Episode 11: Meg Olenowksi (Founder, Pink Witches Night Out) – The Best of New Jersey Podcast

Amanda Morrison
Welcome to the Best of New Jersey podcast, presented by Sojo Spa Club, New Jersey’s Wellness Getaway. The Best of New Jersey podcast celebrates New Jersey’s most influential figures and the communities that shape them. Big names, real talk, real Jersey. I’m your host, Amanda Morrison from Don’t Sit Home. I would like to welcome to the Best in New Jersey podcast Meg Olenowski, owner of the Boutique Sisters in Denville, New Jersey, and founder of the annual Pink Witches Night Out Cancer fundraiser. Welcome to the podcast.

Meg Olenowski
Thank you so much. Pleasure to be here.

Amanda Morrison
Oh no, I’m excited to have you. So let’s talk about Sisters. I mean, you have this boutique. How did it start? You know, just tell me a little bit of background.

Meg Olenowski
Yeah. So I feel like all my stories today are going to start with my mom. My mom actually took over a store in Denver. It was like her lifelong dream. She was a kindergarten teacher. Then she was working in catering a little bit. She worked at her family’s restaurant, and then later in life became a boutique owner, had no idea what she was doing, but ran it. It was awesome, and then sadly she got sick and quickly had a short battle with cancer. So afterwards, my sister and I decided we would take over the shop for a little bit. We both kind of decided… we were young, we were in our 20s, so we thought, you know, we’ll keep the store for a little bit, try to figure it out, and I fell in love with it. So my mom’s store was Surprises In Store. I took that over after a little bit of success. We bought the building next door, and that’s when Sisters was born.

Amanda Morrison
So what actually got your mom into it?

Meg Olenowski
She just it was her favorite store, and she thought you know what what could be more fun than owning a boutique. It is fun, but it’s a little bit harder work than she probably anticipated.

Amanda Morrison
What do you think was her biggest challenge at the beginning?

Meg Olenowski
I think at the beginning she just went into it. She had a little bit of a business background. Her family owned an Irish pub. My grandparents owned it, and you know she went into it and thought, “Oh, this is so fun. She actually was really ahead of the trend and got Vera Bradley early on. Okay. Yes. So we’re talking like late ’90s, early 2000s when Vera Bradley was at its peak, and so she had Vera Bradley, and you know the customers came just because of how great she was. But it’s tough. Retail’s tough. You have to be really strict with your buying. You have to be really strict with you know how long you’re going to be open and all that sort of thing. So I think her initial thought was, “Wow, this will be fun. But I think she realized, wow, this is really hard work.

Amanda Morrison
So, have you? I mean, so you’re saying your mom was a trendsetter, starting with Vera Bradley.

Meg Olenowski
Absolutely.

Amanda Morrison
What do you think are similarities in what you what your mom’s put in your boutique, and what do you sell now?

Meg Olenowski
So we started sisters. We wanted to definitely do clothing because there was no clothing stores in Denville, and we still had Vera Bradley at the time because Vera Bradley was still kicking. And then we just decided, you know, we brought in some jewelry. We started getting things that we liked. I was always-it’s crazy as I say it-but I was always asking my grandmother what she liked. I’d bring her bags. I’d bring her-you know-just catalogs, and she was always picking things out. She was in her 80s at that point, but had really good style, and I realized as as we kept going, my best customers were the moms. The moms were always coming in. They wanted, you know, they wanted to shop for themselves, but at first they had to get their daughter’s friend a gift. They had to get their son’s girlfriend a gift. They had to get a teacher gift. They so the moms would come in, they’d buy those gifts, but then they were shopping for themselves, so I really based it off of you know those cool trendy moms in Denville, and we just built from there.

Amanda Morrison
I was going to say even asking someone older. I mean, I feel like everything comes back, so I’ve been going with their classic too. You might not want to ask like a 22 year old right now too. I would rather ask my you know an 80 year old grandmother as well.

Meg Olenowski
Absolutely, I opened Sisters when I was 26. You know what do you know at 26? So yeah, I’m. I was very quick to ask my grandmother.

Amanda Morrison
Well, let’s talk about what you know at 26. So what was your background? Because obviously you’re saying your mom didn’t really know what I mean. She didn’t know she was going into that world, but she took a chance, and you didn’t know that unfortunately the circumstances were going to shift. So what was your original path?

