Coffee With Mel - Affordables, Story City - December 8, 2023

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Period Mel Crippet and coffee with Mel. I am disc putting, Oh yeah,
Meil in the morning, I'm fourteenthirty Kasi, and it's time for
coffee with Mel. In fact,it's past time for coffee with Mel.
I guess. Andrew just came inand says, hey, you know you're

(00:22):
on the air. I said,no, we're having conversations and my watch
must be off a little bit,but we're glad you're with us here this
morning. We'll be here in StoryCity and glad to be here at one
of my favorite places, Affordables.And I just come in here in wonder
and look around at all the items. I'll tell you, if you are

(00:43):
out Christmas shopping and you haven't stoppedat Affordables, you're not Christmas shopping.
You're just out there looking around,and they want you to come in and
look around here. There are somany treasures and gifts, and the thing
I like about it it's unusual,and Affordables is a very very special place,

(01:06):
constantly changing. The inventory is constantlychanging, and it is I think
the key word there is affordable.And the money you spend here helps out
the Bethany life communities here in StoryCity, And the fact that they're here
in Story City doesn't mean that's allthey serve. They serve all over here

(01:26):
in central Iowa and a marvelous placein so many ways. And I've been
honored to come here each and everyyear, and usually it was in August,
and of course we had few changesthere on the station in August,
and I desperately missed all the folksfrom Bethany life. And when I got
the opportunity to come up here todayand get to see some of them again,

(01:51):
I was delighted. I was ecstaticabout it. So anyway, we're
gonna be up here, We're goingto talk to some of those folks that
I think so much of, andnot only that, we'll share some information
about affordables here who is by theway, Now, don't get in a
big runt right now, but they'regoing to be moving. We'll tell you
about that too. A new locationbut still here in Story City, a

(02:15):
much better location, not that thisis a bad one, but a little
bit off the beaten path. Butthe new location is going to be on
Main Street. Let me steal allthe thumberil okay, But anyway, lots
of things going on lots of folksto talk to here this morning, and
we're going to start off the list. Let's get Natalie over here. Since

(02:38):
I'm here, Natalie, I'm blowingmy horn about Affordables, and you're much
better shaped talk about that than meat. Good morning. So Affordables is a
thrift store in Story City. It'sa little more than a thrift store.
We've got probably everything you could needand not need. Christmas has expled,

(03:00):
not at the store right now,it covers pretty much every corner of our
store. And the big big thinggoing on for December, so half price
off all donated and that includes allthe Christmas items. So if you're looking
to decorate or add some pieces toyour furniture Christmas collection, swing by and

(03:20):
we can probably find you something tofill that spot. They tell me you
are the antique road show of StoryCity. Did you get some absolutely collectible
items in here and they're reasonably priced? Absolutely. I grew up with antiques
and kind of know a little bitabout every little thing. Every once in

(03:40):
a while something does come in andsurprise me and stump me. But thank
good for goodness for Google, wecan kind of do a little research and
something like that well, I wasokay here, I was just absolutely fascinated.
I had not seen one of thesein years. And it is a
payphone, an old payphone, absolutelynot functioning. But what a wonderful decore

(04:03):
that would make for some folks outthere. There's a lot of people who
would not even know what that isby looking at it. And it's not
the push button, it's the oldrotary dial. That's true. It actually
is a working wall phone. Yeah, so's it's kind of like a reproduction,
very well done, but it isan actual working wall phone. But

(04:25):
yeah, who knew. And therotary works in the hand. Yeah,
so that's great. I'll make sureI got changed next time. Yeah,
I got to have the right amount. And is there a voice in there?
It says, please deposit in anotherthirty five cents to keep your call
in effect. So yeah, Ijust caught my eye. Wonderful old antique
clock. I could sit here fordays. I don't have enough time to

(04:48):
name all of the wonderful things inhere. And Natalie mentioned Christmas Day core.
Christmas Day core galore is what I'mgonna say. It's it's everywhere,
every little item something you're going tocome in and see, they're going to
ring a bell for you, literallyring a bell. But others are you
going to say, oh gosh,I remember having one of those when I

(05:10):
was a kid, or my grandmotherhad one of those or something. It's
here. I know it's here somewhere. I don't know where, but I
know it's here somewhere. And Natalie, it must be a lot of fun
doing this. Oh absolutely. Ilove helping people. Usually when somebody comes
in and says, you probably knowwhere this is, and I don't have
time to look around the store,and I'm like, follow me, I'll

(05:31):
show you where that's at. Butit's more about just it's helping the community.
When somebody comes in and really needssomething, we're here to help out.
They don't have to run to aimsto get something. We've got kitchen
items, clothing items, the coreitems, furniture, household goods, you
name it, we probably have itsomewhere in this store. I'll tell you.

(05:56):
A few years back, I broughtmy younger, my late younger other
end here. I just told them, I said, you have to see
this place. You have to justtake a walk through it with me and
stuff. I'll be dog goned ifhe didn't find a golf club he'd been
looking for for years, and itwas here, a Toffordables, and he
picked him up. I look acrossthe way, there's some snow skis over

(06:17):
there. It's just fascinating. Awonderful place to come to, with wonderful
people that will work with you,like Natalie. In fact, I'm looking
over there. There's no kootie gameunder there. So there's a Christmas gift
maybe some of the younger kids mightnot be aware of, you know,
for the kids, for you,for grandma and grandpa, something here is

(06:40):
going to warm their hearts. Andyou'll find it here at Affordables. Natalie.
What's your hours here? So weare close Sunday and Monday. We're
open Tuesday, Friday ten to five, Saturday nine to three. And if
people wanted to donate, can theydo that? How do they do that?
Absolutely? Can either call this storeand just let us know ahead of

(07:00):
time that you're coming with your donations. We'll take them Tuesday through Friday during
business hours and then Saturdays by appointmentnine to three. And I'm be remiss
if I didn't tell you not everythingin here is pre owned. Every once
in a while, though, gettruckloads or from vendors out there that are
overstocked, and they will bring itand donate it here to affordables, and

(07:25):
that's a great way to go.So if you're just thinking, oh,
gently used, yes it is.But some of the things are absolutely brand
new, never been used, andyou owe it to yourself, and you
owe it to your wallet and yourpurse and everything else. Just stop here
at affordables and see what the heckhave they got there. I can't tell
you there's too much, all right, Natalie, thank you so much.

(07:48):
Mel you bet you. It's alwaysgood to see you. All right.
I don't know if she's doing appraisals, so we'll talk about that later.
All right, Okay, let's getShannon over here. And I know I
happen to know Shannon's got a meetingshe's got to go to. You do,
don't you? I do. Ido have a meeting to go to.
There's always a meeting going on inStory City, just depends what organization

(08:11):
you want me to be that morning. Yeah, Shannon, this is I
said, I said earlier, beforewe ever got on the air, I
said, had I not come tolive in Ames, I like to think.
I come to Story City to live. It is such a welcoming,
warm community and on the go,definitely on the go mostly this time of
year. I don't know if younoticed when you pulled in Mail that big

(08:33):
Christmas tree in her downtown. He'snot there anymore, Shannon, I know
whether you noticed or not. Atree in the middle of the road didn't
make sense to me. I said, no, I must be hallucinating,
but no. And that is oneof the things I know over the many
many years we talked about is quitea ceremony. It goes around that tree.
Yep. Absolutely, the Friday afterThanksgiving we lit the tree with our

(08:54):
yule Fest tree lighting celebration, whichthis year was its one hundred and ninth
year, and in that one hundrednine years, there was only one year
we did not have a tree.So we had about five hundred people in
attendance for that night. The weatherwas wonderful. I know that's hard to
say as an Iowan, but youknow, forty degrees and lighting a tree
is wonderful. But it is alwaysa joyous time and this year the tree

(09:18):
had a special meaning. We actuallygot it from Roland, but the grandfather
and the son who planted that treeactually worked for our electric department and helped
put that tree up for numerous yearsin our town. So it's not the
same tree every year, right,and you keep it watered well if it
is. But it's just beautiful andit just sets off Main Street so well,

(09:39):
sets off the whole city so well. And this is one city it
really gets in the Christmas spirit.We absolutely do get in the Christmas spirit.
We at being a main street community. We love to support our downtown
businesses. So we loved having affordablesin our downtown district also and getting to
celebrate shop Small Saturday and now justlooking at all the holidays and getting people

(10:03):
to really support local anything special comingup now. Actually we get to kind
of be in a holding pattern rightnow, mel which is kind of weird
for me to say. But weare busy working on our investment and drive
and looking I work closely with Tyler, which you'll hear from here in a
little bit, but looking at growingour industrial park and our businesses in our

(10:24):
downtown district. We've had a lotof buildings recently sold. We're going through
a renovation on one of our buildingsand it will be available for lease come
the new year. In fact,if I remember right, and I'm trying
to even where the chambers located,that building went through recent renovation a few
years ago. Yeah, so originallywe did the renovation twelve years ago,

(10:46):
but just in the last year wedid a new facelift, new color to
match our design, logo and everything, to give it a little enhancement and
hopefully catalyst other people renovating their businesses. Well, I will tell you this,
I'm a big believer in the businessthat chambers do for their communities.

