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Families helping each other in Shelley
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Location: Blogs Jim's Blog |
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| Posted by: Jim Hansen |
8/1/2006 |
Ten miles south of Idaho Falls is the small but growing community of Shelley. Here is where my great-grandparents came in 1896 with four small children. Here is where my grandfather was born. Here is where strong families helped each other build a community. Here is where families and city leaders continue to help each other grapple with modern challenges.
I met with Mayor Swede Christensen of Shelley the other day. A hundred and ten years ago, John Shelley, founder of the town, called on folks he knew from Utah to help him build a tiny railroad stop into a town (which eventually was named in his honor). Among the people he knew from Utah who responded to his call were my great-grand parents Hans Peter and Anna Hansen. They came with their four young children, helped John Shelley build a grist mill and cleared the lava rock and sagebrush on a piece of land near Shelley Butte for their home and farm. My great-grandparents had five more children in Shelley, four of whom lived to adulthood, including my grandfather.
Today, Shelley is a vibrant community of about 4,000 people. It is surrounded by rich volcanic soil along the Snake River, ideal for irrigated farming. Shelley is just 10 miles south of Idaho Falls and has also become a bedroom community for that city’s growing workforce. Many folks in Shelley work at the Anheuser Busch plant south of Idaho Falls or Basic American Foods near Blackfoot.
These days, one of the concerns Mayor Christensen has is the effect of methamphetamine on some local families. The problem is no greater in Shelley than any other town, but since the community is small, it is far more likely that city leaders personally know the families that are suffering. Meth is so addicting that once someone tries it, that person’s whole focus in life becomes the next hit. Family, work (if they have a job) and other community activities rapidly fade into the background of the addict’s life.
Mayor Christensen tells me there are some amazing people in Shelley who are helping addicts get off meth and get their lives back on track, and are helping the children of addicts as well. It is the same sense of commitment people in Shelley have always had for each other’s well-being that has survived wars (water wars and foreign wars), depression and other challenges for over 100 years.
Support from the federal and state government for Shelley to confront this new challenge is not nearly enough to keep up with the need. I’m sure it is frustrating for them to see the national debt rising so quickly that things like fighting drug and alcohol addition gets pushed aside. We need some strong-willed people like those in Shelley to intervene and wean Congress from its addition to massive debt.
In virtually every town in America, you can hear stories about the consequences of ignoring addition: the lost opportunities in supportive families and the drain on limited local funds for police, courts, health and education services.
At least once a year, I try to make it to Shelley to visit the graves of my great-grand parents. They both passed away long before I was born. Next to their graves is that of their 3-year-old daughter Laura Hattie and of their granddaughter Anna Marie, who lived only two months. Theirs are stories of childhood illnesses and family grief that only time has softened. It is with the knowledge of how fragile life can be that still keeps the people of Shelley reaching out to their neighbors to help other families that suffer from modern-day grief.
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