'Pumping up Creston'

Editor's note: This is the cover story of Tuesday's Progress section, "Coming Home." For more stories on people returning to their hometowns, pick up a copy of the Creston News Advertiser on newsstands.

When Gabe Carroll and his wife, Linda, began searching for a place to call home and start up their chiropractic business, they whittled it down to three choices.

They could move closer to Linda’s family in Michigan and buy an already-established chiropractic business in Wyandotte, Michigan. Another option was starting up a business in Des Moines.

But, eventually, Gabe’s hometown of Creston won out. And, it was an easy choice.

“We kind of started our business plan while we were in school and rent for Des Moines was like $2,500 per month for a small place,” Gabe said. “We were back (in Creston) one weekend and driving around, just looking at different places that were open and came upon our office spot we’re at now.”

After examining the building, Gabe and Linda decided they could make the space work for their business with a few alterations.

Then, they decided to call the realtor to check on price.

“They wanted $450 for rent and we were like, ‘Yeah, we can do that,’” Carroll said. “So we ended up opening up and getting all of our equipment for what it would have cost us to just pay rent in Des Moines. That loan from opening up, we paid it back within two years.”

Cost of living and being close to Gabe’s family also played heavily into the decision to move to Creston, as well. As it turns out, Wyandotte, Michigan, really wasn’t that close to Linda’s family in Michigan, anyway. And, the Michigan economy was in rough shape at the time in 2008.

Since starting Carroll Family Chiropractic in Creston, business has been booming.

“I think being from here and knowing people, and we got involved in the community right away when we got back, helped,” Gabe said. “I think just knowing so many people, having family here, word of mouth spread really fast. Business picked up quicker than we expected it to.”

Varied services

One of the big reasons business picked up so quickly for the Carrolls was the number of different services they provided.

After Gabe graduated from Creston High School in 2001, he spent one year at Southwestern Community College going through the LPN program and handing out water to the basketball team at games. From there, he went to Carlson College of Massage Therapy in Anamosa from 2002 to 2003. After graduating from Carlson College of Massage Therapy, Gabe went to Kirkwood from 2003 to 2005, taking his prerequisites for the pharmacy program. After he completed most of that program, he decided he wanted to go into chiropractics.

Since he had a background in massage already, Gabe renewed his massage license after hearing from residents there was a need for another massage therapist in town.

In the second year of the business, Linda became certified to do acupuncture.

“I think there’s one other chiropractor in Tingley and one in Corning that do acupuncture,” Gabe said. “We’re the only one in Creston that does.”

Having those services available gives Gabe and Linda more tools at the ready to treat their patients.

“Depending on what the customer comes in for, I think it gives us more tools to address things with,” Gabe said. “Sometimes people know they need something, but they don’t know exactly what it is they need. Being able to offer those different services and tell them which one is better suited to what they need is nice.”

Those added tools, along with having two doctors in the office and additional massage therapists, creates more available times for patients to receive treatment, as well.

Staying involved

Since returning home, Gabe has volunteered his time to several different organizations and groups in Creston.

Right away, Gabe joined Rotary Club and the Elks Lodge. He also spent time with the High Lakes Young Professional group.

“He’s one of those people that sometimes you wonder how he fits it all in,” said Chris Doster, owner of CrossFit TYL, who has known Gabe for about three years. “He just seems to really care about his community. He was coming to my gym in Mount Ayr. I had this thought in my mind of opening a gym in Creston. It was a scary proposition for me to make that jump and he really did a good job of convincing me that he would help make sure it would go. Even in that situation, I just remember some of the conversations, he was really pumping up what Creston had going. He’s just really community minded. Creston’s dang lucky to have him.”

He recently completed his sixth year on the Southern Prairie YMCA board. He’s also joined the Elks Clowns and is a member of the Creston City Council.

“I guess it was just something that I had always seen from other people,” Gabe said. “My dad has been in Elks forever and been a clown forever. He was on city council for awhile and my grandma was on city council. I guess I just assumed that’s what you do when you’re part of a community – you start getting involved and help people out with things.”

Getting involved with one organization quickly leads to involvement with another, as once people see you’ve become involved, they want you to become involved in their group, Gabe said.

“I enjoy it. It’s fun to get out and do new things and talk to people you wouldn’t get to see on a normal basis,” he said. “There’s a vast wealth of knowledge from people that know things from different walks of life that you would never encounter. You don’t get to know those people unless you get out and do stuff. It’s been a tremendous learning experience.”

At 34 years old, Gabe is the youngest member of the Creston City Council. But, he said, that was one of the reasons he considered becoming involved with city council.

Many of the volunteer organizations or boards around the community feature a huge age gap. Younger people will eventually be needed to fill spots on those boards and organizations.

“Then who do you look to to solve problems or get that knowledge that’s been built up over the years by being involved in stuff?” Gabe said. “I definitely have learned more from being on the council than I have contributed. It’s such a broad scope of subject matter that I don’t have experience in. I find it all interesting, which is probably helpful.”

Gabe and Linda, 33, are both actively involved at the CrossFit TYL gym in Creston. Gabe also helps at Corning Gymnastics, where his 8-year-old son, Nathan, takes classes.

Together, Gabe and Linda also have 4-year-old twin daughters, Opal and Ruby.

Between work, meetings for various organizations and his family, Gabe doesn’t have much time left to enjoy hobbies.

He used to brew beer, but doesn’t have four or five hours a day to dedicate to it anymore.

“I guess I spend most of my free time playing basketball once or twice a week,” Gabe said. “There are things I’d like to do, but there’s only so many hours in a day and some of those hours you have to see your family while they’re awake.”

CrossFit

He and Linda typically take a two-hour lunch break from work because they’ve found it’s the only time they can consistently get to the gym to work out and still get work done at the office.

Doster has seen Gabe’s personality come out at his gym, CrossFit TYL.

Doster described Gabe as generous, nice, athletic, talented and intelligent and related a story about Gabe being encouraging of others.

“Terry Freeman at Creston Automotive had been debating joining CrossFit forever,” Doster said. “He really wanted to, but could never get himself into the gym. Gabe bought him a month membership. He bought a gift certificate from me for Terry for a month of CrossFit. He didn’t give Terry any excuses anymore and it’s been great for Terry. That just, I think, symbolizes the person Gabe is. He saw an opportunity to help another human being and he took it.”

Freeman, who had recently started on Creston City Council with Gabe, said he knew who Gabe was prior him buying the month pass for Freeman. But, he didn’t know him closely.

“So when we talked about (CrossFit) at council and the next day he came in, it was quite a surprise,” Freeman said. “I think he’s an exceptional guy. I mean, who does that? I just thought it was a really cool deal. It made me want to do it, so I did it for another guy and paid it forward.”

Freeman has continued attending crossfit beyond that free month pass and has committed himself to it thanks to the push from Gabe.

“As weird as it is for me to say this, I actually look forward to my Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings because I can’t wait to get to the gym,” Freeman said. “It’s great doing things I didn’t think I could do. And, actually, I’m doing things now that I couldn’t do six weeks ago. It’s pretty cool how much it’s impacted me.”