People of Northwest Arkansas

Exploring Bentonville's Past and Future with Steve Galen

Danielle Schaum and Danielle Keller

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Join us as we chat with Bentonville's mayoral candidate, Steve Galen. Steve takes us on a journey from his coast-to-coast childhood to his own pivotal move to Bentonville in 1996. In this episode, Steve offers a glimpse into his life and his vision for Bentonville’s future.

Steve shares his insights on enhancing public transportation, developing bike networks, and the vital role private benefactors play in enriching the city’s cultural landscape. We also explore community engagement through initiatives such as local library expansions and animal shelters. With personal stories and lighthearted exchanges, this episode not only highlights Steve Galen’s dedication to Bentonville but also celebrates the vibrant community spirit of Northwest Arkansas.

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You can learn more about Steve Galen or contact him directly at https://stevegalenformayor.com/


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Speaker 1:

hey, danielle, how's it going? It's good. It's getting to be that time of year where the seasons change and everything gets crazy again, and you know what's really crazy?

Speaker 2:

ashes in the air, leaves are falling, the colors are changing and it's an election year.

Speaker 1:

It is an election year and guess who is in the studio with us. It is Steve Galen. I pronounced that correctly.

Speaker 3:

You did Great job Yay.

Speaker 1:

I love when I get it right, because no one ever gets my name right and I just have to ask really quickly if someone gets your name wrong.

Speaker 2:

Do you correct them? Yes, because I I have this weird thing where I won't, but I'll try to like fit it in somehow, I don't know.

Speaker 1:

Do I say your last name right? I say it right, I think.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's it all right okay, yeah, how do people say it?

Speaker 1:

sometimes, oh all different types of ways they'll put like a w in, or I don't even know. But it's fine, it's fine yeah, it's fine, but welcome, steve. Thanks for coming into the studio oh, thank you.

Speaker 3:

So I have a funny story about a name oh, I want to hear it so in our neighborhood we had an older guy who kept on calling my wife wendy, and he'd say, hey, wendy, and we just didn't correct it.

Speaker 1:

So it went on for years oh gosh, she was wendy, so that's your secret pet name. So if you ever hung out with him, you'd have to just stick with wendy I would. That's your secret pet name. So if you ever hung out with him, you'd have to just stick with Wendy, I would.

Speaker 2:

That's hilarious. Was your neighbor named Jeff Keller, because that sounds like something? My husband, has done.

Speaker 3:

I'm not going to share any names.

Speaker 2:

That's fine. No, my husband did this to a friend of mine for almost a year. He called her Gina and he's a very outgoing, enthusiastic person. So every time he'd see her he'd be like hi, gina, how are you, gina, how's it going, gina? Every time he saw her I can see Jeff doing that, especially when you're really positive.

Speaker 3:

You know the name. I feel so good about myself. I'm going to call you Gina, how's it?

Speaker 2:

going. It's a joke now in our family because I'm not the best at remembering names and he's not, and now our son is terrible at it. So I drop him off at school and he's in sixth grade and I'll be like what's that, who's that? What's that kid's name? I don't know, mommy. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

I can do a name. I can do a name.

Speaker 2:

Good names. And something that I'm really excited about, just to let our listeners know, is that we interviewed Mayor Orman and now we are interviewing Steve, who is running for mayor of Bentonville as well. This is our back-to-back, only election only episodes, and we thought, hey, let's make this kind of a just opportunity to hear both of your stories, and so we want to dig in, and one of the things that we ask our guests, the first thing that we like to ask them is how did you get to Northwest Arkansas?

Speaker 2:

What did you grow up here? What made you decide to move here? If you moved here, and tell us a little bit about that story.

Speaker 3:

Sure Well, my dad worked for Kodak for 40 years and their family is all from Rochester, New York, which is where Kodak for 40 years, and their family is all from Rochester, New York, which is where Kodak's headquarters. So we moved all over the country and there's four of us siblings, so I have brothers and sisters that are in California, Rochester, New York, New Jersey. My mom lives in Rochester, New York, but in 1977, as a family we moved to the Washington DC area in Virginia and I lived there for 20 years and we moved. We were there and I was working for 3M and there was an opportunity to come to Bentonville to work with Walmart and Sam's Club and I know they were an up and coming retailer at the time, back in the mid nineties. They were doing really well and I thought that as a career opportunity. So I lobbied a lot of people to get to Bentonville and they chose me and said, sure, you got it. So we moved here in 96. I actually stepped off a plane at Drake Field in Fayetteville.

Speaker 3:

Propellers stopped and I heard cows and I wondered what have I done?

Speaker 2:

Did you not come to visit before you moved here?

