Ready for business, life of fashion: Heart issues no problem for North Idaho Christian’s Raina Canale

Ever since she was a child, Raina Canale has always wanted to own and run a business. And as someone who has also always loved home crafts and clothing, it just seemed a natural thing for her to plan for operating a clothing business.

And because she enjoys being at home with her family, she said that when she graduates this spring from North Idaho Christian School in Hayden, Idaho, she plans to open an online boutique specializing in good quality clothing for women in their teens to early 30s.

Canale, 18, the daughter of Marc Canale, who owns a dental lab, and Darlene Canale, a homemaker, was born in Hayden and has lived there her whole life. She’s attended North Idaho Christian School since preschool and worships at the church there with her family. Older sisters Cari Allred and Madison Canale live in North Idaho as well.

Canale participated in volleyball for a while in junior high and was on the yearbook team last year, but she mostly enjoys working on embroidery and knitting with her mother. She’s sewn dresses for her American Girl doll. And she’s been researching her business.

“I do love clothing and want to be the person who chooses the items,” she said. “I really like neutral tones, some pinks and floral patterns, but always classic garments.” She has been following people online whose fashion style is like her own, as well as researching wholesalers and how to establish an online business, using social media and all the aspects of online business.

She knows that good photos of merchandise are important, which is where her sister, Cari, comes in; she’s a photographer working in Coeur d’Alene. Local businesswoman Toby Keogh has been a mentor, and Canale participated in a Farm Chicks event with her in Spokane and was able to sell some of her own crafts there herself.

And she was able to job shadow a business owner during spring break this year in Florence, Oregon, while visiting her grandparents.

Canale has an aortic valve heart issue which, as she puts it, “limits my athleticism,” a condition which is not limiting her goals in life. She has had four surgeries already and has another upcoming – “hopefully, it will be my last one.”

So as she is looking forward to graduation and establishing her business, she maintains a positive outlook and trusts in God above everything else, which she believes has seen her through the good times and the bad.

She said: “The advice that my dad has always told me and my sisters is to stay out of debt and trust that God will provide.”