MOUNTAIN PEARL – SPRING 2023

MOUNTAINPEARL

PUBLISHED BY MOUNTAIN PARENT

Bringing buyers and sellers together since 2004, Jordan has a deep understanding of the Aspen real estate market and an ambitious drive for ensuring that a deal makes it to the closing table. He is an energetic, action-oriented professional with a passion for real estate that shines through in his consistent ability to meet the individual needs of each Buyer and Seller he represents. Known for his hard work, sharp negotiation skills, market knowledge and problem solving capabilities, Jordan is exceptionally motivated to help his clients reach their goals while providing exceptional service in every transaction he oversees.

Jordan Nemirow Global Real Estate Advisor | Partner / Principal

720 E Hyman Avenue | Aspen, CO

+1 970.948.7297

jordan.nemriow@evrealestate.com

Spring

MOUNTAINPEARL

SPRING 2023 . ISSUE 29

18 TRAILS & TRAVEL

When RENEE RAMGE and LEWIS COOPER decided to “live life now,” they made it so that they can hit the road in their van and go wherever their curiosity leads them. Such as exploring a nearby ancient wonder, Chaco Culture National Park.

28

PACKING FOR A DIY EX-ED.

Gear up like an outdoor ed teacher – and like an archeology and astrology professor as well. MAILE SPUNG’s review is designed to inspire your family’s next “field trip” and help you explore the Southwestern desert and its nighttime skies.

32 MOTHER’S DAY TRIBUTE

We asked readers for “Unsung Heroes,” and it turns out, every nominee this year is a teacher, school social worker, or administrator. We are honored to introduce you to seven mothers whose careers place them in our community’s classrooms.

45

MP’S ANNUAL

SUMMER CAMP PLANNER

YewFlow rider Finn McDermott catches air at North Face Park in Carbondale. “I work to foster an atmosphere where riders can push their limits mentally and physically in pursuit of their own unique riding style,” said YewFlow coach Andrew Mann. (PHOTO: ANDREW MANN)

AS BEAUTY DOES

JANE MASON

Looking for nourishing body care products without cruelty to animals or excessive plastic waste?

Look no further than your own kitchen. Tooth powder, salves, and deodorant are all simple to make using natural, organic, easy to find ingredients

Published online as a 3-part monthly series.

MOUNTAIN-PEARL.COM

UP NEXT Summer

9 IN SEASON

OUR FOODSHED DIANA ALCANTARA maps out a guide for families wishing to buy fresh produce, meats, flowers, and even mushrooms grown locally.

12

GOOD SPORTS

PICKLEBALL

Contrary to what you may have heard, this sport isn’t just for old people. BEAU TOEPFER of AHS explores why Pickleball appeals to all ages.

14

HELPING HANDS

5POINTS DREAM PROJECT

JACOB SAM , one of six recipients of this year’s 5P Dream Project, will study his ancestral Navajo language. The CRMS junior tells how this project is helping him know his personal and cultural identities.

52 OUT & ABOUT

WHAT’S THE STORY BEHIND THESE VIVID COLORS? Visit a student art show, step inside a snowy classroom, attend a performance, and get a glimpse of recent happenings around the Valley.

55 MAKE PLANS COMMUNITY RECREATION & LIBRARY PROGRAMMING + CALENDAR ITEMS

76 MEET OUR PEOPLE NAMES & FACES + SCHOOL ENROLLMENT

READERS, Dear

The truth is, I don’t read parenting magazines. I’ll never make a color-coded food group chart for our fridge. I’ll never découpage a hamper. I’ll never repurpose a paper plate in 25 clever ways, though I do love lists and repurposing. Raising my children from infancy to adulthood is the hardest and most personal thing I’ll do in my life, and I believe firmly that it’s everyone’s own journey to take. Tidbits of advice, lists of ways I can try harder at being Mama, these columns just PMO. Which is why I don’t reach for the mommy genre on the magazine rack.

I feel like a failure at parenting at least once a day when I’m less than worthy of imitation. I drive too fast. I haven’t swept our hallway in three weeks, so it’s furry around the edges. “It’s deadline week,” I rationalized yesterday when we ran out of toothpaste and I chewed gum to get out the door. I think I’ve taught my kids some good, useful things, and I’ve also taught them almost every swear word. Mind you, I don’t swear at them, just in front of them. But still… “No, he didn’t learn it from his Dad,” I wish I’d been brave enough to tell my son’s pre-K teacher. I should have said, “Yes, it’s my fault. I’m the one with an unfortunate cussin’ habit.”

I couldn’t admit this back then because I was a new parent trying too hard. I blame those damn waiting room articles on 15 ways to teach good manners, and four things to do right away to raise kids who are better at cleaning their rooms. This media landscape, I feel, might be why mother-shaming is so often self-inflicted. The gauntlet of Little Miss Perfect should not be how we measure ourselves.

MOUNTAIN PARENT was never a parenting magazine. When Sarah Shook launched MP almost twenty years ago, I immediately felt a kinship because Sarah’s MO was not “How To.” Her firstborn was a tad older than my toddler, and it seemed we were on a similar path, trying to show up wherever something was happening, so we could find our people. When Lauren Suhrbier took up MP, she had the largest cajones of any woman in town because the publishing industry had declared that independent smalltown print was dying. Lauren told me her plans, and I said yes to writing an article in her first edition because she said something like, “I’ve got a lot to learn, but I’m putting my heart into it,” which pretty much sums up how I parent.

MP exists because parents need friends and advocates. Dropping PARENT from our name welcomes our teachers, coaches, and outside-of-school heroes to join our conversation, regardless of whether or not they’ve procreated. Same with our student authors who seriously do not want to be seen carrying around a parenting magazine.

The name change happened similarly to how John Green describes falling in love in The Fault of Our Stars. “I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once.” Slowly, and then all at once, I became certain that MP’s name needs to reflect what it truly is.

I ski with our dog Zelda on winter evenings after work. One night last year in my first season as MP’s publisher, I stopped and watched the moon rise over Basalt mountain, big and glowing white. “It looks like a pearl,” I said out loud, and MOUNTAIN PEARL nestled into my imagination. Like the moon, we’re always in transition, and so are our children, forever entering a new phase. Like making a pearl, it takes grit to turn worthy challenges into things of beauty.

Our stories, artwork, photos, and people are who we are, what we do, and how we give to our community. None of that’s going away. MP has always been a mother-owned business, forever focused on kids and growing up here, created by imperfect people putting our hearts into it. When I look for parenting advice, I turn to Jane Goodall’s book, My Life with Chimpanzees Practical and metaphorical, Jane shows us we can learn a lot from how chimps discipline, teach survival skills, and lovingly pick nits from the fur of their offspring. When I’m falling down as a parent or taking the laundry too seriously, I think of something Jane wrote. It’s a simple truth and I try to weave it throughout MP’s pages. “One thing I had learned from watching chimpanzees with their infants is that having a child should be fun.”

Kathryn Camp PUBLISHER

ELANA ROYER COVER ARTIST

FOUNDER OF LILYBART AN ASPEN GREETING CARD AND PAPER-ART LINE CREATED TO RAISE AWARENESS OF CYSTIC FIBROSIS.

As Kathryn and I envisioned the Spring cover of MOUNTAIN PEARL, The Velveteen Rabbit came to mind. I love this book and have read it to my children almost every year at Easter. This exquisite allegory gives us a picture of the value of deep, authentic connections, for being loved, and allowing oneself to be loved. It is just as germane for parents as it is for children.

“What is Real?” the stuffed rabbit asks. It’s a question that’s just as relevant today as it was more than 100 years ago when Margery Williams wrote The Velveteen Rabbit, which was published in 1922. A simple, stuffed rabbit lives in a nursery, surrounded by mechanical toys, “full of modern ideas.” The rabbit wishes that he, too, could move like a wind-up toy.

He asks the Skin Horse, the oldest and wisest of the toys, “What is REAL?”

“Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become real.”

“Does it hurt?” asked the Rabbit.

“Sometimes,” said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful.

Margery Williams wrote in the literary magazine The Bookman in 1925, “it is the sadness which is inseparable from life, which has to do with growth and change and impermanence, and with the very essence of beauty.”

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GRATITUDE With

PUBLISHER/EDITOR

Kathryn Camp

ADVERTISING DESIGNER

Mimi Diamond

ART DIRECTION & PRODUCTION

Kathryn Camp

DIANA ALCANTARA GUEST AUTHOR

Diana was born in Denver and raised in the Foothills of Colorado. She has dedicated her life’s work to helping children awaken their potential, not only as scholars, but as engaged members of their community. Since moving to Carbondale in 2008, she has served on the Board of Directors for Carbondale Council of Arts and Humanities (now known as Carbondale Arts) and The Sopris Sun. She created a school garden at the Carbondale Community School, where she has taught for twelve years.

LEWIS COOPER PHOTOGRAPHER

Lewis has a passion for travel, mountain biking, sailing, music, and photography – interests he explores while traveling in a Sprinter van he built out for his VanGoNow project. His portfolio includes landscape, street, performance, portrait, time-lapse, macro, and aerial drone photography. He enjoys taking photos of all things beautiful, which, as it turns out, is everything – as long as it’s in the right light.

SARAH KUHN PHOTOGRAPHER

This edition marks five years since Sarah helped MP initiate our annual Mother’s Day tribute. Of this year’s focus on celebrating teachers, she writes, “I think of my own mother, Missy Prudden, who taught first and second grade and worked as a reading specialist. To this day, former students approach my mom to tell her that by teaching them to read, she changed their lives. I’ll be forever impressed by the impact she’s had, not only on me and my siblings (all huge readers), but also on the dozens of former students whose lives she changed for the better.”

RENEE RAMGE PHOTOGRAPHER

Renee’s candids kept taking our breath away. Her photos from Mountain Fair, First Friday, and everyday life around the Valley are vivid glimpses of people who are often unaware of her attention. In this edition, she shares her story of surviving cancer, deciding to “live life now.” This promise has led her, along with her husband Lewis Cooper, on adventures far and wide. Their recent trip to Chaco Canyon, which she chronicles in our Trails & Travel feature, has already inspired an MP campsite reservation at the UNESCO World Heritage Site.