Speaker 3:

It was the first time I'd been here.

Speaker 1:

Wow, I visited once before I moved here, but no, I love it.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, but not in the 90s.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, true.

Speaker 3:

So it was great. It was a small town I think it was 14,000 people when we moved here and drive to Fayetteville for everything because that's where the shopping was and it was really fun with the kids to drive down the highway and see cows along the highway. I remember one time I was going to play tennis with some friends and where the cross church is there was a farm and three cows had gotten out and I pulled over my car. I was just a year from Washington DC and I was helping three cows get back in their gate.

Speaker 1:

That's a little different than DC. That's very different, but's a little different than DC. Yeah, that's very different.

Speaker 3:

But, it's been a great ride. We've loved it here. I think a lot of people in northwest Arkansas I say almost like particularly Bentonville. You come here and you think you're going to be here for two or three years, and then that turns into 28 before you know it. You know what's funny. What's up with the?

Speaker 1:

two-year thing. I don't know, because that's what my husband told me. He said give it two years give it two years and that was eight years ago, and now my family in dallas is please come home, and I'm like I this is home sorry family, it's like a little bubble.

Speaker 3:

Really is the bubble it's a bubble for the whole united states I think, not just arkansas yeah, so did you raise your family here then, or did you? We did, so my wife and I, susie, we've been married 30 years. Last October Wow congrats. So this October 30th will be 31.

Speaker 2:

Congratulations. Thank you.

Speaker 3:

And our daughter Stephanie, was eight months old when we moved here. Wow and Sam was born in 2001. And they both went to Bentonville public schools and both graduated from the university of Arkansas.

Speaker 1:

Oh my gosh, are they still in?

Speaker 3:

the area. Our son Sam is. He just graduated in this may from Arkansas and our daughter Stephanie lives in the DC area not far from where we moved and she works for Nestle. Oh, okay Is their headquarters is there for the U S and she's been with them five years now.

Speaker 1:

Oh, that's amazing.

Speaker 3:

So are you still working?

Speaker 2:

for 3M.

Speaker 3:

No, well, 3m brought us down here in 96. And then I was recruited to lead the Del Monte Foods team because I always thought I'd either go back to DC or I'd go up to St Paul, minnesota, where 3M was based. But it turns out there's a very robust recruiting area here and I was sold on leading the Del Monte Foods team.

Speaker 2:

Wonderful.

Speaker 3:

And then I ended up spending the last 15 years working for Abyssal Home Care. They have carpet shampooers, those great little green machines.

Speaker 1:

I have one of those Two dogs. Well, kids, who am I joking? Kids too. House I like to clean. That's lived in.

Speaker 3:

That was a light bulb went off when I first used that thing, because what did you used to do? You sprayed something on the rug.

Speaker 1:

I know.

Speaker 3:

You'd pat it down with a cloth.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

You'd try to get it up, it never would really come up.

Speaker 1:

Or go to Lowe's and have to rent one of those monster machines that are ridiculous. Yeah, one of those monster machines that are ridiculous. And have you done that? Cause I've done that? Oh, I had. I tried to solve a drug once. It didn't work.

Speaker 2:

I mean more power to you.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so funny thing when we were talking on the phone I had talked about doing a call in interview and you were like absolutely not. I've done way too many zoom meetings in my life.

Speaker 3:

I prefer in person in person, and it's funny because nobody likes Zoom I'm pretty sure nobody really Well, for long distance, it really is a great option, especially for companies, so you don't have to fly all over the place. The crazy thing about Zoom is everyone's the same height on Zoom.

Speaker 1:

Oh, I never thought about that. That's interesting so many people.

Speaker 3:

I'd have conversations over a course of a year and I'd meet them and they'd just look up. And I had meet them and they'd just look up and I had no idea you were that tall. That's so awesome.

Speaker 1:

And so true.

Speaker 2:

It is true.

Speaker 1:

And short people like me have the opportunity to look taller.

Speaker 2:

You have such an opportunity and you can wear shorts instead of pants, except don't get busted.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, don't get busted. I really did enjoy all of those videos that came out over the years of-.

Speaker 2:

Of the Zoom calls during COVID yeah they're like basketball shorts on.

Speaker 1:

I mean you do what you got to do, yeah, okay. So you guys moved here, didn't want to leave your kids. Both went to University of Arkansas and my husband's trying to bribe our kids to do the same. He wants them both to stay close and never leave Northwest Arkansas, that's so great.

Speaker 2:

I love that about Elliot.

Speaker 1:

We'll see if that works. I don't know. I tell him just like to keep an open mind. I feel like reverse psychology, right? If you can't go anywhere else, they're probably going to want to go somewhere else. Of course they do, right, yeah.

