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Hello , hello everybody , and welcome to

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Visit Bentonville's A New American Town podcast

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. I'm your host , stevie , and today's

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episode is sponsored by AusTrails . Did

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you know that in Bentonville , arkansas , there's

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an outdoor exercise staircase that's equivalent

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to 11 flights of stairs one way

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. More on that in a few minutes . Our

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guests today are Taylor Scott and Nate

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from Kohler Mountain Bike Preserve here in Bentonville

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. Welcome .

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Hey , thanks for having us Welcome .

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Absolutely , can you all please

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introduce yourself ? Let's get the show rolling .

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Absolutely . My name is Taylor Reed and I

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am the marketing manager at Peelcompton

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Foundation in Kohler Mountain Bike Preserve .

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Nate Renner . I work on the trail

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crew at Kohler Mountain Bike Preserve .

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And Scott Dirksen , senior program manager for

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Kohler Mountain Bike , preserve .

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Awesome , nice to see all of you here today

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. Taylor , who

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and what is Peelcompton Foundation ?

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So Peelcompton Foundation is a local 501C3

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here in Bentonville , arkansas . We

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connect the community through nature , education , recreation

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and preservation , and we

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happen to host some pretty great

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community events educational programming

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covering things like mountain biking

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, archery , ecology and leave-nope

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trace principles , on top of , honestly

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, tons of other things for families and individuals

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who are new and old in

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the community . So that's about

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what we do .

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And you kind of hinted to this when you said ecology

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and archery . What are the public spaces

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that Peelcompton Foundation facilitates

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?

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So we have under our belt Compton

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Gardens and Arboretum , we have Osage

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Park , and at Osage Park we have

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the Quiver Archery Range , peel

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Museum and Botanical Garden and , of course , kohler

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Mountain Bike Preserve .

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What we're here to talk about today . So

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great segue . Taylor Scott , can you

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give us an overview of Kohler Mountain Bike Preserve

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? Even though it's called the Mountain

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Bike Preserve , there's so much more you can do there than

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just riding a bike , right .

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Yeah , kohler Mountain Bike Preserve , even

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though it says in the name it's a gym here in the

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heart of Bentonville , arkansas . It's

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a 300-acre property a little over a mile

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long . It has 20-plus miles of trails

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for hiking and for biking , a

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greenway , which is a paved bike

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path that goes to the middle for

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all types of users to get out and utilize

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Kohler . And it's a preserve

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, so it's natural there's some architecture

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and buildings , but you feel like you're

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in the woods , you feel like you're outside

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of the town , even though it's just like a mile

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from downtown Bentonville , and once

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you're there it's an amazing experience

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to enjoy nature .

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And for those who don't know , there's also a very unique

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coffee shop in the middle of the preserve

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.

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Yeah , so the trails , obviously

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you can hike and bike on , but there

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is airship coffee shop

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in the heart of Kohler , so

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to get to it , the only way to get to it , is by

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biking or walking about a

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half mile from either parking lot to

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get there .

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Scott , it sounds like there are so many awesome amenities

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in Kohler . What about the programming

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you guys offer ?

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Yeah , so besides just coming and utilizing the property on a day-to-day

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basis , we offer classes , clinics

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, specific things for people to do in the community

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, for children and adults alike

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. Mostly we focus on mountain

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bike classes and some clinics , but

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really we have a lot of nature programs

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, especially for children . We have week-long

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camps for children to get involved , to learn about

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nature , disconnect , get outside

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and learn about the natural environment

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around them .

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That has been your most popular program offering so

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far .

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Thanks for that question , stevie . My favorite part for

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leading programs at Kohler

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is definitely when I get people

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who have come to Kohler and they maybe haven't

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done that skill or activity outside that

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often and they get engaged

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and they do it and Just to see their face

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light up , to see them engage

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with nature in a different way that maybe they haven't before

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, it's really rewarding to

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see , especially when you have the kids for a week

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at a time . By the end of the week they just they love being

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outside . They're eating the berries on the

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property Don't worry , just the edible ones and

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it's . It's really great to see that

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connection to nature after the end of a program

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.

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That's amazing . Nate , can you tell me about the

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trail crew ?

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Yeah , there's three of us myself

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, maddie and Logan Pretty

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much every day of the week where they're

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scoping out what

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needs to be worked on the most

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and upgrades and trail

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repairs , you name it and

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we're always trying to enhance

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the park and just maintain it and keep it up to

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good shape .

