CONTRIBUTED PHOTO - State Center entrepreneur Afton Stout, left, speaks before members Congress at the U.S. Capitol last week.

STATE CENTER – About 875 miles separate State Center and Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., but one local entrepreneur brought her voice to national lawmakers last week.

“It was a good hearing, it was kind of a celebratory hearing,” said entrepreneur and business owner Afton Stout of State Center. “The main thing that kind of affects our area is connectivity and making sure everybody has access to internet and fairly priced internet.”

Stout said she creates hand-made flowers for several types of events like weddings, for example. She said she used to make the flowers out of fabric but now has moved to making them out of thinly-cut wood, which can be dyed different colors.

“I do some small decor items and stuff when I get the chance,” Stout said.

She was invited to testify before the U.S. House of Representatives Small Business Committee by U.S. Rep. Abby Finkenauer. Finkenauer chairs the committee’s Rural Development, Agriculture, Trade and Entrepreneurship subcommittee.

“The committee was based on flipping the switch on rural digital entrepreneurship,” Finkenauer said of the testimony last week. “The whole point of it was to make sure that we had folks in who were, essentially, rural entrepreneurs and relied on broadband technology and having access to the internet to successfully maintain their business but also grow their business.”

Stout said high-quality internet access is still a challenge for her business in rural Iowa.

“We have just a couple of options here,” she said.

Much of her selling takes place on Etsy, a website where hand-made goods can be bought and sold. That’s just one reason strong, reliable, high-speed internet is valuable to Stout.

“Afton is actually someone who uses Etsy and through Etsy we were able to find Afton and ask her if she’d be willing to come and share her story in front of the full committee,” Finkenauer said.

She said it is good for committee members to hear Midwestern entrepreneurs. Finkenauer said it helps the committee figure out what steps it can take to support such entrepreneurs.

Stout said she also brought up issues like health care and keeping small-town post offices open.

A roundtable-style program in Iowa is in planning, Finkenauer said, and it will highlight people like Stout and other entrepreneurs in her district.

“We’ll be figuring that out in the months to come,” Finkenauer said.

She said she was happy to invite Stout to speak before the committee.

“It’s been a very long time since we’ve heard folks from the Heartland and their voices being lifted up here in Washington,” Finkenauer said.

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Contact Adam Sodders at

(641) 753-6611 or

asodders@timesrepublican.com