Audrey Jenkins: In Her Own Words

Having grown up on the north shore of Long Island, I always felt connected to water: it is our life source.

In the late ‘80s I moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico as a young single mom. To this day I don’t know if it was courage that got me to Santa Fe or sheer naïveté. I do believe that the move was one of the greatest and most guided experiences in my life. I trusted that somehow I would find my life’s passion. Eventually I turned to my first love—restaurants—and was given the opportunity to write a cook book with a wonderful friend, Kathleen Hansel. We were both foodies and spent time creating flavorful recipes that were simple to prepare. Our first cookbook, the Red Chile Bible, was published in 1998; it was followed by Salsas, Sauces, Marinades & More in 1999.

My husband JJ owned a plumbing company for 18 years. He was introduced to environmentally responsible water treatment through a friend and client who wanted clean, healthy water with its natural minerals, no chemicals and no maintenance. JJ came across a company that had all the qualities that he and his client insisted on, and became a distributor of Environmental Water Systems.

In about 2000, I joined my husband in selling environmentally responsible products. In 2001 we had a display in Las Cosas Kitchen Shoppe. The owners had one of our systems installed in their new home using Santa Fe city water. After having salt-softening and reverse-osmosis systems in their previous homes, they were truly amazed and completely sold on the quality of water produced by EWS. They offered me a place in their showroom to sell our product, and we installed a water system in their classroom kitchen. Their cooking-school classes were taught by chefs who understood the importance of clean and chemical-free natural water.

In the winter 2004 my husband and I had dinner with Kathy Fennema and Bob Schwarz of Santa Fe by Design to explore the possibility of working with them, since they had the showroom and we had the knowledge of the water system products. We all believed that this could be a good partnership.

Suddenly in the beginning of 2005 my husband JJ passed away. Devastation took hold; the thought of continuing life with out him was debilitating. Not knowing how to move through this difficult time, I began by putting one foot in front of the other and doing the next right thing. Only a few weeks after his passing, I met with Kathy by chance at SFBD and she said without hesitation, "Come work with us."

The opportunity seemed more than a little daunting. Thoughts stirred in my mind: mainly, I have never been conventional, so why start now? My vision grew and I knew I wanted to build this business from my heart. Through EWS and SFBD I found what I had been craving all my life: Purpose. I am committed to healthy, natural water for all and to the eradication of plastic bottles as a delivery system for our personal drinking water. Our health and our environment can no longer support the harmful plastic by-products entering the water we drink. Healthy water in healthy containers is my dream.