We live in a beautiful valley, surrounded by orchards, vineyards, mountains, desert, and the National Monument. It is no surprise that all of this beauty is what captivated Barb Bowman when she settled here in 1989.
Barb is a giver by nature, and truly one of the most fascinating women I have ever had the privilege of getting to know. She was born in Denver and later attended the University of Colorado. Her major was in recreation, in the hopes that she would eventually get a career in tourism. After graduation, she went backpacking around Europe and landed in Germany for eight years where she ran youth programs for the army community that was based there. Upon leaving Germany, she decided to return to the states but ended up making another stop along the way; a stop in Africa where she traveled and backpacked for another two years.
Once back in the states, she met her future husband and they settled here in our beautiful valley. Her career here started in tourism where she set her focus on helping Grand Junction become not only a local destination but an international destination. Through her position at work, she had a hand in branding our valley as Wine Country and also helped to start a Wine Train which in turn brought more tourism. With more tourism, the community was able to expand in many areas including the building of more restaurants and amenities.
During her time here, she has also gotten involved with our local Rotary Club where she was able to connect more with the community. One of her highlights as a past-President of Rotary was bringing in the BANFF Film Festival. Because of the BANFF Film Festival, Rotary is able to give back to our community in a number of ways.
I want to close this article by saying Thank You to Barb for her love and dedication to our community. Because of people like her, we have had so many fun and wonderful things happening in and around town. Grand Junction has been blessed to have you!
