00:00:00 Anna Stout’s
It’s one of those things that when you when you hear it, you’re like, Oh no, this is this is obvious. This makes perfect sense. We should have known this all along. But it does take I think we nonprofits are guilty of this anyway. You know we have our causes and we silo because there’s a sense of we’re all competing for dollars for our mission. Our I think our region does a really good job of collaborating and we work together well. And I think that’s a product of how we our community has come up as a. Geographically isolated area. So we’ve had to sort of have this kind of mutual assistance in life, in our mentality, in our, our way of life here. But you know, once you start looking at these things and you start seeing the overlap, you’re like, Oh yeah, I know that that that was obvious all along and we should have seen this. And the more that we focus on those intersections, I think the more effective we are as nonprofits, the more effective we are as communities because. Yeah, absolutely. Having a pet can, you know, pull somebody back from the brink. It can be something or it’s just a it’s a sense of stability. It’s a sense of, you know, it’s the one thing for some people that is a constant in their lives every single day. So, you know, in fact, one of the programs that we’ve started here at Roice-hurst that I’m really proud of, and it’s the first of its kind. Like in the country at all, is we have a partnership with the homeless shelter Homer Bound. And we put in these individual they’re called pallet shelters, but they’re not made out of pallets. They’re they come in on a pallet, but they’re these 8 by 8 private shelters with beds, heaters, air conditioning, lights, electricity, everything except for plumbing, essentially. And it’s a dignified, safe place for people who have pets who are experiencing homelessness, can shelter with their pets. Because it’s such a barrier for getting into the homeless shelter, you can’t bring your pets in there. It’s congregate shelter, it’s safety, it’s health, it’s all of the reasons. And I completely understand that. But I also know that people make choices that are adverse to their health and safety in order to not separate with their pets. And that’s something that’s, it’s both noble and also again, pretty obvious when you love that pet and that pet you feel that, that that I think almost duty to that pet, that obligation. Because that you made a commitment to the pet, you’ll make a decision to stay in a car or on the streets or by the river to not give that pet up. So by creating this, you know, this, this alternative for them. There’s a place that they can not only be safe and stay with their pet, but they can access services then that are provided through the homeless shelter and through our organization as well. And so it just be kind. It becomes a wraparound for, you know, rather than a barrier to have those pets.
00:02:41 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Welcome to the Kooler Lifestyle Podcast. I’m your host, Matt Kuehlhorn, and I’m excited to have you join me as I interview community members and business leaders from the communities in which I live, work and serve through my business, Kooler Garage doors. We’re going to bring you highlights on characters in our communities. Why? Because community matters, and I want to know more about who is behind our business and leadership in order to understand and support the community fabric that our relationships make up. And collectively, we can build stronger communities that support our lifestyles, our youth and our health. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Kooler Lifestyle Podcast, I’m your host, Matt Kuehlhorn. Today I get to sit down with Anna Stout. She’s the CEO of the Roice-hurst Humane Society and the current mayor of Grand Junction. And I’ve got to say, just in my little bit of research, Anna is a force in our community and I’m so thankful to visit with you. Anna, thanks for joining. It’s my.
00:03:43 Anna Stout’s
Pleasure. Thank you.
00:03:45 Matthew Kuehlhorn
And I understand you’re beaming in from your office at the Roice-hurst.
00:03:49 Anna Stout’s
Society. That’s right, Yeah. It’s an offsite office because we’ve grown so much that we have actually outgrown our our space. But I had to come in here because I was going to do it from home and there were way too many animals that were, you know, potential disruption for any kind of recording.
00:04:05 Matthew Kuehlhorn
They get that. Well, again, thank you for your time. I’m really excited. I know that our conversation can go in in multiple different directions and let’s just start build out a little bit of a context. Did you grow up in Grand Junction?
