SK Malone
Staff Writer
It has been five years since Kristy Peterson and her family moved to Hope. During this time, she started a business, volunteered at the school and helped around the community. Kristy and her husband Travis Peterson also volunteer at the Hope Fire/EMS, where she is the secretary and he is the Interim Chief.
At the school, Kristy has started a 4-H program for the kids of Hope and the surrounding area. She also volunteers as the choir and drama club director. Kristy organizes and volunteers at many Parent Teacher Student Organization events. The most recent event she is organizing is the annual Halloween Carnival, which is on October 27th at the Hope School.
When she first started her business, it was a little sewing and gift shop called Sumthin Extra. The goal in starting this business was to provide jobs to local residents and provide a service for the community. After about three years, Kristy revamped the shop, pulling out the sewing business and running it from her house. The shop was now a place where one could find fit snacks or drinks, handcrafted gifts or art made by local residents, handmade clothes, and even hardware.
During this same time, Kristy started a food co-op through the Azure Company, where locals could order all natural healthy food and products so people could find these things in Hope instead of having to go out of town. Today the shop is closed, although she still runs the food co-op.
I recently conducted an interview with Kristy to see what brought her to Hope, what she would like to see in our community, and what some of her future plans are.
What attracted you to Hope?
The option to live off the land. Travis and I were interested in homesteading, raising chickens and growing our own vegetables for years. Mainly it was the school and the options to volunteer in my community, which is much harder to do in a larger community.
Why did you start your business and what are your future goals?
I started my business because I wanted the ability to help put food on the table, to help pay bills for my family and to help create employment options in my community. Our business plan in the future at this point is I just want to help bring healthy food into this community through the food co-op. It is why I started the food co-op, selling farm fresh eggs and fresh vegetables in the first place, to bring healthy food and products to community so that people wouldn’t have to drive down the highway to get them as well as helping our community’s economy.
What direction would you like to see the Fire and EMS department head?
At the meeting the other night it was described as a young Girdwood Volunteer Fire and Rescue. What I would like to see happen is the opportunity for a paid position or two, possibly a Fire Chief and EMS positions so that it may help better our economy and provide consistent and reliable emergency services.
What are your goals for 4-H and why did you start it?
I started 4-H so the local children could gain leadership knowledge as well as being part of a team, the knowledge of being able to grow food, create crafts, or take care of animals. My goals for 4-H are to give the kids backgrounds in agriculture, arts and crafts and animal husbandry. What I would like to see happen because 4-H is a national youth leadership program, possibly helping the kids become potential future leaders in our communities and their prospective endeavors.
What would you like to see for the future of this community?
What I would like to see for the future of this community is to be more sustainable, with the ability to be able to grow and provide food for our community, I’d like to see us be able to take care of our nutritional needs, and to see us be able to run our fire department efficiently while having a paid chief and EMS. To feed our community with our own gardens, chickens and farm raised food. So that way, our economy flourishes and our community is healthy, while we don’t have to travel as much and without relying on services from outlying communities. I want to see the community to be able to live their lives here not just sleep here.
If you would like to sign up for the food co-op, volunteer for the Fire or EMS department, volunteer or have donations for the Halloween Carnival or 4-H, please feel free to contact Kristy Peterson at (971) 241-5222.
Kristy Peterson instructs kids as one of her many, varied roles in the community of Hope.