Bikes, Breathwork, and Brews: The Bestwicks’ State College Story

Jamie and Kerry Bestwick are a dynamic State College couple who are building community and running businesses side by side. Kerry owns the popular fitness center PYP Studio, and just next door, Jamie co-owns Rothrock Coffee, a local coffee shop.

Originally from the UK, they made the leap to Happy Valley and immediately fell in love with the area. 

In this episode, we discuss how Camp Woodward, an extreme sports mecca just 40 minutes outside of State College, was a major selling point for Jamie, an X Games legend and current USA National BMX Freestyle Coach.

We’ll also talk about how Kerry built her yoga studio and a thriving community from the ground up.

Towards the end of the episode, they’ll share what makes State College so special to them—and how you can get more involved in Happy Valley.

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Chapters

• 2:04 First Impression of Woodward Camp and the Area
• 5:26 Their Initial Pros and Cons List of Happy Valley Vs. the U.K.
• 9:15 Jamie's Successful Pro BMX Career
• 14:21 How Kerry Launched Her Yoga Practice
• 21:02 Raising a Kid in State College
• 24:19 Why Jamie Chose to Start Rothrock Coffee
• 28:35 How Kerry Organized and Ran Yoga at Beaver Stadium
• 31:19 How Jamie Coaches the BMX Freestyle National Team Based Out of State College
• 35:20 Tips for People New to Town

Transcript

Brad Groznik (00:06)
This is the Rediscover State College podcast. On this show, we talk to locals about how they were able to find their happy place in Happy Valley. I'm your host, Brad Grozny. Today, we're joined by Jamie and Kerry Beswick, a dynamic state college couple who are building community and running businesses side by side. Kerry owns the popular fitness center, PYP Studio, and just next door, Jamie co-owns Roth Rock Coffee, a local coffee shop. Originally from the UK, they made the leap to Happy Valley and immediately fell in love with the area.

In this episode, we'll discuss how Camp Woodward, an extreme sports mecca just 40 minutes outside State College, was a major selling point for Jay. did we mention that he's an X-GAME legend and the current USA national BMX freestyle coach? We'll also talk about how Carrie built her yoga studio and a thriving community from the ground up. Toward the end of the episode, they'll share what makes State College so special to them and how you can get more involved in Happy Bout. So again, thanks so much for coming in.

It's really exciting to talk to you. You know, when we were thinking about who we wanted to book on this season of the podcast, we were trying to think of like, who are the people who have carved out a way of living here that seems special and exciting? Bestwix are always on that list. The reputation that you guys have is just so phenomenal in town. What's the secret?

Kerry Bestwick (01:22)
Yeah, we definitely have a story and we maybe traveled here a little bit further than a lot of people who live here. I'll start with Jamie because, know, he's a cyclist. So we really could have chosen anywhere in the USA to kind of relocate from the UK. Obviously Woodward Camp was a draw as a place. I mean, I think Jamie can speak to it better of like why initially

State college really drew us. There was an element of community and connection that he felt when he first came here and I trusted him, had never even stepped foot here and we'd purchased a home.

Brad Groznik (02:04)
Yeah, tell me about the first time you saw Woodward. I imagine it felt like in the middle of nowhere and all of a sudden you come across this compound. I drove past it actually on Sunday and driving past Woodward, was a beautiful day, but it just looked like heaven. was just like, that is just beautiful. But like, what was it when you first saw it and when was that? Probably...

Jamie Bestwick (02:27)
98. I came out for a competition at Woodward Camp in 1998. Before I'd even got to the camp, what struck me the most was driving down through Penns Valley on 45. And it just looked so beautiful and peaceful and green. And then you had all the trees that were blossoming and all the other different colors and the roads were pristine.

That's the thing that got me straight away. And then when you arrive at Woodward camp, you have this incredible action sports camp and gymnastics camp. And it just sent like for me as a BMX cyclist, I it was like Disneyland. I arrived at 10 AM in the morning and I didn't leave till 11 at night. I mean, I rode so much in one day that I got cramp in my fingers. It was stunning. And we come from.

