Shawn Buckroyd is the original— and first—office administrator of Boreal Community Media. With a background in tech and training, Shawn will be a “jack of all trades” at Boreal, said Lisa Bauer, executive director of Boreal Community Media.

“She will work with P.R., with marketing, training interns and because she has a strong background in computer technology, she can help us there as well,” Bauer said.

Buckroyd knew she needed a change, but the Twin Cities native didn’t know how much until she took a visit to Cook County with her boyfriend last year.

“I had never visited the North Shore,” she said. “I was taken by the beauty of the area, the relaxed pace, the friendly people. My father had died the year before. He only lived to be 64, but he was a believer in chasing your dreams. He started four businesses. The last was a fly-in fishing lodge in Alaska. I wasn’t unhappy with my work. I worked for United Health Group in Minnetonka in the tech department, but I was getting tired of the commute from Columbia Heights. The visit to Cook County got me thinking. I felt like this was the place for me to come, but could I make a living here?”

Shawn came back and while at lunch at Dockside she mentioned her predicament to Shele Toftey, then owner of Dockside, about not having work. Shele hired her on the spot.

“I had never done that kind of work before. I wasn’t used to being on my feet all day long. But the staff was so great. I bought a small house in the country. Some of the locals offered me advice on what to do in situations that I had never encountered before, how to prepare my driveway for slippery conditions, how to take care of the septic system when the alarm went off. Things like that. I told one gentleman that he needed to come and live with me and teach me how to do things. He laughed and said his wife wouldn’t approve.” 

When the board of directors at Boreal came up with a plan to hire an office administrator Bauer remembered a five-minute chance meeting she had with Shawn the year before at Dockside.

“We met briefly, but we really connected,” said Bauer. “We were both single, divorced women who found a strong calling to live here. I remembered Shawn had a great background in the areas that Boreal needed to be filled. Although I had lost her phone number, she was easy to find.”

The rest is, as they say, history. Buckroyd started her new job on Monday, July 9.