Bethany Hway is a graphic designer and owns Grayscale Business and Brand Building, a strategy-focused design and marketing company.

She started the Ely Strong project as a way to celebrate the strength and resiliency of Ely and to benefit the community by donating proceeds from this project to Ely Community Resource.

Raised in northern Minnesota by parents who instilled in her a deep love of the wilderness and a healthy appetite for adventure, Bethany’s early years were spent as a resort kid on the border of Voyageurs National Park. After moving to Ely, her parents became outfitters and Bethany learned to pack trips and paddle canoes in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Winters were spent raising and racing sled dogs and guiding dogsled tours.

Bethany and her husband Zack met in Ely as kids, were high school sweethearts, and married after college. After twenty years in the Twin Cities, it was time to come back home. They moved their kids up north to Ely in 2022 to raise them in the woods and be closer to family. Together they enjoy skiing, backpacking, hiking, mountain biking, camping, and afternoons on the lake.