Success in Entiat

While some people understand “success” to mean something resembling:  an endeavor resulting in a positive outcome. This implies that, once accomplished, a successful endeavor is ended. This is certainly an understandable assumption to arrive at and in many cases is true. However, in Entiat, WA, success seems to be ongoing. A town that has moved twice, dealt with ravaging wildfires, flooding and many other obstacles has learned that constant improvement and proactive thinking are vital elements of success .

Last week, the Initiative for Rural Innovation and Stewardship (IRIS), chose to host the North Central Washington Success Summit “Entiat Rocks” at Entiat High School. From the start of the day one thing became immediately apparent - the Entiatians in attendance were proud of their history and happy to showcase their success.  Students from the high school presented a history of the Entiat Valley that included a huge timeline covering an entire wall in the gymnasium.  Lunch was provided by Mom’s Kitchen, a local Mexican restaurant in Entiat.  “Mom” and her daughter got on stage to talk about their restaurant and its success, but didn’t say too much. Their cooking spoke for itself. Peter Ringsrud from Snowdrift Cider was one of the few speakers at the Summit who was not either an Entiat resident or someone working in the Entiat Valley. He spoke about the success of his East Wenatchee hard cider making business and credited some of that success to the innovative idea of growing varieties of cider apples that aren’t usually grown in our region.

Although there were many success related themes floating around the gym during the summit: communication, collaboration, “quiet volunteerism.”   When I look at Entiat, the word I find best describes their success is diligence. With each victory, a new challenge is identified and embarked upon and thus success is not a project that has gone well and has now ended. Success is the continuation of that. This hard-working community constantly works towards new goals, and strives to make things better.