“I know! Isn’t that exciting?”
That is what College of Notre Dame class of 1994 graduate Penny Kane exclaims often when recounting a particular struggle she has encountered on her path as the Chief Executive Officer of the Bio-Tech Company known as ‘Bloombee’.
Bloombee, which Kane started in 2010 to develop a refined beeswax bi-product known as Bloom into a topical or ingestible anti-allergy and/or anti-inflammatory medication, is actually her side gig. Her two teenaged children, Taylor and Brooklyn, are her first priorities, but it was while she was attempting to care for them during their various health difficulties as infants, that the project took form.
“I came across it because when my children were born, one was premature and very sick, and the other one was very sick,” she says, “and I was not getting the answers I needed from the medical community.”
“I left the corporate world, and while fortunate enough to become a stay-at-home mom, I started researching natural ways to deal with (their constant allergies, seizures, and congestive illnesses). I came across this bloom, and have the only patent for it in the world, and I know it can help people. That’s the whole reason I found it, not to make money, it’s all about helping people.”
Kane, who also lives with her husband Tim in Calgary, AB, continues to emerge from all kinds of bureaucratic and legal struggles, especially since while she has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Acadia University, she has no medical background. It is nevertheless clear that she has taken the philosophies and education she received from her time in Wilcox to heart.
“My mom was at her wit’s end with me as a 14-year-old living in Regina,” she says, “and then she found Notre Dame.”
“I remember pulling up in Wilcox (with a horrible attitude), but the support I got there was immense. I have a fiery will, but ND moulded me and turned that will into something positive. When I was there I learned balance, leadership, and stamina, and any kid that can leave home at 14, and go there for four years will be changed by the experience for good. A lot of people ask me about how I was able to put together (my company), and I tell them that we have to go back to Notre Dame, the fundamentals of attitude and character that I learned there.”
Kane also found another critical piece of her identity attending the college, as it was then that she found out her late birth father was First Nations, of the Opaskwayak Cree from The Pas, MB. Upon coming to terms with that reality around Grade 11, she embraced her heritage and likewise has passed that pride and tradition on to her children, as many great Hounds have.
“My kids are so interested in the culture,” she says, “they have been taught by elders, been blessed, danced at powwows, and they are even teaching me (to embrace) this part of our family even more. I truly believe that as a woman, and someone who is part Cree, we should be proud of that, and support each other. (For other Indigenous women), I believe that having a role model to look up to, helps you to say that ‘I can do that too. I am not going to be a victim, I can be proud of who I am.’”.
Kane and her husband Tom, an entrepreneur, and the owner of a software company called ‘HSA’, have been married for 20 years, and along with her team, she continues to pour money, blood, sweat, and tears into Bloombee, which, while she holds the only patent on earth for the refined ‘Bloom’, the powder generated by beeswax, is still working to develop the best mode to transfer its healing powers to consumers.
As she labours, the college in Wilcox is never far from her mind or heart.
“I try to explain Notre Dame to people but it’s hard to have people understand the magnitude of what the school can do for you until you’ve been there,” she says, with not a small hint of emotion in her voice.
“Most people just think, ‘oh, it’s a boarding school’, but it’s not just a boarding school. It’s a place where your dormmates are your family, and where older students are your real leaders, and that really caused me to think ‘wait a minute, I can be a leader too.’”
