Mara serves this community as a Registered Nurse. Mara moved to Jackson from Denver back in 2008 leaving her work with non-profits in search of adventure in Jackson. In her first year here, Mara worked for Wilderness Ventures, leading trips for local high schoolers down to Peru in the summer. That winter, she tried out for a role as a ski school instructor, outshined by the vast quantity of pro skiers, but she ended up meeting her husband. 

During the 2008 recession, Jackson had the opposite problem – easy to find housing, hard to find jobs. After working for the Amangani and the mountain for a few years, both Mara and her husband left the valley for a few years to pursue higher educational goals and came back in 2014. Mara to pursue her nursing degree, and her husband to pursue a degree in physical therapy. 

Mara currently works as a Registered Nurse at Teton Outpatient Services in the operating room, and she also works for St. John’s Urgent Care. She also picks up shifts at the Teton Village urgent care, working with Jackson Hole Ski Patrol in the winter. 

Beyond her full-time work helping people on their road to recovery, she enjoys supporting local non-profits and attending community events. Mara loves to help out when she can at the Teton Free Clinic, a local nonprofit mostly staffed by community healthcare volunteers. This work is important to her as it helps under and non-insured patients get primary and urgent care from doctors, physician’s assistants, and nurse practitioners. Beyond that she loves attending outdoor music festivals, all the great children’s activities around town, and building the life skills every Jackson kiddo needs whether that’s through the programing at the Children’s Museum, ski school at Snow King, or swimming lessons at Astoria. 

Having the ability to live where they work and recreate is super important – especially thinking about childcare. The idea that a caregiver can be stuck a county or state away when inclement weather makes it impossible to travel is a common, nightmare scenario. Many of Mara’s co-workers commute from Teton Valley, ID and Lincoln County WY, some as far as Big Piney and Pinedale, which the stress of being on the road cannot be ignored as it hits people on so many levels: mental, physical, and financial. 

Brian has served the Jackson community for 25 years as a year-round, dual-seasonal worker who upon graduating college came to Jackson after learning about the Tetons from a friend’s older brother. The friend’s brother came to visit them in Boulder, CO with eyes popping out of his skull after the experience of skiing the ‘96-’97 season, or rather, the “90 sick and 90 heaven” season. 

At any given time, Brian wears a lot of hats, working for anywhere between 5-10 employers, depending on the time of the year. 

In the summer months, you’ll find him guiding guests – locals and tourists alike – up the Grand Teton and other technical climbing objectives. Come winter, Brian works as a backcountry ski guide for JMHR and as a ski guide for Exum, guiding people on Teton Pass and in GTNP. Brian also has a penchant for keeping people safe and has previously worked as a ski patroller for over 10 years at JMHR and at Snow King. These days, he focuses on teaching avalanche courses with American Avalanche Institute (AAI) and private avalanche courses through Exum.  

In the off-season, Brian can be found working as a carpenter or for local companies like Give’r gloves, or taking a much needed break from the harsh winters of Jackson by heading down south to simultaneously picking up a few guiding jobs to help support his family as the seasons transition in the Tetons. 

In his spare time, Brian finds as much time as he can to spend with his daughter, Stella, fly fishing, skiing, biking, and finding meaning in taking part in the community, by giving back to the Hole Food Rescue, Habitat for Humanity Restore, and Coombs Outdoor. He loves living in a community that takes care of each other and feels like family.

As far as housing, Brian moves each season, splitting his time between the cabins near Jenny Lake and an apartment in town. Moving around adds strain and uncertainty each time it comes to transition.

Louie has served the community for the last seven years in a variety of roles for the Bridger-Teton National Forest. In his current role as the River Program Manager for the Snake River, Louie is responsible for managing river outfitters permits, hiring and managing the river crew, finding training opportunities, managing equipment, vehicles and facilities, and coming down on busy weekends to help lend a hand to the crew at the boat ramps. 

