JACKSON HOLE, WYO – Shelley Simonton is gone, and nothing about cancer is fair.
Simonton, however, didn’t let the melanoma take anything from her. When she knew was terminal and every effort to eradicate the cancer was exhausted, she exercised the power to choose. Shelley chose life. And went out blazing.
After a GoFundMe campaign started by friend Sara Flitner raised more than $70k, Shelley took the trip of a lifetime—a whale-watching adventure to the west coast—with her husband Matt Bowers to see firsthand the grand scale and grace of the planet’s largest mammal.
Shelley was awed and humbled by the experience as much as she was moved by the outpouring of a community that genuinely rushed to her “bedside” when they heard the news.
Shelley served as executive director of Wyoming Association of Municipalities where she made measurable impact helping push through legislation. She also worked with the Jackson Hole Energy Sustainability Project, and was chosen to be the new president and CEO of the Jackson Hole Chamber of Commerce just months before she learned she could never step into that role.
The Wyoming Women’s Legislative Caucus earlier this month a scholarship program for shooting stars like Simonton. The Shelley Simonton Leap into Leadership scholarship will be awarded annually to two women to attend the Leap into Leadership program in Cheyenne.
Shelley died Friday at the age of 49.
