Fort Collins Now:
Once a stay-at-home mom, Debbie Stinar filled her time with crafting, traveling to as many as 28 shows a year to sell her hand-made goodies.
Her daughter, Tracie Rydgren, got involved too, traveling the circuits through Colorado, Kansas and Nebraska, which kept them both away from home more than they liked. In 2001, they opted for something more.
“There was a lot of traveling, a lot of setting up and tearing down,” Rydgren said. “We thought, let’s set this up for good.”
The pair, both from Kersey in Weld County, opened A Country Touch in a small 1,200-square-foot shop in a strip mall in Greeley. Soon thereafter, they moved into the next space, adding another 1,500 square feet of goods.
In three years, they created a niche, offering items people couldn’t find at the big box stores, and they grew beyond even those walls.
Photo by abstract splotcHes.