On a warm spring morning, Justema opens up the blinds, letting the sunshine through the windows. She sits down to drink a nice hot coffee at her desk, looking down at her phone to see her family on her lock screen. She smiles as she scrolls past a photo of her two kids, Harper and Barrett, their faces bringing so much joy to the start of the day. The kind, independent and loving teacher at Summit not only loves teaching students, but has a lot of love for her family and the community. 

Justema is a mom of two kids, Harper and Barrett, who she is inspired by every day. Justema makes trips to New York to visit Harper at Columbia to watch her play volleyball. 

Outside of her love for her family,  Justema has a love for volleyball as well. Justema’s love for the sport has found its way into her most recent passion project, her new restaurant, Justys.

Justema had the idea to build a sand volleyball court at her new restaurant as there is a huge shortage of sand volleyball courts on the westside of Bend. Not only do competitive volleyball players have a space to play, there’s also a space for people who just love playing for fun. This makes Justys a welcoming environment for everyone. 

“We thought come one, come all and now we’re getting phone calls everyday saying that I want to book 4 hours every day in the summer, so now we’re like oh crap we didn’t anticipate that, we didn’t realize how hard core the volleyball community is in Bend,” Justema said. 

Justema was inspired by John Dos, which was in Bend about twenty years ago. It was a pizza place because it was an entertaining, fun, hangout spot for the customers because they had a sand court. 

“I want the customers to hang, have fun, and relax,” Justema said.

Justys Restaurant will be opening at the end of March, and Justema is excited to see the final result of the masterpiece she and her husband have created.