November 2007

Hi folks,

I’m Claire Hunt and I was born in Brooklyn, New York. No, I’m not telling you when. I raised my family, one of each a son and a daughter, in Staten Island, New York while working in Manhattan at a top financial company as a technologist. You know the stuff; installing and supporting PCs then graduating to being a network administrator and finally a project manager.

I never imagined that I would turn my life upside down, not to mention the lives of my family and friends, to move to the British Virgin Islands to help manage The Sandcastle Hotel, home of The Soggy Dollar Bar on Jost Van Dyke. During the five years spent on Jost I made many friends, some I think of as family, and learned about “island life”. It’s a far cry from being in New York where most everything is at your fingertips. I loved my life and the years that I spent on Jost and I miss so many of the folks there but that part of my life came to a close and I moved to St. John. There was no way in heck that I was going back to NYC!!!

On St. John I landed a position at Colombian Emeralds where I made several new friends for which I am deeply indebted for keeping me sane those first few months. CEI is located in the same building with St. John Spice and St. John Kids. I had met Ron and Ruth before but on the daily trips to the bathroom I got to know them and in passing it came out that I might be interested in buying the Kids store. That was last spring (2007) and here I am gearing up for the start of season.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it

-Claire!