Join Angie Austin and Rachel Maines as they dive into Pinpoint Colorado, a venture spotlighting the hidden gems and rich histories of the Centennial State. From the iconic Brown Palace Hotel to the inspiring non-profit, Extreme Community Makeover, Rachel shares her experiences of filming and engaging with Colorado’s vibrant communities. Using modern technology, she captures the essence of local treasures while ensuring their stories are told both through captivating videos and insightful dialogues.
Welcome to The Good News with Angie Austin. Now, with The Good News, here’s Angie.
SPEAKER 04 :
Hello, dear friend, Angie Austin and my good friend, Rachel Maines. And we are today hosting the good news to talk about one of her ventures that is really cool called Pinpoint Colorado. Rachel and I have worked off and on together for about 25 years, and she is currently, I would say, kind of my boss, Rachel. You’re one of my bosses, wouldn’t you say, Rachel Maines?
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, I don’t know about that, but that’s fun, Angie. I never thought I would grow up to be your boss.
SPEAKER 03 :
I love it. I love it.
SPEAKER 04 :
All right, so tell everyone your position at Crawford Broadcasting and what you do.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, so I am the operations manager at KLTT. And so just basically making sure the operations go well, the shows are… The correct shows are uploaded and the day runs smoothly. And, you know, there are some creative things, too, I get to do in terms of planning promotions as well. And, you know, I’m doing marketing coordination as well here. So I’m having a good time and my hands are full.
SPEAKER 04 :
Rachel told me if like she gets like someone stops her to chat or she’s grabbing a cup of coffee and she gets caught somewhere or she gets a phone call. If 15 minutes is taken out of her day, it throws the whole day off because she has so much to do. And she’s so organized that that will, you know, little bit. of time that she takes on something else can throw off the whole day. That’s how busy she is. And I know you’re busy because you help me with a lot of things as well. All right. So you had been mulling over this idea of you’ve done a show off and on for years and you’re a musician as well. So you had highlighted musicians. And when you and I worked together, you were my floor manager and sometimes you ran camera on the morning show when we worked together. And then, you know, moved over to radio. So you did this show where you interviewed people a lot. But then you thought, I really like to focus on, and this is such a great idea, you know, Colorado and cool things in Colorado. So explain what Pinpoint Colorado is.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yes. So, you know, we all know who live here, what a gem Colorado is. So this is just a warm place. community-centered program, and we highlight the beauty and the spirit of our local treasures right here in our great state. And then, you know, each episode highlights the people, the places, and the stories. So some examples of past people that I’ve highlighted, well, my first show was the Brown Palace Hotel, which is, of course, an iconic landmark here.
SPEAKER 04 :
Amazing.
SPEAKER 05 :
You know, and just so interesting how you get to learn just the nuances of each place. And one thing that I came away with with that interview was that they actually make their own honey and they have beehives in the Brown Palace Hotel. I thought that was so interesting. I didn’t know that. I would love to go back. Yeah. So when you go for tea, they have their own honey.
SPEAKER 04 :
Wow. And where do they keep these bees in the hotel?
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, he said it was on top somewhere, one of the top floors.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah. That’s so wild. I read a book about that hotel. You know there was a murder there in the bar.
SPEAKER 05 :
Ooh, I did not know that.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yes, many, many, many years ago. And one of the old writers at the Denver Post or the Rocky Mountain News – I think it was Rocky Mountain News. He wrote a book about the Brown Palace, and I read it because I had to interview him when I worked at Channel 2. And the history is so interesting.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, you know, all these places – Exactly. They have just this history that’s really rich. And so I just feel blessed to be able to go around and learn about the gems. Another example is the Molly Brown House Museum. I highly recommend a family outing or even for the singles to go. It’s very interesting just learning more about Molly Brown and our history of Colorado and the gold rush. And then the Colorado Railroad Museum is another example. And my last most recent interview was Extreme Community Makeover, which is a nonprofit. It goes into particular Denver neighborhoods and they knock on the houses and they ask the homeowners, well, do you need help? Anything outside your home, like your fence or yard cleanup, weed, and then they plan a future day to go and bring volunteers and they do a whole community makeover of that particular block that they picked for that day, which is really, really neat.
