Editor’s Note: Wild’s Coffee has been changed to the correct name of Wild Coffee Roasters, the summer hours have been corrected from starting at 7 a.m. to 6 a.m., and Kearns didn’t purchase the space next door to expand, she is renting.

Misty Kearns is celebrating 10 years since she opened her first coffee shop in Silt, nestled in the small downtown just off Highway 6 and Interstate 70. A lot has changed since then — including the name.

“It seems like I just opened up yesterday, but also 20 years ago,” Kearns said. “It’s exciting and exhausting.”

Formerly Misty’s Coffee, the shop is now called Wild Coffee Roasters. The Silt location recently expanded after Kearns rented the space next door, tore down a wall and added a coffee roaster.

“I’ve always wanted to add the roaster to the shop,” she said. “We were looking for a bigger space forever, but downtown is a great location. When the people next to us moved, we bought the space and expanded.”

Kearns also opened a second location in Glenwood Springs, where Riverblend Coffee used to operate next to the Hotel Maxwell Anderson, formerly the Hotel Denver.

“It was owned by a guy in Florida, and he’d been wanting to sell it to us for years,” she said. “We kept saying no and he kept asking, so we finally did it and it’s been crazy.”

The Glenwood Springs shop sees significantly more business due to tourism, while the Silt location depends on locals.

“We survive on the locals in Silt,” Kearns said. “It’s 80/20 tourists to locals in Glenwood Springs, but we have the opposite in Silt.”

Kearns grew up in Silt and said the town’s tight-knit community means a lot to her.

“My grandma has a ranch south of Silt and growing up there was the best,” she said. “Eventually, I was a teenager, wishing there was something to do and I thought we deserved better than to hang out at a gas station parking lot.”

Before opening her shop, Kearns worked at a florist across the street from where her café now stands.

“My friend said that I should open a coffee shop while I was working at the florist,” she said. “I didn’t then, but the idea took hold.”

She later lived in Uganda for about a year, helping women generate income by teaching them how to make paper, which later evolved into journal making. When she returned home, she started her business at age 24.

For the past decade, Kearns has served up coffee with the help of what she calls an incredible staff — all of whom embody four core values she developed for her business.

“People first,” she said. “You need to recognize another human in front of you and serve them. Then, joy building.”

She said neuroscience has taught her that people’s joy centers activate when they’re with someone who’s happy to be with them.

“We want them to know that we’re happy to be there with them,” she said. “The third thing is doing things with excellence.”

Employees are expected to care deeply about their work — and have fun doing it.

“Work should be fun,” Kearns said.

Now working with partners — including her father — she said combining the roaster with the shop has taken teamwork to a new level.

“It’s really nice working with a team,” she said. “I love it.”

Kearns credits her coffee obsession to childhood mornings.

“Starting from when I was three years old, I would ask my parents when their coffee had cooled so I could have some,” she said. “They refused to drink it once it cooled, and I was looking forward to drinking that sweet mixture of coffee and creamer.”

Today, her father works with her in the coffee shop. She’s also updating the hours at the Silt location to meet more people’s coffee needs.

“We’re opening the Silt location on Saturdays now,” she said. “I like to take the Sabbath off, from Friday sundown to Saturday sundown, and as long as I don’t have to work on Saturdays, then it’s fine.”

The Silt shop is now open Saturdays from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. during winter hours. All locations will shift to summer hours — 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. — beginning May 1.

To celebrate 10 years in business, Wild Coffee Roasters is hosting an event Friday at its Silt location.

“We’re going to have a raffle and a little spinning wheel to win prizes,” Kearns said. “It’s going to be a lot of fun.”

The celebration runs from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 704 Main St., and will include a public coffee cupping, a cake cutting at noon and a roasting demonstration at 1 p.m.