COVER ARTIST

Elana Royer

COVER DESIGN

Kathryn Camp

MP COLUMNISTS

R yan Camp

Renee Ramge

Jeanne Souldern

Maile Spung

MP PHOTOGRAPHERS

Sarah Kuhn

Renee Ramge

WEB CONTENT MANAGER

Mimi Diamond

AUDIO VISUAL EDITOR

Ryan Camp

ADVISOR

Ken Pletcher

SUCH AS IT IS …

JACOB SAM

GUEST AUTHOR

Jacob is a Junior at Colorado Rocky Mountain School. He grew up on a Navajo reservation in Arizona with his mother, grandparents, and extended family. When he heard elders speaking their native language, he did not understand much of what they said. Now, as a young adult living off the rez, he is learning the Navajo language through a grant awarded by the 5Point Dream Project. Jacob is an editor of The Pearl, a new literary journal at CRMS.

JEANNE SOULDERN MP

Jeanne lives in Carbondale with her orange tabby, Betty. Jeanne loves words, and she enjoys crafting them for MP, the Sopris Sun, and other local publications. When she isn’t on deadline researching, interviewing, and writing articles, she leads The Sun’s student journalism program. Jeanne recently joined Aspen Public Radio’s Community Advisory Committee, and in her free time she loves watching films and reading books.

Maile is a natural at writing MP’s Trails & Travel gear review column. She grew up in Aspen at the Ute Mountaineer. She learned from her own personal guide (her dad Bob), who taught her to ski, climb, bike, hike, and love the mountains. She now stays busy running The Ute and the family’s Neptune Sports store in Boulder. When not at work, Maile and her husband Carson enjoy “product testing” with their two children Tanner and Wade. In this edition, she helps us plan a “DIY Ex-Ed” trip with the kids.

BEAU TOEPFER GUEST AUTHOR

Beau is a Junior at Aspen High School and the news editor for the Skier Scribbler. He has lived in the Valley for almost all of his life and is avidly into the outdoors. He enjoys skiing, mountain biking, and backpacking and is a competitive climber. He is the team captain of the AHS climbing team and co-captain of the Monkey House Carbondale team.

The opinions expressed by contributors to MOUNTAIN PEARL are not necessarily those of the Publisher. Reproduction or use of editorial or graphic content without permission is prohibited. Mountain Parent LLC is registered with the State of Colorado. Mountain Parent and

COLUMNIST

MAILE SPUNG MP COLUMNIST

TO THE PLOW A Hand

DIANA ALCANTARA CARBONDALE COMMUNITY SCHOOL Gardening, Literacy Support, ELL, and Spanish Teacher

In the next few weeks, our brooks, streams, creeks, and ranch ditches will rise with the gift of flowing snow melt from Source. Fields and gardens will awaken. Our community’s farmers and ranchers will start working with the earth and planting seeds for the hay they will feed livestock, as well as for baby greens, baby carrots, fresh cut flowers, and herbs they’ll soon bring to farmers’ markets. It takes a lot of labor, equipment, fuel, seeds, water, and land to get from seed to shopper. How can we help our growers bridge the planting season? How can we shop so our families can enjoy and afford our local bounty? Let me introduce you to Community Supported Agriculture, and to some of your neighbors in our thriving food shed.

Planting season can feel far less risky when growers can find secure working capital for purchasing farm products, seeds, and livestock feed. One practical way for families to make a big difference is by buying a share of the eventual harvest from a specific farm or ranch. This is known as Community Supported Agriculture, or a CSA. The purchase of a CSA share offers practical advantages to farmers even while the soils in their fields slumber. Harper Kaufman, owner of Two Roots Farm, says, “Being a CSA member means much more than a subscription service, however. We see purchasing a share in a sustainable farm as a commitment to help work for a healthier food system, community, and earth. It is a partnership with our farm that allows us to grow with confidence and helps mitigate the inherent risks of farming in our climate.”

What I enjoy the most about purchasing summer shares is the excitement of picking up my CSA box on site, and then peering into the box to see the colorful and vibrant selection of garden greens, vegetables, herbs, and fruit. I love knowing that the food was packed with nutrients and as fresh as it would be if I had picked it from my own home garden.

Herbalist Dawne Olsen, of Authentic Hemp Company, is planning to expand her business and literally put down local and permanent roots to cultivate more of her plant medicine. By next year, she would like to offer shares in a CSH, or “Community Supported Herbalism.” The CSH would include healing tinctures and salves, skin balms, and teas. “There are so many benefits from the CSA model,” Dawne said. “Since not all of us can grow our own food, supporting local growers means you are closer to the food source. Nutrient density and the nutrition piece is unbeatable. Locally investing in our farmers is an age-old trend that is going to become the new trend.”

Nature has a rhythm and wisdom that assures that all beings in its foodshed are fed. A fruitful collaboration between CSA members and local food producers is the key to building a vibrant local food economy. As spring melts into warmer days, plan a shopping adventure with the kids to a few of our 26 featured stores and farms.

Carbondale Community School’s “Garden of Yum,” started in 2010. The cold frame shown here was one of the first projects completed by students.

1. ASPEN SATURDAY MARKET

GALENA STREET & HOPKINS AVENUE, ASPEN

SATURDAYS: JUNE 10 – OCTOBER 7

8:30 AM – 2:00 PM

Celebrating its 25th season, featuring Colorado produce and artisan products.

2. MEAT & CHEESE FARM SHOP

301 E. HOPKINS AVENUE, #103, ASPEN

A hopping lunch and dinner locavore scene with a butcher’s market selling Western Slope meats, local produce, artisanal breads, graband-go lunches, wines, beer, and cocktails.

3. THE FARM COLLABORATIVE

COZY POINT RANCH

220 JUNIPER HILL ROAD, BRUSH CREEK

A hub of activity. This regenerative, organic farm believes in the power of connection through farming and food. Educational programming. Summer camps. Get a share in their egg CSA.

4. BASALT SUNDAY MARKET MIDLAND SPUR

SUNDAYS: JUNE 18 – SEPT. 24

10:00 AM – 2:00 PM

Mid-valley farmers with fresh produce and other food-centric small businesses.

5. TWO ROOTS FARM

100 SOPRIS CREEK ROAD, BASALT

FRIDAY FARM STAND – 9:00 AM – 1:00 PM

CSA: JUNE-OCTOBER. P/U: BI-WEEKLY. Regenerative practices since 2006, offering organic fruit, eggs, chicken, beef, honey, salad dressings, flowers, and mushrooms.

6. TOP OF THE WORLD CULTIVATORS

2956 EMMA ROAD, EMMA

New to the Valley, TOTW Cultivators is run by Harrison Patrick who works with biodynamic, sustainable, and organic farming practices. The goal is to offer a potato CSA for the fall, depending on the harvest yield and quality.

7. MARIGOLD LIVESTOCK CO

0543 HOOKS SPUR ROAD, BASALT/WILLITS

Alyssa Barsanti offers regeneratively raised meats and management-intensive grazing. Pastureraised chicken, turkey, and grassfed lamb.

8. ROCK BOTTOM RANCH

2001 HOOKS SPUR ROAD, BASALT/WILLITS

WEDNESDAYS & FRIDAYS, 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM Drop-in hours through the end of May. Plan a day at the Ranch to see newborn lambs and baby chickens. See what else is sprouting.

9. POTTER FARMS

CR 100, CARBONDALE; CR 233, SILT

Run by Ted and Justina Potter. Find their eggs, pork, Alaskan seafood, and USDA beef at the RFV CoOp and Eagle Crest Nursery.

10. MANA FOODS

792 HIGHWAY 133, CARBONDALE

Sustainable food from 45 local vendors of eggs, meat, produce, honey, and medicine. With a sacred space for Gurmukh Yoga.

11. CARBONDALE FARMERS’ MARKET

4TH & MAIN STREET, CARBONDALE

WEDNESDAYS: JUNE 7 – SEPT. 27

10:00 AM – 2:00 PM

For more than 15 years, promoting local commerce and supporting regional growers and makers. Fresh produce, meats, delicious street food, and locally-crafted artisan goods.

12. TOADSTOOL TRADITIONS

CSA: MAY 3 – JUNE 21

P/U: WEDNESDAYS AT THE LAUNCHPAD

Matthew Rader cultivates organic, nutritious mushrooms with a long shelf life. Shares of half, one, or two pounds contain lion’s mane, oyster mushrooms, and a variety of other species.

13. NIESLANIK BEEF

0977 COUNTY ROAD 101, CARBONDALE

A third-generation cattle ranch above Carbondale offering grassfed beef in prime cuts and ground chuck. Purchase directly from the family, or find a selection at Mana Foods.

14. SUSTAINABLE SETTINGS

6107 HIGHWAY 133, CRYSTAL RIVER VALLEY

CSA FROM JUNE-OCTOBER; P/U ON SATURDAYS. RANCH STORE: TUESDAYS & SATURDAYS

11:00 AM – 4:00 PM

Brook and Rose LeVan use regenerative, biodynamic, and sustainable practices. For $50/week, shares include 8-10 items (for 4+ people). You can add eggs, beef, and pork.

15. SEED PEACE

6333 HIGHWAY 133, CRYSTAL RIVER VALLEY

CSA: 14 WEEKS, JUNE – OCTOBER

Operating out of the Sunfire Ranch, Casey Piscura runs a regenerative organic farm that focuses on low-tillage soil-building and adapting vegetable varieties through breeding and research. This spring, plant your garden with Seed Peace seeds or starts available at Dandelion Day (May 15).

