What an amazing week I’ve had! I’m so incredibly thankful I spent a few days with my family. I won’t say it was “downtime,” since it felt like a race all weekend. But it was family time with a bunch of them. Everyone scattered after the weekend, but my mom is coming back this coming weekend and I can’t wait to enjoy some downtime with her. And the Farmer’s Market. And live music. And for that, I have so much gratitude.
Now, this week I want to talk a little about community support. I want to ask everyone I know to reach out to someone they think is struggling. I want you to share a kind word, a quick text, a phone call, a Facebook message. I want you to think of a positive way you can impact a life that may slip through the cracks if some kind of support is not given. This year I’ve seen so much loss. And seen so many people struggle. I know I can’t reach everyone, even in my little circle, but what if we all simply reached out to one person? What if we made a point of making a connection?
This week, I also want to ask for prayers for a family I know struggling with a child who is ill. While we all wait for answers from the many members of their care team, I am collecting gift cards for the family. Gift cards can be for GrubHub or any restaurant in Nederland or north Gilpin. The family currently lives in Gilpin and works in Nederland. They’re spending a lot of time going back and forth to Children’s Hospital. Gas cards are also helpful. If you want to help, reach out to me directly at 303-881-0365 by text or call. Here is the Go Fund Me https://gofund.me/1d9da317
Another thing I want to talk about is community involvement in local government. This week, you’ll see a list of boards that have open positions in Nederland. Every few months we run notices like this for other local government entities. I want to encourage you, our readers, to get involved. Join a board, attend meetings, or run for office. There is a lot of turmoil right now on many boards (across all local governments). Are you keeping up with it? Can’t join a board? Read your local newspaper to stay informed!
Last, I want to say a HUGE thank you to a lot of amazing people this week. Thank you to all of our journalists and photographers for beautiful stories. This includes Brian Alers, James DeWalt, Dave Gibson, Curt Halsted, Wes Isenhart, Alexander Joseph, Jamie Lammers, Patrice LeBlanc, John MacKay, Emma Quarterman, Anne Scarffe and John Scarffe. As well as our volunteers, Karen Anderson, Doug Armitage, Denise Boehler, Richard Brandon, Mark Cohen, Lorena DeSanta, Rick Rudstrom, Amy Skinner, and Frank Sanders.
Extra thanks to Christopher Kelley and Mindy Leary for once again turning in great government articles from late Tuesday meetings. As well as regular articles during the week….all build into this newspaper. Thank you to Omayra Acevedo and Sara Sandstrom, the first and last people who look at the paper each week from when we start until we hit send. Sara is also my biggest support when I need to bounce ideas off someone who will help me sort them out logically. Omayra also helps keep me, and the whole paper, organized with administrative work, and contributes several stories each month. Special thanks to Lynn Hirshman for extra help and for staying up with me until 1 a.m. today. It’s been a long one and I appreciate all you do.
Thank you to our designer Joyce Robinson for the great layout and ads. Every week the paper looks more amazing. This coming week we will present the new Visitor’s Guide, a beautiful publication geared toward helping people figure out where to shop, hike, eat, sip, and visit along the Peak to Peak. The Visitor’s Guide is the creative work of Cynthia Davis, who has been at the paper since June 2006.
And more accolades to Cynthia Davis, for her work on the podcast for so many years, and to Jamie Lammers for his podcast and music contributions each week.
Thanks to Tanya Unger for working hard on the website, archive, and all the other awesome work she does with our programs and office support. And for taking on circulation last week while Britt was out.
Thanks to Tim Dillon for working circulation and delivery as well! He picked up where another left off and has done a phenomenal job.
And Terri Vernon, our bookkeeper, for keeping it all straight for us. And Bethany Haas for selling our ads and working with our customers on marketing plans. As well as Brittney Wagner, for working the front desk, organizing our police reports, managing circulation in the office, and more!
Thanks to our high school interns Eli Crawford, Annika Marschke, and Cameron Thomason. BIG congratulations to our interns Hayden Hardt-Zeman, Polina Savich, and Anna Thomason, our high school graduates. And Jane Thompson and Jessica Boehner, our CU graduates. And Jamie Lammers, also a CU graduate who has been working at the paper since high school, in April of 2019.
This paper wouldn’t be here for you all to read, without the incredible people who make it happen every week.
Thank you to our advertisers and subscribers. We do this for you. Literally. If you’re not an advertiser or subscriber, ask us how to change that. That’s over 5,000 weekly newspaper readers and even more online. Our guides reach over 75,000 readers combined. That’s right. We reach more people in the Peak to Peak region...every single week...and year...than any other print publication in the region. Hands down.
The Mountain-Ear is YOUR community source for news, covering what you want to read, and what you need to know, since 1977. Reach us anytime by phone at 303-810-5409 or email at info@themountainear.com. For advertising call 720-960-2900 or email marketing@themountainear.com.
