iPreserve’s Oregon franchisees begin their journey
Scott and Renee Huskey of Hillsboro, Oregon, founded their company – Photoloom LLC – four years ago, with a mission to conserve the images of the past for the present, and preserve them for the future. Their online photo-history site – Family Photoloom – was recently awarded Best Media Feature by New FamilySearch for its innovative approach to connecting pictures to genealogy. Now the newest franchise owners in the iPreserve family, Scott and Renee are excited about expanding that vision.
A pioneer in the micro-computer field, Scott began avidly programming his home-built 8080 computer in 1976, and went on to found Huskey Engineering in the early 1980’s. As a sophomore in college, he created the animated strategy computer game “FLIP-OUT,” produced for the Apple II computer in 1983, and soon after created, developed and programmed “Shoot the Moon” – the first retail “True 3-D” full-color computer game for the Atari ST. A 19-year veteran of Intel, Scott is the technical backbone of their team.
Renee, also a U of P graduate, spent the better part of the last two decades working as a freelance writer and raising their five daughters. Currently, in addition to acting as Office Manager for their iPreserve franchise, Renee heads up the “Words & Web” department at Photoloom LLC, where she designs and maintains Photoloom’s website and its associated geneablog, Above the Trees as well as her personal blogs, The White Shield Project, and Sock Monkey.
“In the last few years,” says Renee, “Scott and I have traveled to family history conferences around the country with Family Photoloom, and we’ve talked to hundreds, maybe thousands, of people about their family history pictures. We’ve learned that one of the biggest challenges folks face is getting their photos and documents digitized.”
Scott explains how they became interested in iPreserve. “When I met McKay Murdock [manager of the St. George iPreserve franchise] at the St. George Family History Expo last March, I knew almost instantly that iPreserve was the solution we had been looking for. Within the month, we had made the decision to expand the scope of Photoloom LLC and signed the papers on the first iPreserve franchise in the Pacific Northwest.”
Scott and Renee are passionate about their work with iPreserve. “We’ve always been in the business of preserving memories, and now we have a practical way to address that process from start to finish. We knew going into this venture that it would be rewarding, and though our iPreserve franchise has only been up and running for a short while, it’s already clear that even we underestimated both the need and the rewards of such a service.”
Renee concludes, “These memories – these photos and slides and movies from bygone years – people want to see them again. They want to remember that warm rush they got when they were kids. Those moments under the Christmas tree…those birthday candles…those spinning cups at Disneyland. They want to share those memories with the people they care about, and save them for future generations. iPreserve allows them to do that – what better thing could we be doing?”