Derbyshire and Derbyshire is a very rural area, although it's quite industrial and it has major cities, Derby and Nottingham. So the Midlands itself is really jam packed with a lot of countryside, a lot of great villages, a lot of tourism. But when you move to somewhere like State College, and we lived in Ahrensburg when we first moved here and I thought Ahrensburg was the greatest place in the world. It was so quaint. They had a little, they had the Ahrensburg diner.

They had the general store and then they had Burke holders. a great family operated business and they're still going. Everything about this area just had that real family connection, that community, that close knit environment. And it was safe. It was so safe. It was ridiculous. Your neighbors were there. They were willing to help. We moved from England. We didn't know really the lay of the land and the neighbors were just incredible.

They'd give us pointers on things to do and where to shop. We were on a very honest budget, so where we can get the best bang for the buck. And I don't think this town is ever going to lose that feeling. State college has never lost its charm. It's never lost that community. And I would say that also speaks volumes to the surrounding areas, know, Center Hall, Bellefonte, Altoona, down in the valley.

It's got some great restaurants out creek. is a very community driven area. We've always liked the kind of the family aspect. Coming here and leaving everything and being accepted into a community incredibly quick, almost off the plane. It was a great feeling. It felt like home straight away.

Brad Groznik (05:14)
Did you have the same feeling when Jamie came to you and said, I want to move to this small town in the middle of Pennsylvania, away from the big city, away from the fabulous restaurants kind of thing like that?

Kerry Bestwick (05:25)
I mean, I was 25, Jamie was 28. We worked in England and had a house in England. We weren't in that college area of our life. I'd been to college and Jamie had pursued his writing career. I'll come back to trust when he said to me, my goodness, I've found this place and described it to me. Even as a young couple, we really loved that idea of family.

I would say the biggest thing that hit me when I got off the plane and again, wake up in Woodward before we moved into our home in Ahrensburg was just the breathtaking scenery of the valley itself. It was late November. It was a huge fall and snow had happened the night that we flew in. And then we just met the local people who had never really left.

Woodward and the surrounding area, center hall area. Only a couple of people lived towards State College. So all the locals that I probably met within the first week of arriving, they just couldn't do enough for you. And there was just that sense of acceptance straight away. And I just would look at Jamie and even going into the local store and people just wanted to know who you were and how they could support you. And I think that

from a culture standpoint, it really knocked me off my feet. And also I distrusted it a little bit because again, growing up in England, you grow up with a lot of street smart. The area is beautiful and you have a lot of access to everything. Yeah, I would say when you go towards the cities, you always double check in, I lock my car? Did we lock the door to the house? Don't leave anything on your front seat of your car. And it's...

You're conditioned to do that because you've grown up with your parents reminding you to do that. You've maybe experienced petty crime yourself, which we had. So you have this level of smart and we came here and it was, it was almost like, this is a step back in time. This is like being a kid growing up in the seventies, early eighties and just being able to leave your garage door up. It's okay.

That to me is when you weigh up the pluses and the minuses of what you really want at the end of the day in life, and you put aside the fancy shops and the fancy restaurants and having like Jamie just described, everything at your fingertips all the time, whenever you need it. And I'll say it's a lot of it's consumerism and it's just stuff. And when you peel that away,

What really matters at the end of the day, and it came down to what I think we first experienced when we arrived here, which was a sense of belonging, community and connection. What do we really need as far as a good restaurant? Do we need 25 to choose from? Or do we need three? What are our daily stresses? And we took a lot of those immense daily stresses of

living in a more built up area and a faster pace of life in England. And we chose somewhere more bare bones. And I think it helped us live on a modern budget and really then choose to develop our life moving forward from that point in our late twenties to thirties to where we are now in our fifties to really saying, we fundamentally, we know what matters at the end of the day.

State College became that place for us.