00:04:19 Anna Stout’s
I did so I wasn’t born and raised here. I was born in Logan, UT and we came over, I think when I was about 3. My father got a job. He worked in newspapers, you know, thriving business and in today’s world. And he, he moved over here. He got a job at the Daily Sentinel. So he moved my twin sister, my mother and I over to Grand Junction and we’ve been here ever since and. You know it I this is the only home that I know. I have one very very sort of flashy memory from Logan, but otherwise, Grand Junction is truly home.
00:04:57 Matthew Kuehlhorn
I love it. What was it like growing up in Grand Junction? Was there a lot of freedom? Was it smaller town? What was it like?
00:05:04 Anna Stout’s
Yeah, you know, it’s interesting because the Grand Junction I grew up in was one you planned to leave and it wasn’t. So there was a lot of. Sort of anticipation of getting out of here and preparation for getting out of here. It wasn’t a cool place. There wasn’t a whole lot to do. There definitely wasn’t a lot to do for young people. So there, you know, there was certainly freedom. I have a very happy childhood, you know, in general, like the my memories are are very pleasant. It wasn’t a dangerous or an unhappy place, but you know, you grow up knowing that if you. If you are going to make it in the world, you don’t do that in Grand Junction. And you know, it’s part of the work that I do now in so many ways is making sure that Grand Junction is a place that you don’t have to leave to be successful. You know, removing the stigma of of staying. So, you know, it was a I did a lot of just kind of walking. My friends and I lived down the road from each other, so we’d walk to each other’s houses then. Our kind of main pastime was walking to the city market for some reason, So it was, I don’t know, is there really. It was a relaxed childhood, very safe community, very trusting families in my world, so a pleasant childhood.
00:06:29 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Yeah, I love that perspective. I think that’s the first time I’ve heard somebody put it in those words of, you know, is the the town that you plan to leave, I think a lot of small towns. Kind of played that similar because I hear local folks up in Gunnison speak to the same thing. So that’s an interesting perspective. Where did your journeys take you? I’ve know you’ve you spent some time international, but as as you grew up in in Grand Junction, what were the next moves? Where was, where was studying college for you? And so give us a little summary on the journey.
00:07:04 Anna Stout’s
Yeah. So I the plan was to leave. That was the idea. You don’t. You know, in my generation, you you went off to college if you were a good student. And I was a very good student. So I started at the University of Portland and I was on a presidential engineering scholarship. And after a semester, it was very evident I was not going to be an engineer because I was not very good at physics. And so I came back and that was. That was the interesting thing it and you know after a semester I came back here because I couldn’t continue. It’s way too expensive for me to keep studying without the scholarship. And if I wasn’t going to be an engineer, I wasn’t going to have an engineering scholarship. So I came back here really kind of with my head down and and my tail tucked between my legs because again, there was that stigma of being here. And so because I came back in the in between the the 1st and 2nd semester, there wasn’t a whole lot of time to figure out what else to do. So I enrolled at Mesa. Just to not lose a couple of the small scholarships that I had and just to have time to figure it out and still, you know, be getting credits and I think in my mind I would end up on the Front Range. I was, you know, thinking to you or somewhere like that. But then after the semester here and I didn’t tell any friends that I was back, it wasn’t something that I announced. It was just sort of, it was meant to be just kind of a placeholder until whatever came next and after that first semester at at Mesa. There was a a course that was advertised in El Salvador, which I had no idea where that was or anything about it. And it was a sociology class and I did not know whether that was either. But I’d always wanted to study abroad and travel. So I asked my mom if she would support me and going to this little country that she also knew nothing about and and she basically pushed me out the door and said go and it wasn’t a long time. It’s like I think 16 days or or a couple weeks. And it was that. It was a very pivotal moment for me. The experience is the first time I’d left the country, the experience of staying in homes in this community that we didn’t have electricity, didn’t have running water, didn’t have any of the amenities that you’re used to in this country, but experiencing that generosity and that hospitality, it was just, it was the, you know, sort of that cliche, lifechanging experience. And a couple of us came back. And most of us were from CMU or at that time it was Mesa State. But most of us were students and a couple were community members and a couple of us just wanted to continue it somehow to