(11:09):
And if you are a business anywherein the area, I don't care if
you're in Ames, you're in Huxley, wherever you are, you would be
well to join the Chamber. Herein Story City, they work in unison
a lot of the time, havea lot of incommon projects and it will
never hurt you to belong to achamber. Absolutely, if we can't help

(11:30):
you, we do partner with theAmes Chamber. Also we do work as
a making Story County a better placeto live, grow and do business.
That's right. The only difference isthe names of the areas. The people
are all the same, big hearted, love their communities, and give as
much as they can to that community, and a good way to do that

(11:52):
is through the chamber. All right, Shannon. If they want more information
on the Story City Chamber, howwould they get it? Definitely check out
our website ATGCC dot org. Soundsgreat, Shannon, Thanks for coming in.
I have a good next meeting,yes, thank you, and then
one after that and the one afterthat. There you go. All right,
I'm Mel in the morning. You'reher Coffee with Mel. We're at

(12:16):
Affordables in Story City. Hope you'llstop by, say hi, I have
coffee. They have some pastries hereand we'll talk about that coming up.
Just join me after the break onfourteen thirty kas I mail in the morning
on fourteen thirty Kasi, Welcome backto Affordables in Story City. If you

(12:39):
think it's a little chili outside,it's always warm inside here at Affordables,
just with the personalities that are inhere. So come on in, warm
yourself up, do some shopping.They are not open yet but will be
soon, and you need to comeup here because all the good before all
the good things are gone. Wouldyou buy anything this morning? I have

(13:01):
not yet, but I do seea lot of stuff in here that I
might be later. I will tellyou right now. I just I could
spend the whole day here and stillbe looking around. And that's what I
wanta you folks to understand out therethat this is amazing place, and an
amazing place is the city. I'min, Story City, And Tyler,

(13:22):
I don't know whether you'd agree withthat or not. Yeah, I'm a
little partial. I was born andraised here, so obviously Iowa State and
ended up coming back love this placeso much and got on on the role
with Story City Economic Development and I'vebeen the president of that for a couple
of years now and it's it's beenbeen a nice pit for us and tell
us a little bit about what theeconomic development does. Yeah, so you

(13:48):
know, we just talked to Shannon, who really kind of handles our downtown
area. What we focus on inour big industry, So we focused east
of the interstate and kind of westof the railroad track. So got a
lot of big businesses here in townand that's kind of our main focus.
We want to make sure that theyhave what they need, we support them
in any way that we can,and then we're obviously looking for new industries
here in town as well. Nowyou have an industrial park that's very active

(14:11):
right now. How's that going?Yeah, it is really active. It's
been a really busy year for us. I'm gonna I made a couple of
notes here. The biggest thing wehad this year in our industrial park was
EB Trailers. They've been an extremelygood business for us over over the years,
and they rolled out a big expansionfor twenty twenty four and actually,

(14:31):
if you drive out there now,they're still going up. They're adding about
one hundred thousand square feet to oneof their existing buildings. They're adding about
one hundred and twenty jobs, whichI believe is one of the biggest in
the county this year, and it'sa fifteen point four million dollar capital investment.
So really excited that they chose todo that in Story City. It's

(14:52):
an interesting job that you have,that's for sure. But I can't think,
and you can correct me on this, that once you get to know
Story City and the people that livehere and the surrounding communities, it's a
pretty easy sell. Yeah, Itruly believe it is. I mean,
we always say we're conveniently located righton I thirty five. We're you know,

(15:15):
really close to the Moine, Minneapolis, Omaha, Kansas City, were
all three hours from about those spots. So to us, it's an easy
sell and it's something that we reallytake pride in taking care of our community
and trying to make this a greatplace to grow and work and live.
Yeah, and lots of employment opportunities, which is also important to a community

(15:39):
and provides that stability that any communityneeds. I've traveled Iowa so much in
some communities and drive down a mainstreet in some of these cities and all
you see is for lease for sale, and that that's not what you want
to see, and you're not goingto see it here in Story City.
But the other thing we want youto know is there's plenty of opportunity.

(16:00):
Yeah. Absolutely, And I meanmy day job is in real estate.
So this economic development is a volunteerboard of nine. And I'll say one
of the biggest things we've done intwenty twenty three is securing Fairway. So
Fairway is going to be coming totown. They're going to start their renovations
early in twenty four and they'll beopened by the end of twenty four.
So that's been probably a two anda half three year process, working closely

(16:23):
with the city to get that dealdone, and we couldn't be more excited
to get Fairway Grocery store here justoff the interstate here in Story City next
year. So that's been a hugewin for us. And I just love
hearing the name Fairway because it's local, it's right here from our area,
it's part of our overall community inBoone County, et cetera for their headquarters.

(16:45):
So that will be a great DareI say Boone to Story City,
but exactly what it'll be and majorgrocery chain coming in and I would attribute
to that, and again I'm opento but the growth here in this city
has been phenomenal with not only businessbut with citizens. Yeah, and you

(17:07):
know, we've had a mom andpop grocery store for quite a few years
and Faraway would never run them outof town. So when they decided to
close, that's when we started theconversations with them, and that that peaud
their interests, so they would neverrun someone out of town, and when
they closed, they were definitely interested. And part of it is we've got
two new housing subdivisions here in town, one which is run by Kurt Friedrich
at friedrich Ky Realty that we managedthat's just north of the elementary school.

(17:30):
Kind of a smaller scale lots.I believe we've got ten to fourteen lots
left out there. And then there'sa bigger development that's one acre lots that
sits just off the interstate, justnorth of Casey's out by the Interstate.
And so we kind of have amix of, you know, kind of
what you're looking for, a littlesmaller scale you want a townhouse or do
you want to you know, abig home that sits on sits on one

(17:52):
acre lot. So and I thinkthat's what kind of pushed Fairway over the
top. Two. Yeah, ifyou're coming to a Story City, be
cautious with that tree out there onBroad Street. And I'm not just telling
you about the tree, but whenI pulled in this morning, the Story
City police were hiding behind it,speed trapping me. But anyway, yeah,

(18:15):
come on up here. If youwant to get in the Christmas sphere,
that tree will put it put itinto you right away. It just
right in the center of the streetand one of the major intersections here,
and it's absolutely gorgeous and I loveseeing it. In fact, I thought
about it a lot before I knewI was going to come here, and
I thought, oh my gosh,when they're going to light the tree up

(18:36):
there. But it's done, it'sready, and Christmas is here in the
Story City and we hope that you'llcome up to it. Tyler, do
you have as part of the EconomicCouncil, do you have kind of a
wish list right now that you wouldlike to see? You mentioned Fairway coming
to town, is there are acouple of other things that you would like
to see. Yeah, So justalso in twenty twenty three, our industrial

(18:56):
park is almost getting full, sowe just purchased another seventy two acres north
of where we're currently at, sokind of surrounds Winfield, the old Pella
plant, And we actually just talkedto a company yesterday about relocating in Story
City. They they're looking at aboutten and a half acres, So that
would be a great twenty twenty fourproject for us. And so we're always

(19:17):
looking for new businesses, but wefirst want to take care of what we
have here. So we really wantto support the Bethany Life and the EVS
and the American packagings and all thegreat companies that we have here in Story
City. That's really really our focus. And I mentioned Bethany Life. They
are a part of so many ofthe events that happen here that supported financially,

(19:38):
morally, et cetera that in someways, and I say this with
all due respect, this city reallyhas grown around Bethany Life. You know,
they have been a central part ofthis city and continue to be and
I'm even even in aims there thereare events that go on and you'll see
Bethany Life continues to sponsor. Andif you're thinking about retirement or you're thinking

(20:06):
about living in your older years,Timberland Village is an amazing place out there
that I'm privileged to go to.And the care that you'll get at Bethany
Life is beyond compare. So pleaseinvestigate what they have. Then they have
a program that will help you athome. They have a program that will

(20:27):
help you if you need assisted living. They're all here, they're all in
one well I would say one place. No, they're kind of spread out,
but they are here to help youin any way they can. And
that's been the amazing thing is thefact that they don't stop caring or thinking
about things they can do to evenimprove the service anymore. And if you

(20:48):
are a small company, large companyand you need a nice industrial park to
come out, you've got space.Yep, we've got space. We've got
plenty of space now that we've gotat that seventy two acres. And yeah,
we'd love to talk to you.Either contact Shannon at the GCC or
you can contact me at my NorsemanRealty Team office. But you know,
we talk about partnerships, and Ican't go without saying we've got a great

(21:12):
partnership with Dan Colhan and his teamdown at the Ames Chamber and we really
yeah, I know, we appreciatetheir support and you know they help us
with state incentives and bringing new businesseshere to town. So yeah, if
you're interested, go to STORYCITYDC dotcom. That'll that'll get you started,
and that'll get you hooked up withwho you need to talk to. Tyler,

