“Enjoy yourself. Enjoy life,” advised Chelsea Bonner. “I think sometimes people get too caught up in the negative that is happening in their lives, but we’ve got so much good, especially here. Don’t let the negative experiences give you a negative outlook on life.”
Chelsea Bonner maintains an optimistic attitude each day. She loves this community and the people in it; however, she is not originally from this area.
“I grew up in Alaska,” explained Chelsea. “Growing up in Alaska, we went deep sea fishing and road snow machines. We have a cabin at Caribou Lake, so that’s something we would do on weekends as a family. In the winter time, we take the snow machines out and ride to the cabin, and in the summer time we take the four wheelers. There’s no electricity or bathrooms out there. There’s no road to get there. You just have to ride through the woods to get there. When it’s cold enough and dark enough, you can sometimes see the Northern Lights out there. On the southern coast where I’m from, our winter solstice is our shortest day of daylight with only four hours of daylight. Then in the summer solstice, the sun doesn’t go down, so you get constant daylight.”
Once she graduated from high school, she decided to continue her education in another state. She ended up going to a college in a completely different climate from what she grew up in.
“I was actually going to go to college in Texas, but the out of state tuition was insane,” informed Chelsea. “A couple of girl friends of mine said they were going to rent a condo in Arizona and asked if I wanted to come and that they were going to go to community college. I said sure. I went from the cold tundra to the desert, and I met so many other Alaskans—so many kids I went to school with in Alaska moved to Arizona. I went to community college for a year and then switched gears. I was going to cosmetology school and graduated from there.”
It was while she was in Arizona that she met the love of her life.
“That’s where I met David—online at plentyoffish.com,” continued Chelsea. “He picked me up for our first date on his motorcycle, and that was the first time I met him. I hopped on the back of his motorcycle, and he rode off and took me to Chick-fil-A. He had a little sportster. It didn’t have a seat for me, so I had to sit on the fender. I didn’t have any pegs, so I just had to wrap my legs around him. It was love at first sight—at least on my end. That was in July, and that December we were engaged.”
After that, they lived in different places until they eventually ended up back in Clarke County.
“We traveled to a few more states, Oklahoma and Louisiana, and then we ended up back here and I love it,” expressed Chelsea. “When we were living in Louisiana, we were both working for Hammond Harley Davidson. While we were there, one of his customers asked him if he wanted to come work for him doing contract work, and he ended up working on the coal plant in Kemper County. We ended up moving into his grandparents’ house because it was travel work and was going to be a long contract. When he quit that job, he started working at Chunky River Harley Davidson where I was working.”
She has always been a hard worker and has experienced multiple jobs before taking on the position she has today.
“I worked at a Starbucks in Alaska and Oklahoma. I had fun working at Starbucks because it was one of my first jobs in Alaska. I started working for a grocery store chain called Safeway, and they cross trained me at a little Starbucks kiosk. When I moved to Arizona, they just transferred me from a Safeway in Alaska to a Safeway in Arizona so that I had a job when I moved there, and I worked at the Starbucks there. When we moved to Oklahoma, they didn’t have a Safeway, so I applied for a job at a corporate standalone Starbucks and got a job there,” declared Chelsea. “I worked at the Hammond Harley Davidson when we lived in Louisiana and then started at Chunky River Harley Davidson when we moved here. Then, I went to work for Virginia at the law office. In 2021 I came to work for Hope. She started me out in the tax collector’s office. I enjoyed doing that. Then, she asked if I would want to work in the tax assessor’s office, and I love it. I like making the experience of coming here as enjoyable as I can for people.”
While she loves her job, there is something she enjoys even more: her family.
“We do a lot of stuff with David’s mom and dad on weekends. We go to church with them every Sunday and go to Meridian to eat lunch every Sunday after church,” proclaimed Chelsea. “My daughter got a skateboard for Christmas, so my husband thought it would be funny to also get me a skateboard so I could ride with her. I have not learned how yet, but he took us to the funeral home parking lot to practice. We’ve taken the kids a few times to Alaska to visit to see where I come from.”
Her faith is also extremely important to her. She has taken on various leadership positions in the church.
“We go to First Baptist Church in Stonewall. I’m on the children’s committee and just recently became the secretary taking the minutes,” explained Chelsea. “I teach a pre-k through second grade children’s class on Sunday nights. I have about six kids that David and I teach. We started in the Old Testament and working to the New Testament with the main stories. It’s cool for me too because I’ve learned a lot from it.”
With each day that passes, Chelsea continues to find the positive in life. She will continue to brighten others’ day as well as spend time having fun with her family.
