 Welcome to Longmont Voices and Vision, a project of Longmont public media. In the midst of the darkest period in our lives, when we're bombarded 24 hours a day with news of the coronavirus and the human and economic carnage it's causing in our society. We're challenged to cope with our fears and anxieties while remaining hopeful about what lies on the other side of this crisis. This project presents an opportunity for Longmont residents to share with others how they're adjusting to new realities of social distancing and the kind of future they hope to experience on the other side of the crisis. I'm Tim Waters, host of these conversations in a Longmont public media volunteer. In this series, I'll be asking Longmont residents, many of them your friends and neighbors, three questions. What are you doing to get through this crisis? Even though we cannot be together right now, how are we staying connected to friends and families? And what's the future you are hoping to see and experience on the other side of this crisis? I hope you'll stay with this series and enjoy listening to your friends and neighbors and learn from them how they're getting through and what they're looking forward to in a new reality on the other side. Scott Cook, thank you for your contribution to this Longmont Voices in Vision project. Each of these interviews have started by learning a little bit about who we're interviewing and you play a critical role in this community. It's important for people to know who you are and what you do. So take it away. Sure. Well, thank you, Tim. I appreciate you taking the time to do this project. And I think it's a really neat thing and I'm looking forward to looking, viewing all these later on in the future. I'm working back at this time, but my name is Scott Cook. I'm the CEO for the Longmont Chamber of Commerce. I've actually been at the chamber for over 13 years, not the entire time as a CEO, but held various different roles at the chamber. And I did grow up here in Longmont. So not quite a native, but I did grow up here. And I feel very fortunate to be able to work in my own community, help my own hometown prosper. We've probably already spoken about in previous interviews, how we were America's number one boomtown last year. It's just great to be a part of all of that. I'm very proud of this community. And even during this time, I'm very proud of our community. I think in some ways, we'll get into that, but it's going to be exciting how we, what we learned from this crisis and how we grow together as a community, how we grow together as Longmont. Well, that's a great introduction. And, and we're going to segue from that right into the first of my three questions, you know, I'm going to ask. And that is in this time of so many unknowns and all the anxiety that goes along with the unknowns and in the conditions with which we're living now in this pandemic. How are you getting yourself through this period of time? Yeah, and I'm sure you've heard this from other people too, but, you know, you take each day at a time. And each day I wake up and I tell myself this is this is how I prep myself. I tell myself today is going to be a new adventure. It's not going to be like yesterday's adventures, it's not going to be like tomorrow's adventures. Today, it's going to be all its own. And that is the reality that we have right now because there will be new news that comes out today that adjust that reality and then you've got to go back and work with your staff and the rest of your community partners on that, on that new reality. And so, I think just waking up with an idea of let's be flexible today, let's see what happens, and then we're going to roll with it. In one sense, we don't have a choice out in front of it, you know, and see what we can do. So there is, I will, and I don't want to make light of it, but there is a certain excitement with that, because there's so much that we can do. And so much that we can accomplish at the Chamber, you know, we initially shut down all of our events and programs committee meetings and things like that. At its core, the Chamber of Commerce or any Chamber of Commerce is a social organization, we bring people together, that's what we do, you know. And so that was hard for us to do that, but slowly now we've been actually opening many of those backup, not our networking events, of course, but over Zoom, over this technology, we're opening up all our committee meetings and things like that. So that's been really good to see, and I mean, I love seeing all the different members and I think they're enjoying seeing each other as well and connecting over that. So that's one thing that we're doing to get through the chambers also has built a number of different partnerships over the past few years. And I was commenting to one of them the other day that, you know, I think partnerships were a good thing for us in the past, and they were certainly helpful for us. Now they're essential for us. I mean, we really are relying on all the different partners that includes the city, our advanced Longmont partners, our chambers around our region, Broomfield and Boulder counties, and then the state and even the country. And so we're constantly using those partnerships, constantly mining ideas from all of those different organizations to see what we can bring back to Longmont and what we can do to build our business community back here. Well really, really pretty task and mission focused during this time for you. In this time of physical separation and social distancing, when we can't actually be together physically, how are you staying connected to family and friends. Yeah, that it's interesting right