Brad Groznik (09:15)
So from 98 to probably the late 2000s, Jamie, your career was skyrocketing and taking off. Living in the middle of Pennsylvania, what was that experience like? I imagine there was a lot of travel. It might've been easier to live next to an international airport and things like this. How did you manage that and was the trade off worth it there too?

Jamie Bestwick (09:35)
One of the reasons why I chose State College over California or anywhere else, it just gave me the opportunity to focus on what I wanted to do and where I ultimately foresaw myself being at the top of the sport. And Woodward Camp was that opportunity to kind of go to work and not have any distractions. And State College was that place where they had a small airport. I used to fly out of there most weeks.

We had great access to trainers, great access to doctors in case anything went wrong. A lot of that is thanks to the university. There's a lot of support networks that are born out of the university that have done incredible work on their athletes. So being an athlete myself, having access to those places, it got me back on the bike quicker than I ever imagined. And again, it was just making relationships with all those places. Wherever I traveled.

The minute I said, I'm from State College, people would then talk about the university and how they were associated with it and alumni. They would talk about the fraternity brothers and sisters. And it was just, it was always a conversational point wherever I went. I've never really had that before living in the UK. American people always ask about, do you live near the queen and stuff like that? And it's like, well, yeah, I down the road. She was like two houses down.

So there was always kind of like the kind of typical questions that people would ask. But when you mentioned that you live in state college PA, that was a bigger conversation because people wanted to tell you about their time in state college. Some people would say how they loved it and they moved on to different parts of the country. But the conversation would always steer back to, kind of wish I'd never left because there's things about this town.

that they absolutely miss. Even though they've got great benefits where they moved to, whether it be a job, whether it be closer to an ocean, whatever it is, a city, there was always that part of where they said, I wish I lived in State College. And a lot of people move back because it's such a great place, because they still want to be surrounded by that feeling that they had at university. They just want to feel like they're a part of it still.

that they're a part of this Happy Valley community.

Brad Groznik (12:04)
I definitely see that from the Penn State community, the desire to move back. Do you see that from the Woodward community?

Jamie Bestwick (12:09)
community.

And they used to. The minute I moved out here in 99 and the success and it was quick success that it brought me because of the not having any distractions, being able to really just focus and knuckle down. A lot of people moved here. So from 2000 to about 2010, people were moving here and all of a sudden this town became a hotbed for the best action sports athletes.

in the world. Everybody rode at Woodward. And then obviously, you know, like anything in life, people have families, people's parents get older, people have, they want different things. So ultimately a lot of people moved away and it was a shame because they moved away and then they moved back and then they moved away again and some never came back. And I'm pretty sure that they kind of look back and they think, yeah, why, why did I move away? Because if

If I had never ridden bikes, I've never would have found out about this town. It's just not something that you kind of would have on your radar. But if I ever did get the opportunity to come to this town without having ridden a bicycle before, the one thing that would really be a draw for me here is the amount of outdoor activities there are, the space, you know, green and residential areas. And just the fact that it really is, it really is a happy valley.

There's a lot of great people in this town. There's a lot of people doing great things in this town that have an outreach that go far beyond the hills and peaks of the valley. There's a lot of companies in this town that touch all four corners of the world. Yeah, it's a cool place to be in. We've had a lot of people move here that have invested in this town, that have been educated in this town and that have stayed in this town because when they graduate,

to point of where they wanted a family of their own, they've seen a comfort and safety that this town has to offer. And also the educational system that supports growth in their family. In life, that's to me, that's all you should ever want.

Brad Groznik (14:20)
In those years between, you know, 99 and next, say 2010, what was it like for you? You were building a coaching company. When I understand, can you take me a little bit through what it was it like? Were you going with him every week around? Were you here alone? How did you build community during that time?

Kerry Bestwick (14:39)
I mean, we lived in the valley for the first three years. So my community and I didn't drive straight away. We had access to one vehicle. We had a very modest budget. So Jamie was traveling by himself. We didn't have cell phones. So we had a landline. I concentrated on what do I want to do in this season of my life? And I was a preschool teacher in England and I wanted to change that and get into

more fitness that evolved into yoga and Pilates, more mind-body fitness. And that was a very untapped area in 99 to 2002 when I was really delving into it. I stayed home and developed a routine and got to know people around me in that small area and did all my training at home online.

