What happens when a pizza joke infuses the direction needed for a 63-year-old furniture business? On this episode of Rural QueenB, He, and They, I sit down on the shores of Lake Memphremagog with Julie and Dave LaForce, co-owners of Built by Newport — one of Vermont's most dynamic manufacturing operations and a true family story now in its third generation.

Dave and Julie talk candidly about what it actually takes to run a company together as spouses: the year Dave ran the business alone after his uncle retired (his words: "a disaster"), the consultant who told them their real destiny wasn't pizza but furniture, and the ground rules they set early on to keep home life from becoming an extension of the boardroom.

We also get into the harder stuff — the day federal agents raided Jay Peak and Burke Mountain revealing the EB-5 scandal - frequently called the "Kingdom Con" - the largest financial fraud in Vermont history. Developers Ariel Quiros and Bill Stenger misused more than $200 million raised from foreign nationals through the federal EB-5 visa program, leaving a hole, known as "the pit", in downtown Newport. Dave explains why he finally stepped up to help lead Newport's downtown revitalization work, what it's like taking that kind of public risk as a business owner in a small town, and why he thinks the region has been far too hard on itself. There's a $3 million infrastructure grant, a housing crisis hitting employees and elders alike, and — somehow — genuine joy running through all of it.

This one is about partnership, place, and what it means to build something worth staying for.

In this episode:

• How a pizza-business joke became a 63-year manufacturing legacy
• Building a marriage and a company at the same time — the rules that keep both intact
• The night the feds raided Jay Peak, and its long shadow over the Northeast Kingdom
• Why Dave took on Newport's downtown revitalization, and the risk that comes with being visible in a small town
• The $3 million NBRC grant for downtown Newport's water, sewer, and streetscape project
• Housing costs, generational fairness, and why longtime locals and newcomers alike are getting squeezed
• Built by Newport's national reach — and the moment they realized their furniture shows up everywhere from hotel lobbies to real estate shows
• Bringing the third generation — their sons — into the business

Quotable:
"Rural America is brilliant, and it's time the world knew it."

"There's a greater risk that we don't take this opportunity and do nothing at all."

"We're actually in the people business — the byproduct is furniture."

About the guests:
Julie and Dave LaForce are co-owners of Built by Newport, a high-tech furniture manufacturing facility on the shores of Lake Memphremagog in Newport, Vermont. Dave represents the second generation of the family business; Julie joined the company in 2015. Dave is also active in Newport Downtown Development, a nonprofit working to revitalize the city's downtown.

Call to action:
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Episode 1 — Rural QueenB, He and They
Guest: Kevin Chu, Executive Director, Vermont Futures Project

What does it actually mean to build a life — and a business — in rural America? In this debut episode, Julie Kelley sits down with Kevin Chu, the data-driven force behind Vermont's economic future conversation, to explore what it feels like to bet on rural when everyone else is looking the other way.

Kevin's story starts with his parents — Chinese immigrants who landed in Vermont in 1986 with one social connection and a leap of faith. From there, Kevin traces a path from being driven to soccer practice by neighbors' parents, to competing in track and field at Middlebury, to choosing Vermont again and again when his peers left for Boston and New York. He calls it curiosity. It looks a lot like courage.

The conversation gets real fast. Vermont is one of the oldest states by median age. Two jobs exist for every one job seeker. Housing prices are high — not because people are leaving, but because people want in. Kevin breaks down what the data actually says: this is a moment of choice between economic hospice and economic healing. And he believes Vermont — and rural America broadly — can be the model.

They also tackle the harder stuff: the "Don't Jersey Vermont" bumper sticker mentality, the unconscious association between rural and whiteness, and what it looks like to build communities where anyone who shows up and contributes gets to call themselves a Vermonter.
Kevin ends with a quote from Calvin Coolidge after the 1927 flood — and it lands like a mission statement for every rural community fighting to matter.

This is the conversation rural America needs to be having out loud.