Queens Mama

Queens Economic Development Corporation awarded Leni Calas, www.queensmamas.com website owner, a $12,000 reward as the top-prize winner in the 4^th Annual Queens StartUP! Business Plan Competition. Lenis used the money wisely to enhance her website significantly, giving it a complete makeover and to hire help to keep it updated. The website has information of all types, assisting the needs of mothers under different circumstances such as events, advice columns, a newsletter, blogs and much more on pregnancy, babies, toddlers, kids and even tweens. To read full story, please click here.

DAFFY (Dinner's Almost Finished For You)

Meg LaBarbara worked as a dog groomer, an administrative assistant and even a travel consultant before launching her favorite career about a year ago.

From QEDC's Entrepreneur Space, she makes a variety of all natural tapenades, salsas, vinaigrettes and hummus dishes for her appetizer company, DAFFY (Dinner's Almost Finished For You). The lifelong Jackson Heights resident then peddles her delectable products at farmers' markets in Queens, Brooklyn and Long Island.

Among her most popular items are green olive tapenade, the garlic hummus, scallion vinaigrette and salsa verde. And she is proud to inform that she gets her ingredients from a rooftop farm about one block from the Entrepreneur Space in Long Island City, Brooklyn Grange, so her carbon footprint is tiny.

As LaBarbara looks to the future, she is happy to have found her calling, and she is appreciative of her work situation.

"The E-Space has always been great," she says. "I'm very fond of that building."

Borough Excursions

Doris Del Valle won a $12,000 grant in May from the Queens Economic Development Corp. to jump-start an idea that she admits may not interest the first-time visitor to the city.

She hopes to attract frequent tourists and city residents who have already seen Manhattan's landmarks and want to explore what else the area has to offer.

"We're just trying to spread the word about Queens," said Del Valle, 39.

She runs tours at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. every Saturday and Sunday, charging $30 for a three-hour trek that includes admission to the Queens Museum of Art and shopping at the Rego Center.

She accepts reservations at www.boroughexcursions.com or by phone at (646) 301-6241.

Del Valle simulated a tour for the Daily News last week, starting and ending near the Unisphere in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.

During the journey, she passed the Louis Armstrong House Museum in Corona, the John Bowne House in Flushing and the Astoria home used for exterior shots of the Costanza abode on "Seinfeld."

Del Valle is now looking for feeder hotels for the tour.

She has partnered with the Marco Hotel on Northern Blvd. near Main St. in Flushing, which will advertise the tour to guests.

To read full story, please click here.