Before coming to Jackson, Louie studied Natural Resource Management at the University of Montana. With the initial plan of becoming a wildland firefighter, Louie’s trajectory changed after he took a job with the Forest Service as a wilderness ranger. After college he found his way to Jackson and the Gros Ventre Wilderness. He loved his work as a snowmobile ranger on Togwotee pass in the winter, patrolling winter closures, educating people about avalanche dangers, and wanted to continue his work with the Forest Service. He also enjoyed working with local youth on trails around Snow King and Teton Pass when he co-led the Friends of Pathways youth trail crew. 

Over the last seven years, Louie has moved 13 times between a number of housing situations within Jackson and over the hill in Victor, Driggs, and presently resides in Forest Service housing in Hoback.

Lina serves our community as the Director of Outreach at the Teton Literacy Center, serves on three volunteer boards – Womentum, Slow Foods in the Tetons, and Voices JH, and is a photojournalist, taking on a number of projects – including capturing all of the lifestyle photographs of applicants and homeowners for a CHT campaign. Lina moved to Jackson 10 years ago to work for the JH Wildlife Film Festival.

“When I arrived, I got to know two women who worked with me at the JH Wildlife Film Festival. From there, in just a few years, I developed a tight group of friends from all backgrounds, connected with my first language, Spanish and felt truly a part of.  You get to know the people who live in your community, and really appreciate how much people want to connect and help each other.” 

In Lina’s role at the Teton Literacy Center, she wears many hats. She teaches, supporting many families that are part of the community and handle all of the outreach for the organization. In her spare time, Lina loves connecting with the students and families she’s worked with for the past 7+ years. Lina also gardens, taking pride in growing her own food, and she also enjoys hiking and exploring the outdoors and having access to so much untouched wilderness right outside her door, deriving joy from exploring with her husband and trusty adventure dog, Albondigas (meatball in Spanish).

“Jackson gives me the ease to be alone in nature, with few people around and truly to be able to feel in the wild. I love when we hike for hours and only run into a few people on the trail, or when we drive 15 minutes from our house and feel in complete wilderness.” 

Lina and her husband currently rent in town and feel very fortunate to have a home despite their monthly rent cost being over 50% of their income. The industry standard for affordability is no more than 30-35% of total income. 

“Even though the expense is a real financial struggle to save and think ahead, we know we are uber fortunate we have a home. Our reality, with the current market, is that we know we will never be able to buy in Jackson without it being affordable housing.  Having the chance at an Affordable home would completely change our lives and provide us with a chance to stay and make Jackson work.”

It’s Lina’s sincere hope that our community can survive this dooming crisis, and that Jackson doesn’t stop being a town of locals who always rally to protect and help each other. To supporters of Affordable housing, Lina has this to say:

“Thank you. Thank you for giving our community a chance to stay a community of locals, who live, breath and fight for their community. Thank you for giving us a chance to continue to make Jackson special.” 

Steve serves our community as a Ski Patroller, TSCAR Volunteer, and full-time Fire/EMT with the Jackson Hole Fire/EMS. Initially, Steve came to Jackson to ski and work construction, but ended up staying for the community.

“I love the small town feel and how close knit this community is. I love driving anywhere in town and being able to wave to someone I know or see friends in the grocery store.”

After a few years of working construction, Steve pivoted to explore the world of prehospital care.

“It was always in the back of my mind that I wanted to pursue prehospital care. I knew it wasn’t a financially rewarding business, but after a few years of ski bumming and knowing how to be broke, I figured I might as well be broke and try to put myself through EMT school. Plus, driving a fire truck is pretty sweet.”

Steve started his journey into prehospital care through ski patrolling, working at Snow King for three years, five years full-time at JMHR, and then three years ago, went full-time at Jackson Hole Fire/EMT and part-time at JMHR.

 Steve also volunteers with Teton County Search and Rescue, joining in 2021 as a part of the most recent recruiting class. He was prompted by a superior at Fire/EMS to apply and was pleasantly surprised by the overwhelming response he received to join the team.

