Innovative businesswoman to speak in Havre

Sarah Calhoun grew up on a farm in Connecticut. Often, she helped do chores with her father.

She was looking for jeans she could wear while doing the work, but there was no such thing as women's work pants.

She started wearing her father's work jeans, "but they never seemed to fit right."

As years went by, she received an environmental sciences degree from Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania, and came west to teach outdoor education to young people.

Still, when she worked outside, there were no outdoor work jeans for women.

Calhoun said she always had an entrepreneurial spirit and was always ready for a challenge. So, with the advice of some business mentors, she launched Red Ants Pants,

She lived in Bozeman at the time, but "even that seemed a little big to me," she said.

So she set up shop in White Sulphur Springs, attracted to the community by author Ivan Doig's fond recollection of his hometown in his 17 novels that were based in Montana.

Today her store is in an historic building in downtown White Sulphur Springs, and she's proud of her role in the resurgence of the town.

She will tell the story about her business, her creation of the Red Ant Pants Music Festival that attracts thousands to the town every year, and the Red Ants Pants Foundation she formed to help women start their own businesses, when she speaks Wednesday at the Havre Area Chamber of Commerce's annual luncheon and election of officers at noon at the Duck Inn.

The music festival was started several years ago, she said, when she decided that White Sulphur Springs needed a party, and it would be great to have "a concert in a cow pasture."

No one was sure what would happen, but 6,000 people showed up for the first concert. Last year, 14,000 people came to town.

Area hotels and campgrounds are filled during the event. The concert this year will be July 28-31, and concert information will be available on April 2.

Her goal is the same as when she founded it: to get Dolly Parton to perform.

"Some day we'll get Dolly," she said.

The money made at the music festival helps fund the foundation.

She said the concert has spurred the local economy and was successful because she was willing to take the financial risk.

Her activities have gained her national attention.

She was asked by President Barack Obama to participate in a White House conference on small business and has been interviewed on CNN, CNBC and Bloomberg TV on small business issues.

Having been very successful so far, she's now ready to launch another venture.

Red Ants Pants for women has been a hit. Now she's started Red Ants Pants for men.