Open spaces and friendly faces bring Widmers to area

?I like everything about small towns,? said Jared Widmer, who moved back to rural Washington with his wife Angela (Stauffer) Widmer last July after spending two years in Arizona.

The Widmers are both products of southeast Iowa. Jared grew up on a farm south of Washington and Angela grew up in Burlington. The couple moved to Glendale, Ariz., in July 2009, but the hustle and bustle of big-city life left them yearning for their homeland.

Jared comes from a family of turkey farmers, and when he got the chance to raise his own birds back home, he gobbled up the opportunity.

?I definitely feel more comfortable here,? Jared said. ?I felt out of place in Phoenix. I like going down the street and seeing people I know.?

Apart from raising turkeys, Jared is the physical education instructor at St. James Elementary School. Angela is the program director at Crooked Creek Christian Camp, which is about four miles south of Washington. Angela said she never saw herself working in a camp setting but the position at Crooked Creek is a perfect fit for her.

Jared and Angela met while attending Hesston College in Hesston, Kan., although they didn?t get to know each other well until they served a year together in a Mennonite volunteer service program called DEO (Discipleship Encounter Outreach) in Phoenix. Jared went on to obtain a physical education degree from Bethel College in Newton, Kan., while Angela obtained a degree in social work from Goshen College in Goshen, Ind. They both graduated from college in 2009 and were married that summer.

The Widmers agreed that they wanted to continue the voluntary service they began in Arizona and thus moved back to Glendale. The couple were housemates to three adult women with disabilities. They lived in a community known as Goldensun Peace Ministries, which provides a Christian community for adults with disabilities while allowing them to live independently.

?As housemates, we ate supper together and we played together,? Angela said. ?We have a passion for people who are marginalized or overlooked. We miss Goldensun and we miss the residents. We still get phone calls from them. We try to visit them every time we go back.?

In Glendale, Jared taught P.E. to grades kindergarten through eighth. He worked in a diverse school where 80 percent of the students spoke English as a second language. Angela worked at a homeless shelter called ?House of Refuge,? which provided transitional housing for men. While there, she helped start a program called ?House of Hope? which provided transitional housing for single mothers.

?It was a demanding job and I was very busy,? Angela said. ?I felt

there was a need for someone else to take over since I had gone as far

as I could with my gifts and talents.?

Jared was also considering changing jobs. He longed to be back on the

farm and he realized that he was better suited to part-time teaching

rather than full-time. The couple packed up their things and headed back to the Hawkeye

State.

?It was a good time for us to transition back here,? Jared said. ?We

had our first niece and our first nephew. We wanted to be close to

family and close to our grandparents.?

Angela was a little nervous about moving to Washington and meeting a

new group of people.

?It was intimidating to come here and be my own person,? she said.

?My expectation was that everyone would know me through [Jared].?

Angela and Jared have met many new people and formed many new

friendships since they moved back. They are active in the Washington

Mennonite Church and continue to work with adults with disabilities.

They have begun to realize, as never before, the advantages to living

in a small town.

?We enjoy the open space,? Angela said. ?We enjoy not having to worry

about traffic and not having to fight for a parking spot all the

time.?

Angela loves to visit the city?s downtown, particularly during the

farmers markets over the summer.

?I would love to see the square continue to have businesses move in

and be successful,? she said. ?I would be so sad if it were not here.?

When they?re not busy with work, the Widmers dream of creating a

small alternative farm on their property. They are thinking about

expanding their vegetable garden to provide for a CSA (Community

Supported Agriculture). They recently planted 16 fruit trees which will grow everything under the sun from apples to peaches to plums to blueberries. Angela said the couple farm conventionally but are looking into methods of alternative farming and animal raising that include a grass-fed, pasture-based operation.