“It’s the reward in helping someone who is sick and far from help keeps me going. I work with a great group of people, which coupled with my competence in the backcountry, helps us to get people out of the backcountry when they’re in trouble.”

Steve moved into one of the new Affordable homes on King Street a year and a half ago. Outside of adapting to the different pace of life which comes with moving from Wilson into town, Steve finds joy in the perks of being a short bike ride to the People’s Market and other community events nearby. It’s also critical to him to be a block and a half away from the fire station, if needed, and only a short distance to the SAR hanger, as every minute counts for the person who is in need of responding volunteer’s help.

 “The biggest thing that I’ve experienced after securing a home from the CHT is the stability and security of knowing this is where I am and where I will be until I choose otherwise. The amount of compound stress that has been relieved, and continues to be relieved over time, knowing that I don’t have to move is surprisingly a lot – and that’s coming from a guy who doesn’t stress about a lot of things.”

A lot of ski patrollers Steve works with can’t afford to live in Teton County, which means that a lot live in Alpine, Victor, and Driggs. While this doesn’t seem like a big deal, it’s on those frequent, heavy snow nights that closes the Pass or the Canyon, that means that Ski Patrol is running at a deficit when working to open the mountain.

“Since I live in town, I can still make it to work, I can still get out there to run the control routes, and we can get the mountain open. We’re doing it shorthanded, so it’s not happening fast. It’s only because I live in town that I can consistently be there to help open the mountain, no matter the weather.”

Heidi serves as a Police Officer for the Jackson Hole Police Department, joining the force three and a half years ago.

Originally from New Jersey where she studied criminal justice and worked as an EMT. Jackson landed on Heidi’s short list of places she wanted to be following a trip she took 10 years ago.

“It was all about the bison, they’re really cool, I just knew I wanted to be here.”

While in college, a position for the Jackson Police department came up and, encouraged by her criminal justice professor, a former highway patrol officer, she applied on a Thursday and was invited to take the test on the following Monday.

“As an officer, I respond to a wide variety of calls which keeps the job interesting. What I love about this community is that it’s close knit and people genuinely care about people. My work colleagues have become family.”

Heidi takes part in all things outdoors, with weekend getaways going up to the lakes, kayaking, hiking, and admiring the mountains.

“I love taking part in this community through the Wyoming Odd Fellows, participating in Shop with a Cop and as a counselor at Camp Postcard.”

The Shop with a Cop program is designed to provide an environment for area youth to help reframe their experience with law enforcement. Camp Postcard is a middle school level sleep-away camp program at Casper Mountain designed to reinforce positive leadership skills.

“Without housing through the Community Housing Trust, I would not be able to live here. My life has been 110% impacted for the better. So many people worry that when a lease comes up, whether it’s going to be increased by 50% or more. Having a fixed monthly payment is super helpful. I find that I am much more at peace. I like having something that I can put work into, whether that’s DIY projects around the house or growing my garden.”

Joe serves our community as a Teton County Integrated Solid Waste & Recycling Senior Recycling Operator. Joe came to Jackson six years ago after the oil field he was working at in Williamsport, Pennsylvania closed up. There was not a whole lot going on after the oil field closed and his mom, who remarried and moved out to Jackson, suggested he come out, and now he couldn’t imagine being anywhere else. He loves the changing seasons and getting outside as much as possible, enjoying skiing and mountain biking.

“What I love about the community is the small town feel – even though we don’t have a lot of people, you see people you know wherever you go. There’s a great community atmosphere and people remember your name, it’s just nice. I tell you what, the post office is always the place to see people.”

Joe oversees the recycling operators which is responsible of gathering the recycling that the community puts in the community sites, empty out the roll offs, sort the product on the new Revolution system which was a recent SPET initiative.

“We are so thankful for the community support for this machine, it improves the operations of our work, helping us sort the product for a better end product.”
Joe lives in Alpine with his family and the commute is a large part of his day.

