What is your day job?
I help people to be able to buy homes. As a residential mortgage lender, I get people approved for the financing they need to buy a home.
How long have you lived in the Grand Traverse area?
I’ve lived here my whole life so going on 34 years now
What is your favorite thing about living/working in the Traverse City area?
My favorite thing about the area we are in is how close we are to amazing outdoor recreation areas. We have so many beaches, bike trails, hiking, camping areas, golf courses, rivers, ski hills, etc. within a really close area.
One really unique thing about our area is that we have a lot of shipwrecks that you can dive and even snorkel at. The cold freshwater does a really good job of preserving them.
What do you do for fun?
If you couldn’t guess from my answer to the last question, I love being outside, no matter the season. You can catch me skiing and snowboarding in the winter, and doing just about everything that our area has to offer in the summer (paddle boarding, kayaking, biking, golf, disc golf, camping, hiking, freediving… too many to list)
How do you get involved in the community?
I’m part of the Programming committee for TCYP, we’re the ones who get the Happy Hour, Meetups and Fun Days organized. In addition to that, I volunteer at Mt. Holiday in the spring and early summer with a weekly bike league they put on. I’m also trying to get involved with coaching at Norte Youth Cycling. However, they have an abundance of people willing to help out which is amazing for them. So I’m hoping they have an opening next spring. As well as helping out various projects with Habitat for Humanity and TART Trails.
What is your favorite local business (restaurant, shop, service,etc.) and why?
This is a tough one, so many great options here. I’ll give you a top 5 in no particular order. Slabtown Burgers, The Filling Station, 2nd Level Goods, Brick Wheels, Hickory Hills.
What’s the weirdest job you’ve ever had?
I wouldn’t say it’s weird, but definitely unique. I was an intern with the Boardman River Dams Committee when they were doing the removal of Sabin Dam and the drawdown of the Sabin Pond. A lot of my responsibilities were to take photo documentation weekly from certain points which helped monitor the lowering of the water level. I also helped with water sample collecting and testing. It was a great job because I got paid to hike around and take pictures, something I enjoy doing for free.
Tell us something that might surprise us about you.
I mentioned the shipwrecks we have in our area. I like to go check them out, but not scuba diving, only freediving. Which is basically snorkeling but you dive down deep on one breath. The furthest I’ve managed to go is 70ft. It even came in handy helping someone locate and recover an outboard motor that fell off their sailboat in 50ft of water.
What is something you learned in the last week?
Well, I was lucky enough to be down in Florida on vacation this last week. We checked out a few of the natural springs they have down there. I learned about how the Florida Aquifer and how it feeds the springs. And the amount of water that comes out of them is truly amazing. One of the ones we went to flows 52 million gallons every day.
How can other TCYP members support you (personally or professionally)?
I feel that TCYP members can support each other by first learning about each other and what we do for work and like doing for fun. The networking opportunities within TCYP are great because you get to meet a bunch of people from so many different industries and learn about what they do both for work and for fun. I’d love it if someone within TCYP is thinking about buying a home or know someone who is to be like “hey, I should talk to Adrian about that. I know he helps people with that”.
