CHELSEA GRANDMAISON 35, DULUTH

cards and artwork for friends. Since COVID has left me with a bit more free time, binging on Netflix has been a welcomed distraction.

Tell us about an influential person in your life.

What do you do?

(job, community involvement)

For my full-time job, I am part of the dynamic team at Wheeler Associates, a family-owned financial and employee benefits firm in Duluth. As client services manager, I spend my time helping organizations and their employees manage and understand their employee benefits.

I’m also part of the amazing group of instructors at Duluth Yoga. This is my “bucket-filler” job that allows me to pursue my passion of sharing health, wellness and movement with others.

I currently serve on the board of directors for The Hills Youth and Family Services, a nonprofit organization providing programming for at-risk youth and their families. I’m also part of the board of directors at The Duluth Bethel, a Duluth nonprofit that provides life-changing help and guidance through drug and alcohol treatment and community corrections programs.

How do you spend your free time?

I like to spend my free time adventuring outdoors — biking, hiking, snowboarding and cross-country skiing. You can also find me getting lost in a good book (shoutout to the LGA Book Club), appreciating the slower pace of life out at the cabin and testing out my baking skills with a new Pinterest recipe. I’ve also been known to get pretty crafty, creating hand-designed

Hands-down, my niece and official pen pal, Allie Lu. This soon-to-be 8-year-old is already an animal rights advocate, a confident performer no matter the stage and has an insatiable thirst for knowledge. She reminds me to stay curious and ask questions, to stand up for what you are passionate about and proudly march to the beat of your own drum. She inspires me to be kind, to use my words for good in which to promote change and to love without boundaries.

Seeing the world through her unfiltered eyes encourages me to find the opportunities that exist in each day.

Where is your favorite place in Duluth/Superior?

Stoney Point on a calm summer night.

What have you learned in your time spent at home during the pandemic?

I’ve learned that it’s easier to adapt to, rather than resist change. Change can present new and exciting opportunities if you stop digging your heels in.

I never thought that I would say this, but, I’ve learned that I may actually be a hugger. I’ll have to test my theory when it’s safe to embrace on the other side of this thing.

Finally, while working from home I’ve learned that sweatpants are totally acceptable work attire. As long as you don’t stand up during a Zoom meeting, no one will ever know.

What do you do? (job, community involvement)

Community relations officer for the city of Duluth. This role in the mayor’s office is a definite dream role, of heart work. And by dream, I mean that’s actually how I imagine it’s supposed to be — that belonging, the ability to feel like you’re not stepping outside some boundary. It’s not like, “Do I belong here?” No, this is where I’m supposed to be. And it sheds a different light on how things could be.

That same relentless determination for a healthy, connected and thriving community, is what leads me to serve as a Core Council leader of the KwePack (Kwe means “woman” in Anishinaabe), a collective of Indigenous endurance athletes. That’s why I takes pride in working for the city of Duluth and running with the KwePack — people like me, with stories like mine — both platforms gift me the ability to advocate with and for, to empower, and create space for others to tell their own stories and run, speak, listen and lead in a heartway. In the way that I was taught, our ancestral homelands are the “center of all good things.”

Everyone deserves to exist and absorb all that goodness — to be visible, be heard, to belong, and thrive here in Duluth. That also means we have a responsibility to take care of this place and each other.