SPEAKER 04 :
So they might they might pick a block, maybe, you know, not in the best neighborhood in town, you know, where people maybe need a little help and maybe can’t afford to keep it up. They kind of choose it like that and then and then freshen up the whole block.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah. Yeah. So Angela Baumgart is the executive director of Extreme Community Makeover. I mean, she’s so organized. She just has that gift. But she’s come up with an incredible idea in this nonprofit in that, you know, she’ll organize church groups or even organizations who want to do a team’s building day to come on down. But she also organizes what she calls extreme teams. So these are Regular volunteers who pick a certain. thing that they like, like you can join the photography team or you could be on the communications team. And so with that, she has longstanding volunteers that help her and have the knowledge of the operation. But then each Saturday, they also have, you know, people who’ve never been a part of it, who just want to do something cool. They want to bond with their coworkers. So really great idea. And, you know, when you beautify a neighborhood that doesn’t have the resources, you do a graffiti removal, you paint a yard, you do all that. It makes people feel, you know, proud about their home and their community. And it gets people out talking to each other. And she has so many stories of neighbors who never really talks, but because of these days, now they’re talking and now they’re getting to know their neighbors more. So it’s a win-win all the way around. Great organization to watch these episodes. of my past episodes, just go to pinpoint colorado.com and that’s pinpoint colorado.com. And if you follow us on our Facebook page as well, um, I give the airing dates that it airs on KLTT. And then there’s always an accompanying video too, because I wanted people to see the visual of the places that I spotlight. Cause there’s just, you know, a great story to be told both in audio, but also in video.
SPEAKER 04 :
Do you shoot them yourself?
SPEAKER 05 :
I do. I’m a one-man crew.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, you know, a lot of stations, especially in smaller markets, have moved to the one-man crew. And if you’re not doing TV before, like when I worked in L.A., we had three people out of the live shot. We had the live truck operator, and then we had the cameraman who would actually be, you know, there in front of the reporter getting his or her shot, and then the reporter. And then if it was in a really bad neighborhood, maybe adapt a fourth person. Like I didn’t need security often, but it would depend on like if it was a really bad shooting or – During the L.A. riots, we’d send out security with people. It just depends on what the circumstances are. But even my girlfriend, who’s a big-time anchor in L.A., I remember her going out after the Palisades fires and shooting some of her own stories. And it’s becoming more and more common just with cutbacks, this, that, and the other, for people to shoot their stories alone. And so do you do it off your iPhone?
SPEAKER 05 :
Yes. Also, just the technology. We have the technology nowadays where the iPhones are just as good as mobiles. I bought a little, uh, um, Holly land mic to put in my iPhone as well. Great audio with a mic. So pretty easy breezy. So my, my equipment is, um, uh, like a standup, um, tripod with a light and then I have my iPhone and then I have my audio and that’s it.
SPEAKER 04 :
That is so cool. And then you might, um, whoever you’re interviewing or if you’re voicing over as you’re walking around, you might yourself.
SPEAKER 05 :
Right, yeah.
SPEAKER 04 :
Okay, but not both of you, just one of you.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, actually, the Hollyland mic I’m using, I have capacity for two. Oh, that’s cool.
SPEAKER 04 :
And even live shots that you could do via your phone. I mean, things have just changed so much from, you know, how burdensome the cameras were and the batteries. And if you ran out of your battery, ran out while you’re shooting. And oh, my goodness, just so much in that really heavy tripods, you know, that they would use for really heavy cameras. And Some of the female camera women, you had to be strong to lug all this gear around because you had a big bag with batteries and other stuff in it and your camera and your tripod. I mean, it was quite a get-up. Oh, hey, I wanted to say, besides Pinpoint Colorado and getting to view those, would you also tell us the name of the nonprofit again in case anyone wants to volunteer with your friend Angela? Yeah.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yes, it’s Extreme Community Makeover, and you can just go to pinpointcolorado.com, and right there, it’s right now one of our first videos, and you can check that out. Also, this may be a lot of information to give right now for somebody that’s wanting to simplify it with pinpointcolorado.com, but their website’s really simple, too. It’s Extreme Community www.communitymakeover.org.
