Aunt Donkey's started in May of 2017 as a vision of owner Marydale Ashcroft. Marydale has a passion for Lion's Head, she was born and raised here and had previously opened two businesses in Lion's Head. When her retail space she had rented to the OPP detachment became vacant she had two choices, find another tenant or open a third store. She didn't find a tenant so a third store it was.
The next decision was what should the store be? As with her last businesses, she knew it first had to be something the local population would support and secondly it had to be something she was passionate about. The result was a toy store. A place where Mom and Dad could buy for the kids ; the Aunts, Uncles and Grandparents could bring the kids for a treat. She also wanted to offer that small town feel, a friendly face, a personal shopper, a visitor information service,all wrapped up into one individual when you came to the store. Marydale wanted to stock items that weren't just fun but had an element of education or interaction, something to get them off their devises. She did a lot of research and was pleased on what she could find to fill the shelves.
The name was equally as important, How did it come about?. Marydale doesn't have any kids of her own but she does have nephews and nieces who she adores. One of these nephews met and married an Australian Girl, they had a son, named Koby. On a trip home, Koby was three, a party was held at Marydale's. Lots of friends and family in attendance, at some point Marydale's sister called her a jackass. We typically don't swear in front of the kids, so when Koby said "what did you call Aunt Marydale?" someone replied "she called her a Donkey". Koby said "Oh Aunt Donkey"!!!! Everyone laughed now that is all he, and now his sister call Aunt Marydale.
It's a good name for the store because it was built on a sense of humour and love.
So be sure to stop in and say hi to Aunt Donkey herself!!!