Category: Q&A

Anthony Coy

Custom apparel account manager

Anthony Coy is an account manager for the Keene-based custom apparel business Beeze Tees Screen Printing, working out of the business’ second location and retail store in downtown Manchester.

Explain your job.

I connect with people, events and businesses that need [custom] stuff. … Basically, they call, email or come into the store and say, ‘Hey, I need some T-shirts,’ and I say, ‘Cool. What’s your logo? Where [on the shirt] do you want it? How many do you need?’ and I hook it up. They pay for it, and we print it.

How long have you had this job?

I’ve been here since the store opened in January [2020].

What led you to this career field and your current job?

I worked in customer service and sales for a long time at Comcast … and then for Amazon … but I was always looking for something better. I saw this ad [for the job] on Facebook Jobs and thought, ‘Well, I’ll talk to them about it.’

What kind of education or training did you need?

You have to know how to talk to people, especially when they’re spending thousands of dollars on T-shirts, and my sales experience has definitely helped me to be able to navigate [those conversations] better.

What is your typical at-work uniform or attire?

We wear [apparel with] the Beeze Tees [logo], but the cool thing is we can choose whatever [apparel] we want, and Beeze Tees prints it for us for free. I went with a bunch of nice, comfy T-shirts.

How has your job changed over the last year?

When we first opened on Hanover Street, which was right before Covid — we were open for a month and a half before we had to close — everyone was telling us, ‘Oh, Hanover Street is a very busy street. You’ll get lots of foot traffic.’ I’ve still yet to see it, so there’s been a very big change in our expectations from when we first opened. It seems like things are starting [to improve], though; with the Palace [Theatre] reopening, we’re hoping to see more people popping in.

What do you wish you’d known at the beginning of your career?

I wish I knew more about hats. I’ve never been a hat guy, but apparently it’s a very big thing with a lot of options. That was the hardest thing for me to wrap my brain around. I get that there are different kinds of T-shirts — comfy, short-sleeve, long-sleeve — but the hat thing? I still don’t know as much as I’d like to.

What do you wish other people knew about your job?

How easy it is for someone to come in here with almost nothing [planned out] and have us turn around a really cool product for them. A lot of people are worried, like, ‘I don’t have any artwork,’ but I can work with almost nothing. If you pop in here and talk to me, we can make something work.

What was the first job you ever had?

KFC, slinging chicken.

What’s the best piece of work-related advice you’ve ever received?

Whatever you’re doing — it doesn’t matter what it is — do it well.

Five favorites
Favorite book: The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
Favorite movie: The Star Wars series
Favorite music: Rammstein
Favorite food: Cheese
Favorite thing about NH: You’re an hour from everything; White Mountains, Boston, the coast — it’s all just an hour from Manchester.

Featured photo: Anthony Coy

Meet new Beaver Brook director Lindsay Jones

The Beaver Brook Association, a nature center and conservation area in Hollis, welcomed Lindsay Jones as its new full-time executive director last month.

What is your background in this kind of work?

I have a degree in environmental studies from the University of Vermont. I spent the bulk of my career at a mission-driven cleantech company in San Francisco. I’ve had a diverse professional background, which has given me a lot of different types of skills in all areas of business operations, and I’m hoping to bring that skillset to Beaver Brook.

What drew you to this position?

I grew up in Nashua, and my husband grew up in Hollis, and he’s the one who introduced me to Beaver Brook when we were teenagers. From that first moment I stepped onto the grounds, I fell in love with it. … My college experience really defined my love for the great outdoors and exposed me to organizations like Beaver Brook, and it was always my hope to [be part of] a mission-driven organization like Beaver Brook. … Over the past few years, I’ve had the chance to do some volunteer work for Beaver Brook, which helped me gain a deeper understanding of the people here, the mission and what it’s all about. … Eventually, I had this professional transition where I realized I wanted to have a career [with a] community-level impact. When this role opened up and I had the opportunity to apply for it, I was beyond thrilled.

What does your job as director entail?

Right now, we have summer camps going on; we have year-round adult programs and children’s programs that we’re ramping back up now and into the fall season; and we’re bringing back some of our annual events, like our Fall Festival and Art Show. … My role is to oversee those day-to-day operations and programs; support and ensure our team’s success; and work with the board of trustees to strategically steer the organization.

What challenges are you facing now, coming out of Covid?