SPEAKER 04 :
All right. And then I did want to say I looked up the book because it had been a really at least well over 10 years since I’d read it. And the writer has passed away, but he was a really well-known writer locally, Dick Kreck. He just passed away a couple of years ago. And that murder is called Murder at the Brown Palace. And it is like a Hollywood-like book. So I just thought it was interesting when you said you did the Brown Palace story. It says, Murder the Brown Palace, a true story of seduction and betrayal. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, I mean, these places, they have such stories. And what a great book, too. I’ll have to, next time I see you, borrow that book. But yeah, I think… Living in Colorado, we all know that this is a special place and we have so many But oftentimes we don’t get out and do these things, right? So a blessing being able to do this show is to really just kind of have an excuse to get out and see all these cool places. And it kind of gets you out of your comfort zone. It will get you exploring and doing adventures. You know, for a family with kids, I would highly recommend getting out there, trying new things. These are memories for kids that last their entire lives, too.
SPEAKER 04 :
I took my mom on this adventure because she used to like to ride her bike. It’s not like a tandem bike, and I’ve got to get the name of it while we’re talking because we did it last year. It’s for older people, and they have the driver set up behind you, so opposite of a rickshaw. The driver’s behind you. and then you’re in front of them so you get that same experience like you’re you know riding a bike with the wind in your hair and you’re in front so there’s no one in front of you and that’s my mom and i sat in a little you know carriage in the front and a retired engineer you know drove us all around and it’s a non-profit and it just really gave her the cool sensation of riding a bike again because she’s in her mid-80s she hasn’t ridden one in so long there’s so many cool things that People are involved in our city. If you really look, our friend Michelle Rahn, once a month she and her husband go on a field trip. They’re retired teachers, and she does some of the coolest field trips. In fact, that’s how I found out about this biking nonprofit.
SPEAKER 05 :
You know, I need to call her and get some ideas for a pinpoint. I didn’t know that.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, I absolutely love it. What else has been fun about doing this new deal you’re doing?
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, with Pinpoint, you know, I’m hoping to grow it. And I kind of just featured downtown Littleton in T-Shop and my cousin’s store, Giggle Blossom. I’ve been in Denver. I’ve been out to Golden for the Colorado Railroad Museum and friends that have a French bakery, an authentic French bakery out there as well. Um, but you know, pretty soon here, I’ll be heading to the Colorado Springs to feature Glenary, which is a popular retreat, um, place for a lot of people. And so, you know, just being able to, um, be able to go even outside, um, the Denver area into some other places and hopefully, um, coming up here, I’ll be able to even feature some mountain gems as well, um, going West a little bit. So just the opportunity to be able to, um, Do a little travel, if you will, and be able to focus on Colorado and what a great place we are. Not only do we have these gems in terms of museums and experiences, but our food here, I think, is quite special. I have a friend coming in.
SPEAKER 04 :
yeah and you live in california and yes so yes i i know the good food oh all right we’re out of time cycling without age that is the site if you want to take like your mom on a ride she’s right we’re cycling without age and pinpoint colorado excellent thank you so much thank you angie
SPEAKER 01 :
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SPEAKER 03 :
Centennials, tuned to Colorado’s mighty 670 KLTT.
SPEAKER 04 :
Oh my goodness, so excited. When I called Grace today, I must have been overly enthusiastic. I was like, hi! Because I haven’t talked to her in a while and it feels like she’s my friend and I haven’t talked to her in a month because she had a big trip for her. She and her husband work in ministry as well as all of her 14, 15 books now. And we’re talking today about Fresh Hope for Today, Love in Action. But prior to that… I wanted to tell you two things. I want to know about your big trip, but also this is kind of a cool story. I was distracted when, um, uh, when I, when I was supposed to call you earlier, I was delayed a little bit because my step-mom is from Iran. She got married to my dad. She came here in 79, uh, when the Shaw fell and her family never went back. They’re very successful and her brothers, uh, were successful here as well. And, um, I think she – her father worked with the Shaw, and I think one of her brothers is a doctor. Anyway, they’re really smart people. Okay, so she’s never gone back, and she and my dad got married, and she was much younger, and I was 13. They didn’t even tell me they got married because at that point, like I rarely saw my father again from about 12 on after my parents got divorced, and he pretty much abandoned us. Okay, so during that time, I never talked to her either, Grace, and I – So it’s a miracle that my father and I reunited about eight years before he died. He was a wonderful grandfather, and I knew I’d forgiven him. I’ve talked to you about how one of my big platforms is forgiveness. But here’s the crazy thing. She was calling my husband and I to rewrite her will for her, and I knew that I was in the will, right? But anyway, it just shows you that full circle of forgiveness. And so in the will, it says, you know, my deceased spouse’s daughter, you know, because she wants everything to go to me. But then she arranged everything. Then she wanted everything. Like, for some reason, I passed away because she’s super healthy. I mean, she does Tai Chi every day. She still teaches it and everything. She probably lived, you know, to 100. But she said, if anything happened to me, she goes, I want to make sure that, you know, your children, your husband, I want them to be second in line, too. You know, and I was kind of like, wow, how crazy is this that for 30 years, like we had no relationship. And now I’m the only daughter she has. Like, I’m it. Like, we text almost every day. We have a wonderful relationship. She’s super smart. She has many life experiences. I send her pictures of the kids all the time. And she said, I think I’m going to cry, Grace, when I tell you this. She said, Angela. If for any reason I come back in another life, if for any reason, Angela, I want you and Mark to be my parents. I thought, oh, my gosh. I mean, I know it’s a crazy statement. Right. But just the fact that she respects me and my husband and thinks that highly of us as parents and that like I just thought that was such a sweet, loving thing to say that she thinks that we’re really great parents and that. What a weird scenario that came out of this whole thing and that it wouldn’t be possible if I wasn’t a Christian who valued forgiveness so much.