“The commute is tough, especially in the winter time. We have a lot of seasonal traffic and when there’s bad weather it just stretches an hour long commute even longer. Having the opportunity for an Affordable home would give me peace of mind and make me feel even more part of the community. Having something to call my own and invest in would be phenomenal. Everyone wants independence and a place to call home. It would be great if there was more housing that aren’t just 500 sqft apartments, which are hard to be able to grow into.”

Affordable homes are in great demand especially during times of economic uncertainty. Support of development not only helps people find stable housing, it also helps keep our community intact.

Gretchen serves our community as a clerk at the USPS main branch. She came to Jackson 18 years ago from Vermont, looking for a change of scenery and visiting a friend. Luckily, Gretchen was able to transfer with the US Post Office, quickly adapting to the faster pace of Jackson. She loves everything that Jackson has to offer, from hiking, downhill skiing, cross-country skiing, camping, biking, and hockey (which is how she met her husband, who coaches the under 16-year-old girls for the last 15 years). 

A day in the life at the post office is comprised of bringing the mail in each morning, completely sorting all the mail – letters, magazines, or flats as they’re called, and packages,  picking up the mail at the blue boxes around town, and helping customers at the front counter, all while making sure the outgoing mail gets sent out every day.

“90% of the volume comes through the main “new” post office and both UPS and FedEx drop packages off with us. Daily, we see around 1,200 – 1,300 packages alone. The Friday after ‘Prime Day’, we received 2,500 packages. Both post offices in town see between 11,000 to 15,000 depending on the day, not counting the holidays.” 

With turnover as a constant, it’s understandable that the limited staff that the post offices do have, they don’t have the capacity to look up the address for packages that have a missing or mislabeled address. 

“I feel very fortunate to have the stability that is afforded by owning a Community Housing Trust home. My family and I have been able to develop deep relationships in our neighborhood. My husband and I did the commute before we had kids and it’s tough with the logistics – which town do they go to daycare, what happens if I can’t get back to them in time? It’s nice to be in the community that I work in, and I hope that there’s an opportunity for more people to get into Affordable housing before they fall between the cracks.”

Colter serves this community as a volunteer ski patroller and geotechnical engineer.

Colter and his wife, Alli, moved to Jackson after meeting at college in Bozeman. They love living in a town that’s in the mountains.

“The ability to run to the top of Snow King on a lunch break or be at the ski hill with the family in 15 minutes is unbeatable. This place is unique and special. I came for the job, but access to the mountains and our connections to people are what keep us here.”

Both Colter and Alli are volunteer Ski Patrollers at Snow King, which they both got into in memory of a close friend who died while doing international mission work. This year will be their 10th season. They have a very close-knit circle of friends that they’ve made through their involvement in the community, whether through Ski Patrol, the Presbyterian Church, Alli’s hockey leagure, or through their local jobs.

Alli works for a non-profit and Colter is a geotechnical engineer at Jorgensen Associates, a local firm responsible for a wide-variety of projects in Teton County, including private, municipal, and county projects related to building, roads, bridges, and utilitiy infrastructure.

“I’m not so naïve to ignore the irony of my job: as an engineer I help develop the McMansion; I build projects that reduce open space, bring people in, and reduce the number of places my family could live. However, to some degree, development is inevitable. Being part of it allows us to help guide it, to help see it’s done “right,” to help it be responsible and within the character of this place.”

Getting outside is Alli and Colter’s favorite thing to do, though their pursuits have changed a bit since having children. They are currently raising two little ones. They have enjoyed starting and raising their family in Jackson. They have been lucky to find a two-bedroom townhome that works for them now, but they’re in a race against the clock to find something more permanent that gives them space to grow.