Speaker 2:

Ella will, for sure.

Speaker 1:

Her oldest will want to go somewhere else.

Speaker 2:

For sure.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, okay. So another thing I wanted to talk about is your involvement with animal welfare. I'm especially interested in it because I've been involved with Best Friends Animal Shelter. I've taken my daughter to volunteer in the cat cafe. She's a vegetarian Right. Daughter to volunteer in the cat cafe. She's a vegetarian right. She raises money for sea turtles and cares about using plastic straws and probably different from the animal welfare you're talking about. But you're involved in that and I want to know how you got into that bill burkhart, city councilman.

Speaker 3:

he asked me to be on a task force to help determine the feasibility of having a shelter or a facility in Benton, Because at the time we had a contract with Centerton that for $400,000 a year our lost pets would go there and they'd try to find homes for them.

Speaker 3:

So Bill asked me in 2017 if I would consider joining it, because I've been on boards for about 25 years and I have a passion for good, so I joined it and I ended up co-leading the capital campaign event to raise $22 million for the building, and I work with suppliers, so I was in charge of working with Nestle and Blue Buffalo and Bissell Home Care and Mars Pet Care and we were able to raise close to $4 million just from the supplier community alone.

Speaker 1:

That's impressive. They're really an incredible community. Living here, I think I've gotten a peek into how much these companies all give back. I don't know if enough people outside of the area are as aware, and maybe they are, but I know, living in Dallas I probably wasn't at all. But I'm always impressed by that, how much they give back, and I love Best Friends. One of our first sponsors was Third Space Coffee.

Speaker 3:

Oh, great Shout out to Brooke.

Speaker 1:

She just had her baby. So then I have to ask do you have pets?

Speaker 3:

We have a 16 and a half year old Yorkie Poo. Her brother, unfortunately, oliver, passed away last a year ago in April.

Speaker 2:

Oh, I'm sorry and poor.

Speaker 1:

Sadie's not doing too good. Oh no, 16 and a half, that's. I have an elderly dog too.

Speaker 2:

That's a very elderly dog.

Speaker 1:

She dog too, very elderly dog she is, she's just holding on, she is, she like limps along, she can't see, it's so hard.

Speaker 2:

She can't hear.

Speaker 3:

Oh, that is so, but they're both sweet, I mean both kids we went to I forget the town we went to to pick one out and both kids saw a different dog in the litter and we ended up with two of course of course, of course you did.

Speaker 1:

They each have their own.

Speaker 2:

But they had an instant friend.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's been with them most their life, 16 and a half oh, yeah, yeah a large part of that. That's a yorkie poo. I don't know that. I've seen one that sounds really cute I love yorkies.

Speaker 3:

Well, they don't shed yep, and I think they're pretty smart.

Speaker 1:

Sometimes they are yeah I've always heard that yorkies think they're like a big dog. Because my in-laws all have yorkies, it's like the only dog I don't know if they all got together and discussed this, but they all have yorkies, yeah and uh. My mom only has poodles, boy poodlesodles. Don't know why, but she probably thinks it's funny because I have two hundred pound German Shepherds. So I'm the aunt, but I do like small dogs. Yeah, I see the appeal.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, we have a big dog. Yeah, she has a big dog too, we have a Labradoodle and so, yeah, she's a lot of fun and a hot mess at the same time. But we, yeah, we love best friends. Also, we support them. That's something that, as a family, is important to us, and when they first opened, I really loved the opportunity to go and tour the facility. My daughter is an animal lover as well.

Speaker 2:

And she loved being able to go behind the scenes and see like where they do surgery and where they keep the pets out of the public eye, and then just seeing the facilities and being able to play with the dogs and play with the cats, and yeah, the cat cafe is incredible.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, the cat cafe is incredible. They come out of all these little cubbies. You're like oh, I didn't see you there, and the slide was open at one point like we got to experience that, like when it first opened.

Speaker 2:

But yeah, and I think that it's a really cool resource, the fact fact that it's no animal, oh, it's just beautiful so much glass.

Speaker 3:

It's just an iconic building in town.

Speaker 1:

Oh yeah.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and they're great. And then I was fortunate to work for a company for the last 15 years, Bissell Home Care, who is also very engaged in animal welfare. Yeah, that's awesome and they have a foundation and they've raised millions of dollars to help adopt out dogs and things like that, and they actually supported something I wanted to do with Mercy Hospital to provide pet therapy.

Speaker 1:

Oh.

Speaker 3:

So there's abyssal pet therapy at Mercy Hospital where the dogs, you know they have to go to training but, they can go to rooms of people who are just, you know, just to brighten their day.

