January 2020 Facets

FACETS

JANUARY 2020

The magazine for women.

Alluvial expansion offers new opportunities Faces of Adoption: How the stories of the past are helping shape stories of the future

Ames woman sees dream realized in Acorn Antiques

FACETS 2 | FACETS | JANUARY 2020

The magazine for women.

Contributors

MARLYS BARKER KATIE MAUCH DAVID MULLEN KYLEE MULLEN ROBBIE SEQUEIRA KILEY WELLENDORF Design

CHELSEA PARKS Tribune Editor

MICHAEL CRUMB

ADVERTISERS To advertise in Facets magazine, contact Mary Beth Scott at (515) 663-6951 PHONE (515) 663-6923 ADDRESS 317 Fifth St. Ames, IA, 50010 EMAIL news@amestrib.com ONLINE www.amestrib.com/sections/ special-sections/facets Facets is a monthly publication of Gannett.

Alluvial Brewing Company recently expanded its brewing capacity and renovated its taproom. Photo by Kylee Mullen/Gannett see PAGE 10

ON THE COVER

Awein Majak, who welcomes other immigrants into her home and her life. see PAGE 17

FACETS Table of Contents Features 6 Faces of Adoption

Stories of past shaping stories of the future

10 Alluvial Expansion

Brewing Company

14 Acorn Antiques

Ames woman sees dream realized

Spotlight 4 The future of agriculture 12 Fareway and Variety join to raise funds for Story City girl 16 Winter clothing drive 17 Pausing life to assist others 20 Wilson’s new auction and event venue 22 Rachel Junck campaign

FACETS | JANUARY 2020 | 3

Spotlight

Pamela Riney-Kehrberg, Iowa State history professor, explains the difficulties and outcomes of agriculture during World War I. Photo by Katie Mauch/Gannett

The future of agriculture: learning from Iowa’s past and present

By Katie Mauch Gannett

T

he history of Iowa’s agriculture, ranging from growing cherries and tomatoes to the introduction of precision agriculture, were put on display at the “Earth’s Bounty in Iowa: Then and Now” program Nov. 7 at the Nevada Public Library.

The event, focused on the history of Iowa agriculture, featured speakers Pamela Riney-Kehrberg, an Iowa State history professor specializing in rural America, and Darcy Maulsby, an Iowa farmer and self-employed marketing specialist.

Their touring program is designed to accompany the Iowa Center for the Book’s 2019 All Iowa Reads title, “This Blessed Earth” by Ted Genoways. Though the book is set in Nebraska, Riney-Kehrberg and Maulsby are bringing the Iowa connection to the program.

The women each gave a presentation on the past and present, respectively, of Iowa agriculture, providing a broader view in context of how the agriculture industry came to where it is today. Riney-Kehrberg cited four historical events, which she calls pivot points, that heavily impacted farming across the United States in the 20th century.

“These pivot points are really important for understanding how we come to have the agricultural system that we have today,” she said.

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Beginning in 1900, Riney-Kehrberg took the audience on a tour of agriculture through World War I, what she calls the Long Great Depression, World War II and the Farm Crisis of the 1980s.

Iowa’s landscape in the early 1900s was far from the vast fields of corn and soybeans it has today. Riney-Kehrberg provided a highly diverse list of 34 products grown on at least one percent of Iowa farms in 1900, including geese, apricots, strawberries, tomatoes and popcorn.

The lengthy list does not include the additional products grown only for family consumption like milk and eggs.

Today, thoughts of Iowa do not immediately bring to mind fields of fruits and vegetables. In the early 1900s, a large number of canning factories sprinkled throughout the state provided an accessible market for the diverse crops, RineyKehrberg said.

Both Riney-Kehrberg and Maulsby discussed the changes made to the structure of the family farm over 100 years.

Farms in the early 20th century were run by men, women and children who worked the land together.

According to Riney-Kehrberg, children were a vital part of the operation and school schedules were adjusted to accommodate farm work — something older members of the audience remembered well. When Riney-Kehrberg asked

FUTURE OF AGRICULTURE, continued from page 4

why girls did not usually attend school on Mondays, it was met with chuckles and murmurs of “wash day.”

Through both World Wars, farms lost the labor of many men who went overseas, women worked outside the home and farm outputs grew explosively to turn out products for the war effort.

Because of this, Riney-Kehrberg said, the Great Depression came early to Iowa in 1920. Farms that had worked feverishly to increase production were now deeply in debt without a market for their abundance of crops after WWI. According to Riney-Kehrberg, one in nine Iowa farms were foreclosed on between 1921 and 1932.

“There were farmers who took their hogs and … sent them to Chicago, expecting to get a payment back, and instead what they got was a bill,” Riney-Kehrberg said. “It cost more to send those hogs to Chicago than they were worth.”

Iowa farm families took advantage of government subsidies in the 1933 New Deal for producing less and implementing new conservation efforts like contour plowing. Terraces from these practices can still be seen in fields in western Iowa, Riney-Kehrberg said.

The length of World War II sent demands skyrocketing compared to the first war. While farmers still expanded to meet the needs, they learned from the resulting depression and made certain that price supports would continue after the war.

According to Riney-Kehrberg, the outpouring of farm workers leaving to fight in the war created a demand for farm labor that lead to changes in farming technology.

“Farmers who had resisted buying their first tractor bought their first tractor during World War II because they need some way to replace the labor that they have lost,” she said.

Chemicals manufactured during the war also contributed to how farmers managed pest control. Riney-Kehrberg said while the introduction of herbicides made farming easier, it was the “death blow” for Iowa’s thriving fruit and vegetable production because of drift from weed-killing sprays.

Farming in Iowa progresses with the results of World War II, increasing in scale until the 1980s. Farmers in the 1970s had borrowed tremendous amounts of money, Riney-Kehrberg said. Loans with interest rates as high as 23 percent and falling prices for land, livestock and crops erased any collateral that farmers had to pay off their debts.

In the end, one quarter of all Iowa farms are lost as a result.

During the Farm Crisis of the 1980s, children were strongly encouraged to leave the family farm rather than stay in the business, Maulsby said, remembering herself in early adulthood at that time.

“Even though nobody specifically said ‘do not come back,’ it was made real clear that if you have any brains in your head, you go to college, you get a real job and have a nice life because farming is way too hard for a talented person,” she said.

