Alice Brasky 
Wife, Mother, Entrepreneur 

     If you were to ask her what she felt was her most important accomplishment in life, Alice Brasky would answer, "Raising up a fine family." Though she has met with business success in during senior years, Alice still feels having a lasting influence in the lives of her children and grandchildren has been her most satisfying attainment.

     Born Alice Gibbons in 1936 to Robert and Mabel Gibbons in Niagara Falls, New York, Alice was the 5th of 8 children. When she was 8 years-old her family moved to a farm in Wolcottsville, NY. With such a large family and a meager farming income, Alice soon learned to make good use of her available resources, which helped her to become quite creative. She also learned to work hard for the things she desired. 

     Alice attended a small Lutheran school until the seventh grade when she began attending the public high school in Akron, New York. Graduating in 1953, Alice took a job as a receptionist in a doctors office in Lockport from 1953- 1955. In 1954 she met her true love, Myron Brasky, and after a whirlwind romance they were married in November of 1955, moving to Myron’s hometown of Batavia, New York. Alice took on a new job as a receptionist in a podiatrist office, but not long after she was married, she gave up her job and ideas of a career to settle down and raise a family. Alice was the loving mother of three children, Nancy, Myron, Jr. (nicknamed Buddy), and Patti.

     Alice was a very loving and dedicated wife and mother. She spent hours each day taking care of her home, sewing fashionable clothes for her children to wear, cooking family meals, and attending to various other household duties as well as taking time to form character in her children. While homemaking took up much of her time, Alice found ways to express her creativity in sewing, ceramics, and a variety of other hobbies. Though her husband amply provided for her family, working two jobs to supply for their increasing needs, Alice had an entrenpenurial spirit, often turning her creative energy into extra income.

     As her family grew into young adulthood, Alice’s role began to change. Through her children’s teen years she remained a stay-at-home mom, feeling she needed to remain available to her children, even though they no longer required her constant supervision. After she saw her children married and was no longer a mother of a young family herself, she poured her life into her grandchildren. 

     When her eldest daughter, Nancy, having a great love and talent for dance, opened a dance studio, Alice was very supportive. Nancy’s business grew to such a large degree that she was struggling to keep up with her lessons, the business end of her studio, and raising her own family. Alice stepped in to help, taking over the billing/bookkeeping part of her daughter’s business, freeing Nancy up to spend more time with her children.

     As Nancy’s family grew, she decided that she needed to focus all her energies on raising her family and was planning on closing her studio. It was then that the 48 year-old Alice, with the support of her husband, decided to pursue a career herself. She joined with Denise LaBlanc, a student of Nancy’s and in1981 they opened the Dancing Place Dance Studio.

     For the past 20 years the Dancing Place has met with great success, providing dance lessons to over 150 students each year, closing out each dance season with an extraordinary dance recital. In 1992 Alice decided to branch out and open an dancewear shop which she dubbed The Dancewear Outlet. What began as business in the corner of her Dance Studio waiting room, over the past 9 years has grown to include a 660 square foot shop with an inventory of over 2500 items and a newly created internet store at www.thedancingplace.com.

     Though Alice has been a great business success in her golden years, her husband and her family still remain her first love and priority. The profits that she has earned over the years have often gone to various charitable causes and to provide those "extras" for her grandchildren, that she never had as a child. While she might be considered a business success and an innovative entrepreneur, she will always be best remembered for the way she poured her life into her family, making her house a home, and giving her children the resources and the self-confidence to become all that God intended them to be.