Speaker 1:

Oh, that's incredible.

Speaker 3:

Older people, whatever.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

So dogs, cats, they're great. I mean in our office. You know, when I was there for 15 years, we always let the associates bring their pets there. It was all dogs, because I'm not sure if anyone wanted to take a chance with a cat with a bunch of dogs. Yeah, probably not, but it's so stressing you know, after you have a tough call and how can you be in a bad mood when Sadie's looking there? She just wants you to pick her up.

Speaker 2:

Oh yeah. I agree, that's such a great speech. No, you're just like I'm going to hold you.

Speaker 1:

Although, have you seen that video of that man with the chihuahua that says petting your dog is supposed to relax you and the dog's like biting him repeatedly. Have you seen that video? Okay, I gotta send you guys a clip, please after this, please. Um, it's great.

Speaker 1:

No, but for the most part, yes, animals you can't be, yeah, so when you're petting them, but that's really so I was looking at all the things that, uh, or all the different organizations you're involved with, and very impressive, by the way. I love servant leadership, a very inspiring and unique way to to lead, because not everyone you know leads that way.

Speaker 2:

And I think a small community values that so much. I think, with how small Bentonville is and just even small within the Northwest Arkansas being small, or there's a, there's a desire to have people that are more approachable, that are it's the vibe here involved, it really is everything's a little more low-key, like it's not because I know the vision is to make bentonville connect silicone valley right like the forefront of tech or austin entrepreneur right but everyone seems to stay pretty humble here, but I want to talk about the library expansion because I know you were part of fundraising for that.

Speaker 3:

Right.

Speaker 1:

And I wanted to know a little more or if you could share insight into what we can expect from that, because I go there all the time with my kids and I don't feel like I really know much about what's Like a little bit, a little bit, but can you share anything about that?

Speaker 3:

Okay, between us, not really.

Speaker 1:

I mean.

Speaker 3:

I think I was the president of the Bentonville Library Foundation in the early 2000s when we raised money to build the first library and they asked me back several years later to help with this capital campaign and great organization led by Howard Kerr and Teresa Stafford. I mean great people, right. So what's great about the expansion is there's going to be some more meeting room space. In particular is going to be a walmart community room which I believe is somewhere between two and three thousand square feet.

Speaker 3:

That's awesome, it's going to be a lot of glass and what I'm excited about is I'm working with a team on the library foundation to to make that into a community engagement project where we can work with the community, and I think the chamber has expressed interest possibly in holding their Monday morning perks meetings there, because they can get upwards of 100 people and I think that room will hold 270.

Speaker 2:

Oh, wow, that's impressive. That's a lot of people, Just the general area and where the expansion is, it's hard to tell how big it is. On the north side they'll have great AV capabilities.

Speaker 3:

That's awesome, but what we want to do is make it so that maybe once a month you can have different charities, come in the room and set up so residents can have an opportunity whether they're new or they retired or they just want to get involved in the room and set up so residents can have an opportunity, whether they're new or they just they retired or they just want to get involved in the community. They can go around and meet the different organizations and see which one fits their vibe and one that they want to participate in which is great.

Speaker 3:

We'd like to do the same thing with bike riding groups. I mean, it's a little cryptic for someone who's not deeply immersed in the community to find out which rides there are, which groups there are. So we'd like to have something similar to that. We'd like to highlight local businesses, and it could be like a travel agent who gives a seminar on planning your European vacation.

Speaker 1:

I would go to that.

Speaker 3:

And it's not an opportunity really designed for small business to solicit business.

Speaker 1:

Right.

Speaker 3:

But if someone says you know what this is overwhelming, they can get a business card from whoever that small business is. So we're really trying to make it as a community hub, just an opportunity for folks to come to the library to find your next charity or your next ride or learn about things, and the library already does a great job with a lot of crafting programs and book readings and stuff like free lunches too.

Speaker 1:

I've been there before and I'm like, and the garden and all of it. I love going there.

Speaker 3:

It's yeah, so I should tell you about some other things. So there's gonna be a large expansion of the children's section which is really great, there's gonna be additional meeting rooms. I think there's gonna.

Speaker 3:

I know there's gonna be like a podcast room and brock's gonna kick us out now, I'm kidding there's gonna be a maker space room where the idea is that you go in there and you get your hands dirty and it could be learning how to repair your bike or bike maintenance or anything that involves your hands, just getting your hands in there. But there's going to be an expanded business area. There's a lot of suppliers to Walmart that come here and there will be copy machines and stations with computers that you can log into your email and stuff like that, meeting rooms if a supplier wants to hold meetings with the buyers. So it's going to be a great, just a beautiful library I'm really excited and it's happening so soon.

