Here is a shout out to our summer intern Axel Otteson from Seattle Washington, 17 years old. Axel worked with Bluebird for two weeks doing everything from labeling bags, mowing fields to firing up the combine in preparation of harvest. Our neighbors, Jill and Harold Sheely graciously offered to host Axel in their home which allowed him this opportunity. Thank you, Jill and Harold! It was fun having a young boy around with lots of enthusiasm. Axel was a big help and we look forward to cultivating more opportunities like this in the future.
We were sad to say goodbye to Brad Halm this month, who has been with us for the past four years. Brad came to us initially to work as the millwright. Most recently Brad has been managing sales and marketing along with handling a myriad of other management tasks. We wish Brad the best as he pursues non-profit management.
Brad’s decision to take a new job has shifted my priorities to come back to Bluebird full time. Many of you may or may not know that I have been working at our local public school for the past three years as an elementary school counselor. Although I loved my job and felt so honored to be working with young children in such an intense capacity, it became clear to us when Brad stepped down that our business is our first priority and that it was important for me to come back to the helm in managing marketing and sales. There is only so much time in the day. So, here I am…stumbling through how to get out this newsletter. I am excited to reconnect with customers and look forward to bringing some new energy to the table.
We have also added a new social media coordinator position, daughter Larkin Lucy who is managing and developing content for our social media accounts. It is fun to have the younger generation plug into this important marketing role and nice to have “the kids” interested in the business.
We are quite honored to have received a USDA Value-Added Producer Grant, again thanks to Brad’s hard work. We were awarded a three-year grant to help promote Einkorn sales through product development, marketing, and e-commerce. We are excited about this opportunity and quite frankly a little overwhelmed as we did not anticipate receiving the grant. We will be looking for help in marketing along with e-commerce analytics if you know of anyone send them our way!