Although her father left the family when Dawn was six years old, she learned a lot from a young age and has many memories of her childhood. Known now for her colourful and creative cookies, Dawn's cooking and baking skills started at childhood.

Dawn often baked for the family and remembers starting out with angel food cake.

After her father left and her mother started life as a single mom, the family struggled financially, but worked hard to get through and got by with plenty of love to go around. It was one of the reasons Dawn had a close relationship with her.

"When it came to Christmas, it was always a choice between gifts or a meal and we always chose a meal," Dawn said. "We ate together and played games."

She said her mother did what she had to do and everything was done to make sure her children were taken care of.

"She did whatever she had to to get us through," Dawn said. "Even as a family we would go mushroom picking to make money. We were her number one." Dawn also remembers road trips to Victoria and catching the bus together to go to the Alberni Mall.

By 1982, when she was supposed to graduate in June, Dawn quit school the month before and moved to Ucluelet to take a job as a live-in babysitter. After that, she started gaining experience in the food and hospitality industry by working at a pizza restaurant.

When she moved back to Port Alberni within a year, she stayed for a short time before moving to Nanaimo for a few years. Then it was back to the west coast for quite a few years where she and her boyfriend helped run Crystal Cove Resort with his family.

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