Speaker 2:

It is happening so soon. I think this episode might be released on the day that the ribbon comes out so if you're listening to this, go to the library, go to the library today if you live here. Or today. Some of our listeners are in different countries.

Speaker 1:

You never know. You never know. I think it's a lot of people that are thinking about moving here or know someone, so we had a burning question. It is after dark.

Speaker 2:

It's after dark, I should take a drink of water first.

Speaker 1:

People have noticed Arkansas after dark, it's really not going to be that intense. It's just we wanted to know, daniel and I like to have fun, and now we've had, you know, some extra coffee. So what made you want to run for mayor? What was there a single moment? Or had you always thought about doing this, or no?

Speaker 3:

he was forced into it if you'd asked me a year ago, I would told you were crazy really I never had any ambition of running for any elected office.

Speaker 3:

I was looking forward to planning out vacations and gravel riding and joining a couple more boards and just enjoying life after I retired last December. But a number of folks approached me in January because they had found out that I retired and because of my background in nonprofits and volunteering and being hyper engaged in the community and my business background, they wanted somebody to run for mayor that had just a business background because they thought there were things that we could do a lot better as a city. And it took me about two months but I decided we needed to have someone to run against the current mayor because we've got some big challenges here. Roads haven't kept up with population growth. I know our population has quadrupled since we moved here in 96, and it's going to quadruple again in the next 20 years. I mean, roads aren't that much different than they were when we moved here. How are we going to accommodate 250,000 or more people? So that's a big concern and we can do it. But we just need an overall comprehensive transportation plan that involves an expanded public transportation that fills out the bike network. I know Trailblazers has got a 100-mile bike plan. We need to fill that out and give families an opportunity to come downtown where they don't have to get in a car, and it can get cars off the road. An expanded public transportation in the city of Bentonville can get cars off the road. The bike network can also get cars off the road, because motorists get frustrated having to follow a bike that's going 10 miles an hour and it's not safe to just paint a stripe on the lane. So we need protected bike lanes. We need them lit so they're safe for women and children if it's twilight. So there's a lot of things we can do with transportation.

Speaker 3:

The other thing is infrastructure. We need to invest in our infrastructure. We've kicked the can down the road for too many years and our sewer system continues to be at capacity. Half the water we're buying from Beaver Water District is leaking out through our pipes, which is wrong for so many reasons, and we're just not building homes for young adults in our workforce. From the Mayor's own State of the City report back in January, home production or home completion is down 43% since 2019.

Speaker 3:

We're on track to start 270 homes this year, which is a quarter of 1% of our population. We don't have cottage homes, townhomes, small homes, multi-use apartments over places for young people and workforce employees to buy. So we need to do that and we can do that, because we're pushing everybody outside the city limits but they still work here and they're commuting in, making our traffic horrible and they're not paying into our tax base and we survive. The city runs on sales tax dollars. They're not buying their groceries here. They're buying their groceries in Pea Ridge because that's where they live. So these are core things that we have to address. We're so fortunate to have private benefactors that have paid for beautiful museums and the vast majority of our parks trails and we're going to have more stuff coming here with medical school and the Cleveland Clinic partnership with Mercy.

Speaker 3:

We have so much to be thankful for. But the city needs to step up and do what's required to make sure that we're going to be a thriving city 20, 25 years from now.

Speaker 1:

So that's why I'm running.

Speaker 3:

I'm not running for ribbon cuttings or groundbreakings.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, because you were going to retire.

Speaker 3:

I'm happy to be in the shadows and give all the credit to all the department heads who are actually doing all the work. I just want to get stuff done because I don't want to live in a parking lot in five years and I want my kids to be able to afford to buy a house here and put down roots and hopefully raise a family right, so you mentioned gravel riding.

Speaker 1:

You like to? Is that code for mountain biking? No what is gravel riding? I don't know. I you know what gravel is, I do, but like I don't, I'm a city biker.

Speaker 3:

Let's let Steve explain, it All right, so I'm still pretty much a newbie in all the biking forms, but I tried for several years to commute with my bike and it was just too dangerous on the roads. Trying to ride with cars Again, I'm not that fast. I was one of those guys that was going 10 miles an hour and people are just really frustrated waiting to get with cars. Again, I'm not that fast. I was one of those guys that was going 10 miles an hour and people are just really frustrated waiting to get around me.

Speaker 2:

Steve needs an e-bike.

Speaker 3:

I know. Yeah, e-bikes are great. I need the exercise.

Speaker 1:

Hey, you can still get exercise, you can faux pedal.

Speaker 3:

I've written down e-bike.

Speaker 1:

I went through the motions Faux pedal.

