Pet Adoption Hero: Cristene Justus at Double J Dog Ranch

October 30, 2019
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Double J Dog Ranch received a tidal wave of publicity on Super Bowl Sunday 2019, when “Bumble,” a special needs puppy, was named MVP of Animal Planet’s Puppy Bowl XV.

But Bumble is just one of hundreds of incredible stories originating out of Double J Dog Ranch, a rescue and re-home sanctuary for special needs dogs in jeopardy of euthanasia. For some, the ranch offer hospice care and a great life on the 50-acre Hauser Lake ranch. For many others, Double J is the springboard into a new, loving home.

Cristene Justus is the founder of Double J Dog Ranch. The dogs experience a home environment and receive care from a dedicated team of professionals, including health care, nutrition and behavior. One of Double J’s raving fans and health care partners is Ponti Veterinary Hospital.

  • Cristene Justus (second from right) and two of her Double J dogs with members of the Ponti team

“The mission of Double J Dog Ranch is so close to our hearts at Ponti,” Dr. Jerry Ponti said. “Our region is so fortunate to have an advocate like Cristene and the team at Double J Dog Ranch. As Cristene likes to say, these special needs dogs don’t realize they are special needs. So many homes in this area and across the country have had their lives enriched by taking in incredible pets that were literally saved by Double J Dog Ranch.”

For more information about Double J Dog Ranch, visit doublejdogranch.org.

NOTE: A version of this article first appeared in the 2019 Liberty Lake Yearbook.

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Service above self: Liberty Lake Rotary

October 30, 2019
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  • Cheryl Woods of Liberty Lake Centennial Rotary on a 2017 trip to Honduras

In spring 2019, a group from the Liberty Lake Centennial Rotary Club headed to Honduras in partnership with Pure Water for the World. While there, these Rotarians installed water filtration systems, taught basic hygiene and delivered books, school supplies, new school uniforms, hygiene items and fun things for the kids. Everything was donated by the club’s local members, as well as the Post Falls Rotary Club, Columbia Bank, and many friends and community members.

This was the second trip to Honduras for club members Chris Choate and Cheryl Woods, who organized the trip and procured an international grant from Rotary which covered the cost of the water filtration systems. Across the country, more than 1 million people lack access to improved sanitation, 638,000 lack safe water and many of these are children who are missing school due to sickness from contaminated water.

This trip is just one of many projects the active club of approximately 30 members is involved in. The annual Memorial Day Breakfast at Pavillion Park resulted in the club being able to donate all proceeds to the local Inland Northwest Honor Flight to send seven local veterans to Washington D.C. to visit the memorials built in their honor. The club’s largest annual fundraiser, the RIM Ride held every September, was started by Rotary’s current President, Mandy Desgrosellier, and raises funds for local causes such as the HUB 360 program, college scholarships, Friends of Pavillion Park, Special Olympics Washington and a number of other local non-profits connected to Rotary’s mission.

State Farm agent Emily Osborne became the Liberty Lake Rotary president in June 2019 and is celebrating 20 years with State Farm this year.

“I moved to Liberty Lake to open a scratch Agency here almost 12 years ago and was so focused on starting this business that I ended up buying a condo in 20 minutes,” Osborne recalled. “That’s when I met Mary Duncan at Liberty Closing & Escrow, who invited me to a Rotary meeting. I had no idea what Rotary was but thought it would be a good distraction, a way of getting insurance off my mind for an hour a week, but it’s turned out to be so much more. Rotary is simply amazing! I wish more people knew all the good in the world they do — promoting peace, fighting disease, providing clean water, sanitation and hygiene, saving mothers and children, supporting education and helping to grow local economies. How can you not get behind that? I really do love what I do at State Farm and am so grateful for my customers and for a career that allows me to be a part of Rotary, and to give back to my community and the world. It’s a passion I am very proud to be a part of.”

NOTE: A version of this article first appeared in the 2019 Liberty Lake Yearbook.

Kuhlmann finds ‘Victory’ in community

June 19, 2020
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Over a March weekend, COVID-19 turned the way business is transacted in the Inland Northwest on its head. By Monday, Liberty Lake resident Dayne Kuhlmann had scheduled three weeks’ worth of Facebook Live Q&A sessions with experts to provide crisis-specific help for local businesses on topics from food service to financial options to marketing.

What might have required weeks of planning came together quickly and organically for Kuhlmann and his Victory Media marketing agency. Kuhlmann held video sessions daily and started building a waiting list of experts willing to help.

“Part of this is the magic of our community,” Kuhlmann said. “Our network of clients and community is just amazing. We attract the type of people who want to help one another.”

This is exactly what he was looking for when he left the traditional marketing world — “I was absolutely miserable with my job” — and launched Victory Media in 2017. He ran it solo out of coffee shops that first year, but less than three years later leads a 12-person agency representing brands all over the Northwest.

On April 1 of this year, Victory Media merged with MDI Digital, a longtime Spokane marketing company, under the Victory Media banner, a move that accelerated Victory’s growth and capabilities beyond Kuhlmann’s original projections.

“It happened way faster than I thought it would,” he said. “I put myself on a 10-year track to get where we are now. With a lot of favor and luck, we’re at this point.”

Kuhlmann credits his team, who took home a handful of American Advertising Federation Awards in its 2020 competition.

“We want to be the best,” he said. “Even though there are some great agencies out there, we want to be the premier. We want to be the agency people want to work at. We want to be the agency clients want to work with. We want to set the trend.”

Kuhlmann was honored as a 20 Under 40 Award winner in the December issue of Spokane Coeur d’Alene Living, and he deflects a lot of credit to a spot on the map between those two cities.

“I genuinely don’t think it would have happened this fast or with this much support if not for Liberty Lake,” he said.

NOTE: A version of this article first appeared in the 2020 Liberty Lake Yearbook.

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