Marc Tonglen, Nederland. As we embark upon this holiday season of giving and receiving, it is important to remember and give thanks for the success stories of human perseverance that exist within our own community. Though there is much concern spouted in our online forums with regard to the transient populations that spikes in the summertime, there are also many instances where folks who are seemingly just passing through will persevere and become stalwart members who give back graciously to our community.
This is indeed the case for Amanda Valverde and Rob Murphy who first came to Nederland in the summer of 2018 and wintered in the woods that very season. In early 2020, the couple created Husky Hauling, a company that now provides the premier hauling and junk removal services in the Peak to Peak region. Thus far, Husky Hauling has received and continues to receive glowing reviews and accolades because of their honest hard work.
Rob and Amanda’s story began out of hardship, as one could imagine living in the woods for a winter at high elevation would presuppose. However, the Nederland community was supportive in ways that many communities are not which made it possible for them to persevere. As Valverde explains, “We’re pretty lucky in that Ned has a lot of good resources. When we needed to, we utilized the local food bank, and at times that was really helpful. Yet overall, Rob and I are really independent people, and we did not seek out help regularly. It’s important to us that we were able to do it on our own.” She carries on, “When we needed it though, we definitely reached out for stuff like food, yet somewhere along the line we both secured jobs in town and that changed things.”
Claudia Schauffler, owner and proprietor of The Shop who also works on homeless outreach through the program known as the Nederland Interagency Council on Homeless Encampments (NICHE) through the Nederland Community Church tells it as such, “They mentioned it to me when I hired them to do some hauling ‘You helped us Claudia, and we’re so grateful for that’. These two have got such a successful business now and it’s because they are truly an honest, hard-working couple. They are a great success story based on what they did. Any help they received along the way was not as much as they were doing for themselves.”
She continued, “That’s kind of where my bar is on the outreach work. If I’m doing more to help people than they’re doing for themselves, then I’m creating more of a problem. They weren’t like that at all. They were always doing more for themselves than anyone else was doing for them. When you’re around Rob and Amanda, you just get this great energy from them.”
As Amanda further explains, “We are definitely grateful for this community because you don’t find people like this in most places. We both came from different states and fell in love with the kindness and compassion that we felt in this area, so we wanted to stake our claim here and to stay. Everyone is so genuine and real here and you just don’t find that most places.”
With regard to supporting the local homeless community Amanda had these words to share, “I believe the most important thing to remember is that things are not always as they appear to be. Both Rob and I were helpful in every way we could be and that’s why we eventually found solid jobs. We’re just lucky that this community was supportive of us in overcoming our own adversity. So many people have wandered into this area struggling in some way or another, and over time have flourished because of the support this kind community had to share. We are extremely grateful.”
Husky Hauling not only focuses on hauling and removal, they also provide woodcutting, small demolition projects and general moving help as well. For more information, log on to https://www.facebook.com/huskyhauling.
As well, the company’s logo is actually the couples’ husky Kushka which is Russian for cat, who has been with them through it all. Talk about love and perseverance.
For more information contact Husky Hauling at 720-603-5934, aceoftrades720@gmail.com, www.facebook.com/huskyhauling/ or PO Box 3446 Nederland, CO, 80466.
(Originally published in the December 10, 2020, edition of The Mountain-Ear.)