like honor the experience. So we started working to establish a sister city and that. So we started by going to the Grand Junction City Council which spoiler alert, comes full circle later in my world and asking for. The City Council to adopt this little community. We also, you know, sort of made our way blindly through the process of starting a nonprofit. And what I didn’t realize I was doing until probably after I graduated from Mesa was that I was putting down roots without realizing it. And you know, when you start a sister city, there’s that city is kind of that that that’s the link there. So you’re putting down roots automatically. By starting something like that. And the university was perfect for me and I I wouldn’t have known that if I hadn’t gotten stuck there. But it was absolutely the environment I was looking for. It was the class size I was looking for the, the, the professors were wonderful. So with this sort of tunnel vision, focus on starting this nonprofit and and building this relationship with this community in El Salvador. I stayed in Grand Junction and it without really realizing I had stayed until many years later that I was like, oh, huh, I’m, I’m still here. That wasn’t the plan. But it also couldn’t have been more perfect for the trajectory that my happy life, you know, the the life that I would have if I didn’t know that I was going to end up here, but still could describe what an amazing life would look like. It would look like this. So so I was just really, you know, kind of. Unintentional about being here, and that’s what kept me in Grand Junction and back and forth tell Salvador which course ignited a love for travel, and that I did a lot of travel all around the world and continue to try to do that as often as I can.
00:11:36 Matthew Kuehlhorn
What’s the Sister city?
00:11:38 Anna Stout’s
So it’s a little community called El Espino and it’s a very small rural community up in the volcanic mountains in El Salvador. And this year we celebrate 19 years of that relationship. So pretty exciting, you know, I don’t know that we knew 19 years ago what a whether we would make it last and kind of be what shape it would take. But it’s been, you know it’s it’s a a really impactful organization that’s primarily where we provide scholarships for students down in El Salvador, but we also take people down from mostly the Grand Valley but all around the US. Experience, that that exchange, you know, that exchange of of ideas, of cultures or friendships.
00:12:22 Matthew Kuehlhorn
It’s got to be gorgeous in that town.
00:12:24 Anna Stout’s
It is. It’s, I mean it’s it’s rough, you know, there it’s, it’s a community the country has been plagued by, you know, conquest, corruption, poverty, crime for its entire modern history, you know, and there is a this. Was until just recently a really bad gang problem. Now it’s it’s, you know an interesting transition from that very dangerous unsafe, unpredictable, no opportunity kind of country to now you know there’s a leader that is implementing some some very positive things but also some very concerning things when you look at long term and. Authoritarianism and stuff. So it’ll be it it, you know, I feel like that we have a front row seat here as an organization working down there to this transition from kind of a not, not solid democracy to potentially a dictatorship. So it’s fascinating, gorgeous. So it’s very tropical and very colorful.
00:13:33 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Yeah, yeah, that’s fascinating. I’m going to bounce around a little bit because. My next question kind of goes into future, but I’m, I’m curious and I I’m curious do you know like the legacy that you’re building towards, do you know what you want to kind of build and and leave behind as as Anna moves through the life journey and are you on a mission?
00:14:02 Anna Stout’s
It’s it’s really interesting here with my team at Racehurst, we do an exercise where we identify our core values are sort of nonnegotiables and we use that to discuss, you know, when there are conflicts, it’s typically not personal. It’s more of a values clash, you know, and you can talk through that. But the interesting thing is that in my nonnegotiables, my top five legacy is my my top value. That’s the thing that drives me the most and I’m not sure that I know how to. Really define what it looks like simply that it that there has to be something that lasts beyond me that makes things better to sort of justify my existence here. And that’s something that I felt that since I was young, this need to to be purposeful and this need to be impactful. And you know, I’ve thought about what that looks like and you know, my part of it is just that I hope that. Things are better and that sounds a little contrived, but I I hope that my work in in all of the areas that I work in alleviate suffering and makes it easier to to have a a a good fulfilling life in El Salvador, in Grand Junction, in Colorado, in wherever. So I don’t know that I I can completely articulate what is meaningful. About the you know what would be a meaningful legacy? Simply that that somebody’s life and hopefully many lives are better because of the work I was able to do.
