Volunteer Spotlight: Jean C.

Jean smiles on the platform as a gaggle of trolley riders prepare to board on a 2019 Halloween trolley ride.

IHM draws volunteers for all sorts of good reasons (community, professional growth, curiosity, you name it.) Jean C. came for the history—and met the Issaquah Valley Trolley along the way. A board member during the 2002 season when we acquired the #519 trolley car, Jean soon found herself immersed in the world of passionate trolley people—and found herself loving the challenge.

What’s your most cherished trolley-related memory?

I remember one season there was a couple with a child, about 2 years old, who showed up to ride every weekend because their son just loved the trolley—and his parents were thrilled. As the summer went on, it became apparent that the mom was pregnant. And week after week, she was more and more pregnant—to the extent that we thought we might need to train the trolley crew to deliver the baby on board! And then one weekend, they showed up as usual, this time, with a tiny little baby in a carrier. The baby had been born I think on a Tuesday, and rode the trolley that very same week.

What advice, inspiration, or wisdom would you pass along to a new generation of IHM and trolley volunteers?

If you love the project, give your time to make it a success. The trolley has been such a popular thing and such a great introduction to Issaquah history. So if you think it’s worthwhile, give it what you’ve got.

Volunteering is a part of the culture of our community. One of the questions and comments I got most when I was working the platform was “How did you manage to keep this downtown feeling like a downtown?” And the answer is volunteers who have pushed to keep our downtown the way it is. People like Greg Spranger, who led the restoration of the Depot and the Shell Station, continuously dropped into the Issaquah Press building and shared great stories that really made a difference because everybody read them. Kudos to the city councils fending off high rises on Front Street and volunteers who had their hands in whatever their passion was—Village Theater or Issaquah Community Services or impassioned PTAs—and who have kept supporting those ideas.

Anything else you'd like to say about yourself?

I enjoy a challenge, and getting the trolley going was just that. My take on the trolley has always been that every time it hit some sort of barrier, the right person or thing appeared. We had real luck all the way through—whether it was that we needed the right connections or knowledge or determination.

There was Barbara Justice. Without Barb, we wouldn’t have a trolley, because every time we hit a dead end, she found another way. We called her “Iowa Stubborn,” like from the Music Man–she thought “no” was the worst thing you could ever say to her and that “that’s a good idea” was a full-blown endorsement. When we were trying to figure out our rules for operation, Craig Thorpe, who’d come in as an artist, connected us with his network of transportation people. Then-mayor Fred Butler was on the board at Link Light Rail, and put out an email that led us to Josh Shields, who’d been a Seattle streetcar operator and wrote the simplified operating rules for our little volunteer operation. And then there was Denny Croston, who hit the road the moment the Aspen streetcars became available and claimed for us the pick of the litter, the #519 car. There were so many people who helped along the way, I wish I could name them all.

Jean poses in a Halloween costume with her husband, Charlie, on the trolley platform.

One other famous story is that when we got the federal grant to restore the trolley, the city, which was managing the project for us, had to select the lowest bidder, because it’s federal dollars. The winning bid came from a company that had never worked on a trolley but hired in a few people who were probably capable. But then the company went bankrupt—they were using each contract to pay for the one that came before. The bid included a performance bond and the city filed a claim with no expectation that it would be honored by the bonding company. But against all odds, they did! The public works department was in total shock. The bond money allowed us to hire the next lowest bidder, GOMACO, real trolley professionals, to do the work. It’s just amazing how things have worked out.