(21:33):
my pleasure. Thanks for getting upearly, usually up this early,
pretty close to now. Yeah,yeah, we got livestock. You know,
it's Story City. You cow's walkingdown Main Street. It's awful.
No, anyway, we are herein Story City. We are at affordables
please, please, We're gonna behere till nine o'clock this morning. They're
gonna be here much longer than that, and they would just love to meet

(21:55):
you and help you with any ofyour shopping needs at Affordables for Ethny Life
in Story City. We'll be backright after this break on fourteen thirty Kasi
Meil in the morning of fourteen thirty, kas I, we're taking it on
the road this week two Affordables atsix thirty Pennsylvania in Story City for coffee

(22:18):
with Mel. If you're a nonprofitgroup you've got an event coming up that
you need to raise some funds forhave people attend, please stop buy Affordables
Best Me Life's Affordables in Story Cityfor coffee with Mel this Friday morning from
seven to nine am on fourteen thirtyKasi. That's exactly where we are,

(22:41):
Mel in the morning at Affordables inStory City. We'll be here till nine
am. And if you're out andyou're saying, oh gosh, we got
this coming up, and I forgotto check with Mel and see if I
can come on, I got room, Come on up. I'll make sure
you get in. We'll promote yourevent We're glad to do it for you.
That's the purpose of the program.And we get to meet a new
person here this morning. Well notnew, she's been around for years,

(23:03):
but I mean I would say thatonly Mackenzie Elorado is here and she is
the foundation what is it? Isit? President Director? Yes, I'm
the new foundation director here at BethanyLife and Story City. Yeah. Now
where are you from. I'm fromthe Ames Huxley area. I graduated from
Huxley. Yeah, so you're familiarwith the area. Here. Give me

(23:26):
a little idea of what the foundationdoes. The Foundation is a lot.
So the Foundation supports Bethany Life.Affordables supports the Foundation. So the money
that you spend here at Affordables goesto the Foundation, which is then used
a different projects in Bethany Life.So for example, yesterday I got a
resident that is discharging and they don'thave family support and they needed groceries.

(23:52):
So the foundation was able to approvethat request and I went grocery shopping and
made sure that they are stocked upfor at least a month with everything they
could need. Yeah, it's BethanyLife has got such a big heart.
But again, I know Mackenzie thatpart of the reason I'm sure that you
were interested in being with the Foundation, et cetera, is that it never

(24:15):
stops moving, it never stands still, that you're always looking for ways to
help the people. Yes, that'scorrect, mel So last month we actually
financially supported a food packing event herein Story City with fifteen thousand meals made
in pact and delivered right here inStory County to benefit the people here that

(24:37):
are facing food insecurity. So wegive back to our residents and to our
employees and then also to our community. Yeah, and I know today you
folks are doing meals on wheels.We are. We've got our marketing team
out there and they are delivering thirtymeals here in Story City to people that
need them. So that's really funand exciting. Are you able to let

(25:00):
us in on any maybe future plansthey have? Oh, we do,
so, affordables will be moving.That's one of the big projects I'm working
on right now is renovating the newspace on Broad Street. And we also
have lots of exciting things with theFoundation coming up with kind of planned giving.
That's another project I'm working on issetting up a framework for people that

(25:23):
want to include beth Any Life andtheir plans. We can help facilitate that
and answer questions people might have.So there is a lot of exciting things
coming up, and I'm always gladwhen they correct me. Mckissey wasn't trying
to correct me or anything like that, but she reminded me because in a
lot of Iowa smaller towns, it'smain Street, but here it's broad Street.

(25:48):
I just want you to know thatif I say main street, I
mean broad Street out there. Itis exciting and I'm sure it's an eye
opening experience to see how many fingersBethany Life has in this community. Oh,
it's amazing. So we have ourTimberland Village, which is independent living

(26:08):
and assisted living. We even havetwin homes that's here in Story City.
Then we have Cedar Place, whichis also independent and assisted living. We
have our Households of Bethany, andthen we also have programs and aims for
staying at home in your home andwe will bring people in to help you
age at home. We can helpyou do your laundry, we can help

(26:29):
you go grocery shopping, maybe dothat yard maintenance that you don't want to
do, put a light bulb inexactly things that maybe you don't want to
do or you're not able to doanymore, but you're still able to independently
stay at home safely. So BethanyLife can help you do that. And
we have so many different branches andfingers. Like you said, if you

(26:49):
need any kind of aging services,Bethany Life really can help facilitate that for
you. And they give back asmuch as they receive, and that's the
that's what makes them so special.So we hope and I always invite you
to contact Bethany Life if you're ata point in your life where you think

(27:10):
you need some help or not.Households of Bethany was ingenius as far as
I'm concerned. There's some way Imentioned the I always mentioned the light bulb
because I thought it's fascinating. They'llcome over and change a light bulb for
you. Yeah, they will.You can't go up on that ladder anymore,
you're physically unable to do some things. They're there to help you.
You need to find out more.Contact Benny Life about Households of Bethany.

(27:33):
Take a visit to Timberland Village outthere absolutely gorgeous in a premiere setting.
It's just so comforting. I lovegoing out there. We do the show
out there in the summertime when wecame up. So when I say Bethany
Life, it is all encompassing ofall styles of life and we hope that

(27:56):
you will investigate what they have tooffer. Mckin's see, welcome to your
job. We are excited for you. Then we're excited for what you will
be able to do for the foundation. Oh, thank you, Mel.
I'm excited too. There's lots ofwonderful things coming up and I'm excited to
be a part of it. Allright, Mackenzie, thank you. All
right. That is Mackenzie Alvarado.She is the Foundation director for Bethany Life.

(28:22):
We'll talk more about things going onhere in Story City and beyond,
and we'll do that after we takea break on fourteen thirty Kasi Mel in
the morning on fourteen thirty ks I, welcome back to Affordables in Story City,
and welcome for the opportunity here.My good friend Andrea Gronau, who

(28:45):
is with Bridge Home in Aimes,which we were at last week. We
will be at next week and theweek after and Andrew. It's good to
see here out of your environment.Good to see you too, And luckily
this is affordable because I have beendoing this morning and I have quite a
pile to take back to Ames withme. In fact, I had to
hunt her down to get her backhere for the interview. She's out in

(29:07):
the back there looking at some things. So it's fascinating, isn't it.
It is. Every time I turneda new place, I found more stuff
that I could use for a veryreasonable price, knowing it goes for a
good cause. So what a greatthing. Yeah, good, great place
to shop. Something for everybody,that's for sure. Anyway, we're glad
to see you up here. Who'sholding down the ship? Well, I

(29:30):
got left Keighley in charge this morning. Actually I stopped at the shelter right
nearly this morning and they were like, oh is mel coming in? No,
no, no, no, butnext week. So I want to
invite everybody in the community. Iwould like to come down and say hi
to you next week. Come ondown. We've got plenty of sweet trees
to share. We'll have plenty ofcoffee. Come down, maybe bring a

(29:52):
donation if you'd like, and visityou at the shelter between seven and nine
next Friday. Yeah, we talkout friendly places, and it doesn't get
any friend there than the Bridge homethere and their their clientele who are looking
for a hand up, not ahandout, and so many success stories out
of there. Absolutely, And youknow, the holidays is a hard time

(30:15):
of year for anyone, and thistime of year is particularly challenging for folks
that are living in shelter or eventhat have just recently come out of the
shelter situation and are trying to gettheir life back on that self reliant track.
So we want to be there forour clients, and we appreciate all
the community does to help us bethere for those that need that hand up,

(30:38):
especially this time of year and whenthe weather gets cold. Yeah,
that's for sure. And I amalways fascinated when I go in there.
I have nice conversation with some ofthe folks that are living there temporarily,
but there's some people who need alittle longer help than what the Bridge can

(31:00):
give in the residency that I'm at. But you got eighteen new residents coming
up for families, Yes we have, and actually we're so excited. We
received another nine hundred thousand dollars grantyesterday for that building to help complete it.
I noticed she had a new car. No, this is so exciting.