Although the whimsical picture of the diverse, small farmyard on 160 acres is no longer the norm, Maulsby emphasized the ways agriculture is moving toward environmentalism and conservation.

According to a study she cited from the University of Arkansas, from 1960 to 2015, pork producers in the United States are using 75.9 percent less land, 25.1 percent less water and 7 percent less energy to produce one pound of pork.

These improvements are equal to turning an 18-hole golf

Spotlight

Iowa farmer and marketing specialist Darcy Maulsby shares the modern side of agriculture at the Nevada Public Library in early November. Photo by Katie Mauch/Gannett course into a 4-hole course, taking 90 fewer showers in a year and eliminating the use of a refrigerator in the average household.

While the speakers focused on the past and present of farming, group discussion after the program moved toward the future of agriculture in Iowa.

“Just because dad or grandpa did something a certain way 20, 50, 100 years ago, it worked for them in their time,” Maulsby said, “but things have changed and we’re always focused on continuous improvement and trying to stay competitive in the world we live in.”

Attendees of the event discussed questions about the future of Iowa’s crop diversity, specifically in regard to the potential introduction of other crops and niche markets, as well as whether Iowa would forever be a “corn and soybeans” state.

Larry Snavely, 68, of Nevada, was glad to hear about new practices designed to specifically target certain areas of a field for fertilizer use.

“It’s neat to hear some of the things they are doing for conservation and how they’re spot checking, do we need to put this in this part of the field or not, where years ago you would just spread it,” he said.

According to Maulsby, the future of agriculture needs to include more discussion among rural and urban communities regardless of whether they think they have a connection to agriculture.

“We all have that ag heritage. If you eat three times a day, you are connected to agriculture,” she said. “As a farmer, I am more than happy to share what I know to bridge that gap.”

“... we’re always focused on continuous improvement ...” said Maulsby.

FACETS | JANUARY 2020 | 5

Feature

“Adoption is beautiful, and more people need to understand that adoption does not mean you’re ‘giving up’ a child — it means you’re gaining more family,” said Miranda Keith, pictured with her 3-year-old son, Tobias. Contributed photo

Faces of Adoption: How the stories of the past are helping shape stories of the future

By Robbie Sequeira Gannett

W

hen 18-year-old Miranda Keith, who was pregnant, terrified and apprehensive of the future, floated the possibility of pursuing adoption — she was exposed to the societal biases that adoption sometimes faces.

When Keith’s journey led her to an adoption agency in Des Moines, because she feared she would not be able to adequately provide for a child at 18, she was met with backlash from her family.

“My family had this horrible idea that adoption is ‘giving your baby away,’” Keith said. “In their minds, they still thought that adoption was this strange concept where you gave your child to strangers and never saw them again.”

November was National Adoption month, a month designated to raise awareness about the need for adoptive

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families for children and youth in foster care. That awareness is critical if the conversation is to shift from the biases parents and children of adoption sometimes face to the positive portrayals that are the reality of most adoption stories, say officials who work parents and children of adoption.

Before giving birth to her now 3-year-old son Tobias in October 2016, Keith said much of the conversation was the result of anti-adoption bias from family members and family friends.

“All I received was pressure to back out of the adoption,” Keith said. “In fact, one family member even called a pastor to come speak with me about why adoption is the wrong choice. I felt incredibly alone, and in that moment, I didn’t feel as if I had a choice anymore.”

ADOPTION, continued from page 6

Ultimately, Keith decided to keep her son, raising him and a second son, who was born two years later.

However, as the social media coordinator for The Adoption Club at Iowa State University, Keith shares her story with other expecting mothers, providing them words of support in their decisions to pursue adoption.

“Loving your child and parenting your child are not synonymous,” Keith said. “As a parent, it’s not your job to always parent your child.

Your job as a parent is to make the best decisions for your child, and for some people, that means making an adoption plan for your child.”

Addressing anti-adoption bias is something that Diana Lang, founder and executive director of Iowans for Adoption, said is badly needed to re-shift the conversation to ensure a positive and accurate portrayal of adoption.

“In 2019, there are still much we don’t know about adoption, and how there are still so many barriers in place,” Lang said. “While our mindsets toward adoption has changed, we still see social stigmas that can affects those who seek to adopt, and adoptees.”

In Iowa, approximately 4,000 children are in foster care at any given time. One of the struggles that adoption advocates and workers face is the shortfall of foster homes, currently at 2,500.

At the heart of adoption is what is known as the adoption triad, the interconnected relationship between birth parents, adoptive parents and the adoptee.

Lang has experienced each angle of triad, being adopted at birth, reconnecting with her birth father and adopting a child of her own.

But Lang stresses that societal stigmas and barriers can prevent Iowa’s foster youth from receiving a chance at adoption.

Cost is often a stigma that Lang cites as a deterrent for prospective future foster families.

“I hear from people who say that adoption needs to be less costly, so that more kids are adopted,” she said. “The reality is there aren’t enough kids relinquished at birth for those seeking to adopt. It’s where foster care becomes an emphasis for children places into the system at older ages.”

Iowans for Adoption research shows millions of Americans hope to adopt an infant, but fewer than 12,000 infants are available each year in the U.S. Foster care adoptions are often free, but payment for private adoptions services range from as low as $2,622 to $37,000, for in-state adoptions.

“You’re not paying for a child, you’re paying for the services,” Lang said. “It’s fundamental to understand that we can’t put a value on the child’s life, and that resources are out there to ensure the best situation for the child.”

At the intersection of foster care needs, is retaining foster parents, the mission for Bambi Schrader, recruitment and training coordinator for Four Oaks Family Connections.

“I think a barrier for families is that they think they don’t qualify to be foster parents,” Schrader said.

Through the state services and Four Oaks’ Foster and Adopting program, training and home study for prospective families are free, and families are allotted a stipend for foster care and access to Medicare.

But another hurdle can be shifting the mindset of interested foster families from foster-to-adopt to providing interim fostering, as agencies move toward the end goal of foster care: reunification.

“Just because you adopt or become a foster parent doesn’t mean

Feature

Diana Lang, founder and executive director of Iowans for Adoption. Photo by Nirmalendu Majumdar/Gannett the birth-parents fall off the face of the earth,” Schrader said.

“From day one, we will detail the birth history, birth-parents so that if reunification is the goal, it’s a successful transition.”

Through her own experience of adopting a child, whose mother had been incarcerated and thus made reunification unsuccessful, Schrader said that a central tenant of fostering is providing a safe environment for a child, no matter the outcome.

