As a young girl, Gretchen understood the positive impact Vorbeck Wholesale Sporting Goods, her family’s third-generation business, in Grand Junction, Colorado had on the community.
She was inspired to open her first business, Inland Oceans, a fresh seafood market in Grand Junction after eating an array of fresh seafood in San Francisco. Gretchen and a partner designed and built Logwood Bed and Breakfast in Durango, Colorado. She later opened another bed and breakfast in Manitou Springs, Colorado. She started We Value Our Teachers Foundation, a qualifying 501(c)3 charitable organization, in Arizona after talking with a public school teacher, in the grocery store, who was crying because she didn’t have enough money to buy milk and toilet paper. At that time, Arizona teacher pay was 50th in the nation. The foundation's purpose was to let teachers know they were valued, the mission was to provided grocery gift cards for public school teachers. Throughout the years, Gretchen’s most rewarding work has been sharing her Roundtable Leadership concepts with clients where success is built upon the strength and creativity available when people with differing points of view make "the willed choice" to resolve challenges; while each maintains their individuality and uniqueness. |