16. DOOLEY CREEK FARM

10840 HIGHWAY 133, CRYSTAL RIVER VALLEY

The family’s house, a fourth-generation family homestead structure, burned to the ground last November, but their ranch has kept going strong. A regenerative, holistically managed, certified organic, soy-free, and non-GMO feed farm. Offering CSA share of all-pastured, 100% grassfed beef, pork, chicken, and turkey delivered to your home. Add on eggs.

17. THE FLOWER AND THE BEAN

CSA – 18 WEEKS, MAY – SEPT.

P/U AT REDSTONE TRADING STATION OR ADD ON HOME DELIVERY. Find their fresh-roasted organic coffee beans and flower bouquets at Mana Foods and the Redstone Trading Station. Or subscribe on a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly basis. Coffee subscriptions go year-round.

18. REDSTONE TRADING STATION

386 REDSTONE BLVD., REDSTONE

The new owner, Erika DeMeyer, specializes in local gifts and unique antiques. She also carries local honey and hosts CSA pickups for The Flower and the Bean.

19. REDSTONE GENERAL STORE

292 REDSTONE BLVD, REDSTONE

Stop in any day of the week for breakfast burritos, fresh breads, baked treats, and daily soups. Organic, fair-trade espresso. Ice cream by the scoop. Locally-made body care, clothing, jewelry, healing remedies, and handcrafted cheeses. Regional, craft wine and beers in a separate showroom next door.

20. COLORADO EDIBLE FOREST LLC

3961 CO ROAD 114, GLENWOOD SPRINGS

ON-FARM SALES BY APPOINTMENT

“Grow food, build soil, nurture nature,” says owner Vanessa Harmony, whose Spring Valley nursery offers hardy, edible perennial plants for Hardiness Zones two, three, and four. Purchase cold-hardy fruit trees, berry bushes, and perennial vegetables. Pop up stand at Dandelion Day (May 15). Carbondale and Basalt farmers’ markets in the spring only.

21. PLUS LAZY K – RIVENDELL FARMS

3961 CO ROAD 114, GLENWOOD SPRINGS

P/U AT FARM

Year-round grassfed, grass-finished beef. 100% hormone and antibiotic-free. Dry-aged, USDA-certified, and frozen. Beef shares, specialty boxes, and individual cuts.

22. GLENWOOD DOWNTOWN MARKET COOPER AND COLORADO AVENUES, GWS

TUESDAYS: JUNE 15 - SEPT. 21

4:00 – 8:00 PM

Crafts, music, flowers, and cooking demonstrations create a festival atmosphere. Shop for locally grown produce, try a sliced ripe peach, or sample a spoonful of local honey.

23. NEW CASTLE COMMUNITY MARKET BURNING MOUNTAIN PARK

THURSDAYS: JULY-SEPTEMBER

4:30 - 7:00 PM.

Vendors bringing in fresh produce, homebaked goods, and a variety of hand-crafted products. Food trucks. Live music.

24. COLORADO MOUNTAIN HONEY

THE HONEY HOUSE

5876 CO ROAD 346, SILT

Drop in to shop for honey labeled by hive location, from the Bookcliffs, Flattops, and Grand Valley. Small glass jars, squeeze bottles, 5-pound jugs, and 12-pound buckets.

25. HIGHWATER FARM

7001 CO ROAD 346, SILT

CSA: JUNE- OCTOBER

P/U ON FARM, VARIOUS DAYS AND TIMES

A regenerative CSA farm with a Summer Youth Program. Weekly CSA boxes with 8-10 different vegetables. Boxes also include you-pick crops from the field, such as cherry tomatoes, tomatillos, cut-flowers, and herbs. Organic eggs available.

26. MODERN WEST FLORAL

1401 COUNTY ROAD 237, SILT

WEEKLY OR BI-WEEKLY FLORAL CSA

P/U AT FARM OR SAW IN CARBONDALE

Floral arrangements for gifts, weddings, and events. Bulk flowers and CSA shares of flowers grown by Vanessa Gilbert Meredith at her farm in Silt. No pesticides or chemicals.

IS IT SORT OF LIKE TENNIS? OR MORE LIKE PING-PONG?

Since its debut it 1965, pickleball has slowly accumulated a strong following, skyrocketing in recent years, and becoming a beloved pastime for Americans and locals in the Valley. It draws in players from all ages and walks of life, bringing them together under a shared pleasure for a competitive hobby. From teachers to students to grandparents, friendships and teamwork abound.

Pickleball was invented on a summer afternoon in 1965 by Joel Pritchard, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Washington state. The sport took a lot of inspiration from badminton, but quickly developed a unique set of rules and play styles. The first tournament was held by 1976, but it had yet to grow into a sophisticated sport. A rulebook was published in 1984, and by 2013, the USA Pickleball Association (USAPA) had grown to more than 10,000 members.

Over the next five years, the sport grew exponentially, with a magazine and nationallytelevised tournaments. The name, which stems from a reference to the game’s origin using mismatched equipment from the shed, is now a common household word. A shared passion and surprisingly competitive community has sprouted, paving the way for new generations in the future.

In the Roaring Fork Valley, a dedicated and talented community of pickleball players is flourishing. Many of the teachers in the Aspen School District are avid players. Several even play competitively and in tournaments. Some students have taken up paddles, and a pickleball club has grown over the years. The community dynamic is powerful, and a strong sense of competitiveness exists within its members. AHS students like Haley Schmela immediately fell in love and made it into a favorite pastime.

“It’s very competitive,” Schmela said. “You wouldn’t think it, but it’s a really competitive group of people. My family and a couple other families would get together every Sunday, we would have dinner at the tennis courts, and we would play pickleball all summer – and we had tournaments.”

DINK ALIKE Great minds

BEAU TOEPFER Aspen High School

Most people got into pickleball by chance. Maybe they wanted a new hobby or were invited by people they know. Families and friends are a major influence in pulling more people into the sport.

Dill Ball:

A live ball that has bounced once inbounds. Don’t let it bounce twice.

Dink Shot:

When you hit the ball just soft enough that it arcs over the net and falls into the opposing kitchen.

Kitchen:

HALEY SCHMELA

Besides students, a large population of adults in the Valley play often, and they are always looking for more players. The recreational leagues work together with the rec centers to garner interest in players and to grow the community. Amy Roth leads efforts in Aspen alongside AHS counselor Karen Hawkes.

“We [Roth and Hawkes] are the pickleball ambassadors,” Roth said. “So we help promote the sport and we help work along with the Rec Center to disperse information about where you can play in Aspen and Snowmass. Kind of like being a cheerleader for the sport.”

As we can see in the diverse player base in the Valley, pickleball really is for everyone. The quickly-growing community has everyone from octogenarians to middle schoolers. It’s easy to learn and easier to fall in love with. With how widespread courts and players are becoming, it’s a good way to get out and meet new people and get some exercise.

“One of the things that I love about it is you can be out there playing and there could be somebody in high school and then someone that’s up into their 80s that are playing,” Roth said. “It’s super inclusive. I just love that. Grandparents can play with their grandchildren. Moms and dads can play with their kids. You can play with your contemporaries. It’s a sport for everybody.”

Non-Volley Zone in front of the net. Don’t stand in the kitchen and hit the ball out of the air. Let it bounce first.

Pickled:

It happens.

If you lose 11-0, you’ve been “pickled.”

LOOKING FOR PLAYTIMES? RoaringForkPickleball.org

“When my kids were younger teens, they made fun of me for playing pickleball,” said Karen Hawkes, co-ambassador for Aspen Pickleball and Post Secondary Counselor at AHS. “‘Pickleball is only for old people,’ they said. Fast forward to this year, and what does my son ask me for his 25th birthday? A pickleball set!”

It’s mud season, and you’re looking for something to do. PICKLEBALL is a sport you can pick up quickly without much gear or instruction.

“My brother forced me down to the tennis courts one day when I didn’t want to, and then I realized that I had a passion for pickleball.”

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DREAMS Interwoven

The 5POINT DREAM PROJECT provides scholarships for high school students from Parachute to Aspen to develop an idea that they believe will make a difference in the lives of others as well as their own. Since 2010, the organization has awarded 74 students the means to manifest their individual visions, which have ranged from planning a valley-wide LGBTQIA+ prom to creating an aviation and space club at Basalt High School.

Meet one of this year’s recipients, whose project supports him in learning his ancestral Navajo language, a deeply personal study of identity and culture.

JACOB SAM Colorado Rocky Mountain School

MY

GRANDPARENTS ALWAYS SPOKE NAVAJO

Usually, it’d be breakfast-table talk about car payments or local events, but no matter the subject, it sounded akin to poetry. Navajo holds a lot of similarities to German in the way that it contains glottal stops, so speaking it requires you to pay attention to each syllable. Still, no matter how much I appreciated the flow of its conversation, or the way the words felt in my mouth, I could never fully understand its depth and nuance.

My elementary school on the Navajo reservation taught me how to say the Pledge of Allegiance in Navajo, and even though I could impress family with my pronunciation, I had no clue what I was saying. The words I had heard my entire life were still foreign to me; I could only admire the language from the outside looking in. My family had always told me that Navajo cut deeper than English; that it could convey subjects the English language neglected. English is categorical in the way it deals with emotion. There is no word for “sorry” in Navajo because there are so many more authentic ways to express regret.

YÁ’ÁT’ÉÉH

“Yá’át’ééh” is a Navajo greeting, and is one of the first Navajo words I learned. “Yá’” is “universe” and “át’ééh” is “good,” so the direct English translation is “the universe is good.” It never occurred to me that there was much more to it than “hello,” but in Navajo, there is much more packed into individual words than you’d think. I felt kinda dumb realizing that I’d spent my life greeting people without even knowing what I was saying, but it only added to my growing curiosity for Navajo. Learning the language would open up a whole new layer of culture that just isn’t possible to communicate in English. And even outside of my community, it would make me eligible for Navajo scholarships, making it possible for me to attend college without going into debt.