because I feel in some ways that we're hyper connected over technology like Zoom, and then on the other hand, not and we're hearing a lot about loneliness and people feeling alone. Right now, you know at work, we used to at the chamber we used to have weekly staff meetings we now do those twice a week. And like I said we're bringing back our committees and things like that over over zoom. I think one of the things that I've tried to do is be a diligent or purposeful about connecting. It's one thing to connect over this technology and do the work that you're supposed to do. But what happens in the office, as we all know is that you get to know people you get to know their emotions if they're having a good day or a bad day you know or when to go in their office or when not to you know those coming. And you also learn about people you you learn about your staff and what motivates them their personal lives and things like that so not every staff meeting but on some of them you know we'll just spend a little bit of time checking in with each other personally and seeing how everybody's doing. I find that interesting now because we're having to be again purposeful about it doesn't just kind of happen naturally as the day goes through as you get to if you work with someone. But now you actually have to be very purposeful about asking them, how are you know really how are you doing right now you know or what can I help you with and that kind of thing so that's something that I've tried to be cognizant of and do on a more personal note. Each day I just make a list of one to three people doesn't have to be long sometimes it is only one person that I'm going to call or email that day and just say hey, how are you nothing long or anything like that but I just want to check in on you and see how you're doing. I think people like that. I've been on the receiving end of messages like that I know I certainly appreciate it. It goes a long way and it's also very motivating as well. So I'm enjoying receiving that I hope other people enjoy getting a quick Facebook message from your text or something like that to see me do. If you enjoyed, I'm guessing others are going to join as well so my third question is more less about right now and more about, you know, what's coming. The presumption that underlies the third question is that whatever was normal before the pandemic. Life is going to be different when we are on the other side of this pandemic so whatever was normal then not like to get to be the new normal. Now, there's a lot of unknowns we don't know what the new normal is going to be and what we're going to settle back into. But I would like to know what would you like to see what's your preferred future. Would you like to see in the new normal and help to create in the new normal. Yeah, and again I love this question Tim and I thought about this for quite a while. And it's a hard question to answer in some ways and maybe maybe other ways it's, it's easier. I think what we've all heard or probably experienced is that it feels at least for me it feels like time has sped up quite dramatically, but then also it feels like time has really slowed down. And if I've heard it from one person I've heard it from many that nobody knows what day it is anymore, you know which meeting to be in. So there is, there's a different outlook on time. When time slows down, you know, what do we do with that. Well, we relax more we spend time with family we spend time getting to know our neighbor better or having a just a friendly chat or we take up a new hobby or we do something. I think in our very fast paced very connected world of before. We, we didn't always have that luxury we didn't have the luxury of time. We got a little bit of that back in this, this moment. I think one of the victims of of that of not having enough time I was reading an article the other day, where the author was lamenting the fact that we, we have very little long form TV journalism anymore. We have sound bites of little bits of information. We have any time this still exists some imprinted media. But we don't really have time for a long interview to really get to know a political candidate or a thought leader in the country or in the world. And that's not just the media's fault it's it's it's the consumer's fault as well we don't have the time we don't have the interest for haven't had the interest, maybe we haven't been willing to pay for it. And so I think that's a victim of this that fast paced society and so what what that has led to in part is that we have you know these different sides and never the two sides should meet or talk and share ideas but I think what we're hearing in this time and I love hearing it's very motivating and there's a comfort to it we're all in this together. But as we hopefully can start to come out of this time we're all going to need to be working together as well. And what is that going to take that's going to take understanding where different people are coming from their fears their needs and pulling that all together if we're going to build the community back we're going to build the country back even the world. It's going to take putting all those different ideas together. I think we're seeing that even now with the whole conversation should we open up the economy right now or should we stay at home still. And I look at that I'm like okay we still haven't quite learned to, you know, there are some significant health concerns that we need to consider, and there are some significant economic concerns that we need to consider. And if we're going to build this back if we're going to if we're going to work together for a future we are going to have