(31:22):
We haven't even gotten the money yetbecause we just got word yesterday we
were awarded that from the Iowa FederalHomeland Bank. Sorry it's not the the
Federal Homelan Bank of Des Moines.So we are just so pleased. Northwest
Bank helped us achieve that, andwe just can't thank them enough for their
support right now as well. Sowe're making progress for those that need affordable

(31:45):
housing in the Story County area.And here we are up in Story City
and you may think, oh,no, the Bridge Home doesn't serve Story
City. It does. We servethe entire Story County region, and actually
the entire Two Rivers region, whichis a five county area Harden, Marshall,
Story, Boon, and Green Counties. But folks do struggle here in
Story City and we are able tohelp them get shelter. Real It is

(32:09):
all encompassing. And again we namegeographical areas as towns, but you can't
label the people according to the townsthey live in. It's the heart and
soul of living here in Iowa andespecially right here in Story County, Boone

(32:30):
County, all the counties that surroundthere. We have a common thread between
all of us, and when somebodyneeds help, there's going to be somebody
there, absolutely, And I willtell you and want to shout out to
EB Trailers. They are a verylarge supporter of us as well, and
we appreciate all they do to helpthe folks here in Story County get taken

(32:52):
care of when they need that littlebit of hand up. Yeah, and
Andrew, the one of the thingsI want to point out. We mentioned
the eighteen new units that are beingbuilt, and as grateful as we are
for those, we know that thatdoesn't fully meet the needs that are there.
No, and that's going to bea continual challenge for us. We

(33:12):
will continue to look for ways toprovide affordable housing for the folks in our
community because I mean, shelter isa thirty day situation and we need to
keep having folks find permanent shelter.And that's going to always be something that
we work for in our communities,is to find more affordable housing. We
like to mention that the need isthere year round, not just in these

(33:37):
winter months, although I think itputs it top of mind for a lot
of us out there because we can'timagine trying to survive in some of the
winter conditions here in Iowa now.And we've been very, very lucky this
year that we've only had a fewreally brisk, brisk days. But they
are coming. I mean, itis Iowa after all, and it is

(33:58):
going to be coming. We wantto be there to get as many folks
housed before that cold hits as possible. Yeah, and we want to advise
you if you're out there and youknow someone in need that you think is
going to be living in their caror laying on a bench out in the
city or by the banjoll, itdoesn't matter where. If they're in need,

(34:22):
there is help. And Andrea iswe have our street outreach team.
You'd give us a call. Yougot the shelter number, you just call
and tell them you know someone struggling. Never be afraid to offer water or
you know, if you've got somewarm cloths, Never be afraid to offer

(34:44):
that to any community. They maynot actually be someone struggling with homelessness.
They may be somebody that just needsthat kindness at that moment. So never
be afraid to offer kindness and havethe fear of offering kindness to folks no
matter what. Yeah, and wealso want to mention that if the Bridge
is unable to help you in aspecific way, they are also a bit

(35:07):
of a brokerage firm in the factthat they know of other folks here in
the community that might be able tooffer you the help you need. Absolutely,
we have a huge network in ourcommunity of folks, and if you're
struggling with a certain need, we'reable to connect you with other resources in
the communities that we serve. Andyou know, sometimes that's just what people

(35:29):
need, is that connection to otherfolks. All right, Andrea with the
Bridge home, thank you for beingup here. You have one more thing
about Oh well, we've got somethingcoming up here. Well, and now
I'm changing hats and now I'm goingto put on my American patriotic Yes,
my American Legion Auxiliary hat. Andtomorrow morning is the famous bake sale and

(35:53):
biscuit and Biscuits and Gravy breakfast bythe the sal So starting at seven and
going till eleven tomorrow at the AmericanLegion on two twenty five Main Street.
You can go down and it's afree will offering for the biscuits and gravy.
They always do a great job makingtheir biscuits and gravy. Mike Deacon,

(36:15):
yes, right, he knows howto make you know, he cooks
him for himself and he makes ittaste really good. And then they have
thousands of cookies for their cookie walkor cookie fair, so you can come
in and ten dollars you get anempty box and as money as you can
fill in that box, you canwalk out with the beautiful box of holidays

(36:36):
now home baked cookies, by theway, most of them, well most
of them all right, because Andrea, I hate to tell my secret is
not going to be baking cookies tonight. But yes, they are lovely cookies
and wonderful and candies, you nameit. It just goes support the Legion
because they do a lot for ourcommunity, including the veterans that are struggling

(36:58):
as well. We partner along withthe Legion, and yeah, it's a
wonderful, wonderful time and the foodis great. Well, and like I
say, you get a box,you fill it with the cookies. It's
there. You do have to beable to close the lid though ten dollars,
but they're big box. They youdo, and Sandy is very that's

(37:19):
definitely important. Otherwise, buy anotherbox. It's another ten dollars and it
all goes to a good coss Itabsolutely does. The American Legion to twenty
five Main Street tomorrow morning. Whattime starts at seven, goes to eleven.
You can get some shopping done inthere too. Yeah, stop on
by, help support our veterans andthe American Legion as they support our community.

(37:40):
And Sandy and Mike. I missyou both today, but we understand
and have a great breakfast and cookiesale tomorrow. Absolutely, and then we'll
see you next Friday. Am alldown at the Bridge Home to twenty five
South Kellogg. Yeah, and Ilook forward to it. Thanks Andrea.
All right, mel in the morningWorried Affordables. Oh we're not done yet.

(38:02):
We still got another hour to go. It's all happening here plus at
Affortables in Story City. We'll beright back with more on fourteen thirty Kasi
mel in the morning. On fourteenthirty Kasi Worre at Affordables in Story City
for coffee with mel And indeed Ihave coffee. I'm having a donut.

(38:24):
And now I'm having a conversation withJordan Swanson, who is the marketing coordinator
for Bethany Life here and Jordan,what an interesting job you've got. Yes,
I love it here at Bethany Life. I graduated from Ihowa State this
past May and started with Bethany Lifein August and cannot be more happy with
the people I work with and thethings that I'm doing. It's a great

(38:45):
experience. I know. I've talkedto so many people who have been connected
with Bethany Life and they say itvery proudly and for good reason. Now
you say you just credited from IowaState. Where are you from? I
grew up in the dew Moarne area, graduate from Waukee High School in twenty
nineteen. Wow, it's grown sinceand it has it's huge. My sisters

(39:06):
go to the new high school andwhen they first went there, there were
so many pictures of the new buildingand I wanted to say, that's nicer
than some of the lecture all ofthat state. I will tell you what
I walk. He's been a funtown for me to watch bro over the
years. Many years ago. Notto get into history too much, but
I was a surveyor with a privatecompany out of West des Moines, and
we did some storm shore work,etc. In Walkee, and I go

(39:30):
down there now and I am justabsolutely amazed. Yeah, going home for
breaks and stuff while I was inschool, driving around town. Every time
I would see something that wasn't therewhile I was in school, or even
the year before when I was homefor breaks. So it's booming. So
many new businesses and things like thatare popping up. It's fun to watch,
you know, talk about a boomingbusiness. Been me life, although

(39:52):
I don't like to refer to themas a business, just community as far
as I am concerned. And you'vebeen in your metal in some of the
events have been going on. Wetalked about fifteen thousand meals. How'd that
go? Yes, So in themiddle of November we did a food packing
event with the Outreach program and packageall those meals in about three hours,

(40:15):
and then the following Friday we droppedoff We had forty six boxes total,
and we dropped off boxes to theNorseman Food Pantry is You Shop, which
is students helping our peers. Wedid food at first and Aims Cubbies cupvered
in Nevada, and then a foodpantry at a church in Nevada as well.
Yeah, we mentioned you guys aredoing meals on wheels today, Yes,

(40:37):
sir, we are. So wedid our first last week and we
dropped off fifteen meals and then we'redoing it again today. I think it's
great to just get back to thecommunity, especially when you have resources like
we do. A little bit goesa long way. Yeah, and it's
an eye opener, especially for ayoung man like you, who I would
assume have been active in things likethat probably most of your life. But

(40:58):
the opportunity to experience it's a upfronthas to be immeasurable. It is.
It is to see the impact thatwe can have by just doing even a
little bit. Like I said,it's really rewarding to watch and it doesn't
stop there. Yeah. You mentionedme that you've got a blood drive coming
up, Yes, sir, wedo. While I was in school at
Iowa State, I was the codirector for a blood drive or the student

(41:19):
blood drive. Yep, it's alarge student run blood drive in the country
actually, but yeah, I reachedout to the woman I worked with at
the Red Cross and she was shewas thrilled to have the opportunity to do
a blood drive here in Story City, and so in February we'll do a
Valentine's sort of theme for the blooddrive. It's open to the community.

(41:42):
It'll be I believe, February twentysecond, from twelve thirty to four thirty,
and blood drives we mentioned this areso important there. And I always
reach out to the Type O peopleout there because they're saying, oh,
they got plenty of TYPEO out there. Well. Is TYPO so popular because
there are more people with TYPO,which means the need for TYPO is much

(42:07):
greater. You're right, You're right. Typo is universal donor. It's crazy.
I don't know the number off thetop of my head, but how
many people are eligible to donate versusthe amount of people that do actually donate
is staggering. I like to saythat it usually takes from start to finish.
A blood donation takes thirty minutes,and then those thirty minutes you can
save three lives. So getre cookiein or orange juice exactly. So three

(42:31):
lives saved and some snacks can't askfor much more. Yeah, you got.
The food incentive is amazing and anythingthat you do out there. Uh,
and we would probably as for folksout there, when a blood drive
like this takes place, they're notgoing to make it exclusively Story City.
Nope, come on, come on, We're accepting anyone from the community.