Meg Olenowski
Yeah. So I had no idea going into college. I knew I wanted to play basketball. That was that was pretty much my parameter. I went to Marsh Catholic High School in Denville. We had a really successful basketball team, so I went to Ithaca College. I was there. I still kind of you know I was like, I’ll do business. That’s what my family does. I I double majored in sports management because I love sports and business, and I thought maybe I’d be a basketball coach early on. And then you get into the trap. I realized, oh my gosh, finance-you’re going to make a lot of money. So I did the I did the Morris County thing where you move to Hoboken. You know, worked in finance for a couple years in New York City. I realized that really wasn’t the world for me. I came home and I was a I was actually working at Drew University, I was the assistant basketball coach there, and thought I’m going to be a basketball coach because this is awesome. And turns out, my mom passed away, got into the store, and I realized this is this is the world for me.

Amanda Morrison
Where in Hoboken did you live because that’s where I live?

Meg Olenowski
and I loved my time in Hoboken. I lived on Fourth and 14th in Washington.

Amanda Morrison
What was one of your favorite places when you lived there?

Amanda Morrison
This this is an easy one. So anytime someone came and visited me, I was like, guys, I have to show you the coolest thing ever. And I would call the Willie McBride’s limo, and I’d be like, guys, we’re getting in the limo. Love live music. That was all my friends were like, what is this place? But Willie McBride’s was by far my favorite spot.

Amanda Morrison
I have definitely been in that limo a few times. So we’ve been growing up in Denvil. So, what were some of your places growing up, either in Denville or just in New Jersey?

Amanda Morrison
Yeah. So I I grew up in Denvil. I still live in Denville. Proud towny. Okay. You know, Denver’s really grown in the last 20 years. It’s been amazing to watch. We have we actually are a foodie destination, which is wild. We have a small downtown, but it’s really impressive. We have the pasta shop, which is also owned by another Denville kid, Tommy. He’s not a kid; he’s my age, but you know, we all grew up in Denville together. We have Hunan Taste, which is the best Chinese food in New Jersey, and I think they get ranked every year the number one spot. And then Denville Dairy was, you know, all my childhood memories. I feel like start and end at Denvil Dairy. It’s the best ice cream. The Fine family, I’ve known it for years, and you know I can remember going there as a kid. And I went there last night.

Amanda Morrison
What about around New Jersey? Did you go down the shore? Do you call it down the shore, down the beach?

Meg Olenowski
On the shore. Come on, yes.

Amanda Morrison
You never know.

Meg Olenowski
Fair enough. Fair enough.

Amanda Morrison
But what were some of your places growing up that you went to in New Jersey?

Amanda Morrison
Yeah. So we we went to Spring Lake a few times as a kid. We did a lot of time in Cape Cod. Actually, my grandparents loved Cape Cod, but now, when I was about 20, my parents bought a house in Bradley Beach. So my dad lives there full time now. So I am, I am an honorary Monmouth County girl. Yeah, I love, I love Bradley. I’ve loved to watch Asbury grow. It’s been amazing, and love Belmar, love Avon, the that that part of Monmouth County is my favorite.

Amanda Morrison
Where where did you go to college?

Amanda Morrison
Ithaca in New York.

Amanda Morrison
Okay,

Amanda Morrison
yeah.

Amanda Morrison
So you left New Jersey, but what made you want to stay back? Is it just taking over? Did you have any plans to go somewhere else, or did you always want to come return to New Jersey?

Amanda Morrison
I spent about 36 hours in college thinking, oh my gosh, I could live anywhere, and then it hit me like that. It was a Friday night, and I was thinking, you know, it was about 4o’clock. I called my house, and my mom said, “Oh yeah, we’re all getting ready to go to dinner at Smitty’s, which is it’s actually still in New Jersey. It’s in Rockaway, and we used to do family dinners every Friday night. My grandparents owned a bar, so they loved to go to other restaurants. And I realized, like, oh, you guys are still going to dinner without me, and I realized like I was like, wow, it’s it’s great to be you know on my own and independent. But I knew at 17, at 18, I’m coming back to New Jersey. I loved, I loved the community here. I loved that my family was here, and you know my whole family at that point all lived in Denville, and I knew for sure I was coming back.