SPEAKER 06 :
That’s right. That is a great story. And I’m so glad that that’s worked for you. Forgiveness is amazing. Oh, it’s such a gift. Oh, it is a gift.
SPEAKER 04 :
My goodness. Yeah. And then we’re going out. The kids love her, you know, because she never forgets the kids. And she always puts my dad in there. Love, Grandpa Bryce. And they call her Grandma B, Bahia. Bahia Habibi is her name. Well, Wilkinson. But yeah, anyway, it’s just that was a cool story. Okay. So tell everyone where you went and what you did for the ministry.
SPEAKER 06 :
Okay, so I just recently went to Poland, and that was for our annual staff conference. We had about 175 people come. Most of them were from the Eastern European countries where our staff were working, so Slovakia, Poland, Romania, but we also had several that were able to come from Ukraine. Oh, I love it. Oh, that was huge. That was huge for them. There were a couple of cases where I say, we have an American fellow married to a Ukrainian girl and they’re doing ministry because he’s American. He has not been conscripted to fight. So he was able to leave the country for the conference and then get back in. There was another fellow had a, Two exemptions. He was able to leave the country. He is Ukrainian. Okay, this is wild. His wife was born in Russia, but adopted years ago as an infant by an American family. So she was raised in America and then went back to the Stan countries as a missionary, as a young woman. And then she met her husband who is from the Ukraine. They married and they’re doing ministry together in the Ukraine. So they just a year and a half ago or so adopted a, a little Ukrainian war orphan. So she turned two the week of our staff conference there. And, you know, just the ministry that they are doing, he was able to leave the country on his exemptions because, one, he is a chaplain on the front line to the soldiers fighting there. Oh, my goodness. And so the government let him leave Ukraine there. um because he is helping them right so they know that he’ll come back and continue helping those soldiers in their fight and um the second exemption was because they had adopted a war orphan and so apparently i didn’t know that but when the war broke out there was a run on adoption requests because if you adopted an orphan you could be exempt from fighting And that was not their reason for adopting. They adopted this little girl because they wanted a family and they weren’t unable to do that biologically. So, you know, they’ve got this little girl and oh, the joy that she has brought them. So it was just amazing to sit and I had lunch with that young wife. They’re probably I would venture to say 30. You know, they’re younger than my own children. And to sit and have lunch with her and listen to what life is like for them. They’ve lost their home in the war and they are now living. In Odessa, but she talked about how one night she said that they get they get alarms on their phone when they know that there are drones or missiles coming in. So their phone sent off the alarm so that they know to get out of their apartment anywhere near the windows. and get into the hallway because there are no windows in the hall of these concrete apartment buildings. And, you know, and their building might not be struck, but if a building close by is struck, or even if something lands in the ground nearby and shakes their building, still the glass in their windows can implode and cause injury or death. So they have to get away from the windows, get away from the glass. And she said one night a drone got in undetected and, and hit a power grid that is next to their apartment. And she said that was very frightening. And so, you know, they’re dealing with power outages every day or power is just cut, you know, to save power usage. And I can’t even fathom what they go through. But the weariness that these people are talking about, like the people are tired, emotionally drained, physically drained. They don’t get good sleep at night because… of the fear of not waking up in the morning. Like she said, every night we go to bed, we don’t know if we’re going to make it through the night. And I can’t, how would you like to live like that? Right? I can’t even wrap my head around that. But to know that we’ve got staff that are staying there and continuing on with ministry, just, wow, it just really blesses my heart. It challenges my heart. And it sent me home with a whole nother level of gratitude and for living in a place where I don’t deal with those same challenges. Unbelievable. Yeah.
