Profile: Jennifer Young

By Dawne Belloise

Jennifer Young talks fast, about four times faster than most by her own estimation and it reflects a life that has rarely slowed down. “My brain just fires off fast,” she says, a byproduct of dyscalculia that scrambles numbers, like dyslexia scrambles letters. But it never slowed her down and if anything, it motivated her. She believes that knowledge is power, so much so that she even signed up for free law classes at Harvard. Not to earn a degree but for the tools to help others.

“You have to know the law. I’m an advocate for the law, I don’t want a law degree, I just want to be able to advocate for people with that knowledge. Knowledge is power,” she says. Advocacy has been the impetus for many of her endeavors throughout her life.

Jennifer was born and raised in Fort Smith, Arkansas, a place she describes bluntly as, “Hell on the Border.” She explains, “It sits at the edge of the Trail of Tears, where America ended and Native American territory started. It was the Wild West.”

Jennifer ventured out as soon as she could. “The minute I turned 18, I told my family I was leaving.” Every summer, she left for Boston where she stayed with her Aunt Noonie, a larger-than-life influence who introduced her to music, culture and possibilities. “My aunt was so cool. She’d take me to concerts like Olivia Newton-John, Bon Jovi and Metallica. I have a photo of my aunt with Marvin Gaye.” Noonie died young at 46, but the imprint and experiences remained with Jennifer.

Fashion was Jennifer’s first love, born partly from scarcity. Her father grew up extremely poor, and that frugality shaped her childhood. Wanting clothes became a creative challenge, so she modeled at fashion shows just to earn a pair of jeans that she wanted. In middle school, she designed newspaper ads and modeled for them. It was the ‘80s and Jennifer landed a retail job at a cute little boutique. Her Aunt Noonie also got her a job making computer diodes for Compensated Devices in 1984 and ‘85.

Jennifer graduated high school in 1990 and never lost sight of her dream of owning her own shop, which she’d had since she was 12 years old. She even had the name picked out, Solemates, which would have shoes, accessories, leather goods and some clothing. And at only 12, “The idea manifested between the arcade and the shoe store when I was with my mom,” she laughs.

Jennifer had always been obsessed with Las Vegas and the mobster life there. In 1993, she enrolled in a culinary school in Truckee because someone told her it was just like Las Vegas. However, when she arrived she realized, “It looked like a sand trap. It was just a desert with nothing there, and that’s how I ended up in Crested Butte.” She had initially followed her high school boyfriend west and decided to move here instead because she felt she wasn’t quite ready for Las Vegas. Besides, she says, “Life had bigger plans for me.”

Back in Arkansas, Jennifer had worked three jobs. In CB, she worked days at Mountain View Travel, evenings at Dragonfly Angler, and her nights were spent driving the Late Night Taxi from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. “I was young and had energy,” she smiles. In 1997, Jennifer made her dream a reality, with help from a Syrian friend and years of saving, when she opened her first store in Crested Butte followed by another shop in Arkansas. Twice yearly she traveled the country selling coats at fashion trade shows, which coincided with Crested Butte’s off-seasons. Later, Las Vegas reentered the picture when she opened another shop there.

Then life shifted again for her, with marriage and four kids. Fashion, as glamorous as it was, wasn’t paying enough to support a family. “We needed a more sustainable business than fashion,” she says. So, she traded glitter for grease. She sold her stores in 2005 and bought two auto repair shop franchises in Las Vegas, called Honest 1 Auto Care. One was located in Henderson and one in the city. From 2005 to 2013, the auto shops thrived with an excellent reputation. Through them, she built community and unintentionally, the network that would later fuel her philanthropy.

Jennifer felt the extreme disparity in Las Vegas. “It’s consumerism central,” she says. “I realized how blessed I was.” She describes herself as the most frugal person you’ll meet. “I love a bargain, thrift stores and coupons.” She became a coupon queen, and started a charity called Penny for Thoughts. “If you can’t eat, you can’t think,” she says. On double-coupon days she’d work grocery deals so hard that, she says, “By the time I left the grocery store, they’d owe me money.” She turned those savings into food for those in need buying beans, rice, ramen, juice, and then anonymously distributed it through her school’s office.

Eventually, Jennifer Googled the worst school in Las Vegas and went there. She saw families living in cars, flood tunnels or pay-by-the-day roach motels where the prostitutes frequented. She tapped her wealthy contacts, partnered with Six Points and even made a deal with Allegiant Air to allow free baggage of donated supplies from Montrose to Las Vegas. She organized fundraisers, enlisted local Crested Butte and Vegas businesses and called the media. The story aired on the CBS Evening News and within a month, Ellen DeGeneres showed up with $100,000. Justin Bieber followed with Christmas gifts and $250,000 worth of support.

Jennifer had met a woman from St. Jude’s Women’s Auxiliary, an arm of the St. Jude’s Ranch for Children in Boulder City, Nevada. They also run the charitable Good Buy Shop. She became vice president, and later president, of that organization. Any children’s charity could write a proposal for funds from them. Now she was able to help every school. She started an event called Making Change where school kids from 100 schools collected change, and the funds would go to the food bank and the pantries to be distributed to the families in need. Twice a month they’d set up a farmers market where people could walk the tables and get what they needed. She built learning gardens, installed urban garden towers in schools and was given a 10,000-square-foot bus depot and land downtown to grow food like mangos, papayas, avocados and vegetables. “We had one of everything,” she says. “The kids didn’t know a potato from a tomato.” Jennifer did that work for a decade, until 2020.

As Covid hit and the world shut down, Jennifer returned to Crested Butte, “when everything became a crime in Las Vegas, including feeding the homeless,” she says. “It was always a crime to feed the homeless from 2006. It became Mad Max. Covid became the great equalizer.”

Back in the Gunnison Valley, she worked at Secret Stash and Ryce, while still working with the National Education Outreach Network, and in partnership with the Buffalo Soldiers and Juneteenth. Recognizing the valley’s many neurodivergent kids, she created Making Change, a knock off of the Good Buy store. Making Change is essentially a $1 thrift store and community hub at 500 West Highway 50, Unit 105, in Gunnison (the old Gunnison Motorsports shop). Upstairs is a free community space called NEON with free books, art supplies, a place for meetings and a safe space for neurodivergent families. She partners with Sober Living houses in Gunnison to provide toiletries, cleaning supplies, coats, shoes and other essentials to those in need. “The store is mainly to empower people,” she says. “It’s a really nice vibe in here.”

These days, Jennifer feels that her body is asking her to slow down. She’s survived four hit-and-run accidents and was left for dead by drunk drivers. “I tell everybody to live it up, because when you get to be my age your body won’t even let you anymore,” she smiles. Her humor is unfiltered. “Even if you don’t believe in God, most people do after they hang out with me. And Karma can just go piss off,” she laughs. However, her gratitude remains constant, “I’m happy to be alive. I love my store. I love the people who come in the store. I want to empower other people, that’s foremost. I’ve had money. I’ve been homeless. Money cannot buy life. I’ve been loaded. I’ve been every which way,” she tells. “People who have more than me or less than me, it doesn’t matter, I love them all the same.”

For more information about Making Change, visit the website makingchange.us