00:15:39 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Yeah, yeah, I get that sense from you and you mentioned that it it was always there from a from an early age, was that cultivated by by family, Is this just part of your core and then kind of what you came? To the world.
00:15:55 Anna Stout’s
West I don’t know. I mean, I don’t remember ever having conversations, you know, with my parents or whatever. Is a kid about you need to go make a difference or you, you have to make an impact on the world. Those weren’t conversations we really had. I do remember a moment in my world that I knew exactly I had such clarity of what I wanted to do with my life. I ultimately lost sight of that and I didn’t follow that path. But I remember in 6th grade and Mrs. Darien’s class, we watched CNN for kids every morning. And that was she. She recorded it like 4:00 AM and we’ll watch it every single day. And I remember watching one of the the reporter, the reporters standing in this sort of flooded field reporting internationally. And I knew right then that I wanted to be an international journalist and I wanted to sort of tell the stories and expose what was happening around the world and and bring that to to the rest of the world and. That was something that, like I said, it was just this real moment of clarity. I knew that that’s what I wanted to be in. And ultimately I knew that I wanted to be a war correspondent. And had I sort of followed the path that I that my heart wanted, that my sort of purpose felt like it was kind of pointing towards, that’s where I would have gone. But then I had so many influential adults in my life in high school because I was good at math and science. Who said you’re good at math and science? We need women in STEM. It’s and it was almost this sense of duty or obligation to go down that path. And and then again like I said, I wasn’t especially intentional when I left University of Portland and decided not to be an engineer. So I think had I taken a beat and just really reflected, I may have found my way back to that that original sort of dream. But everything that I’ve that I’ve been able to do has kind of fit into that. I’m not. I’m not a war correspondent, but I’ve been working in a country that has effectively been at war the entire time I’ve been going down there. And I’ve gotten to work on on things that do bring awareness and, you know, innovative ways of thinking about how to solve challenges in our community and animal welfare in in translation and interpreting and language access in general. So, you know, I think that I’ve managed to make it all fit, but that was that was that. It I don’t know who it came from, but I do remember that moment, knowing what I wanted to be.
00:18:22 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Yeah, that’s amazing. You work with the Roice-hurst Humane Society. Can you give me a little bit of context of what animal welfare, what does this really mean? And and not maybe I mean, I want to know what it means for animals, but also at the community at large, like how does this create the ripples?
00:18:42 Anna Stout’s
I think it’s a really interesting conversation. We’re we’re just starting to have over the last maybe five years of in animal welfare. I think that it when I joined almost eight years ago when I joined the industry there was still very much this idea of you know bring all bring us all your animals. We are the best at taking care of them and you know we do this better than anyone else. You know it was kind of like bring us all your animals and. I remember in the very first couple of months that I was there feeling really uncomfortable with how we treated people and how we talked about people and how, you know, the the team at the shelter at the time was very judgmental of people who came in and why they came in and what condition animals were in. And I think it was really easy to lose sight of the fact that you can love and care for animals in the welfare of animals is very important, but it is so connected to humans and if you don’t. Solve, you know, we’re watching animals be surrendered for for multiple reasons. But really when you kind of backed out, you can see that the root most of the time was that animals were coming in for people problems, not animal problems. And so we shifted at our organization, we shifted and within I think 2 years hired a human social worker to to be on our staff to try to help work through human problems, to keep animals in the homes that they were in or to, you know, to kind of figure out how. People were our allies in this mission to take care of animals and to find animals homes and to keep them from from suffering and abuse. So that now is a shift that we’re seeing through the whole industry of focus. And in many ways, I think the pandemic accelerated this because we couldn’t just, you know, they’re just, you just couldn’t warehouse animals because you couldn’t have a bunch of people in congregating in buildings, taking care of them and walking them and adopting them and everything else. So there was a shift. And we’re we were I think at the beforeefront of that as an organization here on the Western Slope for kind of national leadership in it. But really the idea is I think we’re trying to take it one step farther. It’s not just that people are part of the mission of animal welfare, but that animals and pet ownership and pet companionship actually contributes to human