And then went to the cities to sit exams or go to do various trainings when I needed to. And then I came into town in late 2001 and just swung by East Coast Fitness and dropped off a resume. Small gym. Within two weeks, I got a phone call to sub a class because a teacher had gone off sick. That was the beginning of me in those next three years getting approached by Penn State.

teach for Penn State. So again, no matter whether you come here for Penn State or not, you will be welcomed into that community in some way, shape or form. What I love also about State College still to this day, having the success of PYP, is that everything was word of mouth. Me teaching and somebody liking my class, then they told somebody that told somebody else that told somebody else. And in those three years,

Jamie and I moved from the Valley to Bolsburg so that I could work on conventional hours in fitness, which could be early mornings and later evenings, depending on what people needed. And so I really got to work doing my thing as Jamie was doing his thing. I seldomly traveled with him, maybe to the X Games or the Gravity Games back then once a year as a treat. And then just...

carried on building and building and building. And then I opened my own studio for seven years before I opened PYP in 2013, which is still going.

Brad Groznik (17:07)
And I know that you start PYP in 2013 Rothrock Coffee started in 2016 and so it seemed like you had a moment where you're like we're gonna double down on State College at that point you probably could have went anywhere again moved back to England. Can you talk to me about that transition? I know you have a son. Yeah, and he was born probably early

Kerry Bestwick (17:28)
2005. 2005. Sammy was born 2005. there was a period there where Jamie described doubling down, very little distraction, focusing on winning, winning, winning, like really becoming the top of my sport more than once, just this repeated dedication to mastering his craft. And I kind of did the same thing in my area. So we were working like crazy and

Then I fell pregnant and I had that moment, call it hormones, whatever you want to call it. And I just said, I don't know that I want to be here. I was feeling the pull to be back in the UK because of aging parents and he was the first grandchild on both sides. So do we want to stay here? Do we want to go? And I was definitely one foot in and out. And at the same time.

When Samuel was born, Jamie had, he was having issues with his neck. So he had neck surgery. The spine fusion took him off his bike and had him also at a crossroads of how much longer am I going to do this? It's taking, it's a toll on my body. We kind of went home for a little bit. And within three months, Jamie was still back here competing. was in England and honestly, within three months, we really had a.

come to Jesus moment, we sat down with a piece of paper and we wrote the list of pros and cons. Why England? Why state college? And yet again, state college won for the things that really mattered. The level of safety, the community we created, even though we didn't see our family and there was the pull of their grandson not knowing, having those deep, deep bonds.

what we had created in state college and what we felt as far as a family that we'd created hold us stronger than the family we were born into in the UK. And I came back with that attitude that I was going to give it everything that I could. And then that is when I opened my first studio inside of East Coast Fitness and then employed other people to help me with that venture versus me front in all of it.

That was in 2006. And so then from 2006 to 2013, that was the building of that community and training of instructors to get to a point where PYP then became a much larger venture. Like we're not saying we moved in, it was happily ever after. Like being really honest, like you, you do have those seasons of your life that

you, think Jamie described that a little bit of people that he's met on his travels that came and went, came and went, and sometimes went and never came back. You do, you experience like looking over there and stalemate of here, small town. Is it enough? Is this the end state? Yeah, I think the world's changed a lot. And I would say a lot since the pandemic of how you can work in this town.

and the things that we have more access to in this town that make living in State College easier than I think it was when we first came here.

Brad Groznik (21:02)
wife and I share a story where we came back and we were just so smitten and thing that people often said to us was, we'll just wait till you have a kid. Because then all of a sudden you realize just how special this community is. Did you have that experience when Sammy was born?