to work together. And we're not going to do that by just disagreement we're going to have to figure out okay we're going to have to convert one side's going to have to compromise a little bit. This side's going to have to compromise a little bit to put something together. I hope that we are able to do more of that that we have actually will take the time to to listen to each other. I think, I don't know if this is so much a preferred future. But I think one of the interesting things that will come out of this is. There's been very few times and I don't know if there's ever been a time quite like this where the entire world has experienced something together. We're living an experience with every single person on the planet right now, which is very interesting. I mean that's the world that we live in. Yes, but that's just a very interesting thing that were happening to all of us as humans at once. So I think they'll be kind of a hyper global is a global thought. And then the same time, there is a real local thought like we really need to support our neighbors and our local businesses and our entrepreneurs and things like that. So I think that's going to be interesting how those two interplay with each other. I would say that my preferred preferred future with that is that I do hope that we recognize what it takes to open a business that we recognize what it takes for an entrepreneur they take significant risks. If we're going to build ourselves out of this if we're going to get our economy back on track. If we're going to create prosperity for all. It's going to be because some people took risks, and some people built something that created something so we can offer more jobs, and that sort of thing so I hope that there's an understanding and a knowledge of what it takes to open a business that we have some admiration for an entrepreneur for the risk taker the person that's willing to go out there and say hey I'm just going to do it you know that's that's the American spirit. That's part of the American dream I hope that we can still keep that spirit alive and even have even be bigger than before. I mean that that would be that would definitely be a preferred future of mine. I think I would cook up there was ever a time in the world where there should be an appetite and enthusiasm to support the very people who are going to help build ourselves into whatever our future is. It's now. Right. So thanks for being part of it. Thanks for the relationship in the community. Thanks again for your willingness to contribute to this project. Stay safe. Stay healthy to care yourself and your family. Alright, thank you Tim. Great. Thank you for your contributions to this long month voices and vision project. As you know, we have started each of these interviews by learning a little bit about the interviewee so tell us about you who you are and what you do in the community. Well, first of all, thank you Dr. Waters, Councilman Waters for really stepping up to the plate with this assignment. And this is a really important and special project that you're undertaking. So I appreciate your leadership. So who is Chris McGill? I'm just a bit player of this Chris. I appreciate your knowledge. Go ahead. Go ahead. Alright, so who's Chris McGill Ray? So I'm, first of all, my husband to Stephanie, my wife, we have been married. It's going to be our 15th anniversary this July. I'm a father to two children in the Savory Valley School District. I have a 10 year old daughter and a six year old son. They go to Flagstaff Academy. I'm a business owner. I own Longmont Lakers on the corner of second and main. Steph and I we started that business in 2012. I am a passionate educator. I teach full time at Front Range Community College. I've taught that institution for five years, and I am a community leader. So I am currently the chair of the Longmont Area Chamber of Commerce. I've been on the board of directors for five years. I'm on the downtown development board of directors and the vice chair of that organization. I'm on the Tinker Mill Makerspace board of directors. I serve in a variety of capacities at the college. So I'm on the advisory board for business accounting, the Boulder County campus. And I am an advisor to the Chamber Student Network, which is something I'm really proud of. It's a student run Amber commerce locally. It's actually the first in the nation. That's 100% organized and structured by students. And so previous to my time as a business owner, I spent 12 years in corporate retail. I worked at Target for 12 years serving in a variety of different capacities. I was a general manager of a super target in Salt Lake City. And I was a field merchandiser and really learned how to manage a business. And then in 2012, I learned quickly how to own one to totally different competencies. And so that's a little bit about me. I'm, I'm, I'm passionate. I'm passionate for long months. I fell in love with this community. And it certainly wasn't the, our master plan. That's not the reason why I fell in love with our community or our city code. All this is important. But it's the people, it's the people of this community. Steph and I have received so much support over the last eight years. And it's, I look for every opportunity I can to give back and to serve and when I serve it's not donating inventory for my business. It's not monetary. It's time. And I really look for opportunities to give time and serve others. And long month. Look, we're, we're a community that's built on hard workers, honest, resilient, innovation, entrepreneurial, and I'm very proud to be a member of this community, Tim. Well, in terms of donation of time, what you're doing with