Navy Vets bring on the Bath Bomb

Alison (Shaughnessy) Warlitner of Cherry River CBD will be at The Dalles Farmers Market again this summer (where this photo was taken). Picture by Scott McMullen.

By Tom Peterson

Tracking ballistic missiles on a Navy ship can be a pain in the neck. 

Accounting is not easy either.

And yet those tasks have, in part, led a couple here in The Dalles to create Cherry River CBD  - a company that gave away thousands of pain-reducing products during COVID to military veterans and others. 

Alison Shaughnessy, 36, and Scott Warlitner, 35, are currently operating the business at The Foley, 106 E. Fourth St. 

When you look at the couple on paper - US Navy Vets working through businesses and accounting courses, settling down, raising kids - you sure would not jump to CBD entrepreneurs. Talk about square pegs in round holes at first thought.

But then add in a little family and physical pain, and it all makes sense.

Uncle Ross and prospects of helping others

Uncle Ross Iverson at Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm. The family started producing CBD extracts - Full Spectrum Oil - after they saw the benefits it had for Ross in his last days of life.

In the Spring of 2016. Alison’s great uncle Ross Iverson, was diagnosed with terminal cancer. He and his family operate the Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm and Vineyard in Woodburn.

He was sent home with end-of-life pharmaceuticals that managed his pain but left him completely incapacitated and lethargic. He was given less than two weeks to live. His quality of life dived.

Desperate to help their father, The Iverson family reached out to Alison’s brother and father Tim and Ian Shaughnessy in Portland who were manufacturing CBD at Rare Industries. 

Tim gave his cousins the CBD capsules, and with both fear and hope, they took them home to Ross.

He took them.

Within a couple of days, Ross was out of bed on his own, sitting at the table eating breakfast. Within two weeks, he was riding around the family’s annual Tulip Festival in the gator. Family, friends, and the community shared 42 quality, lucid, days with Ross before he passed. Though the science behind these results was not fully understood, Ross’s family believed this improvement was a result of CBD.

The Iversons later began to produce CBD extracts under the name FS Oil. 

Rousting Out

USS Cole - the ship Shaughnessy and Warlitner served on.

Alison met her future husband Scott in the Navy. She joined at age 25 and they both served a 7-year stint. 

They used to track ballistic missiles on the USS Cole using early warning radar.

You might remember the USS Cole. In Oct. 2000, two suicide bombers with Al Quaeda drove a boat next to it and discharged enough C4 explosives to blow a 40’ x 60’ hole in the hull. 

After the ship was repaired, it was where these two met.

And Scott is much taller - he’s 6’ 4”. Navy ships are built with 5’ 10” in mind. 

When they rousted out in 2017, Scott had chronic neck pain.

He’d been hunched over for years. 

He was on Flexeril, a muscle relaxant with a multitude of side effects, including fatigue, headache, blurred vision and dizziness.

He was hesitant to take the CBD capsules uncle Ross used - vexed with the same stigma.

But pain and suffering have a way of changing minds. It was worth a try.

Alison said there was not a huge change for Scott initially, but then one day he ran out of the capsules and discovered how much pain he was actually in. He stopped using pharmaceuticals in favor of CBD capsules.

At First a Bath Bomb

Cherry City bath bombs by Malaina Kinne Photography

In the weeks leading up to Christmas in 2017 Allison and Scott, were looking to make unique gifts. 

Having seen the beneficial effects of CBD, they landed on the idea of making CBD-infused bath bombs to stuff stockings.

They made them for friends and family.

And the reviews poured in after Christmas, Alison said. 

Family members said their legs quit hurting. Some slept better at night, and they all chimed,  ‘how can I buy these?’

“Oh crap, we have a business,” Alison said thinking back on the reception.

Overcoming the Stigma

Alison said CBD tended to get a snake-oil reputation when it was first legalized, with unwarranted claims of relief or curing people. 

But, she said it helps to normalize life for those with ailments such as headaches and other pain.

“We want to help the 30-year-old mom whose back hurts from carrying around kids all day,” she said. 

“Where did aspirin come from,” she asked. “Willow bark. CBD also comes from a plant.”

The CBD extract River City uses contains only trace amounts of THC, the compound which gives people the feeling of being high.

Their products do not give people that feeling. Alison said she sees herself as an educator as much as an entrepreneur when it comes to the benefits of CBD.

Sales, Donations and a Pivot

Alison said sales were $13,000 in their first year.

Allison’s dad Tim Shaughnessy happens to play bass in the Rose City Kings, a PNW Blues Band, known for their work at the Portland Blues Festival

The company was taking off in 2019 after a successful display at the Waterfront Blues Festival in Portland.

Their production had moved from their kitchen to their garage.

They inked a deal with Project Runway’s Kini Zamora.  Zamora created a unique Puamelia print clutch for Cherry River’s gift box. Allison also pitched Cherry River to producers at Shark Tank and she won an Entrepreneur Pitch Fest at Clark College in Vancouver, Wash.  

And then COVID hit in March 2020 on the cusp of their outdoor retail season, shutting down markets that Cherry River had planned to sell and promote their bath bombs, muscle gel, face lotions and capsules. 

Kini Zamora

What to do with all of that product? 

“We had to pivot,” she said. They decided to donate one product for everyone that was purchased. Veterans, houseless people received the product at no cost simply by signing up on their website. She said more than $6,500 in CBD products was given away to people who needed them. They used ethanol from her Dad’s farm to make hand sanitizer and gave that away as well.

By January of 2020, Cherry River moved to The Foley to scale up its product line and manufacturing.

Alison said Cherry River is continuing to create new items. She also has an eye on diversification bringing on a line of CBD beauty care products. The company had $55,000 in sales last year and they hope to double that number before 2021 is out. 

So why TD?

Photo of Scott and Allison in the hemp fields. Photo by Brittany Brown with Fresh B Photography

Alison is originally from Portland and Scott liked the Gorge after visiting.
And they knew they had a business that was portable in the CBD products.
Her parents are both in Portland as well… but that rain.

“300 days of sunshine,” Allison said, noting they were raising two kids here in The Dalles.
Oh, and that accounting degree?
Allison just finished it through Washington State University on the GI Bill.

Can you say, entrepreneur?

Check them out at cherryriver.net