Kerry Bestwick (21:18)
Yeah. mean, I think that was the thing when we went back to England, Sam wasn't even one. So he hadn't made those deep ties. When we came back from two onwards, he was then going to preschool. That's when you create this whole other level of friendship away from the people I work with, away from the cycling community. And then you've got this.

family and kids and them being in sports and activities. I think the education system too, like state college area school district is a high level of education in a public system. You have access to a lot of greatness in this town.

Brad Groznik (21:58)
Jamie, noticed on Instagram, Sam's often at Woodward on a scooter and things like that. How did you get him involved in Woodward? And do you see a lot of state college parents sending their kids to Woodward?

Jamie Bestwick (22:09)
Well, I got him down at Woodward at probably what? Three weeks. Yeah. I just tried to integrate him into my cycling life as quick as I could. I'm really proud of that fact because over time, because he was kind of the resident there amongst the owner's family's kids as well. He learned from an early age how to talk to people. And to this day, he can still hold a conversation looking into.

your eyes, which is pretty rare these days amongst kids because their head is stuck in the phones. Him being a camp, being around bikes, skateboards, scooters, it just, one thing led to another. He got his first bike. He was riding bikes at what, 13 months? It was way earlier than that. I've got a video of- Two wheels. Yeah, two of that.

Kerry Bestwick (23:00)
Two without training.

Jamie Bestwick (23:03)
Two without training wheels. was just really cool for him to be around it. He would come down, he would act like he was a pro, even though he was a top. That was a really cool feeling because for me, as a new dad, it was almost like I could take him to where I was training and I would go, hey, look what I'm doing. And I would show him as much as when I came to pick him up from kindergarten, he'd have a picture and go...

Look, I did a picture today and I've been like, cool. You know, Woodward was that family place. I mean, just everything about it supported taking your kid there to find themselves, to interact with other people, to understand that there are different forms of fun. Team sports, you can have fun. Solo sports, you can have fun. I often associate action sports as the social sport because there's a lot of opportunity to talk with your peers.

share ideas. It's all built on creativity. A lot of people share ideas, they talk, and that is the greatest gift I think of action sports is just the social environment that it creates. That serves my son to this day.

Brad Groznik (24:18)
And so from then on, you decided to stay and stay college and you started PYP, which became incredibly successful. You started Rothfark coffee. I'm curious about the Rothfark coffee. You have all this knowledge in BMXing and everything like this. Why not start a bike company or a helmet company and said, you go and start a coffee company. Take me into that process.

Jamie Bestwick (24:41)
Didn't want to do a bike company. It's an interesting market. Didn't want to get into apparel. Didn't want to get into safety gear. But over the time of being a professional athlete and traveling the world, I built up a fascination for coffee. You start with your local gas station coffee, but there has to be more than that. And traveling the world, you visit different places, you experience different cultures and their way of preparation in coffee. ⁓

I just thought it was the neatest thing. I came back to stay college and I just realized that there was no real coffee community here, but people wanted it. Ronnie Napalton had moved from Ohio to Woodward and he was a great BMX rider. Unfortunately, he had an accident. It kind of left him having both knees repaired. And I knew he was interested in coffee because he was always asking me about Rothrock Coffee Project and when it was going to open, could he have a job there?

I just thought, how cool would it be to just bring someone who had an interesting coffee? We both shared the common thread of riding a bike together and he was an incredible top class athlete. And we just kind of set about building Rothrock coffee together and it was a fun adventure and we're still partners to this day. And you know, Ronnie is such a great person to be at the helm of the company.