A COMPLICATED IDENTITY

When I was a newborn, me and my mom moved off the reservation to Santa Fe, NM. As we moved across state lines, a tote bag containing her most valuable possessions sat in the back seat, with birth certificates, insurance cards, photo albums, diplomas, a jewelry box filled with turquoise, silver, and my umbilical cord. Navajo culture encourages saving your baby’s umbilical cord and burying it somewhere around your house. This is to keep your baby “tethered’’ to home, so that no matter where they go, their roots will remain established. My mom, born into a mixture of Navajo Traditionalist/Mormon ideology, planned to do this, but if we were going to move far anyway, it made better sense to wait, so instead, she saved my cord in a hospital-issued envelope and stored it in her jewelry box. We slept the day off in Gallup, NM, where someone jacked our car, and the only thing stolen was the tote bag. My mom was way more worried about her identity being stolen than an umbilical cord, which makes sense, but her worries were put to rest once a local woman found the bag in her neighborhood, sitting neatly next to a dumpster, missing only the jewelry box full of turquoise and a part of me. My mom wasn’t super devoted to tradition, so she more or less shrugged it off, but my grandparents were not as comfortable with it. To them, it was a sign that I’d be lacking solid ground for a concrete identity.

Living in Santa Fe was easy. I enjoyed the suburban luxuries of climbable trees in my backyard, and five-minute walks to my Montessori preschool. These developmental years primed me for a solid middle class fate, but it wasn’t financially sustainable, and we moved back to the reservation when I was eight. Even then, I’d spend my holidays and summer breaks in either Santa Fe or Phoenix, playing with my cousins, pretending that their life was the way I lived mine.

As I broke into my middle school phases, I began to experiment with fashion and art, and it was in cities that I was truly myself. Albuquerque was my New York City, as I walked downtown wearing black nail polish, something I’d never try at home. On the reservation, we still lived under the Mormon upbringing my grandparents had brought home from their American Indian residential schools, and it was hard coming to terms with my sexuality under that curriculum. I closely followed Conan Gray, Jack Stauber, and other white, suburban male artists, because they’d all grown up with the space to express themselves freely and showed what could grow from that.

IN NEED OF ESCAPE

I Googled “boarding schools with Native American scholarships,” and Colorado Rocky Mountain School popped up. After filling out the application process in secret, I had to go public when it came to paying for the PSAT. My grandparents didn’t think I’d be able to live away from home, my uncles thought I’d fail academically and wind up addicted to drugs, and my parents just didn’t see the point in paying a fee for a rejection letter. Still, we went through with it, and against my family’s wishes, I got in.

My freshman year was rough. It was 2020, so still the thick of the pandemic. I faced a brand new subset of people; affluent, white 14-year-old boys. Not all of them were, of course, but because of the school’s COVID restrictions, a lot of my social interactions were confined to my freshman boys’ dorm. A lot of them (1.) did not like gay people and (2.) had essentially zero conversations with a poor person their own age.

This new brand of homophobia was much less violent than on the reservation. There was no fear of getting hit; none of them hated gay people with enough passion to try it. The most that occurred was slurs. Now, under the protection of Colorado Liberalism, I enacted my free will. I cuffed my jeans; I cut the sleeves off dress shirts; I spray painted hoodies; I shaved my head and dyed it red; I was the very epitome of my 2020 Instagram explore page fashion.

Looking back, I see that even with this brightly colored identity I’d created, I continued to get more and more detached from myself. I’d spend most of my time on walks alone, being angsty, brooding on life and such. Recently, I was looking into the case of Elisa Lam. You’ve probably heard of her; a video of her acting strange in an elevator went viral in 2013, and that day her body was found in a water tank at the Cecil Hotel in LA. It turns out that Elisa was a major fashion enthusiast, and her blog, “Ether Fields,” acted as her personal diary.

I associated cities with art, individuality, and self-rule and reservations with conservatism, banality, and homophobia.

JACOB SAM’S DREAM PROJECT

Jacob will use his Dream Project funds to take Navajo language and government classes with the goal of applying to the Chief Manuelito Scholarship, a prestigious program for Navajo students that provides financial support for higher education while protecting and preserving Navajo tradition and culture.

Jacob drew the self portrait on page 15 using pastel pencils. He painted the above portrait of an elder woman, which was inspired by his grandmother and others. Both pieces were completed in the Drawing and Painting class in the strawbale CRMS adobe art studio.

CONFRONTING MYSELF

This was Elisa’s last post: “Why do you have no commitment and diligence? You’re so freakin lazy. You’re a phony. You want to cruise by and fool everyone into thinking you’re smart but really you did the least amount of work and pretended you worked really hard and you deserve this mark… You can’t be the best. You’re just a nobody, part of the crowd. You are not particularly smarter than anyone else. You don’t create anything. You don’t contribute. You just stay at home and observe.”

Sadly, the leading theory on Elisa is that she killed herself. After reading this, it reminded me a lot of my freshman year. Against all odds, I was at this affluent private school by being at the top of my reservation class, and how much was that really worth? Even when people appraised my outfits, that was no sign of any charming characteristic, it just showed that I knew my complimentary colors. Everything felt so inauthentic, both in and outside of me. Here I was, role playing as some profound, artsy individual, when really my thoughts were as shallow as anyone else’s. I couldn’t believe I’d left the reservation for this. Even though I loved dressing the way I did, I had left behind a community of people who understood struggle. The kids on the reservation had minds aged well beyond the CRMS population, because they had to. Even though nobody here would believe it, the reservation had deeper thinkers, deeper feelers, 14-year-olds developing without their every whim met. I didn’t want to be surrounded by naive people

I could feel them eating away my reservation skin. By the time I returned home for winter break that year, I felt disconnected from my family. I’m half white, so my pale skin already set up an unspoken difference, but after spending a couple months living in one of the whitest, richest parts of America, I had to ask myself, how separated was I from my culture?

Now today, my peers and I have matured significantly. For sure not to our fullest potential, but we respect each other and ourselves, and with that I can safely say that I’ve found my place in our community. We can see the gray areas in complex issues, but as a freshman I wasn’t the best in that regard. I still saw my life in terms of brown and white. I’d spent forever wishing for a different life. My interests – fashion and art – were things looked down upon for Navajo boys in my family. Forever, I’d spent my time admiring literature and paintings made by white people. I was friends with white people, taught by white people, and it felt like it was bleeding into me, affecting my DNA. But those were the people who accepted my “feminine” interests. It felt like a choice had to be made between my ethnicity and sexuality.

GRAPPLING WITH IDENTITY IS NOTHING NEW FOR NATIVE AMERICANS

Colonization absolutely decimated our numbers, so in the modern day we are left without representation, severed from culture and tradition. My grandparents, whose backgrounds revolved around Navajo values and ideals, were both extracted to Chilocco Indian Occupational School, where they met and would go on to raise their children under the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

They did not just fully rid themselves of tradition, though, and I have childhood memories of Navajo stories and customs. This is not the case for many urban natives, who are left grasping for any information on their heritage at all. Today, I consider it a privilege of sorts to have grown up on the reservation. It gave me a chance to learn my clans and live a life not known to many. I didn’t acknowledge this as a freshman, so while I wailed about my sense of self, or lack thereof, a rich culture stood behind me with hundreds of years in the making.

FULL CIRCLE

My grandma died in 2019, and tradition states that the family cannot leave the house for four days. There’s a lot of customs that went into this that I considered overcritical. The fireplace had to be lit at all times, so we took shifts sitting next to it. We couldn’t cook for ourselves, so we survived off what people brought us. We couldn’t look into reflections, so there were sheets and towels tacked over all the house’s mirrors. Every sunrise, we went onto the porch and smudged ourselves with cedar ash for protection and corn pollen for harmony.

These four days happened right after I first began to look into boarding schools. It was the middle of my eighth grade year, right before the pandemic, and I knew I wanted to leave, but the sentimentality of tradition and grief made me feel a slight homesickness before I’d even gotten my acceptance letter. I realized that a new place would give me opportunities to express new strands of identity, but it would also, to an extent, take away from cultural experiences.

It occurred to me that I was being let in on knowledge known by less than 1% of the U.S. population. This is what the Native American experience is. Behind the costume-feathered and acrylic-painted “Indians” Hollywood portrays are real people with meaning. I almost gave into those stereotypes; that the reservation was worthless, that there was no use in learning from it, but those four days brought something up in me, even if it would take a few years to stick. There are not many to pass down these teachings, so it is our responsibility as the youth to make sure the Hollywood Indian doesn’t beat the real ones. There are plenty of heartfelt concepts to create from, to prove our existence

Jumping to the present day, I’d say that yes, I am not as immersed in Navajo culture as I can be, but I know that I can put in the effort to stay connected. I talk to my family about the stories they’ve heard, the people they’ve met, the ceremonies they’ve witnessed. I do my best to remember the names and places of my ancestors. I want to learn Navajo, to be able to communicate with people about tradition the way it was meant to be spoken, but also to keep educational spaces open for my sense of self to continue to grow. I do not regret leaving the rez, because I know that it is somewhere I can always turn to as a reminder of my roots.

Now, looking back on the fourth sunrise after my grandmother’s death, I see how remarkable it is to be Navajo. We walked to the river to cleanse ourselves of any bad emotions that may have stuck. It was December, so we just dipped our hair in, and quickly wrapped ourselves in woven blankets. Imagining this scene now, I see us trekking across the snow-covered landscape, as the cold river water dripped down my neck, keeping me awake. Yá’át’ééh, the universe is good.

APRIL 19-23

5POINT ADVENTURE FILM FESTIVAL DREAM PROJECT PRESENTATIONS

FRIDAY, APRIL 7: 5:30 PM THE LAUNCHPAD, CARBONDALE Support recipients of the 2023 5Point Dream Project as they present updates on their projects.

FREE FAMILY PROGRAM

SUNDAY, APRIL 23: 2:00-3:30 PM

CARBONDALE COMMUNITY & RECREATION CENTER

Kids and their families will experience inspirational films full of wonder and adventure. Free ice cream social to follow. PARENT TIP: Although this event is free, you can’t just show up – tickets are required. Seating is limited, so make plans early.