The biggest need for foster and adoptive homes, according to Schrader, are sibling groups, teenagers and children with behavioral difficulties.

“Ultimately, the mission behind foster care is to provide a child a safe, loving environment,” Schrader said. “For the length that the child is going to stay, providing love, shelter and treating them like your own, can help provide a sense of sustainability.

Rusty Johnson, knows all too well, the importance of sustainability in a foster home.

A byproduct of an absent father, and a mother whose struggles with alcohol led to suicide, Johnson spent adolescence in various temporary foster homes in between unsuccessful stints of reunification with his father.

In 1993, a self-proclaimed “rebellious sixth-grader,” Johnson would meet Brickley, an elementary music teacher who agreed to take in Rusty in the interim as the state looked for more permanent home.

Fast-forward, and Johnson, 37, formally asked Brickley to adopt him. He recalled the feeling of anxiety and potential rejection upon hitting the send button.

“I don’t think being adopted was something that I sought, because with (Brickley) I had felt at home and felt in the best environment,” Johnson said. “It’s important to understand that a foster child and safety is paramount.”

Brickley, however, overcame with emotions and joy at hearing the question she longed to hear since taking Johnson in, agreed.

Johnson said that permanency for many of the state’s children in the foster care system is often foreign and often unknown.

Johnson’s uses his story to be an advocate for Iowa foster kids, through his work on Iowans For Adoption Board.

His focus is ensuring foster children have a degree of autonomy in what can seem like a powerless situation.

FACETS | JANUARY 2020 | 7

Feature

A look at the number of children admitted into foster care in Story County from 2010 to 2018. Infographic by Robbie Sequeira, source: Iowa Department of Human Services.

“When decisions are being made on your behalf, by a judge, by other parents, it can feel like you have no say in the solution,” Johnson said. “When we ask the children, if they enjoy their environment and their security, it can create a level of autonomy in their lives.”

Autonomy, for adoptees of all ages, can be difficult. Especially, when it comes to adoptees seeking birth-parents, previous birth history and medical records.

Lang recalls being met with questions of “Can you just be happy with your adoptive parents?” when she began the process of reconnecting with her birth parents.

For Lang, it wasn’t about dissatisfaction with her adopted parents, it’s about the self-exploration that adoptees often seek.

“It wasn’t a happiness issue, it was connecting the story of life, and it’s a barrier that is the way of many adoptees,” Lang said.

On the legislative front, Lang said that one of the pressing needs is to allow adoptees access to their medical records.

Iowa, along with 22 other states, is described as having restricted access, meaning no adopted person can have access to their original birth certificate.

“Here we are in 2019 and one of our biggest problems is that lack of access — adoptees have to their medical history,” Lang said.

According to state law, adult adoptees may receive medical and developmental family history provided the names of birth

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Feature parents are not released. They may also petition the court to open their sealed record and reveal information for “good cause.”

Biological parents only have to reveal health history records to adoption agencies, but adoptees want more information than that.

Anyone who was born and put up for adoption in Iowa after 1941 was given a new birth certificate that makes it look like the adoptive parents actually gave birth to the child.

“Children born through in-vitro fertilization have a better chance at getting their birth records than children adopted through the foster care system,” Schrader said. “That’s a salient point for anyone who’s adopting, to keep and maintain records of an adoptees medical history and documentation.”

The original law sealing adoption records was put in place in 1941, making Iowa what is called a closed state. This law originally protected adopted people and their families from having to produce a birth certificate that showed a child was illegitimate.

Oregon, Colorado, Alaska, Hawaii, Alabama, Kansas, Rhode

Island, New Hampshire and Maine are the only states where adoptees have complete access to their original birth certificate.

At its root, adoption means different things to different people.

For Miranda Keith, adoption is “beautiful, and more people need to understand that adoption does not mean you’re ‘giving up’ a child — it means you’re gaining more family.”

For Diana Lang and Bambi Schrader, means “providing a child with a safe environment,” no matter the circumstance, and for Rusty Johnson, adoption, is simply, “giving a child a chance to be successful.”

“Children born through in-vitro fertilization have a better chance of getting their birth records than children adopted through the foster care system,” said Schrader.

FACETS | JANUARY 2020 | 9

Feature

Elliot Thompson, owner of Alluvial Brewing Company, and Jason Peterson, head brewer, stand with the new 10-barrel brewing system at the brewery located at 3715 W. 190th St. in Ames. Alluvial recently expanded its brewing capacity and renovated its taproom. Photo by Kylee Mullen/Gannett

ALLUVIAL EXPANSION OFFERS NEW OPPORTUNITIES

By Kylee Mullen Gannett

B

ig changes are brewing at Alluvial Brewing Company after a recent expansion allowed the tap house to begin brewing more beer and welcoming more guests through its doors.

Elliot Thompson, owner of the business located at 3715 W. 190th St. in Ames, said it started when he realized there was a need to expand Alluvial’s brewing capacity. With their previous two half-inch barrel system, Thompson said, “it really limited us.”

“We hit capacity on the previous system within the first year, and we could only brew every other day,” he said, adding that the old system needed to be cleaned every other day and required cooling down. “Our new system is not only twice as big, but it’s also at least twice as efficient. There is no limitation for us, now, and that was a big thing.”

They secured a loan for the new brewing system in 2017 and planned to install it in the following months.

However, Thompson said they faced several delays that extended the process into this year. During that time, it was housed in the brewery’s back room.

“We would have really busy weeks during the summer, when it was nice out and there are all kinds of people coming in here, but that back room was full of equipment. It was a working area, but when there were a lot of people, they would flood back there. We didn’t like people coming back there, and I knew we needed to open a bit more space,” he said.

They renovated an existing building on the property, about 500 feet away from the taproom, and moved the brewing system there. Though they ran low on beer at a couple of points during the move, Thompson said, they never had to close the brewery as a result.

“There was probably about a month where we weren’t

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brewing, and we got low on kegs, but we were able to stay open. It really went as smoothly as it could have possibly gone,” he said.

Thompson said the new system has “all the bells and whistles,” which will allow them to increase the amount of beer they produce while also giving them more opportunities to experiment.

Head brewer Jason Peterson said that is what excites him the most with the expansion.

