Reba Coulter named District 4 Woman of the Year by Board of Supervisors

Reba Coulter got a nice surprise when she found out she had been named Riverside County 4th District Woman of the Year. “I didn’t know such a thing existed, I was totally shocked.” Coulter explains that each of the five supervisors nominated a candidate, and she was Supervisor V. Manuel Perez’s choice. The awards are part of the county’s commemoration of International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month.

Perez’ press release commended Coulter’s service to many local groups: Forest Folk, the Mile High Radio Club, the Art Alliance of Idyllwild, Idy Elders and Others, the Idyllwild Garden Club, and the Friends of the San Jacinto Mountain County Parks, as well as past service to the American Legion. She notes one group that was left off the list: she is also a member of the Associates of the Idyllwild Arts Foundation.

Above all, the award highlighted Coulter’s work in bringing a shuttle service to Idyllwild. This significant accomplishment was done with the other members of Forest Folk, a nonprofit she was instrumental in founding. The story of the shuttle has been recounted many times: Forest Folk was incorporated in 2011 with the goal of opening a Senior Center but shifted its focus to transportation when a small bus became available. “There was absolutely nothing up here. The older you get, the more likely it is you will need a medical specialist. If you have to pay someone for transport, it’s prohibitive.” The group now has two vans and expects to take delivery of a new van this year, a 2025 Ford Transit with “all the bells and whistles, and a wheelchair lift.”

Coulter has developed skills as a grant writer. The grant that allowed the operation of the first shuttle required 34% matching funds. “We had nothing, we were just a bunch of old ladies. I thought ‘Wait a minute we own that van, it has fair-market rental value’. I did research and found out that would cover the match. The County had not done this before, but they accepted it, that’s how we got the shuttle service started.” The grant runs in three-year cycles, and Forest Folk is now on their fourth cycle. “The current grant, I can’t use the fair market value, we have to come up with volunteer hours.”

The drivers have always been paid, creating a local part-time position. The shuttle is free for riders and keeps a weekly schedule: Mondays it goes to the desert cities, Wednesday Hemet, Tuesdays and Thursday are for local trips. To be included in the off-the-hill excursions, riders must make a reservation the day before. Forest Folk also offers the shuttle for special events for a fee, things like weddings and the Art and Wine Walk.

Coulter is originally from West Virginia, and came from a family with 13 schoolteachers, including her mother, and briefly during the Depression, her father. “If I had stayed there, I would have been a teacher as well,” she said.

Before coming to Idyllwild Coulter lived in Orange County. When her children started school, she took a job with the postal service, but after 6 years her back gave out. “You had to be able to lift 80 pounds in those days. I could have been sitting and collecting disability, but I thought ‘As long as I can think, I can work.’ I went back to college, got an MBA.” She spent over 10 years in private industry, then worked in local governments, Westminster and Costa Mesa, always in finance and accounting.

`Coulter has lived on the mountain full time for 22 years. She found Idyllwild when looking for a get-away from the noise and traffic of Orange County. “I grew up roaming the hills of West Virginia, swimming the rivers.” She first thought of Big Bear, but a friend suggested Idyllwild. “I came up in the fall of ’88, looking for a mountain cabin. The minute I rounded that curve and came into town I thought ‘This is where I want to retire.’ Before I left that very day I had put a deposit down.” For the next 14 years she kept a condo in OC and came up here for weekends and holidays.

When she finally moved up here full time, she worked the first 11 years at the County’s Resource Center on Franklin Drive. “I knew I wasn’t going to feel at home if I didn’t get involved in the community, I had no family here, only a few speaking acquaintances. I joined one nonprofit after another.”

Coulter, now 84, is still involved in “too many things,” but her mind is on the shuttle and Forest Folk. Right now, the only place she can find to park it is in front of her own home. “I’d like to find a place downtown.” And there is the future: “I want to put something in place to guarantee that this shuttle stays on the mountain and stays in operation. That shuttle is needed up here. There are days when there are few riders, but when people need it, it’s there. We pay our taxes, we deserve a shuttle service. That is on my mind more than anything. Nonprofits come and go; I want to make sure this keeps going. Forest Folk is so small; we need some younger people that will step up and keep it going.” Forest Folk, like many organizations, saw a decline in participation during the pandemic. “We used to have potluck movie nights.”

To learn more about Forest Folk, volunteer, donate, or sign up for shuttle service, visit the website forestfolk.org, or call (951) 426-9688.