PURCHASE TICKETS ONLINE

5pointfilm.org

I couldn’t see that it was possible for my Navajo and creative identities to coexist. I’d viewed my people as something crude, incapable of new ideas or change, but that just isn’t true. Our traditions are profound and deep. They hold just as much depth as Greek and Roman mythology. All this time, the Navajo words I’d heard spoken around me held philosophical discussions about life, community, identity; but I’d missed it all because of my obsession with living by colonial standards.

Chaco Canyon

Travel

TIME CAN HINGE ON CERTAIN MOMENTS. Rubbing lotion on after a shower one morning in 2017, I felt a lump in my breast. I wasn’t all that concerned. I’d gone through this before. After investigating earlier suspicious areas, the tests had all come back benign. I’m regular with my exams, and they hadn’t found anything alarming in my last scan. Not worried, yet understanding the importance of early detection, I called the next day and made an appointment. They sent me to the hospital to get additional scanning. During my mammogram, no problems were expressed, just a thorough call for more testing. I’d been on the ultrasound table before, so I still wasn’t distressed.

As the tech prepared me for my procedure, I started a conversation, asking him about where he was from. Did he have kids? How had he chosen his career? Suddenly, the pleasant chatting halted when he rolled his scanner over the golf-ball-sized mass. From that moment on, he was all business and I knew something was different. Each little click of his instrument was like an exclamation point that my life was about to shift. He politely got up and said he wanted to have the doctor come in and take a look.

When the tech exited the room, I leaped from the table and dashed into the lobby, half-dressed, holding the paper gown to my sticky chest, and got my girlfriend, who was waiting to go to lunch after my test, and I think I said, “I need you. I’m not going to hear this shit by myself.”

Bravely, she came with me down to the dark little room. Not that I really gave her much choice as I gripped her hand for dear life. The doctor came in and said they wanted to do a biopsy. Of course I agreed, but deep down I already knew.

TELLING MY KIDS

The worst part was telling my adult children. Both kids were due home from college for their holiday break. Their father was already struggling with Multiple Sclerosis. How could I tell them their mother was sick too? It felt like I was going to drop a bomb on the people I love the most in the world. Finally, when we were all together, I could hardly speak through my emotions. After a deep breath and the help of some Valium, I finally said it, “I have cancer.”

My mind had formulated so many scenarios of how this news would crush my kids, but as I whispered the word “cancer” they jumped up and came to my side, rescuing me from my torture. They showered me with hugs and held me close as they whispered declarations of their absolute faith and love for me. Even in the darkest times of my treatments, their confidence in me to heal gave me such strength. I always say my kids are my best work, and at that moment, they proved to me again that I did a good job, because they’re the best kids a mom could ever hope for.

THE GIFT FOUND IN TREATMENT

Getting a diagnosis of cancer at age 55 forced me to slow down. It gave me time to evaluate my life and define what was important to me. I felt a positive transformation happening. It was as if I was going through a beautiful metamorphosis. While I shed my hair, l lost my preconceptions of how my life should unfold. Cancer reminded me of the importance of gratitude and valuing each day as a gift. A peacefulness came over me and everything joyful became even more blissful. I learned that you need to do the things that interest you and tell the people you love how much they mean to you “NOW.” My motto became “LIVE LIFE NOW!”

VAN GO NOW PROJECT

My partner Lewis and I are photographers and we love watching sunrises and sunsets in new places. After the cancer journey, we decided we’re not waiting for another scary diagnosis before getting out and doing things we’re passionate about. So, we retired early and made our dreams of traveling a priority. During the pandemic, we built out a van, designed to suit how we travel, with a king-sized sleeping loft, well-organized minimalist storage, and our e-bikes in a back garage.

To date, Lewis and I have logged thousands of miles for our @VanGoNow photo project. We’ve been fortunate to see and photograph magnificent places, such as driving from coast to coast through Canada and then the eastern and southern coasts of the U.S. We have explored extensively in the southwest.

FOLLOWING REDFORD INTO THE SUNSET

We’re always on the hunt for new destinations. One evening, we came across a 1999 PBS documentary narrated by Robert Redford, called “Mystery of Chaco Canyon.” The film explores the prehistoric remains of an ancient civilization that used the stars, sun, and moon to build an astounding architectural marvel in northwestern New Mexico. While watching the film, we kept asking the question, “How is it we haven’t known about this place before?” Lewis started Googling, and found a two-day window at the only campground in the remote Chaco Culture National Historical Park

We love the southwest because it is rich with beauty and Native history. As we learned from Redford in the film’s opening narrative, Chaco Canyon can reach 110 degrees in the summer and can linger below zero in the winter. Therefore, spring and fall are the times to go. We joke that our goal is to always travel places that are 72 degrees. So with ideal weather in the forecast and a campsite reserved, we packed our gear in the van and headed south.

GETTING THERE

For us, a six-to-seven hour drive in the van seems like a trip to our backyard. We like scenic routes, so we typically travel through Colorado’s San Juan region when heading to New Mexico. The stretch between Ouray and Durango looks like a thousand postcards of fantastic mountain vistas and nature. We’ve been known to stop every few miles to take pictures when traveling through this beauty. Hopefully, you don’t have to rush through this area and can make it part of your journey.

You have endless options for how to get there. For example, we broke up our trip into two days and stayed at Angel Peak Campground in Bloomfield, NM. This gave us time for an early arrival at Chaco Canyon for a full day of exploring on the day we arrived.

We recommend arriving during daylight hours, and calling the park ahead of time

for road conditions, as the last twenty miles before the park entrance is a rough dirt road. You may even think you are lost because this stretch is extremely remote. We met a woman at camp who almost turned around because she thought she must have missed a turn.

A WONDER OF THE ANCIENT WORLD

At Chaco Culture National Historical Park, visitors get to travel more than a thousand years back in time and learn about the ancestors of today’s Puebloan tribes, among the original inhabitants of North America.

The Chacoan society existed for four centuries between AD 850 and 1250 and is considered to have come to prominence between AD 1020 and 1110. Chaco Canyon was discovered in 1849 during a military expedition into Navajo territory. In further excavations, archaeologists found incredible antiquities with evidence of how travelers came from great distances to trade there. You can walk in their footsteps and get a glimpse of how the ancient Chacoans overcame immense challenges for resources and yet somehow, over generations, with the stars as their guide, constructed highly organized and sophisticated road systems and large-scale multistory structures. Chaco Canyon ruins indicate that this was the largest and the most progressive of the ancient Southwest communities.

EARLIEST ASTRONOMERS

The ancient Sun Dagger site on Fajada Butte in Chaco Canyon gives a glimpse of the Chacoans’ understanding of astronomy. The discovery of a spiral petroglyph at this site led scientists to explore the Chaco connection with the cosmos. The spiral petroglyph was placed behind three slabs of rock that create vertical shafts of light marking the solstices and equinoxes. No other know n North American civilization tracked this cycle before the Chacoans. Scientists monitored the petroglyph and its relationship to solar and lunar cycles over a nineteen-year period. While the Sun Dagger site is closed to visitors, you can still experience the wonder of the night skies in this remote place.

Chaco Culture National Historical Park is a designated International Dark Sky Park, meaning there is no man-made light pollution, allowing for a pristine view of the night sky. The park offers night sky educational programs, and during our stay, many campers at Gallo Campground brought huge telescopes to observe the starry sky.

THE ENCHANTED EVENT

UNSOLVED MYSTERIES

Although the archaeological sites in Chaco are of considerable size, the area does not appear to have been an urban center with a large population. There is no evidence of refuse piles or burial grounds that would be found in an ancient city. Instead, archaeologists hypothesize that Chaco Canyon was a religious hub and trading center.

What inspired these people to travel on foot for miles into a remote desert? Was this a spiritual pilgrimage? No one knows what happened to the civilization that built these ruins.

By the 12th century, Chaco Canyon was abandoned. Theories suggest perhaps it was climate change, deforestation, drought, and a lack of resources to support large gatherings, or religious or political disturbances. It’s all speculation, as there is no written record. There is only what was left behind from Chacoan daily life – pottery, arrowheads, jars, and decorative and utilitarian-shaped turquoise, just to name a few. These items help us imagine the people who created them. We can only surmise about this highly-evolved culture.

UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE

What we do know is that Chaco Canyon is a sacred and fragile place deserving reverence. In 1987, the United Nations listed it as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, to be protected along with the organization’s other designated sites, like Machu Picchu in Peru; The Great Wall in China; Nubian Monuments in Egypt; Petra in Jordan; and the Taj Mahal in India.

CAMPING AT CHACO

You’ll want to make a reservation for the park’s only camping area. There is absolutely no place to boondock in the surrounding desert, as the park is surrounded by private land.

Even though you will be camping in an established park, be prepared for remote, desert wilderness travel. There are no showers, hookups, convenience stores, or food services – though fresh potable drinking water is available outside of the visitor center. We found some limited cell phone service on the plateau above the campground and near the visitor center, but otherwise had no Wi-Fi or cell connection.

Gallo Campground is next to petroglyphs, a cliff dwelling, and ancient inscriptions. The 32 individual campsites have little privacy and no shade. Each campsite has a picnic table and a fire grate. There are five RV-only campsites with limited hours for generator use. The remaining 27 campsites allow either a tent, small RV, or travel trailer. The campground has a restroom facility with flushable porcelain toilets and an RV dump station.

PLANNING FIELD TRIPS

Two group campsites accommodate 10-30 people for tent-camping only. When reserving group campsites, call the park for additional arrangements. Park rangers offer star-gazing instruction, and they can suggest books and other class prep materials.

EXPLORING CHACO

The park’s only visitor center is located a mile from the Gallo Campground at the beginning of a one-way eight-mile paved loop taking you to the cultural sites. You’ll want to purchase guidebooks at the visitor center or download a guidebook online before your visit. These will act as your docent and will enrich your understanding as you explore the cultural sites. Also, the park offers scheduled guided tours that you can sign up for at the visitor center.