“We got a bunch of features on this that really enhances the beer, and we can do stuff that other people cannot do,” Peterson said. “It’s awesome because, basically, if we can think it up, we can do it. The only limitation is our imagination when, before, there was actual, physical things holding us back.”

Plus, when they bought the new 10-barrel system, they also added three 10-barrel fermenters to the five 5-barrel and two 2 1/2-barrel fermenters they already owned. Thompson said the higher capacity gave them an opportunity to increase their beer quantity.

As a result, Alluvial can have an increased presence at local events, such as Oktoberfest, and in bars around Ames and Des Moines. They can also increase the amount of packaged beer for sale in the taproom.

“These are things we could have never dreamed of before,” Thompson said.

Thompson said, even with a new presence around the city, Alluvial’s focus will always be on bringing people to their brewery, where “people can get the best experience, in a neighborhood bar … a space for people to meet their neighbors and hang out.”

That is why, as soon as the system was up and running in its new location, renovation on the taproom’s back room began.

ALLUVIAL EXPANSION, continued from page 10

They added a second bathroom, as they were only allowed to have 50 people in the building when there was only one available, which allows an additional 100 people to occupy the space. They also purchased tables and chairs from Mandarin Restaurant, which closed earlier this month, to provide seating for up to 48 people — a significant increase to the existing 45 seats in the front of the building and the outdoors seating for 48 people in warmer months.

Perhaps the biggest change to the space, however, is the stage that was constructed to allow for musical performances, presentations and other events.

“With DG’s Tap House closing a while back … it felt like we could add a space for local musicians and other acts that travel through,” Thompson said. “Now we can bring out a lot more community events, whether that is a play, poetry, karaoke or anything we can do to appeal to everyone.”

Their first performance on the stage was on Nov. 12, and Alluvial hosted a “Neighborhood Appreciation Night” on Dec. 20, with local band Stranger Than Fiction performing.

As Alluvial approaches its five-year anniversary in March 2020, both Thompson and Peterson said they look forward to seeing how the business will continue to move forward.

“We still have room to grow. We never wanted to be distributing around the state, because our mission has always been to bring people here for the experience, but there’s a lot of things in the works now that we have more space,” Thompson said.

Peterson said trying new flavors with the new equipment, to “always keep it fun and new,” is going to help make the beers “consistently better,” and he hopes customers will be able to taste the difference an advanced system can make.

“There is just so much more we can do now that we couldn’t do before,” Peterson said.

One thing that is for sure, Thompson said, is the continued dedication they have to providing a fun atmosphere and quality beer for the entire community to enjoy.

“At the end of the day, we make beer. That’s the number one thing; the quality of the beer, how much we make and serving it to the people,” Thompson said. “We are built on the quality of the product, and that is number one. But also having all this space for people to come out for events and music, it’s exciting.”

Elliot Thompson, owner. Alluvial recently expanded its brewing capacity and renovated its taproom. Photo by Kylee Mullen/Gannett

A new stage constructed in the back of the Alluvial Brewing Company taproom will offer a space for musicians, poets and more to perform at the brewery.

Photo by Kylee Mullen/Gannett

Alluvial recently expanded its brewing capacity and renovated its taproom. Photo by Kylee Mullen/Gannett

FACETS | JANUARY 2020 | 11

Spotlight

Fareway and Variety join to raise funds for adaptive trike for Story City girl

By Katie Mauch Gannett

F

or many kids, getting a new bike is a special moment. For 11-year-old Abby Faber, of Story City, the gift from Variety – the Children’s Charity is all the more meaningful.

Abby has cerebral palsy, a condition that affects movement and muscle tone throughout the body. Without the strength in her legs to ride a traditional bike, the specialized, adaptive tricycle allows her freedom and speed in movement that she otherwise wouldn’t have.

The purchase of the bike was a collaborative effort between Variety and Fareway. Ringing up at about $2,600, the adaptive bike and other mobility equipment like it are not normally covered by a family’s insurance, Variety Executive Director Sheri McMichael said.

“This is one of those things that Variety can step in and say you know what, we’re going to provide you a specialized bike, in this case, and help build up the strength in her legs and build up the strength in her core so she can be more independent,” McMichael said.

This is the second adaptive bike Abby has received

Abby Faber, 11, takes her new trike for a spin through the aisles of the Fareway store in the Somerset neighborhood in Ames. Photo by Katie Mauch/Gannett through Variety. She received the first when she was 5, which she has now outgrown, according to her mother, Jennifer Faber. Jennifer said Abby’s physical therapist played a big part in applying with Variety for the bikes.

“Our physical therapist at Blank Pediatric Therapy was 12 | FACETS | JANUARY 2020

“... the most important thing is to make sure these kids are getting the equipment they need to be mobile,” said McMichael. instrumental, she helps throughout the whole application process,” she said.

The trike has a wide seat with a backrest and Velcro straps to help Abby stay seated. Unlike her previous set of wheels, this one is equipped with a hand brake and is adjustable to modify the fit as she grows.

A stand that converts it into a stationary bike is also included so Abby can use the trike to exercise and build strength in her legs. This use is vital after having three surgeries done on her legs, leaving them weaker each time from being in casts.

According to McMichael, a large part of the work Variety does is based on providing traditional bicycles and equipment to children who have never had one as well as adaptive bikes and mobility pieces that assist with standing and walking.

“We expanded it a couple of years ago (to include mobility equipment) because we thought bikes are great, but there are other needs,” McMichael said. “We started getting requests for that and to me the most important thing is to make sure these kids are getting the equipment they need to be mobile.”

The adaptive bike for Abby is one of 53 bikes and pieces of mobility equipment Variety has provided this year.

McMichael said they expect to give at least 10 more before the end of 2019.

Abby took a lap around the aisles at the Fareway store in the Somerset Neighborhood of Ames, where the bike was presented, with store manager Brian Schmith in tow.

According to Schmith, much of the work to raise money for the bike was done by cashiers at the store. Fareway held a “round-up” where cashiers asked each customer if they would like to round their total up to the nearest dollar to donate to Variety.

“It doesn’t cost anybody a lot but it really raises a lot of money in a short amount of time,” Schmith said. “The best part for me is doing things like this where we get to actually see the faces of the little kids when they get something like that and how much it means to them.”

Abby said she hopes she and her three older siblings can take the bike for a spin on the bike trails near their home in Story City.