“We’re going to size ourselves out in a few years. Right now, it’s okay to have a co-ed sleeping arrangement for our children, but in a few years, we need to have a third room. We rent and we are very aware of all the homes around us selling — there’s the underlying fear our landlord is going to cash in and sell. Fortunately, that hasn’t happened, but the uncertainty is tough on us. To be able to plant the flag at a place where we can call our own and build towards our future would be amazing.”
For them, commuting across county and state lines is a non-starter. Most days Colter drops his children to daycare and goes to the office on his bicycle.

“Jackson is special; the people here are special. Commuting takes away from people’s ability to connect with their community in a meaningful way. It’s not the lifestyle we want.”

Orion serves our community as a long-time river guide, swiftwater rescue instructor, and the Executive Director of the Snake River Fund, whose mission is to protect and preserve the Snake River watershed in WY. Orion moved west after graduating college in Massachusetts intending to take his years of guiding experience in the east coast and translate it to western waterways. He started guiding in 2011 in Colorado for a summer and then went on to move to Jackson in 2014 to work with Lewis and Clark, and still picks up shifts when he can.

“I love that the community is conscientious about the environment and supporting each other. This community, more than others, takes a lot to stay here and engrain yourself in the community. The people who are here and stay here care about each other and support each other, whether that’s with housing, or finding a job, or even just staying mentally and physically healthy. I think there’s a lot of really good resources within the community to do those things.”

Working for the Snake River Fund has given Orion the ability to find incredibly meaningful work that allows him to be able to give back to the resource that has given so much to him over the past decade. He loves finding ways to support the guiding community and connecting people with the river who wouldn’t otherwise have the opportunity. Orion also likes to serve the community through volunteering for Meals on Wheels. He also loves anything to do with the water, his self-proclaimed happy place, as well as mountain biking and snowboarding. Basically, any time spent on public lands is the best time spent.

Orion, like many, has moved around several times. His current living situation was found through a friend of a friend who knows the owner. The biggest challenge with housing in the valley is knowing how long a housing situation will last and when the opportunity to sell for the owner will be too great to pass up.

“Over the years, the cost of rent has taken a toll on the financial goals I have for myself that will allow me to save and set down roots. Having an Affordable housing opportunity would give me that chance to put down roots in the community that I have been investing in. It will also relieve a lot of financial stress, knowing the money I’m paying towards housing is building equity in my future.”

Carsten and Augusta (Gus) have served this community fornearly two decades. Carsten initially came to Jackson in 1997 for a mission trip, building the Foundation Church on Indian Trails with his family. As soon as he turned 21, he moved out west. Augusta came to Jackson from Boston 16 years ago to be a ski bum, securing a job with JMHR teaching the little kids.

Gus and Carsten met each other as ski instructors in 2007 and were in the same friend group for 10 years before they started dating. Carsten proposed to Gus in Bali with “stand by me” playing live on Monkey Forest Boulevard in Ubud. They were in Indonesia on a Habitat for Humanity global village trip.

Carsten works as a river guide in the summers for Jackson Hole Anglers, Jackson Hole Vintage Adventures, and Rendezvous River Sports as a Kayak Instructor, switching in the winter to be a Supervisor at JMHR 3 & 4 year old Ski School. Gus does a little bit of everything, non-profit work, works at the airport, and in the winter coaches at JMHR, a 6-year-old locals group, adults Steep and Deep camps, and does private lessons.

“It’s a very tight knit community. People truly care about each other and want what’s best for each other. You can see it in the sheer number of nonprofits we have in town and how everybody rallies around a problem. I love having my social hour when I’m at the grocery store. – Gus
We also like how we have our Jackson family cause most of our friends are also from a long way away and we don’t have our families around as much and we’re tight. It’s nice to see our friends have kids, and get to know those kids, and teach those kids skiing, kayaking, or whatever. It’s a close community that is full of people but is still small. – Carsten”

They love their Jackson people and the playground that is our backyard. Gus loves bagging Teton peaks and Carsten loves to bike ride with their dog, Georgie. Both are motorcycle enthusiasts, Gus recently participating in the Jackalope Ride which benefits the Special Olympics, and they also love scuba diving. Carsten loves to cook, which brings him joy and Gus is an artist, creating all sorts of cool creations. When they’re not off adventuring, they love to volunteer with Habitat for Humanity and Team Rubicon, a veteran led humanitarian disaster response organization. Gus also finds time to serve on the Womentum and Habitat for Humanity board.