We were delighted to see unwavering support from the community during Covid… and a lot of new faces at Beaver Brook. … I think the challenge now is trying to learn more about our community and get clarity on the reasons people come to Beaver Brook. Do they come for our trails? Do they come for our programs? Why does Beaver Brook mean so much to so many people? By getting clarity on that, we can invest our energy into making our offerings and the way we connect with the community more meaningful. … We’re talking to our program participants directly; getting their feedback and indication of interests through social media and email; and we’re thinking about doing some surveys and trying other creative ways to engage the community.

What do you bring to Beaver Brook? What ideas do you have to improve the organization?

I’m trying to keep a healthy balance of fresh ideas and the status quo. There’s a lot that’s already working really well here, and that should be credited to the team. I do have some fresh ideas on how we can build on that work to further our mission and [ensure that] Beaver Brook is resilient [going into] the future. … One of the things I’m hoping to do is communicate more clearly to the community that we are a privately owned nonprofit and rely on their generosity to operate; not everyone knows that.

What would you like to accomplish as director?

I want to make sure that Beaver Brook is resilient and is here for everyone to enjoy, now and forever. … At the end of the day, we’re hoping to create the next generation of land stewards, of conservationists, of hikers, of nature-admirers … so if I leave Beaver Brook better off today than it was yesterday, even in some small way, I’ll feel like I did my job well.

A few favorites

Favorite animal? Emperor penguins. As a kid, I just thought they were cute, but now, I think they’re fascinating and resilient creatures.

Favorite plant or tree? Maple tree. When I was little, growing up in Nashua, we had this beautiful maple tree in our front yard that was always neon orange. I would spend hours perched up there, watching the world around me.

Favorite outdoor activity? Hiking with my husband and two kids. It doesn’t have to be an excruciating hike — just spending time together outside, doing something a little different and a little challenging.

Favorite nature spot in New Hampshire, besides Beaver Brook?Franconia Notch. I used to go there a lot with my family as a child, and I have a lot of fond memories there.

Your perfect trail mix — what’s in it?Chex cereal, chocolate chips, dried pineapple, pretzels, peanuts and craisins.

Featured photo: Lindsay Jones

Ann Marie Shea

Errand runner

Ann Marie Shea is the owner of A&E Errand Services, based in Merrimack.

Explain your job.

I run an errand service for people who need an extra set of hands, either at home or within their business. We do a little bit of everything — grocery shopping, walking dogs for someone when they’re on vacation, going to the post office, Christmas shopping, [product] returns, taking cars for inspections and oil changes — anything that would be on someone’s to-do list that they don’t have time to do themselves.

How long have you had this job?

I’m coming up on almost exactly three years.

What led you to this career field and your current job?

It was more of a personal influence than a professional one that led me to this. … After a lot of years pouring myself into a 40-hour-a-week job — I was a teacher for a while, then worked for a big corporation — I just wasn’t satisfied with that rigid 9-to-5 schedule and with working for someone else. … While raising my daughter, I hated how running around in the car always sucked so much time out of the day. I must have thought to myself a thousand times, ‘I wish there was someone I could hire to do all this for me.’ I decided to give [starting an errand service] a try.

What kind of education or training did you need?

For seven-and-a-half years I worked for a corporation in customer service and in de-escalation … and that was the best preparation for this job. … That’s where I realized how tired people are of poor service. All people want is for you to listen to them, show up when you say you will, do what you promised to do and take the job seriously.

What is your typical at-work uniform or attire?

I do a lot of work where I get dirty or am running around, so usually I just wear some shorts and my A&E T-shirt or sweatshirt. If I’m working for a business and I have to go into an office or see their clients, I’ll step it up and wear business casual.

How has your job changed in the last year?

[Covid] was a unique situation for me. … Suddenly, what I did [for work] felt really opportunistic, and I didn’t feel comfortable advertising. … Everyone was being so neighborly toward each other and helping each other out, so I thought I’d just sit on the sidelines for a while. … I don’t think I made it even a week [without working]. … My [business] just took off. Families didn’t want to leave the house, so I was basically doing everything for them that had to be done outside the house. … That summer … was the busiest I’ve ever been. … [Business] has started going back to normal levels again, but I do have a lot of new clients.

What do you wish you’d known at the beginning of your career?

I think that, in the beginning, I undervalued the services we were offering. … I didn’t think there would be a market for what we were doing. … I wish I had trusted my instincts a little more … because I’ve found no other businesses, locally, that do exactly what we do.

