The owners of the Amaris Inn have a desire to give back to their new community. They see a need for more events for youth. Laura Viall of the Amaris Inn said that they have been brainstorming ideas. “Kids need to get out. What we’re trying to figure out is how we can do low-cost, affordable stuff, to get them out socializing with others.” Viall said.
She thought that events could alternate between those for older kids or teens and those for younger kids. Events would happen maybe a couple of times per month. The motel’s space could be utilized for such events. Viall said “Because we built the indoor space and it’s not always busy, we would really love to try to give back to the community and have some fun stuff for the kids to do.” She understood the need. “We’ve only been here 4 or 5 months, but I have 5 children myself. They’re all grown now, but I know how, living in a rural area, it’s always hard with kids. It’s like ‘What do the kids do?’”
Ideas for things to do year-round were being circulated. One idea brought up was a pop-up movie theater. Perhaps a scary movie night could be set up for older youth in time for Halloween. “We’re trying to come up with some fun things for Christmastime to coordinate with the city, because I know that they have a Christmas and a Halloween theme. We’re trying to put that together kind of quickly, and hopefully we can do that.” she said.
She envisioned kids being able to ride their bikes to events. She didn’t see a need for security, but said that they would let the sheriff’s office know when they’d be having these events. Some other ideas included bouncy houses for the younger kids, and music for the older kids.
Viall said that they were also thinking of uses for their back area. They’ve been working to get the electricity set up on the old camping sites. Why not utilize this space in the off-season? One idea was to make a mountain of snow and have a spot for sledding.
“We have all that extra space, and I just think it’s a waste if we’re not doing something with it. I would love to try to do something for the community, to get people out there having fun. I mean, that’s the whole point.” She said.
Viall saw this as part of a bigger picture. “If we can give kids things to do locally, it keeps the tax dollars here for the city. We have to pay into all of that, and that’s what keeps the city going. That keeps things alive. We want people to be here and say ‘Oh, we’ve got this. We have things going on.’ And that’s what we’re really looking for.”

Viall said that faith, family, and community are important. “We always want to focus on family first, and community. We’re religious, so God, family, business.” She said that she loved being able to include her kids in family businesses. A couple of them have a part in the inn. She said that a couple of others would be joining the family in the area at some point.
They raised their kids in California, in the high desert, where they had some room to run. Though it was a suburban area, Viall described it as “very rural.” She said “We wish we could have raised our kids where we are at right now, because this would’ve been an awesome place to raise our 5 children.” She described them as “They’re very family-oriented, and small-town oriented. They love being around friends, being around family, and growing business.”
She talked a little about one son and his young family, who were busy with travel. “At the end of the day, they want what we have, which is a nice piece of property, a quiet town, great people, good churches, and things like that – real family values.” She said that they wanted to help sustain those things for Redfield. “We’re so happy. We feel so blessed. I think that’s really what we’re trying to do, is just give back, because I think we’ve been so blessed.” She said that events might involve small fees, just to cover costs. “It’s really just to give back to the community and make sure that the kids have things to do, and they like living here. And they’re excited about what’s going on. That’s important.”
She said that they want to support local school and civic organizations as they are able to. She credited her “great” assistant, who was born and raised in the area, with giving her “a ton of insight.”
She said that business had been going well. “We are getting noticed. We’re touching bases with the construction community, which is really exciting. We’ve started to get a lot of people staying with us.” They understood that things could take time. She added “It’s a slow-going process. We’re a mom-and-pop kind of a shop. We can’t compete with the corporations that have tons of advertising dollars. We are trying to do it through organic traffic, like word of mouth.” She said that she’d had good feedback from patrons. “The hardest part is, they seem to love it, but I need to get them talking.” she said.
Viall expressed awe at how long the Wilson Motor Inn (now the Amaris Inn) had been a staple in Redfield. “I love the fact that the Wilson Motor Inn has been around for over 50 years.” she said. She added “I’ve been talking to people who tell me ‘I’ve been coming there for 30 years.’” She said that they’re almost completely booked for the hunting opener.
When asked if the inn still had the old light fixtures with the long chains, Viall said “Some of them were damaged, and we looked long and hard on the internet trying to find similar items. The challenge with buying an older motel is if we try to bring it to today’s standards, we would have to close it for months and months. It would cost thousands of dollars.”
She said that there had been urgency to get it going. “We were approached by several people just saying ‘Please get it open.’” She said that they’d had hunters, bikers, construction workers, contractors, and others staying with them. “Our first priority was just to get it re-opened, get it super clean, and just fix the things that needed to be fixed. And then as we go on, we will start doing some updates to it.” she said.
They didn’t plan to completely overhaul the motel. “We embrace the retro style. I mean, that’s totally hip, the 60s.” she said. Some basic improvements were appreciated, however. Viall said “Some of the things we did right off the bat, which people have loved, is just doing in-room coffee and refrigerators, because again, we have a lot of people here for construction and what not.” Another thing was very important to her. She said “Our biggest thing is being super clean. I’m a little anal-retentive about cleanliness. That’s our biggest thing, is to give them good, clean, reasonably-priced rooms.”
She was conscious of how things could affect a community. “Let’s keep the business here in Redfield. Let’s not have them going out to Aberdeen or Watertown.” She also said “Yes, we’re more community-based, and we want people to have personal service. We want to be part of the community. That’s how we’ve always built our businesses. It’s just being part of the community, and loving people, loving life, and building business.” She added “Especially here, we love Redfield. I mean, we’ve fallen in love with it since we’ve been here, and we want to be here forever. So we want to ake sure that the community grows and stays alive and keeps people here. Because if they don’t have jobs and reasons to be here, they leave.”
Viall said that growth was important. “That’s the key to keeping businesses alive, not trying to change necessarily everything, just revitalize it. I mean, we’re not trying to change Wilson Motor Inn. We’re trying to make it our own. We’re trying to be part of the community, but, at the same time, we’re also trying to preserve the history and the heritage.”
She said that she got the go-ahead from the city for hosting events for kids. “I was really excited to hear from Adam for the city. He said that he was very excited, and they would support whatever we were looking to do. I was really happy to hear that. That is an awesome attitude for any city. I’ve done business in multiple cities in California and Arizona, and I haven’t come across a city that’s been so welcoming such as Redfield. It’s been really awesome.”
Viall added “We’re happy to be here, and we’re not going anywhere.”