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What's your favorite part about being on the trail crew ?

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Oh , I mean , it's

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my passion personally . It's why

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I moved to Bentonville even earlier this year . They

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say you Do what you

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love . You never work a day in your life right and

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it checks a lot of boxes . I'm always in

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, surrounded by nature . I'm getting

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a lot of exercise for sure on the trail crew

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and it's really fulfilling . I feel

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like I'm giving back to the community that way . Pretty

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much every day , at least one person will

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stop , stop stop the trail

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crew and tell us thank you so much for what you

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guys do . You guys are awesome . It's . How could

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you not love it ?

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That's amazing and it's so true . I think people

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can sometimes tend to forget about

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what goes on behind the scenes , and trail

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crews work very , very hard for Everyone

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to be able to enjoy the trails . Taylor

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will send it back to you here . What

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do you hope for the future of Kohler

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? What do you hope that looks like ?

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for the future of Kohler . Um , you

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know , as a non-mountain

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biker , I think that that's

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kind of the place for mountain biking

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, but what a waste it would be

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if people who didn't mountain bike didn't know

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that Kohler exists . So

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really it's brand awareness , you know , for Kohler

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, knowing that it is more than that . It's a place

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to escape your

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everyday life and Be

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kind of in the midst of nature

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nature , I guess , as

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it stands in the , in the Ozarks . So

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that's kind of my wish for Kohler

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in the future .

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It really is a nice escape , isn't it ? Yeah , like

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Scott mentioned earlier , it feels like you're

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out in this amazing place , super

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far away from town , but it's just really close

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, about a mile away . Nate

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, what do you hope the future of Kohler looks like ?

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I Hope we can just keep making

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it better , kind of appeal to

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all levels of riders keep enhancing

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that feeling of progression green trails

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, blue trails , black trails , just

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so anybody who comes to Kohler can

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have a great time and Scott , I have

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a kind of a two-part closing question for

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you .

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What is new at Kohler Mountain Bike Preserve

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right now and Also , what do you

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hope the future of Kohler looks like ?

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Yeah , a new would be our Thanksgiving kids

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camp next week , something we haven't done before . We're

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also trying to break into different types of programs

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and challenges to engage people Beyond

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just coming to a program . So next year we're

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gonna have some well , right now I'm calling them

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Kohler days where people can come out and we

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can Guide them around , show

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them some things , do some interpretation , sue

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some nature hikes while people enjoy airship and and

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kind of highlight our partner partners , programmers

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at Kohler and really get people

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a deeper connection to to

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Kohler . And what I

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Envision for Kohler in the future is

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a place where all types

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of people feel Included

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and not just included , but they feel welcome . So

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that is gonna have to take some intentionality with

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working with different types of communities , different

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types of programming , so that people

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can come and and Discover Kohler

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, feel welcome there and then

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continue to use it to to reach

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our mission to connect people to nature and get outside

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.

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Amazing sounds like there are a lot of good things

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in store for next year and for beyond .

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We're excited for it , for sure , and so if you haven't

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haven't experienced it , just come out and just

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do a walkthrough , kohler , and if you want to engage on

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a deeper level , get

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in touch with us . We'd love to have people at a program

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or or an activity , or just experience Kohler

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.

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And if for anything , it's the nachos .

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At airship . They're so good gotta get

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the nachos , and for the kids you can get them a

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steamer , a little hot cocoa . It's great

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.

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Now , taylor , where can people find you online if they want

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to connect and learn more about programming

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and what's to come in the future ?

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Check us out at a at Kohler

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mountain bike preserve , on instagram and on facebook

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.

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What is your website as well ?

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our website is peelcomptonorg .

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Perfect , and there you can also learn all about

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the public spaces , not just .

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Kohler , yep , and we also have a rentable

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spaces at all of our sites . So if you're

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interested in booking specific

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venue for your birthday party or a wedding

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or whatever it is you're interested in doing , then oh

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yeah , we also have camping .

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I gave a little tent symbol over here so she saw

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that Little reminder .

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Well , it sounds like the possibilities are endless . They really

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are Well . Thank

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you so much to scott , nate and taylor

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for your time and joining us on today's episode

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of visi-benvils , a new american town

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podcast , and thanks to you , our

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listeners , for tuning in . Be sure

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to follow Kohler mountain bike preserve , oz

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trails and visi-benville on social media

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. We'll see you out on the trails .