What do you wish other people knew about your job?

I think a lot of people underestimate how valuable their time is. I wish they knew how beneficial it would be for them to outsource some things and to pay someone to go do [their errands] so that they don’t have to give up that time and step away from their work or family for three hours.

What was the first job you ever had?

I bagged groceries at Shaws.

What’s the best piece of work-related advice you’ve ever received?

I have two: one is to under-promise and over-deliver, and the other one to try to be the best at what you decide to do or be, no matter what it is.

Five favorites
Favorite book: The Great Gatsby
Favorite movie: Fight Club
Favorite music: Classic rock
Favorite food: Chicken Parmesan
Favorite thing about NH: The ‘Live Free or Die’ mentality

Featured photo: Ann Marie Shea

Bedford author’s debut explores coming-of-age

For four years, Bedford resident Gigi Georges, who lives part of the year in Maine, followed the lives of five young women growing up in rural Maine. She shares their stories, providing an intimate look at the contemporary female rural experience, in her debut book, Downeast: Five Maine Girls and the Unseen Story of Rural America.

What is Downeast about?
It’s a work of narrative nonfiction that explores the lives of five young women … in Washington County [in Maine]. Maine is actually the most rural state in the nation — it’s incredibly isolated and challenged in terms of poverty and the hardships that often come with economic difficulties — and Washington County is one of the most rural and isolated parts of Maine. … I spent essentially four years reporting on this [community] and following these young women from their late high school years into their early college and work years.

What sparked the idea for this book?
I’m a city kid, originally from Brooklyn, New York. I spent most of my life in urban places. … until about 15 years ago, when my husband and I decided to move to northern New England, ultimately [settling in] Maine and New Hampshire. As we raised our daughter in significantly more rural places than either of us had ever lived, we began to see something different from what we had been hearing and continue to hear … about rural America. Much of today’s narrative about rural America in the media and the broader popular culture is one of hopelessness and despair … but I was seeing a more hopeful story of young people, particularly of young women. … I wanted to dig deep and understand that dichotomy between what we often hear and what we were seeing.

What was the process of your research and writing?
A good friend of mine … introduced me to the school superintendent and principal there, and they allowed me to sit in and have some informal discussions with the young people at the high school. … From there, I found these five young women, who I believed were broadly representative of life in this rural and isolated place. For four years, they allowed me to follow them. … I ended up spending countless hours with them. … I’d make the trip from Southwest Harbor, which is about an hour’s drive, or the five-hour trip from Bedford. … I started by simply interviewing them [and] recording the conversations. They allowed me into their homes; to go with them to their favorite places, out on the lobster boats, out to the blueberry farms; to speak to their family members, friends, teachers and mentors; and to really immerse myself in their community.

Have you done this kind of writing in the past?
No. I come from a background of politics and public policy … and working in urban education issues. I had done some writing … but all academic. … This was my first foray into journalistic reporting and narrative nonfiction writing. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, but until I met these extraordinary young women and [saw] this community that is thriving in the face of so many challenges, I hadn’t had that moment where I knew that this was the book I was meant to write.

Is Covid part of this story?
Yes. The book takes the reader up to late last summer, during Covid. It was an interesting time to write about a rural place. … I think it made the findings of the book stronger. … I thought about urban areas … and how isolated they became… and how rural places that are geographically isolated were anything but [socially] isolated, because they have a tremendous sense of social capital and strength of community. I thought that, in the time of Covid, it was even more important to point that out.

What would you like readers to take away from Downeast?
It’s important to see beyond the stories of hopelessness and despair about rural America, and equally important to listen to the voices of contemporary young women, which, until this point, has been largely absent from the accounts we’ve had in recent years about rural America. These voices are worth listening to because, in many ways, they represent the future of places like Washington County.

What did you gain from the experience personally?
I gained a tremendous appreciation for the resilience, self-awareness and fierceness … of the young women in Washington County. … I’ve often reflected that if my young daughter, who is now 9, has half of the qualities that are seen and portrayed in these young women, I’ll be a happy mom.

Do you keep in touch with the women in the book?
I do. We text fairly regularly, and we even have a group text [chain] going with me and all five girls. I’ve learned to be a really good texter; they’re bringing me up to speed!

Is there anything else you’re interested in writing about?
I have been asked to and have thought about one day writing something about the young men. I think they have their own story to tell.

Featured author photo credit: Vanessa Lyn