Amanda Morrison
Does much of your family still live in Denver?

Meg Olenowski
Pretty much everybody. Both of my grandmas have passed away, unfortunately, but both lived in Denver their entire adult lives. My dad lives down the shore now, but I’m I’m trying to sneak him back to Denver. I can go to the shore all summer, but not that far. Yeah, my aunts and uncles, my cousins, my one cousin just moved to Bergen County, but we know he’s we’re gonna eventually get him back to Mars County, but yeah, we’re all still there.

Amanda Morrison
Okay, so you were talking about that you bought the building next door. So you have two locations? So we

Meg Olenowski
So we started with two, and then COVID we combined. So I brought Surprises in Stor and Sisters kind of into one, and so we had you know the gift and the jewelry that Surprises in Store had with the clothing that Sisters had, and now it’s like one happy family in one building.

Amanda Morrison
What has been now as a business owner? What has been one of your highlights so far?

Amanda Morrison
That’s a great question. Truthfully, this is going to sound a little cheesy, but I love watching the girls that we that work for us grow. One of them just had a baby not that long ago, and she worked for us when she was in high school. We just have such a good little group of workers. A couple of them just left for college the last few days, and you just know, like you know, these kids are going somewhere. You know that they spent such, like, such vulnerable years at you know working with us, and it’s so funny the stories they tell and all that sort of thing, but being a role model, being somebody that they can talk to at you know 1617, 18 years old, and then you’re watching them in their early 30s, getting married, having kids, such a cool, such a cool thing. I think that’s that’s huge. And then watching my customers as well. I mean, I can remember some customers. One of them sitting right over there, and I watched her. You know, come get her Vera Bradley backpack for school, and now she has her own social media company. Like it’s it’s unbelievable. Like you’re just, you know, you’re you’re in this building, and people are telling you all these great stories and all these things and all their aspirations, and then you watch it actually come true. It’s unbelievable. What has been one of your biggest challenges so far? Well, I’m sure this is a cop out answer, but COVID was obviously very challenging when Governor Murphy shut everybody down. That was a little bit tough, but that’s when I started to put my face on camera a little bit in social media, and we figured out the online thing, and we did every weekend. We did a pickup. So I would stay pretty much in the store all week, and then Fridays or Saturdays we’d have our pickup day, and people would come down, and it was so cool. We’d all have masks on, but it was like we all kind of got together. They’re granted everybody’s in their cars. They popped their trunk. I’d put their things in there, but it was just nice to see the community, nice to see everybody. But I thought for sure I was like, you know, everybody’s so used to shopping online, but I realized coming out of COVID, people were dying for that in-person connection. So that really helped us. But I, you know, the online and the Amazons of the world-it does seem like it’s hurting retail. But people crave that in-person connection.

Amanda Morrison
Oh yeah, for sure. How much of involvement did you have in the business when your mom was there.

Amanda Morrison
I hate to say it, but almost none.

Amanda Morrison
Okay.

Amanda Morrison
We we had a family restaurant, and that family restaurant closed when I was in eighth grade. And then my freshman year, I got a job at a local restaurant in Denville, and I worked there all throughout high school. So I think my mom, I think it was about a sophomore when my mom bought the store, and I was like, I’m sorry, I already have an after school job. You know, I helped her one Christmas Eve one time, and and not for lack of anything, but she had a really good team when she bought the store anyway. So I helped her one Christmas Eve, and I looked at. I remember looking at her after and go, I don’t know how you do this. This is a really tough job.

Amanda Morrison
Okay, was there anyone that actually kind of did you looked at like anyone for a mentorship, or does there anyone that was like made a huge impact on kind of your success of keeping it going.

