Mat-Su is the Apple of his eye

July 15, 2005

LYNSEA GARRISON\Frontiersman reporter

Ben Schaafsma will work for Vanilla Coke.

That's what a sign says in the Valley Mac Store and Internet Caf/, the business that Schaafsma owns and operates, starting a year ago.

And though he's only received one six-pack of Vanilla Coke since he started his business, he still loves working at the store. Schaafsma serves people coffee and other snacks, and also sells and helps people with Apple Macintosh computers and other supplies. Customers can even hook up to the Internet while hanging out at the caf/.

"I haven't found anything else in the nation doing what I'm doing with the Internet caf/ and having an Apple authorized reseller and center," Schaafsma said. "It's just a good place to hang out, talk about the weather, computers or anything."

Schaafsma was born in Anchorage in 1975, but grew up in Soldotna, where he lived until he was 16.

"I liked Soldotna, it was fun," he said through a smile. "I liked the small town. It was in the early 80s and a time when there were a lot of things going on, like the first McDonald's and stop light."

Schaafsma moved to Michigan in 1991, where he finished high school. He went on to Lake Superior State University in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., for two years and then transferred to Cornerstone College in Grand Rapids, Mich. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in math and a minor in physics.

"Those two subjects interested me," he said. "I liked math and physics in high school, so it was natural in college to study them."

After Schaafsma graduated from college, he spent some time working for Forest Hills Public Schools in Grand Rapids as a child care director for fifth- and sixth-graders, organizing and before and after school program and coordinated several activities with the students.

In the beginning of his work as a child care director in 1997, Schaafsma married his wife, Jessica. Jessica worked part of the time at the school district until she became pregnant with their first son, Gerrit. Gerrit was born in 1999 in Michigan.

In the spring of 2001, Schaafsma and his family moved back to Alaska after spending a summer with Victory Bible Camp in 1998. When the arrived, they worked for Victory Bible Camp again during the winters and summers for two years. Schaafsma did that until he got a job in Anchorage with the Crisis Pregnancy Center after they picked up a grant to teach abstinence education in Alaska.

"I was their technically minded person," he said. "I worked with the computers and networking. They had lots of presentations in rural Alaska, so I helped set those and their Web sites up."

During that time Schaafsma got a true taste of rural Alaska, as he traveled around to places like Gamble, Savoonga, St. Paul and Nome.

"I think growing up in Alaska I was pretty well traveled around the state, but that experience solidified for me the difference between Alaska connected by a road system and Alaska not. There is a whole different culture and mindset in rural Alaska. I also pulled away from that experience is that there is a huge need for people to care for other people, if you're willing to be flexible and learn what that need may be. It was as easy as hanging out with a six-year old playing basketball, or talking with a teen about life."

While living in Anchorage in 2001, Jessica gave birth to her and Schaafsma's second son Ruben. In 2002, Sylvi, the couple's first daughter was born and in 2004, Bree, their second daughter and last child was born. Schaafsma was proud to note that all of his children were "Valley Hospital babies."

"Even while we were in Anchorage, we would drive to the Valley Hospital because we really liked it," he said. "My wife felt she was well cared for there."

In 2005, Schaafsma began "house hunting" in the Valley, as he and his wife hoped to move to the Palmer-Wasilla area. He finally found a home last year.

Since then, Schaafsma loves the store and is an avid Apple supporter. He has dreams of living in the Netherlands for awhile when his children grow older, but for now, he's just focusing on "raising his children and trying to keep life going and the store up and running."