Speaker 3:

No, I know a lot of people have e-mountain bikes and e-gravel bikes. Yeah, even I haven't made that investment yet but for gravel riding it's a nice alternative because there's lots of nice trails that you can go on. It's like golfing with people you're side by side there's not a lot of traffic, you can talk to one another back and forth.

Speaker 1:

It's really relaxing, I find oh, I need to gravel bike then, because I'm not doing all those trails. I don't need to break anything, although then I might finally get a break.

Speaker 2:

You would probably like if I had to like be out. I mean you hit the wrong rock, the wrong piece of gravel, down you go. I know, and I think it's really it's cool that we're talking about this, because right now, while we're recording, once this this is released, it will have already ended. But the Big Sugar, little Sugar is it? The Big Sugar or the Little Sugar race was like this weekend, heading into this next weekend, correct?

Speaker 1:

I don't know.

Speaker 2:

Oh, it's happening.

Speaker 3:

I haven't really read a lot of the news in the last three months. Oh yeah, I mean campaigning would probably take up a lot of things like that.

Speaker 2:

Yes, I have a friend who's running for city council and she just. I just need to get to November 5th. I just need to get to.

Speaker 1:

November 5th. Yes, I know one of our state representatives came to my door today because she lives in our neighborhood and she said let's grab coffee after the election.

Speaker 3:

The election, yes, after the election, the election, yes, I'm saying that a lot.

Speaker 2:

Yes After. I think it's really interesting. This is an off the cuff question. Free to ask it or answer it or not, but you know, like, how will this change your life if you win, and how will it change your life if you don't win?

Speaker 3:

I have a plan either way.

Speaker 2:

That's good.

Speaker 3:

Being completely honest, what I've done for the last 25 years in nonprofit has been, I believe, more rewarding than work. Helped start a marketing analyst certification program at NWAC for people that wanted to break into the Walmart supplier community and I placed interns over 250 interns with different suppliers over 10 years.

Speaker 1:

That's incredible.

Speaker 3:

I still get people that come up to me every once in a while and say I'm not sure if you remember me, but you placed me with Sterilite in 2006. And I really love my career.

Speaker 1:

That just tears you up for a second.

Speaker 3:

Wow, thank you for sharing that.

Speaker 1:

You changed someone's life.

Speaker 3:

I did.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

And it was a team. It wasn't just me, sure, but I really enjoyed that for 10 years doing that. I look at the job as the same thing. I'm not a career politician. I don't have any aspirations to go any further than this position if I win, but position if I win. But I look at it as an opportunity to give back in a different way to my community and make sure that we are staying ahead of growth, that we do have places for young folks to buy and we keep a vibrant community. So I'm very much looking forward to it. Now the flip side is, if I don't win, that's fine too. I'll just continue to serve on boards. I'll actually be able to go mountain or gravel riding with my friends because the group has gotten bigger and I wouldn't mind joining a couple more groups because I really enjoy it getting out. And I'll fulfill the promise I made to my wife when I retired that I'll be in charge of planning vacations.

Speaker 1:

Oh, was she in charge before?

Speaker 3:

No, but since I retired first.

Speaker 1:

Okay, okay, you're in charge before. No, but since I retired first, okay, okay, yeah so where's your first vacation going to be?

Speaker 3:

yeah, oh my gosh, I don't know if you could pick. He can't think about it right now. No, you gotta think about it.

Speaker 1:

You gotta answer, you have to answer. Your wife would want you to take her.

Speaker 2:

No, oh, where you want to take your wife oh.

Speaker 3:

Well, honestly, it's a different question, but still. Well, actually it's what she was saying, because my wife has really been a trooper for this whole campaign and I think she pretty much has veto opportunity for the rest of our lives together.

Speaker 1:

Happy wife, happy life, that's true. So really wherever she wants to go.

Speaker 3:

I'll be completely ecstatic to plan out that vacation and go with her yes we love going to europe. We love going to canada in the summertime because it's so hot down here okay, have you been to?

Speaker 1:

I don't know if I'm saying this, right bamf, have you heard of that?

Speaker 3:

we haven't, but we'd like to go there that's my like next place.

Speaker 1:

Just look it up, it almost looks. Looks AI generated the pictures. Oh, I know.

Speaker 2:

Even my husband does a backpacking trip once a year and he and his best friend it's their man trip. They've been to Banff a couple of times I would have to go there. Just the pictures he brings back from his phone are amazing.

Speaker 1:

It doesn't do it justice. Yes, it's insane.

Speaker 3:

Okay, so she's waiting to go somewhere. Amazing. Yeah, we will be going someplace. There's just a lot up in the air right now. Right for sure.