Variety – the Children’s Charity Executive Director Sheri McMichael and Fareway CEO Reynolds Cramer help Abby Faber get strapped into her new adaptive bike. Photo by Katie Mauch/Gannett

FACETS | JANUARY 2020 | 13

Feature

Acorn Antiques and Consignment, located at 319 Main St. in Ames, is open Wednesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Photo by Kylee Mullen/Gannett

Keeping history (and her mom’s dream) alive Ames woman sees dream realized in Acorn Antiques

By Kylee Mullen Gannett

A

local woman is keeping her mother’s passion for antiques alive by opening a business on Ames’ Main Street.

Laura Bauer, owner of Acorn Antiques and Consignments at 319 Main St., said opening an antiques store was a dream she shared with her mother for more than two years. It took just as long to turn that dream into a reality.

“There’s a saying that if you say something often enough, it will come to fruition,” Bauer said. “Well, I said non-stop for two years that I was going to open this store.”

She said she owes it all to her mother, Nancy Besch, whose love for antiques — particularly antiques known as primitives, such as wooden utensils, brass buckets and tin molds — led Bauer to where she is today.

Besch, along with her husband Ralph, moved to Ames from Columbus, Ind., with a 12-year-old Bauer in tow, in 1976. Ralph, who was working for a company known as Sundstrand at the time, was transferred to the area and Besch was not particularly happy about the move.

“She did not want to come to Iowa,” Bauer said. “She would say, ‘Oh, it’s all cornfields,’ and my dad would say, ‘But look at all that beautiful black dirt.’ Well, later on, she could have worked for the chamber or been an ambassador here, because she ended up loving it.”

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Besch, an antique collector for about 45 years, would take Bauer to antique shows in Des Moines, where she slowly built a collection. Eventually, Bauer said, “she decided, ‘If I want to keep buying things, I’m going to need to start selling some things.’”

Besch and her husband created a business, Acorn Antiques, and began selling Besch’s treasures during antique shows at the Iowa State Fairgrounds. According to Bauer, the husband and wife made a great team, where Besch would find antiques and Ralph would restore them.

Meanwhile, Bauer went on to study at Iowa State University and then moved to Minnesota to pursue a career in social work. However, she would always come back to help at antique shows.

“You know how you volunteer once to do something and it kind of becomes an expectation?” Bauer said. “I did it one time, and then the next time they did a show, they called and said, ‘Aren’t you going to help us?’ I would take time off work, come to Iowa and do the antique shows.”

After Ralph passed away, Bauer said it became more important than ever to help during those shows, “because my mom couldn’t do them on her own,” and, ultimately, she decided to make Ames her home once again.

It was, in some ways, an easy decision, Bauer said. Her

ACORN ANTIQUES, continued from page 14

own daughter, Sara, was studying at ISU, and Besch’s health was deteriorating.

“After my father died, I never wanted to regret that I had stayed in Minnesota just because I had a great job there, and I won’t ever regret staying with her,” Bauer said. “It’s funny, with death, because your priorities change and you start to realize what’s really important. I came back to help her, and I’m so glad that I did.”

That is when the dream to open a brick-and-mortar store was born.

Besch, who Bauer describes as “spunky and energetic,” was diagnosed with lung cancer and had to give up her antiques booth, which “was truly her passion.” Bauer decided that, by opening a store, Besch could still interact with customers while collecting and selling antiques.

The location, however, had to be perfect.

“Everything that I would look at, she would say, ‘No, no, not that.’

She said it had to be on Main Street, in the historic downtown Ames, and, really, she wanted this building because she thought it was the perfect spot,” Bauer said.

That building, which previously housed Swanks Jewelry, was for sale, not for lease, and “I had to let the idea go, and just give the whole idea up.”

Then, in what Bauer said “my mother would have called serendipity,” she saw a “for lease” sign in the window of the building, which had been purchased by Dan Oh, the president and CEO of AgCertain Industries, Inc. in Ames.

“Sadly, my mom passed on April 16, of this year, and I didn’t get the lease until June 8. She is still with me, though, overlooking, and it’s nice

Feature

to be around all of her favorite things,” Bauer said. “We’re here now, and she’s not.”

Though her mother would never see the store’s opening, her photo sits above the register and “hopefully she is happy that I’m finally doing it.”

Bauer started moving inventory in on June 8, most of which was already priced by her mother, and officially opened the doors on June 21. However, there was scaffolding in front of the building for three of the four months she had the store opened and “people didn’t really know I was here or if I was open.”

Now, with the sign up and construction done, she looks forward to helping people find and sell their antiques and vintage items, to “keep history and (Besch’s) love for antiques alive.” She said the store has items ranging from $2 to $500.

“The most fun is when someone really loves something, and they buy something and you know they are going to keep it, use it and love it. That makes me really happy because I knew it would make my mom happy,” Bauer said.

Currently, the store is open Wednesday through Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and is closed Sunday through Tuesday. Bauer said she is happy to see that dream she so often talked about with her mom come to life, and to see where it will go from here.

“I just knew I was going to do it, and I hoped I could do it with her,” Bauer said. “That didn’t work out, but I also don’t have to let go of my mom yet. I have her things around me, and I can still kind of being with her. It’s really just about keeping the passion she had going.”

Laura Bauer, owner of Acorn Antiques and Consignment at 319 Main St. in Ames, stands in front of the primitives, which were her mother’s favorite types of antiques. Photo by Kylee Mullen/Gannett

A photo of Nancy Besch sits on a shelf above the register at Acorn Antiques and Consignment at 319 Main St. in Ames.

Photo by Kylee Mullen/Gannett

FACETS | JANUARY 2020 | 15

Spotlight

Winter gear drive provides warmth to students

By Kiley Wellendorf Gannett

M

ore than 200 students from the Ames school district received winter gear following the district’s winter clothes drive. The drive was put on by Amber Franzeen and Anna Fagervik, student and family advocates for Ames elementary schools.

“Anna and I’s position as the student and family advocates is new at the elementary level this year,” Franzeen said. “One of our goals is to work together with families and the community to ensure our student’s physical and emotional needs are being met.”

The drive took place during conferences at each school building where families had the opportunity to donate items to the cause. Later, the items were distributed to each school the following week.

In total, 214 students received 735 winter gear items, Franzeen said.

According to Franzeen, the winter gear drive played a critical role in meeting the physical needs of staying warm during the cold season.

“If our students do not come to school warm or have the ability to play outside during recess, then we cannot expect them to fully engage in learning at their highest potential,” Franzeen said.

