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Meet Melissa Shrader of Fort Collins Macaroni Kid and Loveland Macaroni Kid

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Melissa Shrader.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Melissa. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Well, it’s a little everywhere! I’m a Colorado Native, born and raised on a farm in Northern Colorado. Not having much money, our family traveled to almost every corner of our beautiful state of Colorado on family vacations. We loved to find the little out of the way places that made our trips special. At school, I was that kid other kids would come to for advice and that is where my desire to help others began.

Today, I’m a wife, mom, interior designer, space planner, and my current passion, is editor and publisher of a couple local family newsletters. Loveland Macaroni Kid and Fort Collins Macaroni Kid. I’ve always had a passion for helping others and creating things and Macaroni Kid is a great outlet for this. I tend to create my own recipes in the kitchen, design and make my daughter’s dress up outfits, and create living and working spaces out of what I have on hand. In my spare time, I love to hike, snowshoe and be outside with my family. I have always enjoyed helping others and improving things.

When I got pregnant I found myself looking for events to attend myself for mom’s to be and newborns. I found a bunch of great events and began creating a calendar of events of activities and classes. I began sharing it with my friends and coworkers who loved that they didn’t have to search all over the web to find events. They could just come to one spot to find what they needed. After I had my daughter, I had a strong passion to help parents, guardians and care givers in our community find classes and events to do to keep their kids entertained. To be honest, I truly want to help others around me. I love to lift people up. Businesses, parents, grandparents, and everyone in-between, connecting and supporting others. Helping to raise our kids, helping to support local business, supporting local families to a rise to a better place. While creating my own personal calendar, that I only shared with a few friends and coworkers, I found that I wanted to spend more time at home and that sharing my advice as a mom and professional, and the advice I’d gotten from local professionals, meant a lot to me. I wanted a way to share everything I’ve learned, everywhere I’ve traveled in Colorado, and events I found, with other families. That’s when Macaroni Kid came into my life. It’s given me a way to communicate everything a parent needs to know into a one stop family friendly stop.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Change is never easy even when it’s what you want. There is always something hidden that makes it uncomfortable. That’s why many people don’t change. I’ve chosen to change in some instances, and in others, had change thrust upon me. I chose to follow the Macaroni path and it’s been a journey that has had ups and downs. I had resistance and was not welcomed at first by some who thought of me as competition. Which frankly surprised me. I have never thought of myself as competition. I am a collaborator, facilitator, and I consider myself mainly a fellow publisher and business woman. I focus on what makes me different and celebrate both similarities and differences between other businesses and my own within every career I’ve held. The COVID-19 curve ball has taken all businesses back and for many have taken them completely out of the game. It saddens me, but I am hopeful they will be resurrected in a new journey, hopefully more glorious than the previous venture.

My COVID-19 Curve ball hit my calendar, and my spirits, hard. The calendar once robust and full was completely wiped clean. No events were happening. For a couple of weeks solid there was silence, then virtual events began to pop up. It is amazing to see how we can all change to fit a circumstance when we need to. In those two weeks, my readership plummeted and nothing I did could entice anyone to visit the site. It made me rethink if this is something I should continue. It also made me change and add different articles and different daily offerings in the calendar. I also began to make new connections on social media which grew. In turn my readers started opening the newsletters again, I gained more new subscribers who found articles and resources like local businesses still open and educational resources to help educate their children, and at home water games to have fun. Change is hard but it’s also what brings about growth – in many ways.

Fort Collins Macaroni Kid and Loveland Macaroni Kid -what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
I publish Fort Collins Macaroni Kid and Loveland Macaroni Kid. FREE local family newsletters. We offer fun events, great resources for families, articles, giveaways, and guides on a variety of interests. Macaroni Kid is a local newsletter across the country, published by local moms who live in the communities they publish in, collect events in, and support local families and businesses in. Each local newsletter has the heart and soul of the publishing mom or dad in that community. Publishing has given me the tool, vessel, and opportunity to help many people in the community like I have always love to do. Even though I have thousands of readers it seems personal. I have been greeted by moms who have thanked me for helping them connect to the perfect local business, create the best birthday party for their kid, learn something new, and simply have fun. Parents spend less time searching the internet for events and more time having fun with their family. It’s easy for parents find local businesses to help with daily needs. They can find educational events and businesses to help both themselves and their children to follow their passions. Our calendar of events is rich in events of all kinds. The calendar is free to post public events to for fun, entertainment and educational subjects.

It’s the perfect place to help local businesses too. I love to support great local businesses connect with our families. I get to meet new and established business owners and create relationships that last years. Creating relationships help determine which marketing avenue we take to connect with the families that read the newsletters in a genuine way.

If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
I don’t think I’d change a thing as far as experiences, however I would have added being more outgoing. I am a very introverted person even though I love to be out and about, I tend to be quite and observe, until there is an opportunity to add to a situation or discussion.

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Melissa Shrader Editor Publisher Fort Collins Macaroni Kid

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