Carsten and Gus have seen it all when it comes to housing in Jackson. Gus lived for several years in the Doll house or the “ladies lounge” as it was called. This home was a 3 bedroom, 1 bath house that six people lived in. It was quite the happening spot for fun, local women to rotate in and out. Right after they started dating, Carsten was forced to move in with Gus as the place he was living in, the roof caved in, which was the demise of his lease as he asked the landlord to fix the roof because it was “raining” in the living room. If you asked for things to be fixed, that was how you lost your lease.

In 2018, they got on the Community Housing Trust list, and moved into Redmond Street Rentals for a time and had the chance at a home, which they moved into in 2019. Gus moved 14 times before she got into a CHT home.

“After getting a CHT home, it was nice to have the sense of stability knowing we didn’t have to move around. I was able to get my guitars that I had back in Alabama, and we were able to get a dog. Having a dog was renter suicide. The sense of weightlessness, not having housing anxiety and be able to drop roots in the community we love so much.”

Stephanie serves this community as a nurse St. John’s Health Urology Clinic. She moved to Jackson in 1993 from upstate New York. Stephanie studied conservation and ended up working at the Blackrock ranger station. She would have been happy anywhere working with public lands, but as fate would have it, she landed in the Teton Wilderness. She quickly fell in love with the area, living in Moran for her work.

In 2013, Stephanie got her nursing degree as she wanted to do more and advance her career. She loves being outside and engaging with all of the public land around Jackson. She loves skiing, hiking, biking, camping, and giving back to the community through supporting multiple non-profits, volunteering at Hole Food Rescue, and instructing at the Therapeutic Riding Center, and participating at the People’s Market.

Stephanie and her partner first moved into a Community Housing Trust home in 2006 and ended up moving into a larger place in 2011. Having a housing opportunity has given Stephanie a reliable and stable situation.

“Being able to wake up in my bed in my own small house and knowing that my housing situation will be stable and secure until I decide to make a change. I’m grateful that I am able to live in Jackson and bike to work 8 months of the year. My hope for the future is for large business developers to consider the “health” of the community and if the business they are proposing is really something that is needed and would contribute to the community as a whole while also considering the amount of staff it will take to run the business and what their housing situation will be.”

Evan serves our community as the Operations Manager for Jackson Downtowner LLC which manages the contract for the START OnDemand service in Jackson. This means he runs day-to-day operations managing personnel, community member engagement and fleet management. More often than not, you’ll also find him driving shifts if someone is out sick or if there are staff shortages. Evan grew up in Kansas and got his Bachelors of Science and Technology in Automotive and Industrial Science. He has now been a part of Jackson for over 16 years, working for a variety of employers.

Before coming to Jackson, Evan has always had a love of wintery places with access to the outdoors, when he met a local gal everything fell into place. Evan loves Jackson because it’s a small, big town, full of community-minded people and with lots of opportunities for volunteering and community involvement. When Evan’s not outside taking advantage of all the outdoor sports, he’s volunteering with Hole Food Rescue and the Animal Adoption center. He also loves attending the myriad of community events and live music that Jackson provides.

“At times, early on, it was difficult to be part of the community and contribute. That feeling of ‘why try if you are going to have to leave’ was an easy one to feel. But, I’m glad I’m on the other side of that, I’ve been here long enough and feel that I’m connected to people. This said, to have an opportunity at stable, Affordable housing at a place I’ve made home would create a feeling of stability that you can’t find trying to rely on free market housing.”
For now Evan has a stable housing situation, renting in Jackson. He’s been in the same home for six years, which he rents from a local business owner.