health. So we have a healthier community. When we have a community that can have pets, when we have a community that supported and keeping its pets because every animal that we adopt, I used to joke in the early days. And then it kind of was like, oh, this isn’t, this isn’t a joke. You know, we’re like, oh, every single animal that walks out of here, we’re we’re sending somebody out with better mental health, better companionship, fewer feelings of isolation, all of that. And then we were kind of joking like, oh, we’ve got 75 furry therapists in our building at any time. And then really started that that went from kind of. But you know, like I said kind of a tongue in cheek way of describing what we do to a realization that animal welfare is a component, a pillar of community health. And so we’re working now really sort of intentionally on spreading that and and partnering with human health agencies and really trying to regularly connect that link that the more people in this community that have pets and have pets that are well and not suffering and can keep their pets. The the more that that works on trauma, the more that that works on connection and just elevating overall community health.
00:22:07 Matthew Kuehlhorn
That’s amazing. I just wow, what I love about that. There’s so much I love about this animal health. Basically what I’ve heard is animal health is human health and and they go together and there’s a lot of. Parallels and similarities I can see this. So we we adopted a beautiful spirit in a dog just a handful of years ago and and in part of it, it was a motivation of my wife for supporting the the human health of my children. And there’s certainly a lot of responsibility and a skill set that can come along with caring for another being in an in an animal. My dad’s in town visiting and my kids are a little bit older, so they get some teenage years and he’s, he’s an older gentleman and you know, he’s bonded with my dog because they’re hanging out and they get out together. So there’s this human health component and it’s so beautiful. The other little piece here is when I was working in drug prevention for the county, you know, I recognized that it wasn’t a drug problem, it was life. And there’s always the underlying component and there’s many factors in that of. Of the environment, of of mental health and components. But what I’m hearing in this work is it’s another layer of building health within the community. And when you put it in that context, I’m kind of blown away. It’s.
00:23:42 Anna Stout’s
Awesome. It’s one of those things that when you when you hear it, you’re like, Oh no, this is this is obvious. This makes perfect sense. We should have known this all along, but it does take. I think we nonprofits are guilty of this anyway. You know, we have our causes and we silo because. There’s a sense of we’re all competing for dollars for our mission. Our, I think our region does a really good job of collaborating and we work together well. And I think that’s a product of how we, our community has come up as a but geographically isolated area. So we’ve had to sort of have this kind of mutual assistance in life, in our mentality, in our, our way of life here. But you know, once you start looking at these things and you start seeing the overlap, you’re like, Oh yeah, I know that, that. That was obvious all along, and we should have seen this. And the more that we focus on those intersections, I think the more effective we are as nonprofits, the more effective we are as communities. Because yeah, absolutely. Having a pet can, you know, pull somebody back from the brink. It can be something or it’s just a it’s a sense of stability, it’s a sense of, you know, it’s the one thing. For some people, that is a constant in their lives every single day. So, you know, in fact, one of the programs that we’ve started here at Roice-hurst that I’m really proud of and it’s the first of its kind. Like in the country at all, is we have a partnership with the homeless shelter Homer Bound. And we put in these individual they’re called pallet shelters, but they’re not made out of pallets. They’re they come in on a pallet, but they’re these 8 by 8 private shelters with beds. Heaters, air conditioning, lights, electricity, everything except for plumbing, essentially. And it’s a dignified, safe place for people who have pets who are experiencing homelessness, can shelter with their pets because it’s such a barrier for getting into the homeless shelter. You can’t bring your pets in there. It’s congregate shelter, it’s safety, it’s health, it’s all of the reasons, and I completely understand that. But I also know that people make choices that are adverse to their health and safety in order to not separate with their pets. And that’s something that’s, it’s both noble and also again, pretty obvious. When you love that pet and that pet, you feel that, that that I think almost duty to that pet, that obligation because that you made a commitment to the pet, you’ll make a decision to stay in a car or on the streets or by the river to not give that pet up. So by creating this, you know this, this alternative for them, there’s a place that they can not only be safe and stay with their pet. But they can access services then that are provided through the homeless shelter and through our organization as well. And so it just be kind. It becomes a wraparound for you to rather than a barrier to have those pets.