SPEAKER 04 :
Unbelievable what they go through. And how is the weather in Poland by this time of year? I know it’s not the important aspect of it, but what’s it like when you go there in March, April?
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, we went up near the Tatra Mountains. We could see the Tatras close by. And so because of the little higher elevation, it snowed a couple of nights when we were there.
SPEAKER 04 :
Oh, my goodness. Yeah. What a great ministry and every year to minister to these people who are helping so many and that so much has been going on in the Ukraine the last few years that you get to help them. Anything else that really struck you? Because usually when you come back from these trips, something really touches your heart.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, I think, well, I had the opportunity to speak to the women. We have a one hour women’s session every year at one of these conferences, and they’d asked me to speak. And so I did. I spoke on the names of God, because I’ve got another names of God Bible study coming out shortly. But I spoke on the name El Roy E, which is God who sees me. of Hagar. And that story in the old Testament was, you know, the Egyptian girl who’d been working for the Hebrew couple, Abraham and Sarah got into being an abusive situation. And she fled. She tried to outrun her hard circumstances, but God met her in the wilderness instead of rescuing her from those hard circumstances. So he acknowledged her. He called her by name. He let her know that he see that he had seen her there, but he also sent her back. And she was there for probably close to 14 years, according to Scripture. And that, to me, really struck me in a new way. Because I’d read that story forever, but rereading it again and seeing how God sent her back, I challenged the women in a loving way, especially because I went into this thinking, what do I have to say to these gals that are coming out of the Ukraine? What do I have to say to them? And God, give me the words. And it was, it was from that story of the God who sees me where sometimes he asks us to stay in our hard place, but he always sees us there. We might feel like he’s abandoned us. We might feel like he’s forgotten us, but he sees us where we are. And, and he gives us the strength. He gives us the strength we need in order to stay there. Until he says, okay, now it’s time to leave. And, yeah, no easy answers for some of these situations that people find themselves in. But to know that he sees us in that hard place, especially when he asks us to stay.
SPEAKER 04 :
Wow. All right. Well, I just always love to catch up with you because you have such great adventures, which I always remind you. These are amazing adventures you go on. Okay, so let’s talk about love in action. What do you want us to learn from this particular page?
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, so this little one was based on John 3.16, and here we are just having come through Easter. This is a great verse to remember, but this is how God loved the world. It says in the New Living Translation, He gave His one and only Son so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. And that’s how He loved the world. He put love into action. He doesn’t just say in the Bible, I love you. But he did something about it. Another verse, I think it’s in Romans, it says that God demonstrated his love to us, even that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. So he didn’t wait for us to become perfect before he showed us love. He demonstrated love toward us. in the world in which we live, which is a very hurting place right now. So many uncertainties, so much anger in our world today, so much vitriol on social media. I just, I get so weary of that. But I think that if we call ourselves believers, What are we doing to show love in action to other people, especially people who don’t share our viewpoints? Because it’s really easy to love people who live like we do and who believe like we do. But we don’t. We need to be able to show love and action to people who don’t look like us and who don’t think the way we do and who don’t have the same convictions. That’s what love is all about. So like, what can we do today? to show love and action. Even if it’s driving to the drive-thru at Starbucks and saying, here, you know, I want to pay for the guy behind me. You know, whatever they order, let me pay for that. That type of thing. That’s just one little thing we can do. Or knocking on the neighbor’s door and saying, hey, you know what? I made muffins today. Here’s a little plate. Would you like some muffins? Whatever. It doesn’t have to be big and life-changing, but small. Small can be life-changing, too.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, I used up so much of your time today, but I just love our talks, and I love your adventures, and I love how you minister to people. The book is, Grace Fox’s book is Fresh Hope for Today, page 50. We talked about love and action. Great. Gracefox.com. Thank you, friends. You bet.
SPEAKER 02 :
Thank you for listening to The Good News with Angie Austin on AM670 KLTT.
