Anthony Around Town
Ah, Elko. The Sunshine city. No, that’s not right.
Ah, Elko. The city the never sleeps. Nope.
Ah, Elko. So nice, they named it twice! Umm.
Ok, well, maybe Elko Nevada doesn’t have a cute little identifier like some towns but you can bet your daddy’s muddy work boots that this city is still one very unique place.
My name is Anthony Crosby. I’m married to my beautiful wife, Emily, and have three equally as beautiful daughters (Sawyer, Evaleigh, and Maddox). I moved from Reno to Elko around 6 and a half years ago to help start Living Stones Church (on the corner of 5th and Silver st.) I had a great time over the years working there but decided recently to step out of my position and slow things down a little bit. However, I was able to learn two really big things about myself through my time on staff.
1. I really love this city!
2. I really love its people!
I was easily able to live out my heart for those two things working as a pastor all day long, but how
could I keep being intentional with Elko while working in a different field?” I recently started asking myself.
I’ve always loved writing. When I was young, my dream was to write scripts for television and movies. I would be the black Quentin Tarantino!
Needless to say, that didn’t exactly pan out, but my love of putting words to the invisible thoughts racing around in my head has always been there. “How could I use these skills and passion all the way up in Elko?” I wondered. Well, through some lurking around on Facebook, I saw that our local newspaper, The Elko Daily Freepress, was looking to hire a reporter. I really didn’t have any experience in journalism prior, but I figured I’d get ahold of the editor and see what writing for them would look like. “Heck, writing is writing.” I figured. We talked and I started doing some freelance work and would submit it to them for publication. I could write about current events or traditional news topics but my main focus turned into doing profiles on people in our town (their businesses and experiences) and sharing those stories with the paper. The response from the readers was very positive. And you know what? I loved it!
Writing about the people in our town! What a great way for me to roll my love for writing, people, and the city of Elko all into one! Thus, Anthony Around Town was born!
Marin Wendell – Owner/Publisher of Everything Elko Magazine –
Bridging the community together!
Let’s talk about my wife for a second, the fabulous Emily Crosby. Not only is she the most beautiful woman in town (she’s going to hate me for saying all of this) but she is also one heck of a hostess/server. You can find her using her amazing restaurant skills at Dree’s (across from the Telescope Lanes). Sometimes, I’ll go in to visit her at work. Maybe we’re trading car keys to properly shuttle around all of our little rugrats. Maybe I just need to stop in and have her grab me a cold/crisp Mountain Dew. Maybe I just need to get my barbeque chicken wrap with bacon and sweet potato fries on! Whatever the reason, I enjoy stopping in there. And one particular day, as I was waiting for her to wrap up a meeting, I looked over and noticed a small magazine stand. On the stand were some issues of the latest print of the “Everything Elko” magazine. I had some time to kill so I flipped through its pages. It was filled with local events, articles written by locals, and all sorts of great material to read. As I prepared to put the magazine back on its stand, I noticed the cover. On it, was a picture of Mrs. Marin Wendell, the founder of the publication. Granted, it could have been the three cups of coffee I just had with my meal, but something hit me! Who better to talk to about their story as an Elko resident than someone who celebrates and highlights life as an Elko resident? Marin and I just had to sit down to talk…
On top of being a magazine publisher, Marin is married to her husband Todd of Ruby Mountain Chiropractic and home schools her three children, Kellon (11), Emerson (9), and Saylor (7). “My husband and I are actually both chiropractors and we moved to Elko maybe 14/15 years ago to help out another chiropractic couple that owned Ruby Mountain Chiropractic at the time. But we were in transition between other practices, we had one in Boulder Colorado, but we sold it to head to the East coast to open up another practice. However, the other couple was here and they needed some help with research studies and covering their practice a little bit, so they had us come in to help out; we ended up loving it! We stayed and bought a house in Spring Creek. However, the other couple ended up going through a divorce, so, after all the craziness, we decided we just needed to bow out and let them do what they needed to do, so we headed up to Sioux Falls, South Dakota and opened a practice up there. We had our babies and thought about opening another practice in Fargo, North Dakota. We were kind of all over the place. But the owners of the practice down here told us they were retiring and moving and asked us if we wanted the practice in Elko! It was perfect! So, we literally picked up and moved back here…7 years ago this March. When we got back (I still had three little kids), so Todd suggested that I help him market the practice. So I started reaching out all the different ways we could market…ehhh there wasn’t a lot. There wasn’t a lot of free marketing. But when we lived in Sioux Falls, my friend had a magazine up there, I had helped her with it before, and I thought we should have a magazine like that down here because it would be such a good way for a community to communicate. So, I started going around talking to people about starting a magazine because there are so many cool people in our community (especially business owners) and it would be a great way for us all to talk to each other! And uh, nobody wanted to do it. I started praying about it, and one morning got up and had the name “Everything Elko.” And finally, my husband told me I just need to do it! So, I said ok maybe I will! I got a babysitter on like Tuesdays and Thursdays, went out made cold calls and sat down with business owners. And I basically had to go “sell it” without people being able to see it. And ever since then, it’s been awesome!”
I’m glad the Wendell’s journey resulted in them being apart of our community! But what’s coming up next for Marin and the publication? “I love the magazine. I love being involved, and it’s doing great. But the way technology works, everything is online, so this Spring we’re actually launching the “Everything Elko” app! It’s a free, downloadable app with a live calendar of events, a map of all the Elko Boot locations, interviews, food, and education information, and more. We’re literally just starting to sell it so hopefully around March or April we can start having the masses download it and use it! Sometimes, our businesses have such a small voice in our town, I want that interface between them and the customers to be so much smaller. My goal is to get a billboard so when people (hunters, travelers) get off the freeway they can download it and see what’s going on. And if someone has an event happening, they could get the info to me, we’d put it on the app and, through push notifications, we could get it out there rather than having to go to Facebook for everything! I’m super excited about that!”
That’s great! I know personally, I can’t wait to download the app! Now, as I mentioned in my intro of this blog, I was excited to talk with Marin because, very similar to the vision of Anthony Around Town, her business is literally about our community and the amazing people who call it home. Therefore, I was anxious to hear her heart, specifically for this town. “I love Elko. Elko to me is perfect. My family loves the outdoors. So, when it’s nice weather, we’re out hunting, hiking, fishing etc. I love love the “small” of our town and the security that comes with that. But, we’re not ridiculously small; we have great amenities. We have everything you really need; it’s here. The community is tight and safe and I love it. I love the people. Everybody is just open-minded. It’s just a super cool “cultured fun” community. We have just enough to stay here, be here, raise our children, have a business and have the beauty of Nevada. Elko people are just so diverse and so cool, from the super-educated mining engineer to some amazing artists. Gosh, Elko is just so cool! It’s easy to get involved, and if you get involved the community loves you. I would never leave her. This is our home, our forever home.”
Marin, did you read my diary? You’re speaking my language! Elko is great! Alrighty, any last thoughts before we close out? I think I hear another chicken wrap calling my name. “I feel like the community is important. I think communication in our community is important; it helps open up doors and opportunities especially for families. The main purpose of the app and magazine is bridging groups and people.”
Fantastic! Thank you so much, Marin! Be on the lookout for a free copy of Everything Elko the next time you’re out and about in the community! You can stop by their website, everythingelko.com and watch for the new app coming this Spring!
See you around, Elko!
If you are interested in sharing your story with our readers, please email anthonyaroundtown@gmail.com
We’d love to talk with you!