By By JOHN EBY / Dowagiac Daily News
It's like a riddle. What do you get if you cross Art Guild's former Rose Gallery with Underground Computers sales and repairs?
Rose's Garden of Hope (782-9819), a crisis intervention program Loren Baker is developing with classmate Angie (Murray) Brown.
Baker, who studied photography at Van Buren Skills Center, was associated with the Institute for International Cooperation and Development (IICD) for two years.
Loren said in launching this program from Dowagiac Art Guild's former Rose Gallery, named for one of its founders, she and Angie consciously kept Rose Potter's name.
Baker began Underground Computers working out of her home. She fixed machines for the former Advance Computers on M-51 South. "This was not part of my plan, whatsoever," but customers who continued to contact her convinced Loren otherwise.
Saturday nights Underground Computer offers gaming. She rents game computers for $10 from 6 p.m. to midnight, which includes pop and pizza.
For Baker, 33, who lived in Kalamazoo for "eight or nine" years, the name Underground Computers connotes "starting out from nothing."
She studied psychology for 3 1/2 years, "but ended up not wanting to do that. I floundered around through all kinds of things. I delivered snacks, worked in a rehab center. I did things I couldn't stand, like selling health and life insurance door to door. I did all kinds of things, trying to find some way to make a living and still like what I did. Growing up in Dowagiac, there's not been anything for kids to do here besides get in trouble. Angie's got three kids and we're looking at 12-year-olds going on 18. I can do so much with this business."
Brown would like to see Dowagiac take more advantage of its diversity.