitioning some of the current Jester’s Fun Factory staff over to Brighten Up.
In order to dedicate the required time to growing both locations the popular Brighten Up March Break and Summer Discovery Camps will no longer continue. This was a hard decision to come to as over the last eight summers we have welcomed countless kids through our doors for fun and discovery on school holidays. We have created a fun and welcoming space for all kids to come and explore. While our formal camps will no longer be running, watch our updates for new programming and event days that will continue to use some of our favourite camp activities in a new style!
We can't believe how much this business has grown from what we envisioned in 2012 when we first opened our doors and we can’t wait to see what the future holds.
To celebrate our eighth birthday, we are giving you the gifts! From Friday January 17th until Monday January 20th with every purchase unwrap a present that contains from 10-50% OFF your entire purchase. This is a STOREWIDE Sale, so includes everything on the floor even products that are already discounted!
See you soon!
Chris and Stephanie