this interview is part of it. And this may be these 15 minutes, maybe the only spare time you have given off your thanks for doing so. Chris, I do appreciate it and absolutely. And, and the three, you know, the three questions I'm going to ask and the first one is this. In a, in a, in a moment in history that none of no one on the planet's ever lived through what we're going through. There are times in history where it might have been something like this. Nobody alive has experienced this before. So with all the unknowns, the uncertainties and the fears that go along with that. How are you getting yourself through this? That's a great question. I, I'm staying busy. I've always been very busy, but it starts in my home. You know, Steph and I really working together and supporting each other. I've always been a pretty decent person when it comes to multitasking. But through this crisis, I've really had to strengthen my ability to multitask. Our, our children are being homeschooled. So I'm, I'm supporting staff. She taught second grade for 12 years. And so she, that's her thing, but I'm making sure that I'm supporting her through that process. And during the semesters and my staff runs our business while I'm teaching. And so because Steph's being home right now, homeschooling, I've been working the business, working her shifts and really spending a bit more time in the business. Also during this transition is all the classes at college have been converted to online and I'm also the online lead at our college. So I'm trying to help all of our instructors who have never taught online and who had no intentions of teaching online or being introduced to remote learning pedagogies. And I'm really trying to mentor coach them through this transition to ensure a great student experience that. And so it's, it's about multitasking. It's about balancing. I've found that the days are going very fast. The weeks are flying by, but it's been a long month. If that makes sense. I mean, looking back at the month. And I'm looking for opportunities Tim to for micro opportunities to be a good citizen, be a good person, provide value, help people. I've never been in the delivery business, but I'm helping to encourage people to stay home and I'm personally delivering to folks, especially the vulnerable during this time and I'm doing grocery shopping for my mom and friends and family that are, that are seniors and I encourage them to stay at home. So the micro examples and I'm noticing a lot of that. If you look around, we're just, there's a ton of empathy being demonstrated. There's a ton of just helping each other really taking care of our neighbors and it's been really inspiring. I've picked up the phone more in the last month than I have in the last five years I've, I talked to my mom daily so I've been calling a lot of friends and family and reaching out to them and just staying connected, reaching out to the business community asking them how I can support them and just listening to them. And so, limb, I'm not a TV watcher so I'm really trying to limit the TV watching although Steph and I are getting into a couple of shows homeland. That's our favorite show right now. We love that. I'm really into reading to and just staying busy self help and different things around education around pedagogy stuff like that. Those are things that I did the kids they're always wanting to play Legos and I'm trying to remain firmly planted in the present, so that I can appreciate the moment and do the best that I can every day. All right, well. Every day. We are finding ourselves physically separated. Obviously your kids are with you and your wife but physically separated from other family members and friends and socially isolated from colleagues in ways that we also have an experience in the past. And you begin to answer a little bit of this question I think already but I'm going to ask it anyway and that is, how are you staying connected to family. Social media. I, I think you know with Facebook and Instagram and zoom meetings, for example, Steph and I look forward to Easter every year, you know we go to mass, and then we go to step family for a great dinner and obviously the context has changed dramatically so that experience is different right. So, we're using technology. There's a lot of Web X is there's a ton of zoom meetings I mean. So, Easter dinner we we had our entire family and zoom meetings and I there's, you know, one of the positives is, we have the technology to help us stay connected, and I've been leveraging that. And we've seen family members that and spoken to family members that we hadn't for years during this time so you know phone calls mean a lot to and so it's just reframing how you're connecting with people, just with what you and I are doing right now. I feel connected in this conversation so it's a different feeling it's a different experience but it's really important. But, you know, I've shared with you that I've tried to minimize my comments during these interviews but I will say this. For people who use their phones for everything but phone calls. I've heard a lot of people using their phones for actually making phone calls in the last week. Well, absolutely I know the average person spends three or four hours a day on social media. Yeah, right. So, yeah. The phone that using the phone for phone calls was had become kind of obsolete in some circumstances, but last month we did read big rated actually calling. So, my third question, which you know, it's coming is based on the presumption that whatever was normal for us before the pandemic. Life's going to be different on the other side of the pandemic. And how, right. But I think