Amanda Morrison
Totally. So I am such a big fan of mentors and probably terrorized some of the business owners in downtown Denville. But there’s a woman, Sue Banks. She owns. It’s called Faith and Begora. It’s an Irish shop in town. She’s been there for over 35 years. I think she’s coming up on 40. She owns her own building. She sells communion dresses. She sells Irish, you know, wares. She goes to Ireland two or three times a year. Brings people with her to go to trade shows, and then she’ll do the circuit. So she’ll go out and do the feches and all those festivals. So I would ask her all the time. I’m like, how do you do payroll? How do you do inventory? How do you? And I think at you know now I will say the rules have reversed a little bit, and she’s always asking me social media questions, so I feel like I am paying her back a little bit. But Sue was a huge influence for me, and just knowing I could go across the street and ask for help was amazing. And then, actually, the man I bought the building from is this guy Mark Ledoux, and he’s been in town forever, and he owns a smoke shop, which is right down the street from us. They sell cards and games and all sorts of things, and he begrudgingly has become quite my business mentor.

Amanda Morrison
Okay, so let’s talk about your roots in downtown Denville. I mean, so you you’ve also launched Pink Witches Night Out in honor of your mother. So tell me a little bit more of that and how the Denville community has kind of come around you.

Amanda Morrison
Yeah, so I watched Denvil. You know, everyone talks about Sandy, but Irene killed Denville. We had, if you actually YouTube it, there’s a guy on a jet ski going through our downtown. We had so much water and we had so much damage. So when Irene happened, it was about 2011. I watched the whole downtown. Almost every business had to be closed for like two or three months. There was that much damage, but everybody came back. Every single business came back, which is amazing. You know, a lot of people would see that, say, “Let me take the insurance money and run. But every business came back. We did all sorts of fundraisers. We did an up and running. They did a 5k. All sorts of great fundraisers for the town, and then a lot of the residents also lost their home. So I watched the community through that. And again, I was really young then, and I didn’t truly understand it. But I always, I lived in Denville, and I always knew like something happens, you always help people out. And I realize now, as I’m older, that’s not everywhere. So Denville really does have a special place in that northern New Jersey connection. So I watched that happen, and I knew Denvil had that roots, and I had no intention of that. That would be the community that would back Pink Witches Night Out. That was just kind of something I wanted to do in honor of my mom and raise some money for a woman who was struggling. But that-that’s exactly what happened. Pink Witches came out of that amazing community. That’s downtown Denville.

Amanda Morrison
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Amanda Morrison
Who who did you want to help with this? Not just the downtown, but who’s actually benefiting from your from your charity?

Amanda Morrison
Yeah, we were coming up on a year of losing my mom, and it was obviously so hard. I was only 25. My sister was only 23. My dad-I mean, that’s the love of his life they met in high school. So we were all still struggling, but you have to remember we’re a good old Irish family. So if we’re going to celebrate something, we’re going to make sure it’s fun. And that was my mom, you know, to a T. I mean, even in the last few weeks of her life, like we, I hate to say it, but we were in her hospital room, and we all knew it was ours. And we had pizzas, we had beers, and she was in and out of it. But every time she would, she’d wake up, make fun of my uncle, she’d be, you know, racking it up. So that’s who she was in essence for till the bitter end. And she just we knew that that fun piece had to be in it. So we’re sitting at I can remember we’re sitting at a coffee shop in Denville, and we knew October’s coming. There was a woman in town, Kim, who was she had stage four breast cancer, and she was going to leave behind a five year old. And we knew things were pretty dire with her family. So we said, let’s make it a fundraiser for Kim. We’ll have it a fun shopping night. We’ll bring in you know a couple of the restaurants brought in some cookies and brownies and that sort of thing, and we’ll have a fun shopping night. That’s how Pink Witches started, and we knew okay, Pink because it’s October, we were just you know celebrating breast cancer, and witches because it was close to October, we wanted people to have fun. We didn’t want it to be somber. We didn’t want to cry about it. We wanted to dress up, so we said, bring your witch’s hat, bring your pink. Let’s celebrate him. So we were able to raise $400. But just that night, I watched people in our small shop. You know, we had 18 1800 square feet. Watch people just come together. We had a good time. Everybody was drinking punch. But it was also there was just some meaningful connections. And even that, probably 75 people. We raised $400, but I knew I was like, “This is something, and it took forever. You know, not forever. I shouldn’t say that. We’re on year 14 now, and you know the event has grown massively.

Amanda Morrison
That’s impressive.