ANTIQUITIES TELL A STORY

In more than 100 years of excavation, Chaco’s archaeologists have systematically collected fragile artifacts, which they have meticulously documented, creating an extremely valuable collection. The “Chaco Collection’’ contains one million artifacts from over 120 sites in Chaco Canyon and the surrounding region. Remarkable objects were discovered that animate the Chacoan life and reveal Chaco’s interactions with cultures outside the southwestern United States. For example, pottery shards and remains of scarlet macaws, birds native to an area in Mexico more than 1,000 miles away, reveal trade networks that existed across Mesoamerica. The Chacoans likely acquired these birds in exchange for turquoise from their own area; examples of turquoise were found as far south as the Yucatán Peninsula.

PUEBLO BONITO

A three-acre cultural site, the most investigated “Great House” – a term that refers to the multichambered structures built by the Chacoan people. Standing in the plazas and above the multiple large, subterranean Great Kivas, you can sense the magnitude of this grand place. There are more than 30 ceremonial kivas, in a range of sizes, thought to have been created by different clans throughout the four centuries of construction. You can enter and exit narrow, low interior doors into some of the rooms the Chacoans actually used.

The architecture includes uniquely placed and shaped windows and doors that give light from the sun and moon. Imagine thousand-year-old lumber implanted in masterfully masoned walls dating from as early as 850 AD. Throughout the buildings, you see logs that held the fourto-five story structure up and remnants of original plaster. Over a quarter-million logs were harvested and carried by foot to Chaco, with some species that came from forests 70 miles away. Try to imagine the commitment it took to accomplish this extensive construction over multiple generations without modern communication, wheels, metal tools, or heavy machinery. This left me in awe.

A. A FEAT OF ENGINEERING

The straight line of this D-shaped wall of Pueblo Bonito is precisely aligned east-west. How did they accomplish this? Chacoan builders used shadow and light to align their buildings and roads. On the equinox, around March 21 and September 21, the sun’s path across the sky is recorded on the ground using a vertical marker called a gnomon, establishing a straight line, oriented accurately east-west along this wall.

B. KIVAS

Kivas are ceremonial spaces (used even now by contemporary tribes). They are typically subterranean and circular, with earth and log roofs, low benches circling the outer walls, a fire pit, and ventilation systems. The unusually large Great Kivas in the central plazas of Pueblo Bonito could hold approximately 100 people. The 30 smaller kivas at this site are thought to have been created by different clans.

C. OLDEST SECTION

This earliest-built section of Pueblo Bonito dates back to 850 to 900 AD. Over 100 rooms and at least three kivas were built during this period. These modest, blocked rooms were incorporated into future generations’ construction, where they maintained the configuration of their ancestors, yet modified different masonry techniques. Antiquities such as conch shells, turquoise mosaics, painted flutes, macaw bones, and ceremonial items were found there.

D. CANYON ROCK SLIDE

In 1941, 30k tons of sandstone, called Threatening Rock, detached from the canyon wall and caused considerable damage to a portion of Pueblo Bonito. The Chacoans must have been worried because they built masonry buttresses at the base of the huge rock. Freezing and thawing are thought to have caused it to dislodge from the canyon wall.

E. ROOMS

This site has more than 700 rooms. Archaeologists cannot determine how the rooms were used. Domestic use was unlikely in the lower rooms, as they didn’t find fire pits, ventilation, or common metates (stone tools used to grind corn). Many inner rooms had no windows and would have been dark and cold. Some rooms could have been structural, providing a foundation for four stories. Most of the upper floors have deteriorated and are missing, so we have no clues to their function.

A .

B .

C

MOUNTAINPEARL

Chaco Canyon

F. NEWEST SECTION

Built during the period 1075 to 1115 AD. Scientists can now use advancements in technology to help identify the year and the season a tree was cut down, and where it came from. Researchers also study the construction and the way the walls adjoin to help map the timelines.

G. PETROGLYPH TRAIL

A quarter-mile path along the canyon wall between Pueblo Bonito and Chetro Ketl with 13 identified petroglyphs and pictographs. Are the images ancient graffiti? Directions?

Artistic expression? A record of their lives? (Inset, above)

A petroglyph of a bird. It is believed that perhaps the Chocoans pecked this image to honor the macaws that once resided at Chaco Canyon. Remains of these tropical birds were discovered at the cultural site and are thought to have been traded by travelers from thousands of miles to the south.

Look Closely.

How many people can you count?

Chaco Culture National Historical Park’s low number of campsites means that fewer people can visit this area. This is by design, to minimize the impact of visitors on these fragile and sacred sites.

PUEBLO DEL ARROYO

Pueblo del Arroyo’s great house offers impressive views of Pueblo Bonito through its windows. A kiva on this site features outer rooms, which are not frequently seen in examples of kivas in the southwest. It’s not known how these extra rooms were used.

KIN KLETSO

Kin Kletso is Navajo for “yellow house.” Perhaps the name was given because of the color of the sandstone blocks used in its construction. The layout is rectangular and, unlike many earlier great houses, there is no associated great kiva and no plaza. They’ve identified approximately 65 rooms and five kivas.

PUEBLO ALTO TRAIL

Hiking this two-mile round trip route to the cliff tops was a highlight of our trip. The trailhead begins just past the Kin Kletso great house. You slip through a challenging natural rock passageway that has steps placed there by the Chacoan people. At the top of the 350-feet-high rock stairs, you

reach the mesa and an easy-going, wellmarked trail along the cliff edge. You’ll see fossilized sea life, ancient pecked basins, farming terraces, ceremonial stone circles, and incredible overlooks of the valley and sites below.

PUEBLO BONITO OVERLOOK

The photo above was taken from the Pueblo Alto Trail at the Pueblo Bonito Overlook. At this point, you reach a junction where you can choose to continue on a five-mile loop trail that follows the cliff edge – where you’ll see Chacoan steps, ramps and roads; Chetro Ketl Overlook and Pueblo Alto, New Alto, and Pueblo Alto complexes – a wide expanse that encompasses the canyon that was once the home of the Chacoan civilization.

WONDER

We left with a deep respect for these ancient people. This journey back in time at Chaco Canyon helped us examine our assumption that ancient cultures are “primitive,” leading to a shift in our perspective. Can you imagine a massive complex built today that will still be standing in a thousand years? Our visit enlightened us to think hard about the modern era and what we as a culture do with our time. The Chacoans didn’t have our advanced technology to research, communicate, or plan, yet they accomplished great feats. The Chacoan people apparently dedicated themselves to the study of stars, sun, moon, and nature to guide their endeavors. They built a lasting memorial to their culture and through their efforts showed us what can be accomplished when people come together to survive and thrive.

Standing in the plazas and above the multiple large, subterranean Great Kivas, you can sense the magnitude of this grand place.” RENEE RAMGE

Q. How did you get that shot?

We asked LEWIS COOPER of Gonzoshots if we need to invest in a “real” camera to get frame-worthy images.

A. You can truly get great photos with the camera in your pocket.

With recent advancements in smartphone camera technology, there are few advantages to carrying two cameras. The newer top-end cell phone cameras are easy to use, have optical zoom, image stabilization, high resolution, manual control, and in-camera editing. Smartphones are always in your pocket, making it easy to take, share, and store photos. Google’s Pixel 7 Pro is what we personally use. Apple’s iPhone 14 Pro is comparable – and both are award-winning options.

When you’re ready for a big investment, a DSLR camera will be your next step, one that you’ll research and discuss in fun and exhilarating ways until you talk yourself through the sticker shock and make your choice. You’ll find that most photographers are loyalists when it comes to their brand. Lenses are worth every dime you can invest. Features are always evolving, so I’m not going to call out a particular camera or model and tell you it’s the end-all.

After you make the leap, take time to educate yourself in the operation of your new camera. Know its body, settings, and lenses. Learn about post-processing apps. Embrace your learning curve – your first attempts might not be print-worthy, but digital makes it easy to experiment with ISOs and appertures. Have fun. And if you don’t get exactly the shot you’ve got in mind? Try getting it with your phone – it’ll be right there in your pocket.

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The photo above was taken with a DSLR from the Pueblo Bonito Overlook. It is a vertical panorama that is stitched together from multiple photos in post-processing.

Packing for a DIY Ex-Ed Trip.

Chaco Culture National Historic Park is an active archaeological site. It is also a designated International Dark Sky Park. A trip here calls for gear that can help you and your kids better experience this dynamic classroom.

MOON SHADE

Like most camping in the Southwest, Chaco Canyon’s Gallo Campground has almost zero natural shade. You’ll need to bring your own. But a pop-up takes a lot of car space and can function like a sail in high wind, unless all four sides are securely weighted. What I like about the MoonShade is that it’s lightweight and packs down to the size of a camp chair. Set-up starts with threading strong, aluminum tension poles through ripstop runnels in the awning, much like pitching a tent. You anchor two corners to your vehicle using an integrated carabiner and webbing system that works with different anchor options – with or without roof racks. Sturdy support poles with guy lines hold up the opposite side. These can extend up to eight feet, which means that this system can work on either a tall Sprinter van or a short station wagon. At 9’ x 7’, it makes a decentsized, shady patio – which is essential because it’s where your kids will teach you the finer points of playing two-deck Speed Spoons.

GOODR SUNGLASSES

This line of polarized shades was created by runners wishing for athletic sunglasses that wouldn’t slip or bounce when they ran. Choose from ten frame styles, three head sizes, and countless colors, like “Electric Dinosaur Carnival” shown above. At $25-30 per pair, you can get the kids some serious sun protection, and maybe even treat yourself too.