(42:52):
It's open to our staff. Yeah, reach out if you have any questions.
And the reason blood is in need. Somebody says, no, he's
a blood drive going because they alwaysneed blood. It's not like plasma.
Its shelf life is far shorter thanplasma. So that's why the need is
so great out there, and wewant to make sure that anybody that is
in need is able to get it. Yes, the need for blood is

(43:16):
continuous. People are always going toneed blood, and there's a blood shortage
as well, so we're really inthe need for donations nationwide, not just
here in Iowa. Yeah, andthey're going to have a vampire banquet too,
so they're going to have all wewant with a buffet. It's a
buffet. But yeah, but Jordan, what are some of the challenges in

(43:37):
marketing that you find? Oh gosh, Well, when you work in marketing,
you wear a lot of hats andso it's kind of balancing all the
different roles that you have and responsibilitiesthat you have, and making sure you
give enough time to all of thedifferent tasks that you're involved with. Well,
i'll tell you what. It's aperson of all pleasure to meet you

(43:57):
this morning. And who'd you sayto me? My grandpa? He is
in or said he has listened toHe is in Story County Medical in Nevada
and was thrilled to hear that Iwas going to be talking to you today.
What's his name? Gay Swanson?Gay, good morning. You've got
a great grandson here and he's doinga terrific job. I'm sure you are

(44:19):
too, And thank you for beingfaithful. And I'm honored that you thought
of me. Yes, yes,hi, grandpa, that's okay. You
get to do that. By golly, I want I wanted you to do
that anyway. But hey, goodluck with the rest of your endeavors.
I say luck, but you don'tneed it. I can tell you're an
intelligent, well planning young man.That will be great. You are a

(44:45):
great addition to the Beth of Lifecrew. And get out. Are you
delivering today too? Yes, yes, sir, I am make sure no
snacking while you're going, I'll try. I'll try. No promises, all
right. Jordan Swanson here this morning, marketing director for Beth in My Life,
and what a great morning. It'sbeen already an opportunity to meet some

(45:07):
new folks, and you still haveopportunities to meet some other folks coming up.
Bill's here. We're going to talkto Bill after the break here for
coffee with mel on fourteen thirty Kasi. What we're going to do is going
to talk with Bill Schmid, mygood friend from Resource Recovery in Ames and

(45:29):
you and I've talked so much onthe phone for so many years. There
then talk about the importance of theResource Center in Ames and the mini services.
We talk about people coming up withideas and how to get rid of
things and things that are reusable.To you, guys do a marvelous job
there, Oh, thank you.We certainly enjoy what we do. We

(45:51):
try to look for ways to keepitems out of the landfill, find a
way to reuse them. And oneof the things we started up here just
last week the first December, waswe expanded our recycling options at the Resource
Recovery Facility. What are you doing? We have added along with the glass
and food waste version that we're alreadydoing on the northeast corner of our building,
which is four twenty East Second Street. We are now taking cardboard mixed

(46:15):
paper, which is the junk mail. Maybe you get some political advertisements in
the mail and you better known asjunk mail very much, so you don't
have to take the little plastic offthe envelopes and onto you. You can
just throw them all in magazines,newspapers, brown paper, white paper,
anything like that. We're also takingplastic bottles with screw on lids, so

(46:37):
water bottles, juice bottles, anythinglike that, we can take those.
We're also taking paper or excuse me, metal along with that too, so
if you've got metal cans or youknow, anything you've got on can goods,
we can take that and recycle allthose items for you now. Now,
and Bill, were certain cautions wethrow out there. I know,

(46:58):
paint cans. Sure that paint's driedup and out. Yeah, if you're
gonna throw your pain Latex paint away, make sure it's dright up. You
can use some kitty litter oil drightto it dry up, and then you
can just put that in your normaltrash and we'll get that taken care for
you. And I would selling Billone of the things that you may have
overheard us when we were talking there. I have cardbordium bound, that's what

(47:21):
I call I call it cardboardium.But my wife has suddenly become more aware
that you can recycle that cardboard.And you've got several locations for that.
I know. We go to theone up at the electric plant, and
then out in front on Duff there'sa couple there too, that's right.
There's one on the north side electricPlant. Then there's two on the east

(47:43):
end of Main Street. As youcome right down main Street when you get
that t intersection, there's two onthe east side of the intersection. There's
one on the south side of mainStreet and one on the north side.
The south side one is kind ofback behind Skunk River Cycles down in that
area, and the one on thenorth side is kind of behind the Halo
architecture in that parking lot in there. So those are those are open and

(48:06):
the ones that resource recovery are availabletwenty four to seven. You can drop
items off anytime and we're glad totake those and get them recycled. And
I'll tell you what they are constantlyfinding. Way say, composting is something
that you can do down there,bringing things to compost recently just and I
assume that it's probably over by now, but pumpkin disposal, yes it is.

(48:31):
We ran that through the month ofNovember. We did pumpkin disposal and
we had fantastic support. This yearwe ended up with we don't have final
tonny jet, but I know wehad one farmer came and got six pickuploads
of punkin pumpkins for goats and cattleand livestock that and they were just so

(48:51):
excited that they could get those andput them a good juice. And we're
so happy to keep those out ofthe landfill. Yeah, that's absolutely great.
And of course as we come intothe halid season there, we know
that there's going to be some folkswho still use real Christmas trees and they'll
be able to dispose of them soonwell not soon, but after Christmas,

(49:12):
that's right, they'll be taking thoseagain. On East thirteenth Street, on
the east side of the cemetery,back blind the parks meeting the shops.
They'll have drop off there for cleanChristmas trees. So who want you to
take all your ornaments and tinsil andeverything else off of them, and they'll
take those and they'll grind those up, mulch them, and they use them
in the parks this next spring.Yeah, make sure your cat's not up

(49:32):
in that tree either, all right, although they'll make a noise anyway.
Everything going well, they're at therecovery plant. It certainly is. We're
going along really well. You know, as I said, we're expanding our
recycling opportunities. The power plant isburning a little less every year, their
capacity to continues to decline, andwith that, we're trying to find additional

(49:52):
ways to keep material out of thelandfill. So this is why we're doing
the recycling. Our hope is thatwe can expand it further in the community.
We kind of just use what wehave available right now. We have
more equipment on order, more rolloffs, and hopefully we can start putting
those around the community here after thefirst year and we get the they're supposed
to be here the four Thanksgiving,then the in of November and now hopefully

(50:16):
before Christmas. But we'll see howit goes. Yeah, well, that's
exciting, and the expansion, it'sa continued great service there. What does
it cost people that are thinking aboutbringing things down there? I know there
is a charge for trucks or cars, etc. What's involved there? Sure,
we try to keep it fairly simple. So for a single bag,

(50:37):
it's three dollars. If you're bringinga car load of items in a normal
household trash, that's ten dollars.Pickup is twenty five dollars. And then
if you're larger than to pick up, you know, pick up a larger
trailer, we start going across thescale and weighing at and then that's sixty
two dollars and fifty cents a time, and then we pro write that accordingly,

(50:59):
so it's it's pretty reasonable. Andwe're open Monday through Friday seven to
three thirty and Saturday from eight tonoon. Some people who are trying to
get rid of old furniture, etc. Do you guys take that? We
will take it. If it's completelynon usable. Will really encourage people to
check with the thrift stores around town, put an ad in the paper,

(51:19):
on Facebook, whatever, and seeif you can find if it's still usable.
Let's keep it out there and keeppeople using it. That's what I
love. This is my first timehere at Affordables, and it's so great.
I was just telling McKinzie it's likerunning rampage inside on steroids. So
I really love it. It isa fun place to be. I wanted
to ask you because I have thisproblem, and I don't know if you've

(51:42):
got the answer, but I'm sureit comes to you. Every once in
a while, people with old computersor computer drives, etc. How do
they dispose of those? We willtake those. And the thing we do
with the computers is if they're desktopcomputers, those get run through are shrudder
and anything it's in that hard drive, it gets completely shredded up. If

(52:05):
it's a laptop, we ask youto remove the battery from it. Is
with anything it has a battery,and it give those batteries to us separately,
and then we'll run those through andshred those up. Also. Yeah,
and the reason we don't like thosebatteries they have a tendency to catch
on fire, don't they. Yes, they do, and they do a
great job of catching on fire.You may have noticed we had a fire
here several weeks ago. It gotinto our dust collection system, which we're

(52:30):
able to put that out, butwe don't have the equipment to identify it.
So Ames Fire Department responded and withtheir thermal imaging they were able to
show us exactly where the hotspots wereand we're able to take care of those
and get those addressed. But weprefer to keep those out just to keep
our employee safe and keep the keepthe building safe and along without also sharps

(52:50):
too. So if anyone's using anyLancets, diabetes or anything, even if
the needle goes back up in afteryou do the shot, please put those
the sharps container and bringing to usanytime roping. You don't have a sharp's
container, you can use a laundrydetergent or bottle or something on some hea,
but we don't want to use plasticmilk jugs because they're too lightweight and

(53:10):
that needles can come back through thatcrew. All right, anything else you
want to add. It's great tosee you out in about I love this,
It's fantastic. Bill is one ofthose guys that we talked to on
the phone. My wife and hiswife had worked together over the years and
always a delight. It takes thecommunity and Bill's one of the reasons I

(53:31):
stay in our community. They doa great job, and I appreciate his
service and his wife's service for manyyears. So Bill, thanks for making
the drive up here. I enjoyedit. It was fantastic. All right.
Bill Smidt with ame City of AmesResource Recovery Center joins me at Affordables

(53:52):
right here on Pennsylvania Avenue in Ithink I got that right, Okay,
Story City, all right, we'regoing to take a break. I'm mel
in the morning on fourteen thirty,Kasi, meil in the morning on fourteen
thirty Kasi. Yeah. Ryan andI are comparing hairstyles here. We're somewhat

(54:15):
similar. I'm a little fuzzier thanyou, Ryan. Yeah. Are you
still looking good? Though? Boy, I don't get that very often.
I always get to you know,you've got a face for radio, and
I've proven that many many times.Of course, Ryan Sandy with the Boys
and Girls Club of Story County,and we're glad to see him here.

