Shelly and her large extended family are farmers from Indiana. The rotary phone with the shared community line, along with the farming equipment was the technology she grew up with. “When I got home after school, if I wanted to connect with my friends, it was, let me pick up the rotary phone, and Ima Jean the lady down the road was using the line. So I couldn’t talk until she was off!” She laughs. Her upbringing was grounded in the values of family, the land, hard work, and kindness. And so, when she received the Betsy Cowles award all of these years later, she reflected, “It was nice to be recognized for those things that I highly value, which is empowering others and serving others.”
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