DYNAFIT ALPINE WIND 2 JACKET

One thing about desert camping in the springtime is how much you wish it was truly warm, like a day at the beach. The reality is that although you’re not standing in a foot of snow, scraping your windshield at home, it’s hardly balmy. You’ll start the day freezing, then warm up on an uphill climb, only to get blasted by strong winds at the top. You need a lightweight layer that you can easily stash. This ultra-light jacket rolls up compactly into its hood and will fit in the tiniest corner of your pack. It’s made with Dynafit’s stretchy, soft, wind-andwater resistant Dynashell fabric, which is warm and breathable. This jacket was designed specifically for trail running with a mesh back so you won’t get wet back when wearing a backpack.

SALEWA PEDROC AIR

Even though I sometimes like to have a waterproof liner in my desert shoes to keep the sand out, the new Salewa Pedroc Air (left, red) is a non-waterproof shoe that I will be turning to for my next desert adventures. With its super-breathable knitted mesh upper, your feet won’t overheat on desert hikes. And if there is a lot of sand, it should work its way back out due to the open weave. Pair this breathability with a soft rubber sole for great grip on sandstone, and this shoe will scramble to every nook and cranny that you want to explore in the canyons.

SALEWA JUNIOR WILDFIRE

My favorite part of the pandemic outdoor boom is getting more families outside, which in turn means more kids outside. And with that has come a push for better gear for kids to explore with their parents. Salewa has done a great job with their youth hikers, and the Junior Wildfire (left, yellow) is a shoe that you can trust to keep up with your kid on their desert exploration. It has great tread, a quick lace system, and a waterproof liner to help keep some of that desert sand out. It is a full-value shoe, not just a dumbed-down version of the adult line.

this summer!

summer camps

outdoor adventures for middle schoolers

eagles, hawks & owls birds of prey demonstrations

ranch experiences animal connections, vegetable tastings, egg collection + more!

visitor center open hours at Hallam Lake & Rock Bottom Ranch

Going to an International Dark Sky Park

For the most up to date information about our programs, please visit aspennature.org or call 970.925.5756

comes with some serious responsibility… to stay up past bedtime and look at the stars with your kids. I remember backpacking, camping, and river trips where we got to stay up late and learn about the constellations with my parents. That love for the heavens stuck with me through high school, and I dove head first into the amazing astronomy programs that our schools offer. I feel so lucky to have studied –and still remember – many of the constellations and stories that intrigued me. I love sharing the stars with my children now.”

Explore with Aspen Center for Environmental Studies

MAILE SPUNG

NEMO STAR GAZER CHAIR:

A great way to lie back and take in the views above you is in the Nemo stargazer chair. It folds back into a fully reclined position so you can effortlessly study the stars. It packs up like a concert chair, so it is easy to bring with you camping. It’s meshy for hot nights in the desert. Just be careful you don’t get too comfy and forget to move to your tent before falling asleep!

THE STARS, BY H.A. REY:

Our family’s favorite book for car camping. The Stars, by H.A. Rey, the author of Curious George, is a great introduction to finding the constellations. Rather than just using the brightest stars as a road map for finding constellations, Rey depicts the characters as stick figures, making them easy to find, even for novices. It is written in a way that is easy for kids to relate to. (Who doesn’t love the humor in Curious George?)

STAR CHART:

Pair Rey’s book with this star chart, and you are on your way to having a junior astronomer on your hands. Align the date and time of day, and you are set up to identify all of the constellations that are visible in the sky above you. Make sure you get a chart that pertains to the latitude you are gazing from to get an accurate chart of the sky.

Penney Carruth has been selling luxury real estate in Aspen, Snowmass and the Roaring Fork Valley for over 45 years. Sara Kurz is a marketing expert with sales knowledge from Old Snowmass to New Castle. Together, we cover the entire local area and offer our clients an unbeatable combination of experience and new ideas with deep roots in our community. Combining a seasoned perspective with invigorated creativity, we are able to service any client. If you are looking to upgrade your real estate needs, contact us today! We look forward to working with you.

Unsung Heroes in our Classrooms

THE HAND-STITCHED, FRAMED SAMPLER READS: “ Rules of Conduct for teachers: You must not keep the company of men. You must wear two petticoats. You may not dye your hair. Your dresses must be two inches above your ankle. You may not loiter downtown. Keep the fire going.” (Cabell County, WV Schoolhouse, circa 1915.)

Two of Lisa McGuire’s class parents found these Teacher Rules while antiquing and presented the gift to her at the end of her first school year at AES. One might imagine that the teachers who lived and worked at the Missouri Heights Schoolhouse may have received similar admonitions. After all, other sets of Teacher Rules suggest that “Men teachers may take one evening per week for courting purposes.” (St. Augustine, FL schoolhouse, circa 1872.) Elsewhere, their female colleagues were instructed, “You may not ride in a carriage or automobile with a man who is not your father or your brother.” (Old Sacramento, CA Schoolhouse Museum, circa 1915.) We know that if a teacher at the Missouri Heights Schoolhouse became engaged to be married, custom dictated that she leave her position, for it was believed that she could have never faithfully fulfilled her duties as wife and mother while also instructing her pupils.

The historic, one-room schoolhouse on Missouri Heights was built in 1917, the fourth such structure on the high mesa since 1888, when early settlers built the first school. The ranchers, as the Missouri Heights Community League (MHCL) nonprofit’s website tells us, came from “Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Nova Scotia, and yes, Missouri.” They built the school and a teacherage on land given by the Moore family, using materials donated by other families in the community, and for the next 41 years, until 1956, children from the surrounding ranches walked and rode horses to school.

The schoolhouse and teacherage are now meticulously maintained by MHCL, which makes the landmark available for special events, weddings, baby showers, luncheons, meetings, and birthday parties. This year, when MP’s Mother’s Day Tribute called for nominees who are Unsung Heroes, and every woman who was put up for recognition turned out to be a teacher, school counselor, or faculty administrator, the organization welcomed us for our annual Mother’s Day tea party.

“I cannot imagine a better place to honor the work of teachers,” said Lesley Rameil, MHCL Board President, also a retired teacher who taught at Colorado Mountain College and the Aspen School District. Lesley recently enjoyed meeting a former Missouri Heights Schoolhouse teacher, who visited the schoolhouse with her son in celebration of her 95th birthday. Among the last teachers to work there, her portrait hangs on the wall of her former classroom, along with portraits of other teachers and archival photos from the school’s history.

Expectations placed upon teachers have certainly changed since the schoolhouse was built. While teachers today don’t necessarily need to haul two buckets of coal inside for the furnace each morning – as their counterparts did one hundred years ago – they nonetheless carry heavy loads.

Three years after the pandemic, life at school has mostly returned to its usual rhythms, yet veterans of our Valley’s classrooms say that their students, and their challenges, are not the same. During the week before our gathering, changes in campus life became visceral when a Valley-wide campus lockdown ended after the arrest of an individual who had threatened to commit violence at an unnamed school. Our Unsung Heroes pack lunches, drive carpool, arrive early, stay late, prep lesson plans, grade papers, collaborate with colleagues, and strive to master academic subjects – while standing before our community’s children as role models, arbiters of justice, parent liaisons, planners of field trips, occasional nose-wipers, artists, and disciplinarians. They also show up for cookie sales, car washes, performances, hockey matches, and recitals –for their own kids, and countless others. It is an honor to recognize the work of these individuals, and we hope that our tribute will reflect our gratitude for the work of all of our community’s teachers.

Yesenia Silva Estrada

COLORADO MOUNTAIN COLLEGE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF STRATEGIC INITIATIVES

When Yesenia was growing up, she and her grandmother “Cuca” played together, as Yesenia pretended to be a teacher instructing a classroom full of students. It would be decades before she realized her calling, though her “family instilled in me the value and power of education. As cliché as it sounds, I decided to become an educator not to pursue an income but to help change the outcomes.”

Silva Estrada proudly traces her roots back to the indigenous Raramuri people who have lived in the Chihuahua region of northern Mexico since before the arrival of Spanish conquistadors. Her grandfather was a bracero, a farm worker granted seasonal work permits to come from Mexico to the U.S. to labor in the agricultural industry. He worked in the fields, starting as a young child, until the Bracero Program ended in 1964. (Due to abuses in the treatment of workers, who were often denied a minimum wage, housing, and health care and routinely worked in inhumane conditions.)

The family continued working as farm laborers in Mexico until the ‘90s, when climate change “put significant strains on our livelihood,” Silva Estrada wrote, “and my parents brought me and my siblings to settle in Carbondale.” While her parents worked in the construction and tourism industries, Yesenia and her three brothers and younger sister attended Carbondale schools. When she graduated from Roaring Fork High School in 2005, Estrada was the second person in her family to graduate from high school. In 2007, she was the first person in her family to graduate from college, when she earned her Associate’s Degree in Business from Colorado Mountain College (CMC). She next earned a Bachelor’s degree from Regis University, followed by a Master’s in Social Work from the University of Denver.

Poised to accept a job offer at an accounting firm in Denver, she was asked to visit several Roaring Fork School District middle and high school classrooms to “share my story of growing up as a Latina immigrant here in the Valley. I talked about the challenges and successes I experienced while graduating from college. In the midst of these talks in front of many students who looked like me, I began to question. Why me?”

She began researching local educational outcomes and learned that her accomplishment was rarer than she had realized. “Students like me, with similar backgrounds, don’t graduate from college, much less at the top of their class from a prestigious university. I had broken a statistic and I was heartbroken. I had not realized that the educational system often does not work easily for people like me who have English as their second language and who are the first generation in their families to aspire to post-secondary education.”

She declined her job offer at the accounting firm and accepted a parttime position at CMC. She writes, “Ever since, I have dedicated myself to working with students who traditionally are underrepresented in college completion.”

Silva Estrada now serves as the Executive Director of Strategic Initiatives at CMC, a new role within the college, where she is leading the institution’s strategies to improve equity and outcomes for firstgen college students from historically-marginalized backgrounds. Through scholarships and grants, she and her team are working to achieve the college’s vision of “becoming the most innovative and equitable college in the nation.”

“I am proud to work for a college that is committed to closing equity gaps, and I am honored to be part of an inaugural team that helps collaborate with colleagues to change, shift, and transform our systems to better serve and help all our students complete an education, regardless of their background and identities,” she wrote.