it's reasonable to assume that there will be a new normal. We just don't know what it is. So my question for you is what would you like to see as the new normal and help create this. Yeah, things are going to be different. As you just mentioned. And so as we progress forward as a community we, we have to understand that. This is not a sprint to the finish line. This is a marathon and how we progress forward. It's going to take a lot of time. It's going to take a lot of energy and more than anything it's going to take a ton of patience to emerge from this pandemic better. I believe we will very confident that we will as a community. I think it's important to not lose focus of our past successes that we've that have shaped us and positioned us extremely well as we progress forward. We have a strong city. We have strong leadership. And we've experienced strong collaboration not just through this crisis, but through a lot of disasters. You know the 100 year flood, the focus on South Maine we've accomplished some very special things throughout, throughout recent years and so we can't forget about these accomplishments. And so I think how we've responded to this crisis Tim. It's just a great example of that. You know the advanced Longmont partners, which consists of the city of Longmont, the Council the LDDA, the Economic Development Partnership the Chamber of Commerce, the SB DC, they've stepped up huge. And so all these entities all these organizations coming together to elaborate meeting daily to respond and to in a relevant manner to our current needs as a community and it's been very inspirational to see that. Just a solid example of resiliency, empathy, the care for each other. And so I think it's important to remember it wasn't long ago that we were recognized nationally as the number one boom town in America. Right. There's a lot of measurements that went into that GDP growth, job creation, unemployment, which we were hovering around two and a half percent strong commerce entrepreneurship housing growth. So we are Longmont. And I don't think even though the context has changed in a significant way, the people and the vision happened. So we have to remember that we have the foundation we've demonstrated it and we will demonstrate it in the future. And so through strong leadership through strong clear clarity around our vision and our objectives. And advanced Longmont, the five year strategy and then we just work through the advanced Longmont 2.0 strategy as we progress forward. So you have all these different community organizations working together. We have a similar vision as we progress forward. And so when I look at the future of Longmont, I kind of put them into three different pillars. The first being our economy. We have to have a thriving economy and we will. The second is our education system. We have to thrive and invest in our education if we've done a lot of great things and we will continue to do that. And the third pillar is I refer to this as sustainable sustainability. Right. So I wanted to share briefly about each of those three. Starting with a thriving economy that's equitable for for all. But it doesn't matter who we are. It doesn't matter who we know what bank that we work with what committee we may serve on. And that's the type of economy that we have had and we will continue to have as we progress forward. And there's the sense of belonging. I belong in Longmont. Right. Tim Waters belongs in Longmont. So there's that feeling of belongingness that we can achieve the life that we desire. And so we're playing and learning in this community moving forward and healthy businesses are a big part of that healthy businesses provide opportunities for growth for our community. Just think about all the revenue that flows in through a small let's just use my business for example, and I'm probably the smallest wine shop in the state of Colorado right there sitting on the corner of second and main. Think about it over the last eight years Tim, or all the revenue that I've produced through sales tax that gets reinvested in our, you know, our community. There's the taxes through income tax there's the access tax. There's the payroll tax, there's the property tax and all that gets reinvested to provide the things that we, we need to, and there are community members expect. And so, plus, there's jobs, right that I've provided so. And that's actually one of the things I'm most proud of is when I could build a business to the point where I could actually hire my first employee Tim that was by far. One of the greatest feelings of my entire life is, you know, having that opportunity to help somebody else and employ somebody else and with that comes great responsibility and, and great pride. And so, having a thriving economy is extremely critical. And the other is, we need to have an education and we already have that's, that's placed our number one priority in developing a thriving community by preparing people to be productive in a global ecosystem. Right. We live in a world where things are changing so damn fast. We have to prepare our students to be productive in the workforce. The focus that we've placed recently around early childhood development, I've been extremely impressed with and the emphasis on, that's great progress and that's a good sign of what's what's in our future as it relates to our focus on education. We can, we can never start too early in educating our, our future so that's that's great. You know, continuing to emphasize preparing our students for the successful pathway that they decide. And what I've my experience in education finds that most of us have three pathways student pathways and it's