Speaker 1:

You can't do anything just yet, but I love that you made that promise to her.

Speaker 3:

Oh, it wasn't a promise. It was like all right, I know what I'm putting you through.

Speaker 1:

Are the kids going to try? To come, or is this only you and your wife?

Speaker 3:

I think we've passed the point of time where the kids go with us.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3:

We went to Scotland 2022. Great trip and that was, I think, 18 days. Wow so we love going on those trips. Who knows, might go on the Orient Express one day. I might do an Atlantic cruise and then spend two weeks over there.

Speaker 1:

I mean you sound like you've got some good ideas.

Speaker 2:

I mean retirement sounds wonderful. It does sound wonderful. Are you sure you want to be? I know right, well, you know. I'm sure you can still travel.

Speaker 3:

You still have at the end of the day, whatever it is that really gets you excited, you're going to be excited about that.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, for sure if, if I win, great, I look forward to doing everything I can to getting Bentonville back on track. If I don't win, great, I'm looking forward to going on more vacations and having fun with friends and spending more time with my wife and my kids. My daughter lives in Virginia, so we're trying to plan a trip out there. I mean, sounds like win. No, my daughter lives in Virginia, so we're trying to plan a trip out there Sounds like win, no matter what, for you in all honesty, Great perspective.

Speaker 1:

I love to hear people have a really positive perspective on anything that happens. Because we were just talking about this, about raising children. My daughter went for student council and didn't get it raising children.

Speaker 1:

My daughter went for student council and didn't get it, and so there was that disappointment. But there was a lesson there and and you really want this then you run again next year, or maybe this is just a lesson in perspective you know what I mean so not everyone can make the basketball team or whatever. It is like I'm sampling from friends that have told me things that have happened, but it's all about that chance to teach perspective and I love to hear when people have good perspective on whatever the outcome is.

Speaker 2:

You know what I mean. I agree, oh, absolutely, and I think that the older you get, the more you can see that perspective and the more you can see like I'm going to get something out of this, no matter what.

Speaker 1:

And there's a part to play somewhere whether it's this or that. As a kid, it's a little bit harder, it is harder as a kid to think in that mature, how many years we have experience in our life.

Speaker 2:

But it's good for Ellen needs to experience disappointment. All of our kids seem to experiencement once in a while.

Speaker 1:

So I love to ask Our guests their favorite quote, and I'll share mine Because it plays in what we're talking about. That comparison Is the thief of joy, and we live in a time and a place when comparing Is so easy. You just pick your phone up and you can start Comparing yourself To anyone that you follow, and so sometimes it's easy to look at my friends on their European vacation while I'm in a carpool line.

Speaker 3:

Put your phone down.

Speaker 1:

Put your phone down. But exactly Put your phone down, that's probably a good one, yeah? So I like to ask is there? Do you have a favorite quote, or maybe a mantra, or just something that you think about sometimes?

Speaker 3:

Quotes are great and I think I go through different quote favorites at different times depending on what situation you're in, but right now I'm teetering between two can I share two yeah, yeah, absolutely all right. So for a long time I've always liked the wise mc hammer either work hard or you might as well quit too legit to quit after hours.

Speaker 2:

Too legit to quit. Did you see me doing the hand I did, dan break out right now to quit, oh my quit? Oh my God. Do you have parachute? Pants? Oh my God.

Speaker 3:

Steve, if I did, I would probably get blown away.

Speaker 1:

She just snorted on the mic. Oh my gosh.

Speaker 3:

I think I've got it on my glasses, oh my God.

Speaker 2:

Okay, what's the second?

Speaker 3:

Yes, Well, another wise quote comes from Wayne Gretzky.

Speaker 1:

Okay.

Speaker 3:

You don't skate where the puck is. You skate where the puck's going Ooh.

Speaker 2:

That is awesome.

Speaker 1:

I got to repeat that to my husband because he grew up outside of Chicago and he was always Was he a Wayne Gretzky?

Speaker 3:

fan. He was Edmonton Oilers, but I'm just I remember Wayne Gretzky.

Speaker 1:

I like to also ask what is something that might surprise our listeners to know about you, other than quoting MC Hammer, because that was fun.

Speaker 3:

Great quote. I high jumped in college, but maybe that didn't surprise you because I'm 6'6".

Speaker 2:

But our listeners can't see you?

Speaker 1:

They can't see you, that's true. Yeah, and you're being videoed in a chair. You're in a chair. They can't tell yeah Like You're in a chair. You're in a chair. They can't tell yeah Like a.

Speaker 2:

Zoom call the high jump.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I love that yeah.

Speaker 3:

And my best was 610.

