For one person, Melba Seto contains a multitude of identities: business owner, potter, adventurer, podcaster, mom, and soap-maker among them. The owner of Bowness Soapworks in Calgary also wears another hat: CKUA enthusiast.
She discovered CKUA in 2010. “It’s all positive and uplifting. It’s literally the only station I listen to,” she says. “It has a sense of community to it and that’s what I’m all about: building community and lifting each other up.”
In that spirit, Melba recently paid for two donated hours and held a live pottery session on Instagram for each one.
She encouraged followers to request their favourite local musicians as they watched her spin clay.
“I’m amazed and inspired by Melba’s passion for music, community and amplifying positivity,” says host Grant Stovel, who spun requests for her crowd during one of Melba’s donated hours. “What an amazing example of how giving to a community organization can be a really positive form of expression and can truly become a virtuous circle.”
She has also made and donated soap to CKUA as a gift for fundraiser volunteers, several times.
“One of the things that makes me happy about being a small business owner is being able to give back to my community,” Melba says. “I donate a lot to local fundraisers and charities and also it’s a good way to thank people for giving their time to organizations that matter to me.”
Why does she support CKUA? “Because CKUA supports a lot of smaller artists and local businesses. Because it uses a lot of positivity in the messaging and it really keeps me up to date with what’s happening locally and within my community. It helps connect us to our neighbours and each other.”
It also connects her own family. “I love being able to expose my kids to classical music and Celtic music on the weekends,” she says. She and her spouse love to put on CKUA and cook up a huge breakfast of naleśniki (Polish crepes) with fried eggs, bacon, and sausage.
“CKUA is for everybody, that’s what’s really special about it,” she says. “And that’s what having a good community is about. Everybody is allowed to be part of it.”
Interested in having your own donated hour? Learn about it here.
Melba’s Song Recommendation: “Home” by Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeroes
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