Lee Stiffler-Meyer of Let the Light in Studio
This morning we wanted to spotlight one of our local Edgewater businesses, Let the Light in Studio, which was started by Edgewater resident Lee Stiffler-Meyer.
“The Edgewater community has been an incredible place to call home,” says 21-year resident Lee Stiffler-Meyer. “We bought our little house on Benton St. thinking we’d move to a bigger house to start a family at some point, but the charm of this town drew us in and kept us here. In 2005 we put an addition on our house, which turned out to be wise, because we thought we’d have one or two kids, but we ended up with three – my second pregnancy was fraternal twins. Our house was originally about 900 square feet, so we added on to make it about 1900 square feet. My husband joined the volunteer fire department in 2000 and served until it merged with Wheat Ridge in 2012. In 2007, I also volunteered in the city leading efforts to create the Orum House community garden with other residents like Jeanette Papp, Gina Hartley and Myra Keeble.
“My first career was in public health education and health communications, so I gravitated towards issues that affected community health in Edgewater. After the city became designated as a HEAL (Healthy Eating Active Living) community by LiveWell Colorado, I organized a few other volunteers to start a walking campaign called Edgewater Walks and a Healthy Edgewater citizens committee. We started these weekly walks during the month of September and it was a great way to get citizens physically active on the streets of Edgewater and to get to hear people’s stories.”
In 2017, Lee left her career in public health and took her photography hobby full time. She started Let the Light in Studio and started taking portraits for clients including families, individuals and organizations.
Longtime Edgewater resident and community advocate Pauline York (Photo by Let the Light in Studio’s Lee Stiffler-Meyer)
“For a lot of years, I’ve wanted to do a photo essay project on stories of people who live here,” she says. “But finding the time has always been my obstacle. Starting a business and raising children has kept my plate full, so passion projects have been on the back burner. But this year, especially after the pandemic started, I had this realization that a lot of the people I wanted to document might not be around much longer, so I vowed to get this project off the ground.” Lee is documenting faces and places of Edgewater on her Instagram – @letthelightinstudio. She is photographing and interviewing longtime residents like Pauline York as well as newer business owners including Peter Griffin from Griffin Coffee. “I truly love this city – the location, the people, the city staff and volunteers. It has shaped my life in so many tremendous ways.”
Lee Stiffler-Meyer
Letthelightinstudio.com
IG and FB: @letthelightinstudio
Joel has been a resident of Edgewater, Colorado with his family since 2012. He is the Executive Director of local education nonprofit Edgewater Collective and Editor of the Edgewater Echo.
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