00:26:23 Luke Hylton
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00:27:03 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Touching hearts What? What’s the scale of Roice-hurst? What are your measurables Like? How many? How many individuals or pets or lives are we touching?
00:27:13 Anna Stout’s
Yeah. So we, we actually do measure a lot. We’re a data-driven organization and last year we served just shy of 2500 unique individuals and that’s individuals with pets in some way and that’s. Not just our adoptions and and people who are bringing pets in or people whose dogs are stray dogs and Delta and then they have they come and reclaim them. But it’s also people who are coming into our vaccine clinics or doing our joint human animal health clinics where if you come and get a human health service, you get your animal vaccines for free or for a really, really steep discount. So that we’re using pets to motivate people to take care of their own health because. Research has shown that people are more likely to do a better job caring for their pets than themselves, administering daily medication and stuff like that. So with all of those programs, about 2500 unique individuals. But it’s it’s also we measure impact much more broadly than that because we look at it as you know how much we’re doing. We have, we host events where people come together. We have one event called Woofstock, which is a dogfriendly concert. Where you can go to the amphitheater at Las Colonias and have your pets there and you know be with your dog, be with others. So it’s it goes for us so much further than just that, the animals and the people who walk through our doors or to our clinics, but also then who who comes together in that sense of community around pets, love for pets and pet ownership. And then even more broadly, how are we then impacting in our programming, in our, in our leadership, how do we impact. Other animal welfare organizations and how how animal welfare is done so that it’s not just our community that’s thinking about pets and community health, but it’s all of us as an industry.
00:29:07 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Yeah. And you’re speaking industry like nationally.
00:29:11 Anna Stout’s
Yeah, yeah. I mean our conferences are are actually pretty continental, if you will, because you know, Canada and the US are really connected in our animal welfare efforts and yeah, so. We do. We want to make sure that this is broad. We also work at the state level on legislative efforts and making sure that that there are good laws in place for how animal welfare operates as well.
00:29:36 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Amazing and inner inner preconvo before we hit record you had mentioned that this work that you do with with animal welfare is is closely tied into the work that you do in in policy and in the leading the city and so with your role as mayor. Can you speak into that like where are the similarities and in what are some of the pieces that you’re excited about it and working towards Is that is like the the city leadership team?
00:30:06 Anna Stout’s
It’s interesting because I think a lot of people think that if you’re a good successful business owner, you would likely be a good council member, right? That’s we tout that you see that in campaigns, you know? I actually think that running a nonprofit is much more akin to running a city or municipality or a county than running a business because we’re accountable in much more similar ways. So there are donors that I’m accountable to at at my nonprofits, taxpayers I’m accountable to at the city. And so and also there’s you run a lien efficient organization when you’re spending other people’s money. And when you’re dependent upon that trust and how you do those things and that’s something you don’t have to have that transparency or that accountability in in business. So you know coming from that animal welfare world and knowing too that that you’re not competing what we talked about before that it’s not, you’re not, it’s not competition. The more that you bring people, organizations, agencies, thought partners together and try to work, you identify problems that are impacting all of us. And then you work to try to find solutions that involve all of us. And I think that that’s something that that is absolutely an overlap from my work in the nonprofit world and my work on the council. And it’s been really interesting, too, because it’s just a it, it’s a collaborative world in nonprofits and your donors, You’re not just asking likeminded donors for support. You need the support of the community. You need the support of donors. Who have one element of what you do that they that really speaks to them and that they feel invested in. And that’s really similar with how you run a city. You don’t run a city just for the people who voted for you or for the people who support you and think you’re great. You are running the city for the entire community as well as the people who are visiting the community who are not voters or constituents but but are coming to the community and spending tax dollars in our hotels and on our sales. Our retail and everything. So there’s a lot of parallel for me between city government and nonprofit work.