So Rothrod coffee just became this culmination of travel in the world and just wanting to bring something that the people that were moving to state college came from more metropolitan areas and were exposed to these types of coffee shops. And I wanted to bring the coffee shop from the city into state college. I think we did a pretty good job. I'm very proud of it. I'm really proud of the opportunity we have.

to give employment to people in town. Because going back to my son, when you work in a coffee shop, you have to be social. So it is a great kickstart to someone, whether we have somebody coming in from college that wants a part-time job or someone from the community that wants a full-time job. It's a great opportunity to learn a skill in customer service that can then go forward into anything else they do in life. Because

It's all about building relationships and in a coffee shop, that's all you do. But also, you know, the one thing that I'm especially proud of is a few years ago, we had an opportunity to sit down with the people from Strawberry Fields and Pasquonelli family, a great royal love from the theater downtown is an awesome man. And we sat down and we talked about a concept idea that they had.

or an equal opportunity cafe where they wanted to employ people with disabilities. Good day cafe was that meeting and we have been proud partners with those guys. We've helped train their staff and it's an ongoing thing. We're always helping them, providing them with coffee. We do exclusive things with them. From the initial conversation, I said to everybody at the meeting, I said, look,

All we're interested in is making you a success because you win, we win. And that is something I learned from this community. Everybody coming together for a common goal. We all win.

Brad Groznik (28:12)
I love hearing that story because it really feels like a common trope in this area. If you put out there to this community, hey, I want to do this thing. I want to try this thing. I was just always so shocked of the support people would come and support you as opposed to other places where it felt a lot more competitive or, you know, people weren't hoping for the best for you. And that is never something about this area. I saw you did yoga on the field of beaver stadium and I just like felt like that was just like such an iconic

only in state college kind of thing. Can you tell me a little bit about how that kind of happened?

Kerry Bestwick (28:45)
Yeah, again, you do something in this town and you're always going to find that web of interconnecting with some blue and white. Over the years just created relationship inside of, think, Jamie being an athlete and the connections we've made through that of Penn State athletics. I've just really worked with a lot of their teams, the basketball program then, and they chose to come to PYP and do team development.

not just for athletes, but also for the coaching team. And so I think behind the scenes, we have created at PYP these connections with inside of the programs. So somebody came to us with an idea of we want to kind of open the doors more and be more publicly vocal about our relationship with Penn State.

The Nama Stadium event was born from somebody's idea. And then my business partner, Jana and I then built into Nama Stadium with the person who then took over from this initial concept. It also was a time where Penn State were also saying, we need to crack the door open a little bit so that we allow more community connection versus it being this separate entity of.

Penn State here, community here. And I think you've kind of seen that in town over the past few years with the triathlon coming in. And I know Jamie's on a board of people that are Penn State athletics and Penn State and also people in the community. that the Happy Valley Adventure Bureau? So they have this whole initiative of bringing events that is actually looking at state college as a whole community.

breaking down those barriers that have been there between Penn State versus the rest of the community. And it'd be come in, it's the destination. We have so much here. Let's open the door more to recreation and people come in here and utilizing the greatness of the town. And I think there's a lot more conversations like that taking place to keep putting Penn State as the hub that people actually come to.

I believe that Nama Stadium was that event of, have these relationships that have been unseen. We're putting it into the limelight. We're calling it this. Let's open the doors to Beaver Stadium. Let's get people in and do yoga on the field.

Brad Groznik (31:18)
Jamie, I just saw that you are now the BMX Freestyle National Team Head Coach, leading your coaching in an Olympic team. Tell me a little bit about that opportunity and maybe how we as a community can help support you and support more stuff like this to your point, Carrie, more stuff like this happening in this area.

Jamie Bestwick (31:40)
Yeah, I coached the team Great Britain for seven years. So I went to Tokyo and then we went to Paris. And an opportunity came about with USA cycling where they wanted to go in a different direction. They'd seen the work that I'd done at British cycling and I'd been incredibly successful with it being a new sport and only having two Olympics. I've got three medals from two Olympics, which is kind of unheard of.

And I just saw an opportunity to leave a program that I'm very proud of that I've left in a good place that I built one of the best teams in the world. Great culture over there. To go to a new program that's closer to home where all I want in life as a coach is to be around athletes living in state college and coaching the Great Britain team. It was all Zoom calls. I'm not a massive Zoom call fan.