Meg Olenowski
Yeah, thank you. But I knew, I always knew I was the moment my mom was sick. I knew I was going to do something because you know just how you know cancer, and it’s different now. There’s the internet and all sorts of things. Cancer. I lost my mom 15 years ago. It was different then. It was a little more taboo. People didn’t really talk about it. I remember being at the gym, and a guy who, I think his wife was my dentist at the time, came over to me and whispered like, “Oh, here things are really not going well, huh? I’m like, “I’m 25, buddy. What what are we doing here? You know, and and that was kind of always the thing. And anytime people brought my mom up, it was like, ooh, I’m so you know, and and I get that, but it’s just a lonely thing, you know. You know, you’re going through it. You know, you’re going through something terrible. And some of some people, unfortunately, know there’s no cure for this. And my mom, unfortunately, knew that she had the worst kind of cancer you can get. But that shouldn’t be the case. There should be there should be resources out there. There should be ways for you know. I was her primary caregiver. I brought her to every single doctor’s appointment, and you know we had one or two social workers, and it was kind of like you know here’s a pamphlet, like here’s a pamphlet, you know like we like so I knew that not only do we want to raise a lot of money for people because it is a financial, a huge financial burden, no matter what your financial status is. But I also knew I wanted to create connection. We had a beneficiary, Pink Witches. Her name is Chelsea Ambrosi.

Amanda Morrison
She was 28 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer, and she she was our beneficiary. And I said to her, “We’ll share what’s comfortable, all that. She she sent me a video two days in after we said she was going to be our beneficiary of her with her mom and dad shaving her head in her backyard and she’s like this is what cancer looks like but we’re going to beat it and I was like that that’s it right there because people cancer is ugly it sure is but who cares like you need to be able to go out there you need to be able to show people I’m going to beat this disease or I am gonna die fighting it, you know. And I love that sentiment, but I knew in my heart people needed a night, people needed resources. And as our foundation grows, I hope we get even more into that. But that’s my that’s my biggest push right there. Is I want people to feel comfortable. I want people to be able to share their story. And yeah, we want to raise a heck of a lot of money.

Amanda Morrison
I’ve read some things. You have raised a heck of a lot of money. How much? How much have you raised so far?

Meg Olenowski
To date, we’re at 285,000.

Amanda Morrison
That’s amazing. Yeah. So where where exactly does that money go? Do you is it or how many events actually do you have? Is it one one single event or are there multiple?

Meg Olenowski
We so just last year we added a 5K. Okay, so we have two events. We have two events that the Kathy Olenowski Foundation runs. So that’s our Pink Witches 5K and our Pink Witches Night Out. We’ve been lucky enough though that few other businesses have partnered with us, and some gyms have done classes, yoga studios, some restaurants. So it’s very cool. We have other businesses getting involved and raising money for us, but us as a foundation, we just do the 5k and the pink witches night out.

Amanda Morrison
So, is it just is it one person or family that’s the recipient, or does it get kind of dispersed? Yeah,

Amanda Morrison
that’s how we’re structured right now. So, we raise for one family per year.

Amanda Morrison
Okay.

Amanda Morrison
Yeah, I think you know down the road as we progress, we’d love to add people to that and raise more money for the community, but that’s you know lofty goals.

Amanda Morrison
I mean, just even just not feeling alone. I mean, I know it’s just. I mean, it’s amazing because you’re saying 15 years ago, it’s still. I mean, it’s 2026, and even just trying to navigate the way through, like even my dad’s diagnosis in different ways. Like we, you know, it’s funny, like being very like an. On the public spotlight, going through something privately, I’m even back and forth with what I should share online or how you know I never want to kind of want my dad to be following my pages, and as he doesn’t need to be reminded he’s sick all the time too. But I also want like my followers to know that you know you’re not alone. Like anyone could go through it. Doesn’t you know? Unfortunately, cancer can get you know anyone. Doesn’t matter how much money you have? What your status is? How old you are? But that’s just-I mean, I just think that you know, there’s probably so much more good that’s coming out of your foundation, and even that you don’t even realize. But

Amanda Morrison
yes, thank you.

Meg Olenowski
So let’s take, let’s shift to because you’re talking about playing basketball. You do coach basketball too, so you have very full plate.

Amanda Morrison
I stay busy to stay out of trouble.

Amanda Morrison
Yeah. So you’re coaching at Drew University.

Amanda Morrison
I coached at Drew University for 10 years.

Amanda Morrison
Okay.