Recess for the elementary students typically lasts around 15-20 minutes for students, and those who do not have winter boots or snow pants are required to stay on hard surfaces and not play in the snow, Franzeen said.

According to information from the district, the following items were donated for students during the drive: 139 coats, 123 pairs of boots, 122 snow pants, 160 pairs of gloves, 112 hats and 79 scarves.

“We were thrilled with the outcome of the drive this year and look forward to continuing efforts in the future,” Franzeen said. “We also want to say thank you to all who participated; we could not have done this without support from families and the community.”

While the drive has ended, community members interested in donating additional items can contact either Franzeen or Fagervik, or Muhammad and Kaitlyn Clark at the high school. Larger donations will go through Linda Jones at the Ames district office.

16 | FACETS | JANUARY 2020

Donations from the winter gear drive piled up for students. Contributed photo by Amber Franzeen/Ames Community School District

Spolight Awein Majak, of Ames, regularly welcomes those in the community into her home for a safe place to be.

Photo by Kiley Wellendorf/ Gannett

Pausing life to assist others

A

wein Majak’s 10-month-old son missed his nap, she said, as she was up all morning helping out a community member who was evicted from their apartment. The two connected through an online group, either “Ames People” or “Neighbors Helping Neighbors,” Majak said.

It’s not uncommon for Majak to extend a helping hand, in fact, her life since coming to the United States often revolves around helping those in need.

When Majak first came to the United States in the early 2000s, her interpretation of “The American Dream” involved the usual stereotypes of success: a college degree, a successful profession, a vehicle she could purchase on her own, followed by a house and a family.

“I felt like that’s not the American dream,” Majak, an ISU graduate, self-employed mother of five, said. “It’s about helping people, the less fortunate — that’s the real American dream.”

Giving back takes on different meanings for Majak; for the community, she works to make herself accessible, and for minorities, she offers up what she can: her voice, her vehicle, her desire to teach and educate.

Every Wednesday and Sunday, Majak’s home is filled with students and members of the Sudanese community.

During their time in her house, members are fed, receive “a word of God,” she said, and receive assistance with their

homework.

“Usually I mentor them, talk to them, look at their

By Kiley Wellendorf grades and see what they need help with: math, science or Gannett whoever needs help, and we just do it here at home,” Majak said. “The high school (students) help the younger ones, and I (mostly help) the high schoolers.”

It’s not something she talks about often because she’s not doing it for admiration.

“I don’t care about (praise) actually,” Majak said. “We have to be a community that helps each other.”

The Gift of Learning Education played a crucial part in Majak’s upbringing; Majak’s father and uncles were educators, and instead of having the option to ride the bus to school, she walked.

Each morning, Majak heard the phrase, “Early bird gets the worm,” which inspired her to seek education each day, she said.

“I never missed school if I was tired or sick,” Majak said.

“I’d walk to school to learn.”

One memory, she recalls, is her father’s small handbag he used for papers. When she was younger, he told her that the bag would be hers as she grew older.

“When you’re 4 or 5 years old, you think, ‘This is a big thing,’” Majak said. “You have to go to school just to get the bag.”

He later showed Majak a pencil and told her the same FACETS | JANUARY 2020 | 17

Spotlight PAUSING LIFE TO ASSIST OTHERS, continued from page 17

phrase: “This will be yours when you grow up.”

Following his death when she was 8, Majak understood the pencil and bag were symbolic of what he wanted her to seek out: education.

“I still think about that bag and that pencil,” Majak said.

Educating for a Brighter Future As a young adult, Majak began working with refugees in the community upon arriving to Ames in 2005. Before Ames, she moved to New York City with her uncle who became a father figure after her Dad died fighting in the Sudanese Civil War, she said.

While still new to the community, Majak used her English to help navigate refugees’ daily lives in the Ames community.

In her early years in Ames, she translated for refugees and regularly brought them to appointments, she said.

“It’s not easy,” Majak said. “I feel good when I help them because I’m able to navigate resources in the community and leverage them.”

Prior to becoming a mother, she became regularly involved in the lives of her nieces and nephews, and later began mentoring refugee children of Ames.

“I used to talk with them a lot about the importance of education to better yourself,” Majak said. “I told them, ‘Don’t be like the parents because they came here (and) they don’t know English and are forced to work in labor jobs, meat factories.’”

In 2010, Majak decided to start a small group for students in order to focus on bettering their education. She became a regular person of support in their lives: she babysat students, helped them with their homework, took them to church and took them to the movies.

“I have pictures with all of us having fun since they were young,” Majak said.

Around four years ago, Majak said she noticed a growing

18 | FACETS | JANUARY 2020

number of students with a disability in the Ames and Sudanese communities.

“We started looking for more help,” Majak said. “The more I looked for help, the more I figure we have deeper problems than this.”

As she sought out for more help in the community, Majak’s phone continued to ring as families wanted her assistance in times of need.

“Kids started getting into trouble, smoking weed, drinking, not going to school and getting in trouble with the police,” Majak said. “So I get phone calls in the middle of the night, ‘So and so got in trouble,’ or (the youth) call, ‘Awein, I’m in trouble, can you help?’”

While Majak has five children today, she regularly puts her schedule on pause often to help others.

“Yes, I don’t have time, yes, I have five children, (but) what’s the future of our children?” Majak said. “They will look up to the generation before them, (and if) they’re not doing well, (they’ll think) why do we have to do well.”

Bridging the Gap As the refugee community continues to expand, Majak has looked toward partnering with The Memorial Lutheran Church and Student Center in efforts to offer a larger space for the refugee community to gather. The Memorial Lutheran Church and Student Center has worked with the Sudanese community over the last 25 years, according to senior pastor Mark Heilman.

“We say Sudanese (and) the reality is, that is something we say,” Heilman said. “In Africa, it’s all about tribes, and we’ve had contacts with various tribes.”

According to Heilman, the Lutheran Church and the Roman Catholic Church are considered to be two of the top activist groups for refugee resettlement.

Awein Majak shares a photo of her family taken at a college graduation. Photo by Kiley Wellendorf/Gannett

Spolight PAUSING LIFE TO ASSIST OTHERS, continued from page 18

Ames school district superintendent Jenny Risner meets with Awein Majak's organization recently and hears from students and family members in the refugee community. Contributed photo by Eric Smidt/Ames School District “We’re all for it, again, because it’s a grassroots (organization) and it’s coming from within the community,” Heilman said about Awein’s efforts to assist the refugee community.

