Kindness matters, just ask Ali Orjala

Meet Ali Orjala, a wife of a born-and-raised Idahoan and mother to a wild, hilarious 2-year-old. Ali and her husband, Teuvo, like to get outdoors as much as possible, especially to hike in this beautiful Paciic Northwest. In her free time, she loves to spend time in her garden, mostly planting too many flowers. She loves spending time with her toddler and family here in Idaho and in western Montana.

Generation: As Iliza Shlesinger most eloquently put it, I think I qualify as an "elder millennial."

Career and community involvement:

To be honest, some days I'm not sure what I do for a living! Working from home, my husband and I share both the tasks of keeping our small media business, Fixed Focus Media, and our 2-year-old son, Riah, alive! We were just honored with one of two Idaho Philanthropy Awards for North Idaho marketing/media company. We also run a bustling AirBNB in Spokane. I volunteer with the Human Rights Education Institute (HREI) in its marketing committee and I'm one of the founders of Love Lives Here CDA, a kindness campaign that kicked off just over a year ago.

Parental status: Mom of one.

1. So what exactly is Love Lives Here?

In essence, Love Lives Here CDA is a community kindness campaign. We started as a small group of citizens who know the heart of CDA is kind, accepting and loving. But, sadly, that's not what our town can be known for. We have a historical residue of bigotry and racism that seems to be rearing its head back up again. Our campaign invites businesses and organizations to sign a kindness declaration that states that they welcome all to their place of business and into our community. And, that they stand against acts of hate. Businesses and organizations are welcome to sign on for no fee. Upon signing up, they recieve a Love Lives Here CDA sticker to display in their storefront, or wherever they conduct business. These stickers give us a visual representation of the LOVE that exists in Coeur d'Alene. And, help remind us as a community that kindness is really at the core of this place.

You can learn more and see the growing list of about 200 businesses and organizations who have signed on at www.loveslivesherecda.com.

2. Why is this an important movement for North Idaho, and how can people get involved?

There are so many things that make this important. Our citizens, reputation and economy are affected by our history of bigotry and its recent percolation to the surface. But, I tire of that story because the vision of CDA that I see is far from it. Kindness should always be an important thing to spread. Kindness, acceptance and love are values we learn from our parents as children, we talk about in most major religions and we sing songs about as school children. It's ingrained into who we are as humans, but as we move into adulthood, fear works its way in and we can allow ourselves to deviate from these values. Love Lives Here CDA is important because it's a great reminder to us to revisit and reaffirm those values for the good of our community.

There's a ton of awesome ways to get involved. I'll list them here to keep it simple:

1. Sign up your business or organization.
2. Volunteer!
3. Donate - We have joined forces with HREI so all donations are tax deductible. Our program is managed by volunteers, and we do not charge businesses or organizations to sign on, so donations help cover hard costs of the campaign and support events and training that align with our mission.
4. Purchase our merch! You can spread the message by purchasing Love Lives Here stickers, T-shirts and yard signs. All are available at HREI and stickers are available at Calypsos, CDA Corner Store and Mountain Madness Soap.

3. What motivated you and your husband to start your business, Fixed Focus Media, and what do you enjoy most about it?

My husband went to graphic design school and started Fixed Focus Media. Creating media with powerful visuals is his passion, for sure! Prior to meeting him, I had spent almost a decade in events and weddings, owning another small business of my own for a time. I already had a lot of the beginner skills needed to jump in to help him, and the wedding industry was a crash course in good design for sure. It was a natural fit to team up.

We offer quite a few services, so it's hard to pick service I enjoy most. I really love helping local small businesses that have a variety of media needs. Sometimes these small businesses can't afford the price tag of a large media agency. We like to dig in and get to know our business partners to curate a mixture of web, social, graphic, photo and video needs that will make an impact within their budget. I really love the businesses and business owners we've been able to work with throughout the years. And I love helping in their successes!

4. What is something people would be surprised to learn about you?

For over a year, I've only been shooting film photos in my personal work. There is something exceptionally beautiful about film photography. The process is slow and intentional. To me, it captures real life much more than digital photography. In a world that is fast and filtered, I enjoy the slowness and truth in analog.

5. Considering the tumultuous year we've had, what are a few words of hope or wisdom you'd like to share?

I was lucky enough to speak at the North Idaho College convocation this year and it really made me think a lot about this year and what we can learn from it. What I landed on was, this is the year to have lofty goals and simple actions. Given our current social, economic and health environments, everything is fairly complex and even simple things can feel daunting. But, we can still have goals and those goals can be BIG! For me, Love Lives Here represents a goal to help our community be more loving, accepting and welcoming; and to be proud of all of those wonderful values. It is my dream to have Coeur d'Alene be known for these values. I understand that this is a lofty goal. But, luckily we've created simple actions to slowly help us chip away at that goal. Asking businesses to sign on to the Love Lives Here kindness campaign is simple, coordinating sponsors of yard signs and T-shirts to get our message out is simple, and being kind to those around me is simple. I encourage everyone to find the simple steps that can help you move in the direction of your lofty goals. And, slowly but surely, we'll get there.