“I moved in thinking this was temporary, but I am so thankful that this has continued to pan out for the last six years. I’m in a unique situation. There is a lot of disconnect that’s based on housing. I have entire friend groups that now live in Teton Valley and I don’t feel like I know them because I don’t see them anymore. They come here for a limited amount of time, just to work, and then they go back home. Some of that is effort, but if they’re an hour away, it’s hard to form connections and keep them. I worry that overall, the lack of Affordable housing affects our social services or lack thereof – people administering services to our community but not being part of it.”

Evan’s hope for the community is that we are able to focus on development that serves the needs of the community and incentivise developers to look more holistically at our community rather than just an investment or something to extract value from.

“We don’t need to focus on bringing in more and more service type facilities, which digs our housing hole deeper. I feel that we’re at a fork in the road where we decide as a community whether we value people who work here, living here. Or if we’re just happy with a commuter type of arrangement with people in our community, then the predominant amount of people living here are more in the retirement / investment home which I think is fragmenting our community by having the predominance of people who live in the community, not participating fully in the community.”

Christine has served this community since 1985 as a musician playing in bands across the valley including the Shelley & Kelly Band, the Cow Patsy’s, an all-female led band who performed twice for Hilary and Bill Clinton, and of course the famed Stagecoach Band. Christine grew up with two sisters, as a daughter of a miner in Pocatello, ID. She moved to Jackson when she was 28 years old. People would ask her “Don’t you want to have a baby?!” She’d say “I don’t want a baby, I want a band!”

Christine’s younger sister moved to Jackson Hole in 1983 to work as a clerk at the Post Office. Six months later, on Christmas Day, Christine also moved to Jackson from Aspen, CO. She had majored in vocal music at Utah State with the intention of teaching, but set her sights on becoming a professional musician after hearing bluegrass and country musicians in Aspen. At that time, Jackson was still a quiet town on Christmas Day – no restaurants or grocery stores were open which meant Christmas dinner was from the only open convenience store.

“The main things that drew me to Jackson are the beauty of this place, the outdoor activities, and the music opportunities. I’ve played many different Jackson Hole venues, from the Cowboy Bar, The Wort Hotel, the Stagecoach Bar to private parties, weddings, and dude ranches. What I love about the community is that we’re a fairly small town with so many cultural opportunities – whether that’s great restaurants, art galleries, and events at the center for the arts – it’s the amenities of a larger town in a small town.”

Christine participates in the community through her talents as a musician, playing Old West Days on the Town Square, programming with Dancer’s Workshop and the Senior Center, and fundraisers for various local organizations, to name a few.

Christine met her late husband, John Hess – love at first sight – while skiing at Targhee. At the time, John owned a music store and worked summers as a commercial salmon fisherman in Alaska. The music store was located in one of two historic buildings on North Glenwood Street that had once been housing for St. John’s Hospital nurses. A years-long saga regarding the fate of the property ended with one building being moved to a West Bank property and the other being demolished. The eight units in the nurses’ quarters had been home for many locals. Luckily, Christine and John were selected for a home in the first Community Housing development, Mountain View Meadows, and became home owners in 1994.

Besides the music store, Christine’s husband had worked as a driver for START bus for 13 years, a guide for Dick Barker Scenic Floats, as a landscaper, and as a carpenter, before his passing.

 

While things have changed as a result of a multitude of factors since Christine moved here in the 80’s, she believes that if the housing crisis is left solely up to the open market, the situation would be much worse.

“The people who are in Affordable homes are contributing to the community in a meaningful way and provide the diversity – ethnicity and wealth – that every town needs. I recently visited Aspen to visit a friend I knew from when I used to live there years ago and I was shocked to see that there’s no nightlife anymore. It’s turned into a shell community where everyone comes into work but then goes back to the community where they live. It’s killed the vibrant scene that used to have music, hopping restaurants & bars, and art galleries. We can’t afford to have that happen to Jackson otherwise we wouldn’t have the interesting things we love going on in town.”