(54:37):
Things. Gosh, you guys arebusy down There was so many not just
with the existing programs but future plans. And one of the big future plans
Ryan, is we got to getbigger. Yeah, We've very exciting times
for the club. Right now.We are kicked off our capitol campaign.
Late in late October, the AmesTribune did a great article on us,

(54:59):
and we've been running with a waitinglist for the last couple of years,
and that waiting list last school yeargrew to over eighty kids waiting to get
into the place. So we werelucky enough about a year ago this time
we hit a grant from the stateof Iowa, the Iowa Nonprofit Innovation Grant
that we hit two point seven milliondollars to renovate and remodel, renovate,

(55:20):
remodel and expand the club. Andthe whole purpose of that grant was to
be able to serve more Iowans.So with the eleven thousand square foot building
we have now with us remodeling thatwe're going to increase classroom space and add
a games room and great arts andcrafts area. And then in the seventy
five hundred square feet that we're goingto add to the south of the building,

(55:40):
we're to add a couple classrooms.We're going to quadruple the size of
our kitchen, add a learning kitchencomponent to that, and have a great
new cafeteria for the kids to beable to eat in and we believe that'll
take our new capacity from what's aboutone hundred and five kids today to one
hundred and sixty five kids that wouldbe one of us. So won't be
big enough, but you know,and you know what, it's good to

(56:04):
know that it's not big enough.I mean, it's good to know that
that need is out there and folksknow the best place to come to to
make sure those kids get the rightkind of care education it is. The
Boys and Girls Club is so muchmore than when I was growing up,
you know, ping pong table andpool table and in a basketball court and

(56:28):
that was about it. But realizingthe needs of these young people and the
best way to get them involved.You guys have done a marvelous job with
that. Well, thank you.I think you know, we've been in
names community now sixty one years.It will be sixty one years as following
this coming up July, and Ithink when people think about the old Boys
Club, you know, it wasjust kind of an athletic place to go.

(56:50):
You did your sports camps there andyou participate in sports, and you
know, I think we've really Boysand Girls Clubs of America, all clubs
around the nation. You know,we've really started a focus more on character
building for kids than just just beingan athletic outlet. We still have those
things. We want our kids outplaying and moving around and doing that stuff,
and but we want to make surewe take time to make sure our

(57:14):
kids are having fun, but they'relearning things from from from three to seven
o'clock when they're with us every daytoo. Yeah, I even remember,
and I think, I don't knowif you still do it or not,
but you even had like a gardenthat you guys tended to and I don't
know how many field trips you take. Yeah, we still do the garden.
We do a little bit of ourown mini farm to table the kids

(57:36):
will the kids will start it andwhen the when the when the fruit and
the vegetables come to come to beready to eat, we'll bring them inside
and then we make different dishes withthose with the kids, and if we
have a bunch leftover, we handedout to our families afterwards. So it's
that's been a great little piece we'veadded here in the last few years too.
Yeah. I noticed coming in thedoor sometimes I would be there'd be

(57:58):
like sandwiches are or other boxed foods, etc. That are donated to you
that you get distributed out there.But no kid goes hungry down there.
No, And that's one thing thatwe try to make sure that we have.
Last year we served over fifteen thousandmeals hot meals every day at our
Aims and aveda club and we handit out over thirty five pounds of food

(58:21):
for parents to be able to takehome to serve in their own And that's
really been a mission that it's alwaysbeen there, but we've really focused hard
on that the last three years.Great partnerships with the Lincoln Center High v
Food Bank of Iowa, Bricktown Bakeryover in Neveda, and the great partners
for us to be able to handthat stuff out to our families. The
only thing about this is me,every time I come down to do something

(58:44):
like that, I have to gothrough a search. Judge pushed me through
a search make sure I'm not grabbedany peanut butter or anything there that might
be sitting out. Well, there'sprobably enough that you could have taken some.
I'll tell you. It is awonderful facility. The thing too,
that we should recognize is the factnot only and it is Boys and Girls
Club Story County, not of Aimes, and you've got quite a unit over

(59:08):
in Nevada. Yeah, that's reallygrown. I've been with the club three
years this month, and when ifirst started, we were serving, depending
on the day, three to sixkids a day over in Nevada and the
Presbyterian Church. And right now we'reaveraging high twenties, low thirties. We
are our registrations are full. Wehave a waiting list for the last two

(59:29):
summers in the last two school years, and we're really happy with the way
that that's grown over there. We'renow serving kindergarten through eighth grade over there,
and we moved to the Memorial LutheranChurch right next to Kawanas Park,
so that's been a very nice upgradein space indoor space, but the outdoor
space has been great being right nextto the park. Yeah, as we

(59:51):
see the needs grow, we knowthat you don't want to turn anybody away,
and that's one of the reasons forthe need for the expansion there.
But we've talked about it being sucha sports involved thing, but young people
come there, do their homework,can get tutored, can get computer instruction,

(01:00:13):
etc. It's just invaluable and Iknow just from experience you haven't stopped
yet. If you see a need, you'll find a way to fill it.
Yeah, we sometimes hear things fromthe community, from our parents.
We have a committee that brings inparents and leaders from around the community and
that's specifically what we talk about everyninety days is what's next. What do
we need to do to help youguys out as community members, as parents.

(01:00:37):
You know, we did get agrant from Soy County about a year
ago that is allowing us to Ourgoal from that is to bridge the pandemic
learning gap. So Caitlin and herteam are working very hard with Iowa State,
Nevada Schools and AIM Schools to beable to show that our program that
we are doing after school is helpingclub kids bridge that pandemic learning gap faster

(01:01:00):
than what kids who are coming tothe club are. You know, we
we read over ninety six minutes lastyear at the Ames Club. So we
do math, we do we readevery single day of the summer, and
we know that there's kids out therethat just aren't you know, they're they're
sitting behind their screens all day intheir bedroom. Yeah, and it's unfortunate.

(01:01:20):
And the Boys and Girls Club isthe alternative to get kids active.
But not only that. What Ilike about it is the fact that it's
a great melting pot, because itisn't I think Boys and Girls Club years
ago was oh, that poor familyneeds a play for the kids or something
like that. It it goes acrossall kinds of financial interests, doesn't it.

(01:01:44):
We don't want to We want tobe there for the kids that need
us most. And I mean Itell our staff all the time, it's
not our responsibility to tell a familywho needs us most that they make that
decision and we and we get themin the door and serve it at all
levels. You know. One ofthe cool things is our kids. You
know, six elementary schools split up, they all drop off at our front

(01:02:05):
door. Well, they get toknow each other at the club, and
the smiles on their face when they'rerunning in because they know that their friend
from the other elementary school that theydon't see all day are going to be
there. And so it's very funto be there in the afternoon when we're
dropping off. When we go fromzero to one hundred kids in about forty
five minutes. We talk about afternoon, but we want to assure you.