either the pathway to I want to develop a skill set to be productive. And whether it's in manufacturing, which by the way the average salary in Longmont is 68,000 if you want in manufacturing. So it's that's one pathway that's, it's really important to our economy. The other pathway is the transfer you have students that through the district through the same brand school district will go to front range community college and then transfer to see you or CSU or Metro and something I'm really proud of is over the last couple of years we built a solid transfer system for success rates and coming out of our program at the college and, and so it's continue to emphasize that. And then the third pathway is a pathway that doesn't get a lot of a ton of attention but it has as a recent over the last year, two and that's students that have an intention to build something and start a business of their own. And we've done a lot of great things over the last couple years to build strong community partnerships with the economic development partnership, innovate campus tinker mill, and all these organizations E for all is another one where students could go in and, and really have the support to build something of their own launch that and sustain that long term. And so, I envision that we're going to continue to get recognized on a national level around the quality of education that we offer our students. Some of the trends that are going to influence this that we need to pay attention to, there's going to be increasingly more emphasis on actual learning versus actual teaching. You know, and that's something that I'm constantly challenging myself on is, am I teaching, are the students learning the things that they need to learn coming out of our program to be productive to achieve their goals, and through active learning through active learning, there's going to be strong conversation around asynchronous or synchronous learning and so that there's that trend in education, and the relevance of education, there's going to be less emphasis on actual content, and more emphasis on context, meaning you and I can Google any question into our phone and we get instant information so data is not going to be a problem there's information out there. And we need to ensure that we're teaching and educating folks to use thinking critically skills to analyze the data in this device and make wise decisions. So it's going to be more of it more emphasis around students and opportunity to learn through application versus just learning something to pass a test. So, there's going to be huge increases in concurrent enrollment and online learning and really identifying a student's purpose and why and trying to help them achieve their goals. So education is critical. And we need to continue to put the resources into education. And, like I said there's we were doing a lot of great things we can't lose sight of that. The same brain school district, their leadership through the Innovation Center, and through connecting students through commerce and through industry through the Chamber student network and building those strong community partnerships and industry. Those are some great examples of what we've what we've done what we're going to continue to do. And the same thing through front range community college, they're the Center for integrated manufacturing that's like our hidden gym. Right. So we're teaching students about robotics and automation and manufacturing and all those career paths that are high earnings coming out of the program. And so there's going to be what I envision around our education is increasing the focus on trade schools to I mean, H back plumbing, waste management, being electrician, all these paths are paths to build a great life for yourself and your family. I mean, the average income of a trash woman or trash man in Boulder County is over $100,000 a year, and not a lot of us recognize that there's a lot of great career opportunities in in trade. And so that's education right it's something that I'm really, really passionate about it's something obviously you spending your entire career and education can relate to. And the third pillar that I want to highlight is the focus on sustainability and sustainable growth, economic environmental and social. And it's about meeting the short term needs of the present. Okay, without compromising meeting the needs of what's in our future. I've learned this in business where I need to generate enough revenue to pay my utility bill to meet my payroll in the now. So there's those immediate needs that I need to meet. And I try to educate my students and help them understand that the number one thing in business is not profitability. It's about sustainability. Right, what can you do to build a solid structure and assault system and assault support to continue to provide value for the long term. And so that's going to be our challenge that we have to continue to be thoughtful, make smart decisions, strong collaboration. It's about sustainable growth in those three areas economic environmental and social. And so, like I've said with all these pillars I think we have the foundation we have a. Pretty thorough sustainability plan that was written and implemented in 2016 as you know and this is the roadmap right to achieve our vision of taking care of our environment, promoting economic vitality and social quality for all. And so it's going to be very, very important around ensuring that we have a healthy economy that we invest in our education and that we have sustainable growth as we progress forward. And my question for you, Tim, as you're thinking about these three main pillars about economic vitality