Meg Olenowski
Five years in, our head coach. I was the assistant coach. Our head coach left, and guess who took her job? Who was supposed to be retiring? My father. Okay. So my dad is now the head coach at Drew University, which was great. Yeah. I coached with him for yeah I think we coached five years together and then thankfully our business started doing a little bit better and needed me a little bit more so I couldn’t coach college anymore and now I’m in the youth rank so I coach a little bit of youth basketball I had a Denville team that I took from fifth grade to eighth grade and now we’re we’re trying to figure out what our next youth. I say we because Aaron and I coach together, but we’re trying to figure out what our next team is for this year.

Amanda Morrison
I actually played softball across the street. I went to Fairleigh Dickinson.

Meg Olenowski
Okay, nice. All right.

Amanda Morrison
So it was always nice though because that was our away game sometimes too. But we would still get the away food money.

Amanda Morrison
it’s a beautiful thing, isn’t it?

Amanda Morrison
No, it was great. We didn’t really buy food, but my parents did now. Yeah, now yeah. So, but how did you even? So, when did you stop coaching at Drew?

Amanda Morrison
COVID.

Amanda Morrison
Okay.

Meg Olenowski
Yeah.

Amanda Morrison
So, but even just, I mean, even just coaching a youth team. How are you? But so you have, you know, you have the, you have your charity, you have your store, and you’re coaching basketball. What do you do? And I mean, how do you balance all that? Let alone what do you do in your free time?

Amanda Morrison
I don’t know what free time is. No, you know what it is for me. I just I surround myself with great people. I mean, you see two of them right there. So I have Mary Griffin here and Erin Frederick. Mary’s our social media manager for Pink Witches. So so much of anything that social marketing, anything like that, Mary can handle. And Mary has her own social media agency, and she’s working for Peanuts, really for us. But she does such an amazing job. Erin’s our creative director slash probably our secretary and does it all. So she takes on so much of that. But she also works for IBM. She has a full time job. So that’s the one thing about the charity. We’re all volunteers and we really work hard.

Amanda Morrison
I mean, they’re stylists too. They were before this interview. They were making sure you were on point.

Meg Olenowski
I’m telling you, keep the 20 year olds around you. You look as cool as you can.

Amanda Morrison
My God, I need some 20-year-olds. Wait, that sounded bad.

Meg Olenowski
Yes, and then at the store, I have a tremendous team. I have three people that have been with me from basically the inception of sisters: Jess Van Eck, Colleen Argentar, and Nancy Green. Colleen’s just about to have baby number two, so we’re hoping we get her to stay for a little bit. But they really can run the show if I’m not there. And then I have a couple of high school kids, couple college kids that work, and I think surrounding yourself with a great team and trusting everybody that that allows me to kind of keep myself in a few different things. And I think with basketball, you know, that’s like really passion and it’s fun, and I love to teach the game. It really is exciting to me. I love to watch kids get better, and then with the store, you know, we’ve we’ve kind of hit our stride in year 10. We’re in year 13 now, and I think you know that’s kind of we’re not automated, but we know we’re doing every year, and it gets a little bit easier each year to make sure the death store is running the way it should. And then with the charity, I mean we’re this is this will be our biggest year yet for sure. We’re getting a lot a lot more momentum, and that you know. Hopefully, by this time next year, I’m talking about somebody that we hire for the charity to help us out.

Amanda Morrison
What is your next chapter?

Amanda Morrison
That’s a great question. Wow, wouldn’t have thought of that. I, I really do see amazing things happening for the Kathy Olenowski Foundation, and I there’s so many people out there. I mean, you included that just need that spot to go, that comfort. I would love for the organization to grow to the point that you know either we have a space or a center or something where people can come. You know, we have such generous donors. Atlantic Health is our main partner. They’re our naming sponsor, and they do such amazing things for our organization. And now some more national brands have kind of come in and shown interest. Mary has taken our Instagram, our Facebook from 1000 followers july 1 to today in August. Now we have over 15,000 followers on Facebook. I know, Griffin Socials, but I just I see such momentum and so many. Now I’m talking to some nonprofits and some other companies that are, you know, they want to bring the space, they want to bring the idea of Pink Witches their way. I would love to be able to not franchise it, but I’d love to be able to consult and show other towns how to make this happen because there are just so many people out there that need it, and there’s so many people maybe they don’t need the money. For them, but they do need the compassion. They do need the companionship. They do need that emotional support. And they, I’m telling you, this night, Pink Witches looks like a party. It really does. Imagine the whole downtown. It’s painted pink. There’s vendors. There’s music. TJ the DJ is going. It’s such a fun night. Do you know him from ?