(01:02:27):
The other service they offer is thefact it's spring break. Oh it's this
break, or the kids are outof school, they have a place to
go, and especially true during thesummertime. Summers, we are open about
nine weeks of the summer, seventhirty to five thirty every day. We
try to get that half hour inon both sides of mom and dad being

(01:02:47):
at work. And so, yeah, that's been great, full the last
two summers with a waiting list atboth sites, and just another good alternative
for families to be able to knowthat their kid is taken care of,
that we're they're in a safe spaceand hopefully they're learning some things along the
way. And a good meal everyday too. Yeah, don't let your

(01:03:08):
kid be a lage key kid.I know maybe there are some occasions where
you don't think that that's avoidable,but I would have given anything because I
had a couple of lage key kidsand they did fine. But I tell
you you worried every day as aparent because they're kids. There are temptations

(01:03:30):
and there's sometimes decisions to be made, and some of them are poor and
some of them are good, butthere is a place they can go and
as Ryan has said, be safeand Ryan, the thing I think people
really should appreciate is the fact thathow affordable you guys have been able to
make the Boys and Girls Club.Yeah, when you break down our costs,

(01:03:51):
you know, we kind of separatefrom summer school club to just our
school year club. But when youbreak those two things down, fifty dollars
total per kid to be in schoolYear club, one hundred dollars total for
the entire summer, it breaks downto about sixty one cents a day on
the days that we provide services.And you know, our great donors and

(01:04:12):
us being financially responsible with our moneythat we get from our donors, you
know, it really put us ina good position to have scholarship money available
for families that can't afford it,but to be able to keep those costs
down because that is a cost thatis rising every single day for families out
there. So for us to beable to keep it that low, we're
very happy about that. Yeah,and they continue to do so well.
This is my opportunity to say,Ryan, tell us a little bit about

(01:04:35):
what your needs are right now?People could contribute to the building fund.
I assume yeah. We are inour big year end campaign right now,
which obviously is partnering with our capitalcampaign. If anybody wanted to donate,
you can go to our website bgcstorydot org and there is a donate button
and you can choose if you wantedto do our regular operations at this time

(01:04:57):
of the year, or if youwanted to donate specifically to the Capitol campaign.
In the Capitol campaign, there isa pledge process. You can pledge
for a multi year pledge and therewill be recognition in the new building for
anybody that chooses to do that.It's a great way to go. Well,
my personal thanks for everything you guysdo in making the youth of this
area safe and sound and continued success. And let's hope we can get those

(01:05:25):
eighty on the or sixty on thewaiting list in the building here in the
next few years. Sounds good.We're hoping for a spring groundbreaking, all
right, sounds great? All right? Ryan Sandy with the Boys and Girls
Club of Story County joined me hereon coffee with Mel at Affordables in Story
City on fourteen thirty. Kasi Melin the morning on fourteen thirty Kassi,

(01:05:48):
Welcome back to Affordables, and wehave an encore performance right now. Natalie
here, who is in charge ofAffordable and who's been very busy you.
You've been stocking things this morning,just moving stuff around. We're having a
baked sale this morning from our volunteerboard, so I've got to move some

(01:06:09):
stuff around to clear some shelves off. So I was looking across there and
I thought people brought in consignment orfood over there, I said, bringing
food in. Huh, yeah,there's cookies. I don't know what what
are those two others that look likefruitcakes? But monkey bread, monkey bread.
There you go, something named afterme. Finally, it's nice to

(01:06:30):
know. But anyway, yeah,some fresh bake good's going to be here
this morning. So if you werethinking maybe i'll go up later today,
I'm gonna tell you come up assoon as you can because this stuff will
go quick. This looks like goodold homemade goods, absolutely, and we
have more come in, yeah,and more coming in, so it's worth

(01:06:51):
coming up. I just everybody's here, you know, Natalie. It's hard
to do a show from here becausewhen I invite guests up here. I
can't find them. They're walking throughthe store, they're all shopping. It's
a wonderful thing. Yeah yeah,I think you need to suirp a guide
to get through here. But itis just folks. I can't describe it.

(01:07:14):
I try to, but it isphenomenal and hard to find things and
things you never thought you needed,they're gonna You're gonna find it here.
Absolutely. We have the most unusualthings lately. Yeah, just some random,
probably homemade Christmas items that were probablylike fifty years old that I've never

(01:07:36):
ever seen in this store, andthey've been coming in here and they're just
it's amazing to see what's coming inright now. And I think part of
the reason people bring those things hereis they know what good the funds they
raise here do. Absolutely. Yeah, yeah, So whatever we make goes
back to Bethany and families and needover there, so it all goes to

(01:08:00):
a good home. And then peopleget delight in coming in and seeing something
maybe they had when they were growingup. It's almost like a trip down
memory lane for a lot of people. I saw an old string of popcorn
I made when I lived in Colorado. I'm seven years old, but no,
not really. What's the hot itemsusually here? Is there something that
sells faster right now? Just Christmas? We are, like I said before,

(01:08:26):
were exploding with Christmas items. Westill have a lot of Christmas to
put out, and that's what seemsto be going right now. Every there
is no really hot item. It'smore just random things that people find enjoyment
in right now. I was watchingJordan, he's kind of walking around here
eyeball and things, and I sawhim going through the old record collection.

(01:08:48):
Albums. Yeah, those are albumsare the thing of the day right now.
I think the younger kids are reallyenjoying vinyl records, and we got
some great records in here, soit's kind of fun to see what we
got. Also saw I'm going throughwhat I expected the DVDs. He said

(01:09:11):
he'd just watched finished watching the Gameof Thrones, and it seems like we
have the whole collection here. Andagain it's half priced, so you can't
beat shopping here right now. Yeah, and there's just all kinds of wall
decorations and just like I say,it's fast books, I'm looking right through
to look like a substantial library backthere. We do. We've got a

(01:09:31):
great selection of books right now,books on sale eight for a dollar that
are in the library, so youcan't beat coming in and get a stack
of books. Once the weather startschanging. We've got puzzles and we have
a really nice selection of puzzles andgames that seems to be popular during the
winter. Yeah, and I mentionedearlier my brother found a golf club.
He wanted. There's golf clubs inhere. I think I've seen sleds.

(01:09:55):
I've seen just bicycles. Everything comesin here. And so if it's a
hard to find, if it's acollectible, we talked about collectibles here,
Natalie somewhat of an expert here thatyou will be surprised at what you will
find, but more surprised and howlittle it costs. That's true. Yeah,

(01:10:20):
we everything again, our name isAffordables. We try to make it
as affordable as possible. And areyou are you ready for the move mentally?
Physically yes, Mentally I have toprepare myself for this. It's it's
going to be a major undertaking.Good news is it doesn't have to all

(01:10:40):
go over at once. We cangradually move things over since we own both
buildings. I think that's my savinggrace in my in my mind that yeah,
you're against a deadline. Oh mygoodness, I might be having a
breakdown. But yeah, it'll bea really nice move on Main Street and
it'll be a nice open building,a more updated building, great lighting.

(01:11:04):
Yeah, it'll be a wonderful movefor us and easy to find and easy
to find. Yeah, Now,how long have you been here? So
I've managed the store for three years, but I volunteered seven years prior to
that. I knew you'd been herefor a while. Yeah, and obviously
love what you do and it shows, it really does. As I said,

(01:11:26):
when you walk through the door,I don't think there's ever going to
be a stranger walk through that door, and if they are, they won't
be for very long. Exactly,Yeah, exactly, Yep. I love
meeting people. I think that's thebest best part about being here, or
helping them find something. And thestory is just to listen every once in
a while, somebody always has astory when they walk through the door,
and that's the best part of beinghere. I always think you should have

(01:11:47):
a pickle barrel or a cracker barrelwho they could sit around like the old
general stores. Now, is therea challenge for you when they come in
and say I'm looking for and Ilook around here, and I know there's
organization. I'm just not aware ofwhat it is. But but is there
some difficult things they've asked you for? Very rarely will somebody walk out the

(01:12:12):
door without something that they have intheir hand or that they're come in looking
for. We have a wish Wehave a wish book that if I if
it's not in the store right now, more than likely it'll probably come in
the next month. So we taketheir name number, put them in our
wish book, and when it comesin, we'll give them a call.
Yeah, and I'm going to sayI would imagine that I'm using my imagination,
but I'm sure there are certain timeswhere someone will pass away or something

(01:12:36):
in the family say way do wedo with this stuff? And it ends
up here? Absolutely, And that'sit's it's a good part of knowing in
the community that it's also going toa good home. Yeah, everything has
a place for somebody. And Ialways tell everybody, don't throw anything away.

(01:12:57):
I will find a home for it. So bring your orphan goods down
here and we'll get them hooked upwith some foster owners or something. Have
you ever had something come through morethan once? Yes, So that's funny.
So we actually had a random Wehad a gift bag, Christmas gift

(01:13:17):
bag, and a few years back, we used to date items Christmas items
so we'd know how long they wereon the floor. And I was bringing
something up and on the bottom ofthe gift bag it had twenty sixteen and
it was fifty cents back then,and that's still what we ask for gift
bags. But every once in awhile something does come back in. But

(01:13:38):
I thought that was hilarious that itwas still dated. Yeah, that's funny.
That's something I never did. Inever dated, but yeah, I'm
dated. All right, just checksaid well Natalie, again, let's tell
folks the hours and when they cancome on in and take advantage of this.
So Tuesday through Friday ten to five, Saturday nine to three, and

(01:14:00):
again, if you're looking for somethingor have something random that you might need,
give us a call and we canalways set it aside or help actually
help find it for you. Okay, I got to ask this question.
Do you get people to come inand dicker for something, say, oh,
you want I'll give you this forthat every once in a while,
and I always tell them we're prettyfirm on our prices. Our prices are

(01:14:21):
extremely affordable. Right now they're halfoff, and I always tell them the
story. If it's somebody new andthey think we might be a consignment and
they want a dicker, I alwaystell them we're a nonprofit and where our
funds are going to Bethany. Andthen they're like, oh, okay,
they don't mind spending an extra dollarfifty Yeah, yeah, absolutely sound great,

(01:14:44):
Natalie, thanks again, thank you. All right, we're an affordable
in Story City. That's where youshould be right now, and Natalie'll be
here to help you and we'll see, uh see just what do you find?
And I'll tell you going to finda little bit of everything. Unless
Jordan's already bought it, I don'tknow he's going through this story. Have

(01:15:06):
you been through the whole story?Jordan's yeah, there you go. All
right, we're going to take abreak. Welcome back with more from Affordables
in Story City. I'm fourteen thirty, Kasi mel In the morning, I'm
fourteen thirty Kasichull. I hope everybodyheard you say legitimate reason not to because

(01:15:28):
that's the first time you've ever saidI had a legitimate reason. It wasn't
a full sentence too. Yeah,I mean that was impressive. I hope
they heard it. I will haveyou diagrammed that sentence later. Did you
diagram sentences when you were I hatedthat. It was almost as bad as
geometry. That's the one I stillhave nightmares about is geometry. I passed
geometry. The instructor and this isa true story. I got there.