education sustainability okay. So, let's go back in time to the 1980s when you're super. Before we do that. Well, let's we'll save this for the next one, because I do have another interview lined up. So, I've got to get on my next zoom session. Okay. Yeah, but I'd love to answer, and wherever you were going that question I'd love to answer. Somebody waiting for me right now. Okay, thank you so much for your, your time and your, your contribution to this project and, and, and longer term, your contribution to so much of what happens in the long run. No, I appreciate you Tim. Thanks for the interview. Hey, carry yourself and your family stay safe and I look forward to when our past cross and we can shake hands again. Absolutely. Thank you. Kimberly McKee. Thank you so much for your willingness to contribute to this long month voices and vision project. And for all of your other contributions to the community, and people going to want to know what those are so we want to start by learning about you. So tell us about Kimberly McKee but also I just who you are but what you do and the kinds of contributions you are making along. All right. Great. Thank you so much. This is such a great project and I'm thrilled to be part of it. I'm the executive director of the downtown development authority in Longmont, and I moved to Longmont about nine years ago. And I've had the privilege and the honor to work with all of our great businesses that are located in downtown Longmont and really get to see it grow and thrive. We've seen so many new folks come into this community as well as the ones that have been here forever and seeing those generations of business owners work together has just been amazing. I have two kids, a sixth grader and a ninth grader and live here in Old Town so really everything I do is in downtown and just love being here. Welcome to home schooling. But you know that I'm going to ask you three questions in the first of those questions is this in a time of uncertainty with all the unknowns, which we're with which we are living right now, and the fear that goes along with those people are having to find ways to get themselves through this period of uncertainty in a kind of an experience none of us have ever had before so right there's no game plan. How are you getting yourself through this period. You know, I think it's been a series of trial and error and I will say when this first happened and it was such unknown and there was so much fear in the business community and the family. You know I woke up some days and did not decide to be my best self right and I would get overwhelmed with the fear and wanting to help people and feeling so helpless. About the third time that happened I said this is a choice and you need to wake up and you need to say we are going to do this together and so. First of all I had to really kind of switch my mindset to say the only way we're going to get through this is to be calm and to be together and to really just do what we can do. And so I've been doing that in my spare time as my co-worker says we'll probably all gain the COVID-19 because. Take out I'm doing lots of things out more than I normally would do but you know it's been a way to kind of work with my children and you know we have a wonderful neighbor up the street. Older you know and so I take him up food all the time which I would before but not I never cook this much. And he said you don't have to feed me you know I said what am I going to do with all of this food all right keep it coming so. I've been trying to just do that and as I mentioned you know I have these two kids that are forced to be with me right so when they're that age to kind of go to the other side of the sun and maybe don't like to hang out with their mom so much. So I'm embracing every moment of that and look at that as as a luxury to have that time with them. So you have the the opportunity of the good fortune to be to be physically together with your kids, but it's in a time when, for the most part, we can't be together with family and friends. So how so other than your children, how are you staying connected to your family and friends during this time of physical separation and social distancing. Yeah, you know like I said we moved here nine years ago and our family is all in Ohio and I told a colleague of mine Ohio has never felt so far away, as it does today. And I will say I've not been wonderful at calling my mother in the way that I need to but this is really got me to color every day and to say you know oh my gosh. And not that I didn't always value that relationship but probably didn't take a pause out of my busy life enough to say hey I love you I really miss you and so. We've been doing that we got my parents to do zoom calls with my sister and in my kids, even though we're all in the same house we go in different rooms and have the whole experience, which has been great. Been reaching out to old friends from Ohio that you know I would talk to time to time but I think that's really important and you know not to mention your family even here in Colorado and I don't even mean family that I'm related to but people and friends that I now consider family. And so making sure that I call or or video chat with them because that connection is so important and I think you really know when you're not seeing people on a daily basis. Who it's really important to connect with and who if you don't connect with in this time and miss an opportunity you will always regret it so I do think it brings us back to that kind of sense of self. Well, that's a storyline that we're hearing in a lot of these interviews. So, the last question which is also part of our