It's just not for me. I'm a very in-person kind of coach and I feel like I'm more effective and you can really get across what you're trying to get the athlete achieve in person versus over a computer. So this opportunity came around with USA to lead them to Los Angeles. It's an incredible amount of responsibility because America wants to win on home turf. We're winning in LA.

It literally just reminded me of my own career. I had to leave England in order to come to America to understand what it takes to be a champion. Cause I couldn't figure it out in England. My dreams potentially were too big for the environment that I was in and my friend's circle in England and coming to America. My dreams potentially weren't big enough. People would always encourage me to go bigger.

And with the USA coaching job, kind of see it coming back to that where I have this opportunity now to take an enormous level of responsibility in a journey towards LA to get a team that has missed the mark in the first two Olympics to hit bullseye in Los Angeles. It's a challenge. It's never easy getting an athlete to the top step, but with time, patience, pair that with talent.

and drive and determination. I think we can do it.

Brad Groznik (34:07)
think that's amazing. And it's just like such a cool opportunity to watch you do that as a community member in a local.

Jamie Bestwick (34:13)
I still use Woodward to this day to train the athletes. I just came off a two day mini camp. The amount of success I get in a short time with an athlete at Woodward is unprecedented. Every resource that I have in this town, I will absolutely use because this town built me into the competitor I am today. In fact, this town built me into gold medal Olympic winning coach and I brought.

my gold, silver and bronze medalists into this town for a substantial amount of time in order for them to just soak in the atmosphere of State College to see that this town is built on success. Whether you look at it from the university standpoint, whose accolades speak for themselves, or you look at it from the community at large, people come here to strive to be better. And when you put people in this environment,

And that's the only thing that they're constantly hearing and feeling. It just breeds success.

Brad Groznik (35:19)
What tips or advice would you offer someone moving here or who has just moved here to create a happy and unique life in Happy Valley?

Jamie Bestwick (35:29)
I would say explore the town, explore the communities. We got a lot of great initiatives in this town from whether it be the arts down at the Makery and the state theaters and the Wascov Institute to restaurants to getting outdoors in the outdoors community, whether it's the rung clubs, whether it's happy Valley women's cycling, whether it's the state.

college cycling clubs Tuesday night ride that leaves at 5 30 p.m. From designated State College parks shameless plug come join. You know, there's there's everything for everybody. We've got some incredible lakes that surround this town that I'm pretty sure most people don't even know about and intertwining all that is some of the best mountain biking gravel riding and hiking that I've ever seen on my travels so explore

There's a lot. Your calendar will be full. And if you have a family as well, then tie in sports for the kids. And yeah, you've got a pretty full schedule on top of ⁓ a working life.

Kerry Bestwick (36:38)
Yeah,

I think to add to that, mean, having the studio, we see those people coming in that are just looking for a way to connect and create community. And so they will go and take a yoga class because that's what they've come from and they will meet people there. The studio and the coffee shop being next door to each other is not a mistake, right? When you first land somewhere.

Like Jamie's just described all these other avenues and clubs. A gym is where it all started for me. It was East Coast Fitness, where I didn't know anybody. And through teaching a class or going to a class, I met one new person and I spoke to one new person. And I've always said that with Sam, our son, make one new friend today. It all comes back to connection. And that connection will then lead you to another connection.

another connection and that is the web and the heartbeat of Happy Valley.

Jamie Bestwick (37:39)
I'm always learning something about this town from somebody else. Whether it's history, whether it's a place to visit, a place to eat, or just a place to go admire the beauty of the valley. There's always knowledge to be shared. And when you share knowledge, everybody wins.

Brad Groznik (37:58)
Thank you guys so much for coming.

Kerry Bestwick (38:00)
Thanks

for having us. Thank you.

Brad Groznik (38:05)
Thanks for joining us on this episode of the Rediscover State College Podcast. Be sure to follow the Rediscover State College Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts to hear more incredible local stories. We'd also love to hear about your state college experience. What aspect of the area or person in town has really made a difference in your Happy Valley experience? Share your thoughts by sending us an email at hello at rediscoverstatecollege.com. ⁓