Amanda Morrison
No, but I love that name.

Meg Olenowski
Okay, we got to go to McSwiggan’s. TJ the DJ.

Amanda Morrison
I’ve been there. I’ve had a you know few few beverages there back in the day.

Meg Olenowski
But TJ, you know he’s got the whole place going, and it does. It looks like a party. It feels like a party. But everybody knows, you know, at the bottom of it, underneath it, it’s really a promise, and it’s a promise that like no one ever has to fight cancer alone, no matter what, no matter who you are. People come to that night by themselves, and they leave with friends. And if I could just get that and capture what we have that night, and bring it elsewhere, and bring it to you know to future events and that sort of thing, I would love for that to be my next chapter.

Amanda Morrison
Is it? Is it? I know you said it’s October and it’s pink for breast cancer, but is it only focused on breast cancer, or is it?

Amanda Morrison
No, we so our beneficiary from last year had stomach cancer, and our beneficiary this year has a glioblastoma, which is brain cancer, which is a tough tough diagnosis. No, we’ve we love the pink theme, so we’re always going to stay pink, and we do a lot of breast cancer. You know, get your mammograms. We do a lot of awareness, but no, I think you know cancer doesn’t discriminate, so we’re not going to discriminate either. So, we we welcome all all types of cancer, and our beneficiary no, it doesn’t have to be breast cancer.

Amanda Morrison
We were talking about maybe I mean not exactly maybe franchising, but what would be your biggest piece of advice for someone who wanted to like start a charity or a foundation, or just even just throw one fundraising event.

Amanda Morrison
Yeah, you just start. You know, I, I, I know this is best in New Jersey podcast, and by far, I think the best in New Jersey is Gary Vee. And I listen to like anything I can get my hands on that’s Gary Vee. I listen to, and it’s always just go do it. Just go do it. Doesn’t have to be perfect. Doesn’t have to be pretty. Doesn’t have to be anything. So I always think that you know. Every time I approach any big firm or company, you know, I don’t know what I don’t know, but I’m gonna go in there and I’m just gonna do it. I’m gonna, you know, I’m gonna say, hey, this is what we offer. This is where we. I don’t know. That’s how that’s how we’ve gotten a ton of sponsorship. Just blind faith and and do it, but again, I think action-that’s the big one-and surround yourself with the best people.

Amanda Morrison
In my past life, I actually used to do Gary’s trademarks for Wine Library back in the day.

Meg Olenowski
Oh my God! So we’re never leaving.

Amanda Morrison
So I actually introduced myself to him when I first saw him on like the field of a Jets football game, and I said, “Oh, I mean, you don’t know who I am on, you know, in person, but you know, this was my name, and I used to write letters to you for a wine library back in the day. But you know, I mean, the fact, like, the worst anyone could ever say is no, too. So a lot of people even just don’t know. Yeah, right. Like, just start. You never know who’s gonna. You never know who’s gonna say yes or what door is gonna be open for you.

Meg Olenowski
Totally, no fear. I mean, go with your heart. No fear.

Amanda Morrison
How many people do you have working at the store and like volunteering for Pink Witches?

Meg Olenowski
at the store? We have, I think we had 11 or 12 this summer, and then like I said, a couple of our kids went back to college. So during the year, we probably have about eight to 10.

Amanda Morrison
Okay,

Meg Olenowski
and then our foundation we’re growing, so our board is seven, and then Mary is our social media manager, and then volunteers. We’re probably up to the 30s or 40s with you know people who are actively volunteering with us.

Amanda Morrison
And when are your events?

Meg Olenowski
The 5k is september 27, and it is a 5k, but you don’t have to run. Okay, you can walk, you can bring a stroller, bring a dog, whatever you want to do. And then our big event, Pink Witches Night Out, is october 16.

Amanda Morrison
Do people dress up for the 5k?

