Amidst the garbled boarding calls and foot traffic of Vancouver International Airport, Pam Baker says, “Hey! Norm from the TV show Cheers just walked by! We’re probably on the same flight.” I caught up to the TOC Legends owner just before her flight to Los Angeles, eager to talk about her abundant life.

Pam Baker started TOC (Touch Of Culture) Legends as a workshop series in 1988, creating a new outlet of expression and sense of cultural pride by enhancing the skills of Aboriginal youth. After two successful years of facilitating workshops and organizing fashion shows featuring Aboriginal models and designers, Pam attended the Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles.

Returning to Canada in 1998, Pam unpacked her business plan and went straight to TACC (Tale’awtxw Aboriginal Capital Corporation). “They funded me right away,” Pam says. “I really wanted to get my business up and running again, and with TACC’s help, plus my own money, I built my own building!” The 3500 square-foot structure is the TOC Legends fashion design studio and production facility, as well as the Native Training Institute of design.

Having established a home base for her business, Pam focused her energy on creating an abundant client base by starting with two women seeking wedding dresses. “I branded everything TOC or TOC Legends and started to put on a lot of shows in different places,” says Pam. “People could see the quality of our pieces, how perfectly they fit, and it spread by word-of-mouth.” TOC became quickly and widely known in the Aboriginal community, and “now I have about 40 custom orders ranging from hundreds to thousands of dollars. A lot of men and women come to us for custom wedding pieces and traditional recreations.” In addition to the custom orders, TOC provides ready-to-wear designs to First Nations, non-Aboriginals, and corporate clients such as the Cactus Club.

Pam’s level of business success has created abundance in other areas of her life as well, considering it a great responsibility, honor, and gift to employ and educate people. “I feel the same way about being known for high-end, contemporary quality,” she says with pride.

It is with these gifts, that Pam looks within her creation to liberate her sportswear collection. “I had to put it on hold until I find someone who can properly market it,” she says. “I’m concentrating on the Native Training Institute to find that person and bring them into our sportswear department.”

No matter how abundant Pam’s current life of teaching, designing, and running her company is, she is determined to continue expanding it. Her future projects include “working with the Squamish Economic Development Department to create a co-op, launching a Canadian Aboriginal Design Council, and designing a line of more mainstream accessories to be marketed in retail stores by 2010,” Pam says.

Relishing in the abundance of satisfied clients, staff, and students Pam brings together with TOC, she can only add, “A lot of people really enjoy what we do!”