collective story is based on the presumption that whatever was normal for us, whatever normal life was on the front of this virus or pandemic. On the backside, whenever we come out of this and we'll come out of this, whatever the new normal is life's going to be a little bit different. The question is what do you want to see in the new normal. And I'll add to that. What would you like to help create in the new normal when we can, we can go outdoors again and resume life. Yeah, you know, I will say again I just really am struck by the value of people and how this is brought out sometimes the worst in people and sometimes the best in people but mostly the best in people. I have been humbled and sometimes brought to tears about the nature of our local business community. And when this first started before even any of the stay at home orders. It was coming right and you could kind of see from a million miles away and we had a business owner that got together a group of people and they said, we're going to get through this what are we going to do we're going to work together. And it was very optimistic that Monday, many of them had to close down, but they still were going to be in it that Wednesday, some of them had to shutter their doors and just to see that kind of ripple effect and the change. Then there was a bit of a panic so we got together groups and we have zoom calls with local businesses one day it's retailers one day it's restaurant and beverage one day it's personal services. And to get these groups of people together and to hear there. So these are folks that you may think could have been competitors right you know three weeks ago they might have been fighting for the same restaurant crowd. When you really see them getting together as one and saying, Okay, I have flour I'm not going to use you need flour I'm going to bring it over to you I'm going to do this I'm going to do that. And then as they're navigating this, no information is is confidential, it is all for one and one for all and I will say it has been the most rewarding experience. I mean it's horrible but I'm saying to see how people will pull together and know that they all need to rise and they all need to connect and really being able to tell that Taylor continue to tell that tale of these local businesses and sometimes I feel that local businesses just get the pat on the head you know yeah they're okay but it's fun to go to every once in a while. I will tell you that is not true. These are savvy business owners. These are people that are the lifeblood of a community they are what people want to talk about or want to say about why their community is unique. They are all human and to see these this this human element of of working together. So out of this I hope that doesn't change and we will fight as an organization in a community to make sure that people don't go back into their silos and their everyday life. This is what is going to make or break. I think the world. So I want to see that continuing I want to continue to facilitate that I hope the world says, boy, if I look at what's leaving our community. I hope they realize they don't want it to be those local businesses and sometimes it is an extra trip I mean yeah you can maybe go to a superstore and get everything on your list in one form or another. But these local businesses. I just lost your audio. We just lost the connection there, Kimberly. Now you're back now you're back keep going. Yeah, this is too good. We're going to keep going because it's too good an interview. Did you do you know where you lost me. Well that even if it's a second stop or second trip people have to make. Okay, they could have gotten everything on their list at the big box store or wherever. Okay, great. Yeah, so even if it is a second. Stop. It's the uniqueness it's you know I watch these local businesses really think about every product they bring into their store to think about the connections and I talked about the connections we have with each other. These folks have those same connections with their customers and that's what you get. We have businesses that are calling their customers saying, how can I reopen that you'll feel safe. What am I going to do to make sure they're really going above and beyond levels that we've ever seen before because they care because that is what the fabric of this is about. So I do hope we come out of this with a brand new appreciation and many people appreciated it I'm not saying that but a brand new appreciation for what local businesses, yes, not only from our citizens but from our policy makers from everyone and I will say, and I don't want to get too political but it's been a rough road to watch how things have gone and to see optimism that small businesses are going to get money to seeing who that went to at first. It's it's a kick in the teeth but we have fighters right and so now we're getting everyone right to go in for that second round of funding. I really want everyone to be here and people are cheering for each other there they're helping each other fill out applications if someone's lost so I really think that sense of local that sense of teamwork is the foundation of our community and never. Kimberly key. Those are those are the kinds of aspirations and the kind of future that a lot of people will resonate with into. Thank you again for your contribution, the time you spent with me in this interview but bigger in longer term are your contributions to the community. Take care of yourself stay safe to carry your family and one of these days hopefully soon will reemerge from our now safe at home and order and be able to be in the same room together. Thank you. Thank you.