Meg Olenowski
People do dress up for the 5k. We had guys running in suits last year. I don’t know what that’s about, but yeah, a lot of pink, a lot of witch hats. Absolutely.

Amanda Morrison
Right. So for this year’s event, who are some of your biggest maybe sponsors or supporters for it?

Meg Olenowski
Yeah. So we’re still pretty grassroots, but Atlantic Health, who’s a healthcare system in New Jersey? The best healthcare system in New Jersey, I would say, is our naming sponsor. They’ve become a great partner for us. They don’t just write us a check. They come. They’re very good with all of our patients. I refer them all the time. I refer a lot of people who write into us all the time to them. And then the Oaks at Denville, which is a retirement home in Denville, where my grandmother actually lived the last few years of her life, they’re a huge sponsor for us. And then we just have a ton of community sponsors. I’m not going to name them because somebody’s-I’ll get somebody will get mad that I leave them out. But our local realtors are great. Our local med spas, a lot of the small businesses in town become our community sponsors, and then we just have tremendous support from all our downtown businesses.

Amanda Morrison
So who’s this year’s beneficiary?

Meg Olenowski
Her name is Michelle Highduke Dale, and it’s a it’s a really tough story, but she’s an amazing woman. Last September, she lost her husband Noah to a brain cancer. He fought about six years. She has three young kids: Maya, Asher, and Ethan. They’re 22, 20, and 17. So Ethan’s going to be a senior in high school, and she. Diagnosed with a glioblastoma in April, which is generally a six to 12 month. That’s usually the diagnosis. She’s going through treatment right now, but just an amazing person. She was a physician’s assistant, or still is a physician’s assistant in a dermatology office. I’ve heard rave reviews. You know, people who have written into us said, “Oh my God, I went to Michelle. She’s amazing. I can’t believe this is happening to her. So really tough, really tough year for them. You know, they’re still grieving their father, and then the kids anyway. They’re grieving their father, and Michelle is-you can tell-just hasn’t even fully wrapped her head around this diagnosis because she just missed her husband so much. But it’s-they’re an amazing family. You know, all the kids and Michelle will be at all of our events, and you know it’s tough, but they really have the support of our community.

Amanda Morrison
If someone can’t make the event, but they still want to support you, how can they do that?

Meg Olenowski
Absolutely, our website is the Kathy O foundation.com. But if you also go to pinkwitchesnightout.com, you can get it through there too, and very easy. First thing on our website says donate.

Amanda Morrison
You are plugging social media too, so we’re your social medias for your for the store and for Pink Witches.

Meg Olenowski
Oh, I appreciate that. So we’ll start with the good one. So Pink Witches Night Out. We are on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook, all at Pink Witches Night Out, and then the store is at Sisters Denville. You Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.

Amanda Morrison
And where’s the store located?

Meg Olenowski
Denville, right in the heart of downtown Denville, 23 Broadway.

Amanda Morrison
I was gonna say you can plug your address too. We got the time.

Meg Olenowski
Yes. All right.

Amanda Morrison
Well, thank you so much for coming. This was, I mean, this was a great conversation.

Meg Olenowski
Yeah. Thank you so much. I feel that you know, connection. Unfortunately, cancer affects everybody, and you know, no matter what, I think that’s that’s such a big thing of Pink Witches is cancer. Unfortunately, affects so many people, and to come together and support, love for you to come this year.

Amanda Morrison
Oh, absolutely! If I’m around, I would absolutely love to. I mean, I think it’s such a hard thing to deal with, no matter what. But just you know, just not feeling alone just goes so much further than people might not even realize.

Meg Olenowski
Totally, and I think the really overlooked group of cancer patients, and you know, obviously they’re going through it, but those caretakers, they really deserve. You know, they’re they quietly have that strength, and they have to go through it. They’re going through as much emotionally as the patient, and you know, it’s that’s we we try to really honor caretakers because they really do a lot of hard work.

Amanda Morrison
Thank you so much for being here and sharing your story.

Meg Olenowski
Thank you.

Amanda Morrison
All right, so I am Amanda Morrison. You can follow me at Don’ts at Home and at the Best of New Jersey podcast. Thank you for listening. Make sure you check us out wherever you listen to your favorite podcast, and follow us at Don’t Sit Home and the Best of NJ Podcast on social media.