Speaker 2:

Nice Wow.

Speaker 3:

Something else that is probably more surprising. I was Mother Ginger for five years in the Nutcracker with my daughter.

Speaker 1:

Oh my gosh. Yeah, that actually is pretty surprising. That's amazing. But I love it a lot. My kids love the nutcracker and so do I, that's great Five years it was so fun. That was a commitment. That is a commitment.

Speaker 3:

That was a lot of fun.

Speaker 2:

Good dad, that is a good dad. Good dad Good, dad move yeah.

Speaker 1:

Nice job.

Speaker 3:

Yeah it was a lot of fun.

Speaker 2:

I love to hear that that the things we do for our kids, absolutely so, as we wrap up our show today, what is something that you find unique or that you love about northwest arkansas? This is something that we love asking our guests and just kind of that full circle. What is it about this community that you love?

Speaker 3:

well again. I think it's changed over the last 28 years because the community's changed a lot when we first moved here. We're coming from a very big metropolitan area and we love the fact that it was a safe community, so that's very important to make sure we keep and build a safe community. You know the people. You know when you do go to Europe. One of the disappointing things is you know you don't get the head nods like hey, how you doing? You know you don't get the wave to someone who's driving past and they give you the wave back.

Speaker 1:

That's so true because people will give you a look sometimes.

Speaker 2:

Do people in Dallas do that?

Speaker 1:

We are friendly in Texas. Okay, we are friendly. But no, he's right, people are much nicer here, much nicer yeah.

Speaker 3:

And it just makes you feel like you're part of a town. You're not in a big city where people are looking at their phone and keeping their heads down because they don't want to make eye contact with anybody. I mean, that's something that I hope we never lose, but we have to protect it, we have to make sure that people feel safe.

Speaker 3:

We have to make sure that we keep getting the community engaged, give them opportunities to get engaged in the community so they're not just going to work, coming home, dropping the kids off. Coming home, I mean get them out of the house. We've got so many great agencies around here or organizations that do a great job of getting people out there with events, whether it's Kayleen Griffin and Visit Bentonville, or Dana and Erin with Downtown Bentonville, inc. Yes, I mean, they're so great at really developing community events.

Speaker 3:

And of course, the momentary and all the things that the Waltons have paid for to really give back to the community. We're so fortunate and it gets everybody out. I know one thing in particular that I was introduced to earlier this year was house of songs and the City Sessions program.

Speaker 1:

Oh yeah, the City Sessions, which is incredible.

Speaker 3:

A good friend of mine, Matt Kendall, is really big into the scene and we've gone to a number of homes in the city.

Speaker 1:

It's so cool.

Speaker 3:

It is so neat to see bands or acoustic singers just— In someone's house In someone's house.

Speaker 1:

In someone's house A couple of musicians we interviewed were part of the city sessions.

Speaker 3:

So that's really cool and that's something I think has been a really nice addition, boy. I think it's been around for seven or eight years. So I mean that's something that makes it even a nicer town because you're gathering with neighbors to listen to music.

Speaker 1:

How great is that? Oh, that's. My favorite thing to do is listen to live music.

Speaker 3:

She knows, music is life.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, my husband's like stop buying tickets to the Amp, we're done. No more concerts, Keep buying them, Keep going. So where can our listeners find you online socials or website so they can look you up?

Speaker 3:

Okay so online socials or website so they can look you up. Okay, so I'll be completely honest with you. I'm still not that good at social media. It's never been a priority for me. But there is a website, stevegalenformercom. We have a Facebook account, stevegalenformercom. You can tell there's a theme here.

Speaker 1:

Yes.

Speaker 3:

And there's an Instagram account, stevegalenformercom. Now, if you just want to learn more about Steve Galen, you can go to my LinkedIn profile and you can see everything I've done for the last 38 years in business and 25 years in nonprofits and my education, but everything else is stevegalenformercom.

Speaker 1:

No one will forget now.

Speaker 3:

No one will forget will.

Speaker 1:

Well, thank you for coming in the studio today. We really just loved getting to know you better and hearing about your story. What brought you here?

Speaker 3:

you guys are so fun all right and I'm so glad I get to experience the snort oh my god, I know you're lucky, thank you thank you, steve thank you guys hey, thanks so much for listening today.

Speaker 1:

If you liked what heard, please consider subscribing to the podcast so you never miss an episode. You can also follow us on Instagram at peopleofNWA. Thanks so much.

Speaker 4:

People of Northwest Arkansas with the two Daniels produced by me. Brock Short of Civil Republic Productions. Please rate, review and like us on any podcast platform where you listen. For more information about today's guests and the show, please check the show notes. Thanks for listening.