In late November, Majak’s group invited Ames school district Superintendent Jenny Risner to the Memorial Lutheran Church and Student Center to meet with both students and their parents.

“Since I came to the district, it was important for me to go out and meet with as many people as possible,” Risner said. “Awein and I connected because she had reached out to me and we just developed a great relationship.”

The opportunity to hear from students and their parents was a great experience, Risner said.

“I feel humbled for the opportunity to get to go into a place that they feel comfortable in and hear what their thoughts are, what the barriers are that they are experiencing with our school system, and how we can begin to remove those barriers,” Risner said.

During the meeting, Risner said she shared with the school board the struggles that came up from students and their family members: middle and high school students navigating the system with little English, registering for classes and college planning, as well as understanding the programs, Risner said.

“Of the bigger (issues) that works into the cultural competence work that we’ve done year round is that idea that everyone (needs) to fit into our system and not honoring their culture,” Risner said. “So I think that’s an area that we need to improve on as a district.”

Success for the program, in Majak’s perspective, is to watch students and the refugee community grow. “(I hope) that the students do better, their grades go up, and that they

finish high school with a higher reading level, (that) they go to college and succeed,” Majak said. “I am just hoping something changes.”

“...Giving back takes on different meanings for Majak; for the community, she works to make herself accessible, and for minorities, she offers up what she can: her voice, her vehicle, her desire to teach and educate..

FACETS | JANUARY 2020 | 19

Spotlight

Willow Brook Barn, a new auction and event center in Colo owned by Bob and Sharon Wilson, will soon open in Colo’s Industrial Park. Photo by Marlys Barker/Contributing writer

Wilson’s new auction and event venue near Colo prepares for 2020 season

By Marlys Barker Contributing Writer

B

ob and Sharon Wilson of Colo have been married 44 years, and for most of that time, they’ve run an auction business in Colo.

“I started out doing it (auctions) because I anticipated the farming thing might get tough at times,” said Bob, who graduated from auctioneers’ school in Mason City in March of 1975.

Auctions by Wilson Auction Service have become a popular part of the Colo culture. Very soon, those auctions will move from their longtime home on Colo’s Main Street to a newly constructed building along U.S. Highway 30. Willow Brook Barn will be both the home of Wilson Auction Service and an event venue for everything from wedding receptions to corporate events to smaller gatherings.

Situated at the northwest corner of the Colo Industrial Park, the close to 9,000-square-foot building and a parking area that will sit to the east of the building take up two lots.

“I don’t know why no one had taken (these lots) before us,” said Bob, who is delighted with the corner lot location, just off U.S. 30.

Construction of Willow Brook Barn, which becomes the fifth business to find a home in the industrial park, started in June. Rainy conditions made the wait for completion a little longer than anticipated.

But, not having the building done didn’t stop the Wilsons

20 | FACETS | JANUARY 2020

from having their first big event at the venue at the end of August. With the help of Vintage Love Rentals out of Des Moines and a fancy portable restrooms trailer, they hosted the reception for their daughter’s wedding at Willow Brook Barn.

“They (Vintage Love Rentals) came out and hung chandeliers and lights and beautiful decorations,” Sharon said.

“All we had was the shell (of the building), concrete and a water line,” said Bob. “But, it worked out.”

When asked why they wanted to put up a new building, Sharon said they were ready for an updated facility. And as they started with the planning, Bob noted, all the kids kept saying, “Make it big enough,” for auctions and whatever else they might want to hold inside.

All the talk about what the building could be used for led to the idea of making it an event venue for more than just auctions.

As the Wilsons look around the inside of the building this weekend, Sharon shows where the kitchen, an office area, restrooms and a stairway and loft will be located inside the entrance at the east end of the building. She talks about how she envisions a fireplace along one of the walls and sliding barn doors along another. There will also be dividers put up inside the building so that it can be rented to smaller groups that don’t need the entire area.

Their son, Danny, and son-in-law, Jeromy Fritz, are

WILSON ‘S, continued from page 20

Spolight

helping get the inside work finished.

Sorem Sales and EPS Buildings put up the building, with Dale Sorem as the main contractor. “Dale’s been top-notch to work with,” Bob said.

When it comes to their old auction building on Colo’s Main Street, the couple said that the building is now for sale. “It’s a big old building with lots of potential,” Bob said.

Anyone interested in buying the building can call Bob at 515-290-4789.

The Wilsons want to thank the Farren family for helping them get started in their auction business many years ago.

“We rented that building (which had been Farren Implement) and eventually we purchased lots and added onto it (as the owners),” Bob said.

When it comes to their new business location and potential, Sharon has been getting help from her daughters on marketing. A Willow Brook Barn Facebook page has been set up, and the Wilsons have already had a good amount of interest from people in renting the facility for special events.

“It’s been fun,” Sharon said of putting up a new building with new possibilities. She loves interior decorating and can’t wait to help plan and decorate for events that will be coming up at Willow Brook Barn. Bob said there have been a lot of decisions to be made, but he smiled. “It’s been interesting.”

Looking back at how their auction business started, Bob said, “farming was a partnership I had with my dad and my brothers, and I wanted something Sharon and I could have on our own.”

Bob and Sharon Wilson, of Colo, are preparing to open their new auction and event center, Willow Brook Barn, and are taking reservations for the 2020 season, which starts March 1. Photo by Marlys Barker/Contributing writer

Willow Brook Barn, a new auction and event center in Colo owned by Bob and Sharon Wilson, is located in Colo’s Industrial Park. Photo by Marlys Barker/Contributing writer

FACETS | JANUARY 2020 | 21

Spotlight Two fortune cookie messages, which Rachel Junck keeps in her wallet, have helped motivate her rise to Ames City Councilmember-elect.

One fortune reads, “Now is the time to set your sights high and go for it.”

The other, “Keep your idealism practical.” Photo

by Robbie Sequeira/Gannett

Rachel Junck’s campaign: The intersection of student representation and lifelong residency

By Robbie Sequeira Gannett

In her wallet, Rachel Junck keeps two mementos, a keepsake from a few end-of-the semester trips to her favorite Chinese restaurant after arduous final exams last May. As the then-sophomore juggled a full course load as a chemical engineering major and political science minor at Iowa State University, the 20-year-old lifelong Ames resident was also mulling a campaign to become the Ward Four representative on the Ames City Council.