00:32:16 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Yeah, I can only imagine and I’ve seen this in 20 years of just living on the Western Slope. There’s there’s significant change going on. I think it’s exacerbated since the pandemic and and a shift in people’s desires to live in certain populated areas and I think the Western Slope has been found so. From your perspective in growing up in it in a specific Grand Junction to today’s Grand Junction and and taking on leadership, what do you see as as some of the more significant changes and what are we excited for?
00:32:51 Anna Stout’s
I think so. What started before me was this real focus on diversifying our economy so that we were not dependent on one industry and we were no longer susceptible to that boom and bust. That was something that really impacted the Grand Junction that I grew up in, because there wasn’t a sense of permanency. It was almost like you were always just kind of waiting for the next, the next big crisis. Where I see a lot of change happening currently is that this is traditionally about a community that’s really resistant to growth. And I don’t mean growth just in like, you know, the city sprawling out and building new homes, but. General Growth. You know what kinds of amenities we offer and what what we expect out of our, you know, our community. Do we? Are we a community that has or once a rec center? Are we a community that invests in publicprivate partnerships to create things like our riverfront development? Are we a community that sees the benefit of marketing our community and bringing people here to enjoy it? So I think that that’s part of what’s shifting is that Grand Junction is really, we’re really proud of what we have and we see potential for being you know kind of the next version of ourselves as a community and and we’re supporting that and that’s something that has been really resisted for a lot of the time I’ve been in Grand Junction which is over 30 years. And it’s almost, I don’t think it’s happening too rapidly. I don’t think that we’re growing too rapidly. I think what we’re doing now, and this is to the credit of city leadership for the last, you know, 6 to 8 years or so, is being incredibly intentional about how we grow. How do we grow smartly? What are the what kind of community do we want to be? What are the priorities for our community? And also not just us as leadership, but how are we, Are we engaging a community to find out what community? The members of the community and vision for ourselves. So that’s where I think that we’ve really come a long way and we’re seeing this place turn into again, a place that you don’t flee. When you’re a good student and you get done with school, you don’t leave to go to go find a good life. You have that here and you know you it’s you’re like it’s an honor to get to grow up here because you’re surrounded by this amazing. Natural beauty. And you’re in a community that’s that’s connected to each other and that has things to do and that you can actually, you know, build a life here, whether that’s starting a business or working for somewhere, and really have success here in a place that you can thrive. And it doesn’t. You don’t have the the anonymity of a big city, but it’s also just big enough that it’s not a bunch of busy bodies. You know, everything that’s happening with everybody, it’s like this. Kind of perfect fit, and I think our community sees that and then long timers like myself see that and we value that. But it’s also bringing people into town who see who want this kind of lifestyle as well.
00:35:54 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Yeah, I was going to one of my final questions was to go full circle and you kind of addressed it. But for the young people that are growing up in town today, has that perspective change, I mean? Do you have interaction or is it? I’m just wondering, are we still growing up to flee or is there that reality of like, no, there’s there’s real opportunity here and and not only that, like this is an intentional community, we know that and there’s a ton of resources and it’s just a beautiful location. But yeah, that was going to be my question. Are the young people still growing up to flee or we? I think is that really shifting? I.