(01:15:51):
He was a great guy. AlanYours was his name, I remember to
this day, and I was horrible. I wasn't getting it, let's face
it. And he said, Iwill pass you in this course because if
I don't, will you come backand take it again? And I said,

(01:16:12):
yeah, I want. I needto pass it. And he said,
I'll pass you so you don't comeback again. Is it funny how
you remember your geometry teacher? SteveRobleski was my geometry g He was my
sophomore football coach and he coached geometryand read, you ain't getting it.
I said, no, sir,I'm not. I'm sorry. First d
I ever got in my life.And that good huh, darn good d

(01:16:33):
for darn darn good. And uhyeah, he actually passed me. He
did. I didn't deserve it,and he gave me a d. Yeah,
that was the thing. And I'mforever grateful. And I've never conquered
math yet. No, I havenot used geometry since. So we're good.
You get a whole new angle.Very good. Yeah, anyway,

(01:16:55):
Chuck reads who I'm talking to,sales rep extraordinaire here in our area for
fourteen thirty. And I want tobring Chuck on because we have been getting
a lot of inquiries about how canI have coffee with mel Well, first
of all, you pick up thetab and pay for my coffee. That
helps. But the other side ofthat is check what kind of changed the

(01:17:19):
format. This was formerly known asAKA Breakfast Club years ago, and we
sold it by the month. Butnow you've restructured, right, it's by
the week and you could purchase fourweeks in a month. That's not a
problem. But we do sell itby the week now instead of the month.

(01:17:39):
And we do have an opening forthe twenty ninth of this month.
We still have one opening left inDecember. January is filling up. February
and March look pretty good. Butif you're interested and would like to have
Mel come out and have coffee withMel. Please let us know. We'd
love to work with you. We'dlove to help promote your business or your
organization and tell everybody again what's goingon in the community, and we'd love

(01:18:02):
to do it, So just giveus a call. I want to mention
this because when we were doing itmonthly number one, we were booked up
and there was you know, whatdo I say, first call or write
of? What do they call itwhen you get the repeat offer first right
refusal? How does that sound?Yeah? Okay, that's as good as

(01:18:24):
I'm going to come up with.Year after year we were with the same
people, and there were some businessesthat were a bit smaller that felt they
couldn't quite afford the tag for amonth. But I'll tell you it's very
reasonable right now. And if youever thought you couldn't afford it, we're
affordables. By the way. Youcan afford it, and you owe it
to yourself and your business. AndI know that sounds like ego running out.

(01:18:47):
Number one. I sincerely would loveto spend some time with you.
I would like to bring people intoyour business to interview, to familiarize themselves
with you and your operation. Yeah, you know, this is a great
place Affordables. It's not a hugestore, but I think it's going to
do them a lot of good tohave you here today. And Brookwick,

(01:19:09):
they've got some great stuff here.I'm not much of a shopper, but
I may be fighting over that payphone. Isn't that weird? Both you and
I picked up on the workable payphonethey have here. But Christmas stuff galore.
I see all this stuff at homeand I cannot send my wife here
because we will have Affordables in Westmoinethen, because she'll buy everything in the

(01:19:30):
store and I will have no placeto live. But just great stuff.
Please come out here, do yourselfa favor and come on out here because
there's great Christmas stuff again fifty percentoff today. It's a great deal and
great location, great people helping BethanyLife, a great organization which really helps
the community. So come on outto Affordables, and we want to tell

(01:19:53):
you that coffee with Mel is affordable. And we would love you to investigate
what we can do for you bycoming to your business or event or whatever.
And Chuck, what's the best wayto find that information. You can
go to the website. You canput down on the website you're interested in

(01:20:15):
hosting coffee with Mel and that's afourteen thirty kside the website just I check
it every day. So you senda post up there, I'll get it
and I'll give you a call andwe'll set something up. I'll tell you
I'm anxious to do it. Iwant to. It's nice. We were
at Converse there a couple of weeksago. I had never done a show
from there, but got to doit from there, and it was so

(01:20:38):
much fun because I've known Matt andJim forever and got an opportunity to go
out there. I got to seea little bit about their business. We
got to talk about it, hadsome special guests come in. Why isn't
that you It should be Do mea favor. You're not going to meet
her. A nicer guy than Chuck. He's there to help you in any
way that he can. And givehim a get on that website, drop

(01:21:01):
them a note. He'll get holdof you. Then you two can talk
business and hopefully I'll get to havecoffee with you. Sounds good, done,
sounds great. By the way,finish your coffee. We're gonna take
a quick break and then we'll beback to wrap things up at Affordables in
Story City on fourteen thirty, Kasimel in the morning on fourteen thirty kas

(01:21:28):
I were wrapping it up here atAffordables. Don't you wrap it up?
But you can come up here andthen you can wrap it up after you
buy it period Affordables. Mackenzie joinsme again, Mackenzie Alvarado, the foundation
director. Here. We talk aboutpeople wearing more than one hat in our
communities, and Mackenzie, you're oneof those folks. Yeah. I'm also
on the board of directors for theYWCA, the ISU Aims Chapter, which

(01:21:50):
is a really great organization that hasmentoring programs for our middle school and high
school girls in the community, andalso scholarships. We actually have a scholarship
available right now. The deadline isactually today, but if you get it
to me by Monday, I couldstill turn it in. We have scholarships

(01:22:11):
available for those women that are graduatinghigh school and going into college. We're
also accepting Women of Achievement nominations currently, so for our big banquet in March,
I was going to say, I'veknown about this mentoring program for several
years. It is absolutely priceless forthese young ladies. It is they get

(01:22:33):
to see young women that they lookup to in college and kind of aspiring
to be those girls, and itgives them something to do, keeps them
out of trouble. They have snacksright now. We are needing snack donations
to support this program through the restof the year, which is until May.
So if you feel it in yourheart to donate snacks that middle school

(01:22:57):
and high school girls would like,we would so appreciate. Yeah, And
mentoring programs are a two way streetas far as I'm concerned. These folks
that are mentoring get as much outof these programs as the mentees do.
Oh, that's absolutely correct. Ourcollege girls that participate in the program,
they learn so much and they becomereally bonded with the girls that they're mentoring,

(01:23:21):
even maintaining the relationship after the programis over to check up on them
years later and seeing how they're doing. So that's one of my favorite parts.
And the thing about having the collegegirls mentor these younger girls is they
just come through that door and theyounger girls can relate more than they can
to us old fogies. Oh that'sexactly correct. I'm kind of crossing that

(01:23:44):
threshold myself. I'm almost thirty nowand I don't quite relate to those high
school and middle school girls as wellas I used to. It's kind of
funny. Well, things move sofast, and I don't know how the
young people keep up with it,but they do the world so much faster
place than when I was growing up. The horses are faster, the wagons

(01:24:04):
are cleaner, you know all thatstuff. But no, if somebody's interested
in getting involved in the mentoring program, can they contact the YWCA. Yes,
they can contact the YWCA and Amesjust google YWCA Aimes or you can
contact me at Bethany Life. I'malways happy to make that connection when I
can. Where do you meet andso right now we do our board meetings

(01:24:28):
virtually, but they meet on campusfor the mentoring program. So you can
drop the girls, your daughters offwith the college girls at the YWCA campus
building, one of the most beautifulbuildings on campus. There are a lot
of history in that building. Anyway, Mackenzie, thanks for having us out
here. Oh, thank you somuch for coming mil We really appreciate it

(01:24:49):
and thank you for advertising affordables andall the great work we do here at
Bethany Life in the community, nothard to do, great organization. Find
out more about it, check outout their website, give them a call
see if you can't set up anappointment to talk. May be able to
do something for you or some memberof your family or a friend. It's

(01:25:10):
all here at Bethany Light. Nextweek where you're going to be Mel,
where you're going to take your coffee, that stale coffee you got, We're
going back to Bridge Home to twentyfive South Kellogg in Ames And if you're
a group that needs to promote something, we would love to see you.
Just drop us a note on ourwebsite and we'll prepare to get you there.

(01:25:32):
Any questions you might have, anddon't forget get hold the chuck read
on that website. I hope thatyou can become a sponsor of Coffee with
Mel thanks to Scott Kovac in studio, I'm Mel in the morning.