“Treasures walk in on a daily basis,” says Kandy Zanto, owner of Feather Your Nest in downtown Great Falls.
That doesn’t mean Zanto sits around. She goes to auctions, estate sales, and other local shops. She even makes house calls. “Wherever I go—in person or online—I find fun things and great stories.”
Passion–and some steamy Latin dance moves–are evident in Zeledon’s body language as he performs onstage.
Zeledon, who works in nuclear security with the U.S. Air Force, is enjoying his stint in Montana: “The first time I saw snow I took off my shirt and jumped in it. I don’t do that any more, but I still love snow.” “Snowboarding,” he gulps, recalling his first attempt at Showdown last winter, “…not so much.”
You can find Zeledon’s compositions on his Facebook page, ‘Nova Celeste Resurrected’, or listen in person at venues around Great Falls.
Leslie Jimenez talks with injured and sick people, firefighters, cops, drunks, EMTs, bystanders, perpetrators, and the suicidal. When she’s done, her sister Chelsea Stiner takes over.
Amy and Rachel Heser can relate—they’re the other set of dispatching sisters for Great Falls Cascade County 911.
Between calls to and from Great Falls police, Cascade County Sheriff’s office, Great Falls Fire Rescue, ambulance crews, and Cascade County’s rural fire departments, these four young women have heard it all.
Just after the dew lifts, Scott Cooper uncovers the mound and plate. He’ll mow, water, and do regular maintenance at Great Falls’ Centene Stadium until batting practice is over. While the crowd fills the stands, Cooper and his assistant ‘finish’ the field, re-drag between the bases, and apply fresh chalk lines.
Beckett Perkins knew by the time she was in junior high that she wanted to help sick babies.
This Missoula native was well on her way to becoming an Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN) when her own premature twins began their lives in Salt Lake City’s Neonatal ICU.
Perhaps because she’s “been there,” Perkins’ compassionate professionalism inspires everyone—especially her twins Alissa and Ainsley, who are nursing students, and daughter Brianna, who is working on her pharmacy degree. Perkins, a Benefis employee since 1997, says there’s no such thing as a typical day. “I couldn’t do it without my husband and family.”
Quarter-sawn oak? A live-edge slab? It doesn’t matter if your project is a houseful or a handful, Chris and Susan Crocker would like to help.
It figures that a guy who graduated from the school of hard knocks wound up working with wood, and the gal who hired him, years ago, is now splitting time between two careers.
Chris and Susan Crocker’s business, The Good Wood Guys, located in the old Hodges Plumbing complex off 8th Ave. North, serves contractors, hobbyists and homeowners.
Chris, a trained millwright, machinist and fabricator, palms a photo of a bulbous, barky lump. “Production mills don’t want this wood…It will make spectacular oak burl,” he beams. “We specialize in the unique and different, mill direct.”
Susan, who worked in advertising and retail management, met Chris when she hired him as an archery expert at Scheel’s. Years later, they reconnected and re-educated themselves. Susan still teaches English at Great Falls High, but Chris is too busy to teach college chemistry.
With ash, cherry, oak, hackberry and other hardwoods stacked and leaning against every wall, wrapped chocolates in an open jar, and a mahogany-brown mascot, this is the best treehouse in town.