Embedded in two fortune cookies from those visits, were two fortunes that came to define the precocious junior’s next six months.

One fortune reads, “Now is the time to set your sights high and go for it.”

The other, “Keep your idealism practical.”

Those two messages became the motivating factor for Rachel Junck’s rise to becoming the newest, and youngest, member of the Ames City Council.

“I’m not superstitious, but at the time that I was wondering if I should run for city council, I got a message to go out and go for it,” said Junck. “The other message became helpful in what I wanted to achieve in my campaign, and keeping my ideas grounded and practical.”

Around 8:45 p.m. on Dec. 3, when all five precincts in Ward Four reported the results of the runoff election, Junck shouted to her campaign party inside Campustown’s Jeff’s Pizza, “We did it!”

By virtue of a 55 percent to 44.8 percent vote, Junck had unseated two-term incumbent Chris Nelson.

22 | FACETS | JANUARY 2020

For Ward Four, the Nov. 5 general election was a three-person race that included a third candidate Joe Van Erdewyk. Junck came within seven votes of winning the election with 49.5 percent of the vote — failing to reach the 50 percent plus one vote requirement to secure the seat.

“We had a feeling that we would head to a runoff election, and after the votes were canvassed (on Nov. 12), we immediately knocked on doors and hearing from voters,” Junck said. “It was a whirlwind day on Dec. 3, because we were reaching out to voters last-minute to make them aware of the run-off election and which voting stations they could go to.”

One of her overarching goals, she said, was increasing voter engagement among Fourth Ward constituents, including the Iowa State University student population.

Turnout did improve on Dec. 3, as the runoff election drew 1,313 ballots, an increase from the 1,220 ballots cast in the November election.

For perspective, only 848 ballots were cast in the last runoff election in 2011 between winner Victoria Szopinski and incumbent Chuck Johns, also a Ward Four race.

“In November, we knew that maybe there were some people who wanted to vote and weren’t able to get out to the polling stations ,or maybe felt their vote didn’t matter,” Junck said. “But then when we came seven votes away from the seat in November, we knew every vote mattered.”

Junck’s win has drawn local and national attention, over the distinction of her win, with debate on her placement

Spolight RACHEL JUNCK, continued from page 22

among the youngest women elected to office in the state. Victoria Lee was younger when she was elected to the Missouri Valley City Council in 2005. After a whirlwind of announcements and media reporting over the youngest-ever status and continued uncertainty with more media reports after her election saying she wasn’t the youngest, Junck said the distinction and potential of making history was never her goal.

Her goal has been to increase student participation in local government and bring the concerns of a students to the City Council, she said.

“It’s been about representation,” Junck said.

The motivation for her campaign was the byproduct of casual conversations in university halls and friends groups, with a main question to be answered, “If students make up half the population of Ames, why isn’t there student on City Council with voting power?”

Ames, with a population of 67,154 and 33,991 students enrolled at ISU this fall, those students account for 51 percent of the city’s total population.

Student representation on Ames City Council has recently been limited to an ex-officio capacity, a one-year term, filled by an Iowa State student. This year that person is junior Devyn Leeson, who offers the voice of student opinion but holds no voting power.

It was one of the central messages of Junck’s campaign, a student with a “voice and vote” on the council.

Junck, said students need voting representation in city government, especially in discussions about rental caps, affordable housing and climate change.

“The most phenomenal part of this is has been getting more people, students, excited about what local government can do for them,” Junck said. “I think the more we engaged with students, the more they saw how decisions on housing, climate, and transportation would affect them for the next four years and beyond.”

Junck said that she hopes to work with Leeson to continue bringing student voices and concerns to local government.

But engagement efforts for Junck’s campaign, transcended her peers at the university. She also made a point to listen to the permanent residents of Ames.

“We knocked on every door we could in Ward Four, because we wanted to represent everyone, and wanted to understand what issues all the constituents in the ward were talking about,” Junck said. “It was great to see all the community support, including the permanent residents, who have seen all the changes in Ames and wanted to share their opinion on what they want to from a city council member.”

Junck said her discussions and eventual support among permanent residents came through her prioritizing of local climate action as part of her campaign.

“I think the belief is that we can only affect climate change on a global and national scale, but there are local actions we can take as a city to reduce our carbon emissions,” she said. “It’s something that has become a uniting factor between the permanent residents and the ISU students.”

But the newly-minted Ward Four representative’s campaign hasn’t come without its detractors.

Some Ames residents have accused Junck of imparting partisan bias into the non-partisan local election environment — citing her appearance on a video conference for minor political party Working Families of America, along with Chelsea Chism-Vargas, a candidate for Des Moines City Council.

By virtue of a 55 percent to 44.8 percent vote, 20-year-old Rachel Junck unseated two-term incumbent Chris Nelson in the Dec. 3 run-off election in the city’s Fourth Ward. Photo by Robbie Sequeira/Gannett Iowa law does not prohibit a candidate running for a city council from receiving partisan funds or endorsements — even if, municipal and school elections are not partisan races, themselves.

In response to the accusations, Junck asserts that her campaign’s stances on climate change and young voter turnout drew interest, not partisan talking points.

“They saw a candidate they believed in, and a candidate that was working toward a better Ames, and issue that we’re important to them like climate change and representation in local government,” she said.

When she’s sworn in on Jan. 2. to begin four-year term, Junck said she’s intent on handling the perceived skepticism and criticism of her age and qualifications, by proving her mettle from day one.

“I’m going to do my best to hold my own,” Junck said. “It involves putting in the hard work and proving to people your worth and that you are capable of it. Ultimately, I am going to work to be a council member who not only represents Ward Four, but all of Ames.”

From her days as a 6-year-old girl who enjoyed frequent trips to McFarland Park to a young woman set to influence major action-steps in the city she calls home, Junck said the six-month campaign to election day has been “life-changing.”

“There are so many women in local government who have become role models for me, and to have a chance to be a role model for others through representative government is incredible,” she said.

Junck said she’s looking forward to the challenge of juggling her junior-level course-load at ISU, time with friends, and of course, the marathon meetings inside City Council Chambers on Tuesday nights.

“I’m ready for it,” she said with a confident laugh. “I’m ready to use my background and experiences to help work with an amazing council to make those tough decisions and ultimately, continue to make Ames the best place to live.”

FACETS | JANUARY 2020 | 23