00:36:34 Anna Stout’s
Actually think it’s shifting and in fact just if this isn’t evidence of it, on Monday I get to go to Grand Junction High School for Decision Day where students who are who are graduating from Grand Junction. It’s a big thing. We did not have a Mesa Decision Day in 2003 when I graduated from Junction. That was not something that. That I recall having. It’s not something I recall anybody being really excited about staying and I get to go be part of this, you know, just kind of as a spectator this exciting day where students from our valley are choosing to stay. And I think that that’s that’s incredible. And you know, I really am I I try really hard to make sure that my my term on council is that I am engaging with young people and with the community in general. But. I know when I was 19 and I stood in front of the City Council to ask for the sister city to be adopted. It was terrifying. I had no idea who they were. They it was just sort of this like this kind of like ephemeral idea of like there’s they’re just decision makers and they just make decisions and you live with them. And I want to make sure that young people know that we as decision makers are community members and we are accessible and we. You, you can and should know us and and recognize our faces and be confident that you can come to us with questions or issues and have those addressed. And I think about it a lot. You know, when I started on council, the day that I was sworn in, I was the youngest person on council by 25 years. So I was 34 and the next youngest person was 59. And and so it was really important to me to be to kind of like, you know, I joked with somebody we were talking about. It’s kind of like the kool-aid man who like. Which is a reference that none of the young people would even get. But you kool-aid man, that like bursts through the wall and leaves a hole that others can follow through. And I think that a lot of the time when somebody either young people or or women or minorities or you know, diverse groups of people, when you finally succeed, it’s like you climb the ladder and then you kick it down so others can’t come back because they should work as hard as as as you did. And what I’m trying to do is not only fix the ladder to the wall. But also figure out can we build a ramp, can we make this easier for young people to see and for women to see what it’s like and how to get there. You know, it’s it’s great because our incoming council in just a week now has three people in their 30s of our seven and then five under fifty of our seven. And that’s very different from the demographics of the last couple decades I would say unfortunately. We will. We just had two years with only one woman on council and we’ll have two more years with just myself and that’s that. I feel like it’s a little bit of a step backwards, but I think we’re moving in the right direction and you know, young people, it’s it’s funny because I’m just entering that. Where I’m not really young people anymore and sort of the the age that makes sense to be sort of taking the reins and leading the community, but young people really need to be. Part of that vision and engaged because we have 18 year olds who were not or 17 year olds or 16 year olds in high schools who were not engaging when we’re making these 10 year plans and in 10 years they will have families and businesses and careers. So yeah, I think that that that kind of full circle piece of making sure that we’re engaging that that demographic of our community and making sure that they feel like they have a place here that they don’t have to leave and come back when they’re 30 or 40. But that they can actually be leaders in it, starting upon graduation and even earlier. It’s beautiful.
00:40:20 Matthew Kuehlhorn
And for the listeners that want to reach out, whether they want to get involved at the city or get involved with the animal welfare, how can people find you A?
00:40:29 Anna Stout’s
Quick Google search. I will give you a bunch of different emails for anything related to the city. They can e-mail me at anna.s@gjcity.org. And I should mention too, we don’t have the City Council is, you know, essentially a part time or kind of basically just above a volunteer role. We don’t have a staff or a team that’s, you know, we don’t have AIDS that are monitoring our e-mail or anything. When you e-mail us, you e-mail directly to us and we respond for anything related to the animal shelter or anything else. They can e-mail me at anna@rhhumanesociety.org or calling the shelter 97O 434-7337.
00:41:10 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Beautiful. We’ll include those into our our show notes. Anna and and I really appreciate this conversation. I appreciate your your passion, your fire for life, for the legacy that you’re building and it’s it’s certainly inspiring. And so yeah, thank you again for, for your time and for opening up. I really appreciate it.
00:41:33 Anna Stout’s
Thank you. It’s a it’s a pleasure and it’s an honor. Thank you very much.
00:41:37 Matthew Kuehlhorn
We will talk to you very soon.
00:41:40 Anna Stout’s
Great.
00:41:41 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for listening to the Kooler Lifestyle Podcast. We count on your subscriptions, your likes, your shares and I encourage you to do that. Now, if you’re watching on YouTube, go ahead and subscribe lower right hand button. If you’re on audio, download this, share it and we look forward to having you on the next one.