Settling in New Paltz
Craig still keeps ties to Long Island and the city, but a few years after founding PDQ he and his now-wife Deb got an offer on a beautiful Modernist house on Huguenot Street.
It was owned by a husband and wife — a Broadway show tune writer and a professional dancer. They’d become friends with Craig and Deb through being regulars at the print shop.
Shankles remembers loving hanging out with them, despite their being much older. He loved hearing stories the seniors told him — fascinating tales of days gone by. “They had great stories,” he said. “They had some really sad stories and wonderful stories.”
Both the husband and wife wanted to retire to Englewood, NJ to the Lilian Booth Actors Home. Before they retired and sold off their investments, the couple wanted someone worthy to get the house.
Craig said they made him and his wife an offer so generous, he assumed they were drunk. He went back to double-check it the next day.
But the Shankles ended up buying that house. Like with PDQ, they’ve stayed and stayed.
Part of that has to do with the support Craig Shankles sees in the community. When people see their neighbors going hungry, organizations like Family of New Paltz help. People band together.
“That’s why I love New Paltz. That’s why I stay here,” he said.
Selling PDQ
After 35 years, Shankles decided he wanted to sell PDQ. He and Deb don’t have kids, so it couldn’t become a family business inherited by a son or daughter.
So he turned to Peter Bowers and Miranda Bowers — a husband-and-wife team of two long-serving employees.
Peter said that he and Craig clicked immediately when he started working there almost ten years ago. They still have a good relationship.
“He was thinking about retiring,” Bowers said, “and you know what, I could see myself buying the place.”
So in February, the Bowers took over New Paltz’s iconic print shop. They knew enough not to change that beloved brand name. But Peter did point out they’d redesigned the interior of the print shop and modernized the logo.
Given the philanthropic work PDQ had done under Shankles’ leadership, people in the community were a little nervous that would end. Bowers said not a chance. They recently donated printing services for the Bon-Odori Dance Festival.
“People know that the same ideals that Craig had, I have,” he said. For PDQ, philanthropy is more than just about being nice or good public relations — it is about surviving as a small business and helping other businesses, too. “You really have to give back.”
Shankles said that leading PDQ is demanding. “It is an 80 hour a week job,” he said.
After print
Besides starting BestofYourTown.com, Shankles also regularly takes care of his mother-in-law — a cancer survivor — heading down to Long Island to take her to medical appointments. Seeing her fight against a fatal disease — along with the death of an old college classmate — put things into perspective for him.
“That opens your eyes — life is borrowed time,” said Shankles, turning somber before launching into a joke. “If I knew retirement was going to be so much work, I would have kept working.”
His sculpture, charity work and other hobbies are his big focus. But he’s also a member of the New Paltz Community Foundation — which is currently raising money to help Family of New Paltz completely renovate their building.
“It’s not in my DNA to stay idle,” he said.
He wants to start an organization called “Local at Heart,” which would raise money to fight hunger — earmarking it for existing food pantries, like Family, or government anti-hunger programs.
Of course, BestofYourTown.com is a big job, too. It involves interfacing with local businesses to pitch them on the vision of a strong, unified New Paltz business community.
The marketing firm’s first big project was the map. Illustrated by Mathew Maley, designed by Katie Miller and featuring involvement from Linda Engler, of Ad Essentials, the map is a visual guide what is available in New Paltz.
Shankles noted that many communities have shopping district maps, but they researched what worked and what didn’t. Maley also stuffed the map with inside jokes — putting in the Women in Black protestors and skydivers from The Ranch. It bleeds hometown pride in subtle ways — a way that most locals will get immediately. They printed 15,000 maps initially — all of them are gone.
“It’s fun. It’s attractive. It’s easy to read,” he said. “I sold that map out in two weeks.”
Shankles added: “The business community really supported that project.”
While the 2014 map is print-only, eventually it could become an interactive app or website — guiding locals and out-of-towners to shops downtown.
He thinks the map will have people “armed and ready to shop.”
To learn more about Shankles new marketing firm, head to https://www.bestofyourtown.com/. To check out what’s going on a PDQ, head to https://www.pdqbiz.net/.