A survivor of domestic violence, Silva Estrada is a single mother of two boys, Ian (age 12) and Remy (age 3), whom she calls her “two suns –because they light my world and are the primary reason and motivation for everything I do.” She notes that Ian stuttered and Remy was only a few months old when she divorced their father after years of abuse. “Today, my oldest ‘sun’ no longer stutters and is successfully working through emotional development. My youngest is a joyful, happy boy that melts the hearts of everyone who meets him.”

Yesenia says her best moments as an educator have been attending CMC graduation ceremonies and seeing students she’s supported on their educational journey. “They share a genuine appreciation for the impact I had in their life. I have always lived by the Nelson Mandela quote: ‘Education is the most powerful weapon that you can use to change the world.’ I believe it to my core. Education transformed my life, and I have used it to help change the world and for others to join in changing the world for all of us.”

“When I am not working,” Silva Estrada wrote, ”I am enjoying time with my sons and my village of support who have helped me heal in this time post-divorce. I enjoy hiking, biking, fishing, cooking, dancing, and listening to music. I am enjoying recreating a new version of myself with my two ‘suns.’”

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Lindsay Selig

CARBONDALE MIDDLE SCHOOL

SCHOOL COUNSELOR & PREVENTION SPECIALIST

Lindsay knew she wanted to work in counseling when she was in high school volunteering for a Peer Assistance Leaders (PAL) program. The experience gave her “an opportunity to learn some basic counseling skills to support students who needed someone to talk to but were hesitant to go to an adult. That experience confirmed that it was the profession I wanted to pursue,” she said.

Selig has worked in school mental health services for 12 years, having worked in Loveland, CO, for eight school years before moving to the Valley in 2014. Four years ago, she joined the faculty at Carbondale Middle School as the Prevention Specialist. She and her two sons, Ari (age 13) and Nolan (age 9) ride to school together most mornings, Ari attends CMS and Nolan is next door at CRES.

“In my role, I get the opportunity to get to know my students on a deeper level,” Selig said. “Hearing what students are needing at home has had a positive impact on the way I parent. I am able to look at things from a different perspective.”

Her best advice on parenting came from a teaching colleague. “Be the parent I needed at that age.”

Meanwhile, her sons have taught her “the importance of boundaries and trust. Just because a child wants something, it doesn’t mean that is what is best for them. Children need rules, guidance, and expectations in order to become responsible members of their community. When there is a trusting relationship, it makes those difficult conversations a bit easier.”

In addition to providing individual counseling and small group support at CMS, Selig co-teaches Health and works with the school’s Student Crew Leaders. She also serves as the school’s GSA advisor. GSA has traditionally stood for “Gay Straight Alliance,” but when CMS launched Colorado’s first middle school GSA five years ago, the students favored a newer interpretation of the acronym: Gay & Sexualities Alliance, in order to be more inclusive of transgender and non-binary students.

“I have always valued diversity and enjoy the opportunity to advocate for others,” Selig wrote. “I believe that every student has the right to feel safe and respected when they are at school, and being the lead advisor has helped me to put these values into action. The GSA at Carbondale Middle School had a very strong start when I stepped into the role and it has been an honor to continue what was built before me.”

“Ms. Selig” keeps a full basket of fidget toys for students. “I think their favorites are either slime or a “Plus+Plus” puzzle building toy,” she said. When Lindsay isn’t at school, she is either camping, hiking, skiing, or paddle boarding with her family and their friends. Or, she’s found a quiet place where she can read.

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Laura Carmichael Smith

YAMPAH MOUNTAIN HIGH SCHOOL SOCIAL WORKER

Laura Smith’s teaching journey began at Our Lady of Guadalupe Benedictine Monastery in Pecos, NM. This is where she landed, she wrote, “adrift, impulsive, and very confused,” after the sudden death of her mother when she was 20, followed by marrying and divorcing right after finishing college at CU Boulder. She went for a five-day retreat and stayed for two years.

“I lived in the root cellar because there weren’t any beds in the convent … you have to love the metaphor,” Smith writes. “Someone had donated a bunch of pottery equipment to the abbey and the abbot said, ‘you’ll be our potter.’ This is how I learned to be still. I also learned to trust people again. My experiences at the abbey set me up for a lifetime of love and work.”

While living at the monastery, she began working with Dr. John Talley, a Jungian analyst in Santa Fe, and she soon realized that she wanted to become a therapist. “I wanted to help others as I had been helped.”

After earning a Master’s degree in Social Work, she married Tom Smith and they raised two children here in the Roaring Fork Valley –Lily (age 40) and Jake (age 36). Smith has worked as a social worker for the Aspen Hope Center, and she served among the founding staff of the Aspen Community School preschool, where her daughter Lily attended school through third grade.

In 2000, Laura’s work with the Family Visitor Program brought her to Yampah Mountain High School (YMHS), where she taught in the Teen Parent Program for 21 years while serving the school as a social worker. Now, working with the YMHS Rebound Community, Smith works with 10-14 students in grades 10-12 who are at risk of self-harm, and who may also struggle with addiction and stress management.

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“Often, they have been identified as having challenges processing information, impulse control, and self-regulation,” Smith explains. The Rebound faculty also includes two special education teachers, Tripp Freeman and Alida Haslett, and an addiction specialist and aide, Kenny Hamburg, who, along with Smith, work together to help the students learn coping skills and resiliency. Their goals are to help students build stress management skills and learn to trust a therapist so they can talk about adverse experiences in their lives.

“We try to help our students identify and work through feelings of hopelessness and sadness, using mindfulness techniques for harm reduction and self-care,” Smith said.

She shares a story about struggling to find ways to build connections and engagement with her students in a comprehensive health class. “Everyone just said ‘Ugh!’ when it was time to start the day with wellness. So I had an idea – Ted Lasso.” This is a television series that follows an American college football coach who is hired to coach an English soccer team.

“I made a curriculum with discussion questions for each episode. I love the series because it is all about grit, determination, team building, and working through adversity. And it’s funny, irreverent, and held their attention,” Smith said, adding, “I was a little scared to show it because the therapist character was so amazing, but I got over that. I learned from her too.”

Smith’s students couldn’t wait to start class every morning, and they even got Lasso’s recipe for Scottish Bread Bars, which they made for loved ones over the holiday. They’re eagerly awaiting the drop date of the show’s third season, expected for March 2023.

Lily Smith Larkin

ASPEN COMMUNITY SCHOOL & ASPEN HOPE CENTER

SOCIAL WORKER & SCHOOL-BASED CLINICIAN

“My mother is my hero. She is comfortable being out of the limelight, and empowers other people to become leaders,” said Lily Larkin, Laura Smith’s daughter, who has built a career that parallels her mother’s. “She has an amazing amount of humility, which I feel is a quality of great leaders, and perhaps is a quality that lately hasn’t gotten a lot of recognition.”

Larkin also credits her father, Tom Smith, for her career choice. “Dad always impressed upon me the importance of social justice and community service. These were driving values in both of my parents’ work, and were also a big part of our family.”

Lily has served as a clinical social worker for 15 years. After beginning her practice in Boulder, she returned to the Valley with her husband Ryan Larkin, to accept a job with the Aspen Hope Center as the organization’s first bi-lingual school clinician.

“I was influenced by my mother, but I also followed the arc of my daughters’ development,” said the mother of two girls, Camille (age 6) and Margot (age 2). “Pregnancy can be hard, and I found during the perinatal period that I needed someone to be a lighthouse, to help me find my way.”

This realization inspired Larkin to specialize in perinatal mental health, which led her to Valley View Hospital, where she worked on a team of medical providers and clinicians that founded a behavioral health program to support women from adolescence through postmenopausal years. She felt called to support women as they enter motherhood, which Larkin calls “a wild ride … a vulnerable, difficult, and beautiful time.”

Now, through the Aspen Hope Center, which provides school-based clinicians at a number of schools throughout the Valley, Lily has returned to her alma mater, the Aspen Community School. At ACS, Larkin gets to work, as her mother did, where her eldest daughter attends first grade (soon to be followed by her younger sister). At the school, Larkin works across a continuum of support from oneon-one therapy to small groups to teaching Wellness to all grades.

“Being a parent is deeply humbling,” Larkin says. “The daily challenges of motherhood have helped me feel more connected to my clients. Parenting is a word that used to be used as a noun, and it has transformed into a verb for our generation.”

Larkin tells a story about attending a training through Aspen Strong and the Aspen Hope Center with Dr. Tina Payne Bryson. “I felt like a complete mess. It was my first week back from maternity leave after Camille’s birth, and I was having all of the mom guilt feelings.” She asked Dr. Bryson what to do to “not f*$k up my daughter. She laughed and cried with me through snotty tears, leaned in, and said: ‘You are not going to mess up your daughter. You are doing great. You just need to get it “right” on the first try 33% of the time. You don’t have to be perfect, you just have to be consistent.’ In other words, we just need to show up.”

Lisa Miller McGuire

ASPEN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

KINDERGARTEN TEACHER

Lisa Miller studied Humanities at UC Berkeley, which basically meant she could do “anything” after graduation – which is how a lot of us get to Aspen. Except her route was circuitous, starting first with a TWA Round-the-World one-way year with her sisters Lauri and Cheryl, traveling to Kenya, India, Nepal, and Thailand. She hopscotched on her own to Australia, California, then Aspen to ski for “one” winter, then spent the next three years nannying for “a super-mellow family on the backside of Aspen Mountain that remains family today.” They helped her put roots down in this place. “I realized I loved working with young children,” McGuire said. “And my dear friends encouraged me every step of the way.”

She earned her teaching credentials in Denver while commuting back to the Valley whenever possible, splitting time between the city and a Lenado cabin she shared with her then-boyfriend, now spouse, Terrance McGuire, and their dogs Amber and Kala. She graduated and wrapped up a student-teaching stint at Aspen Elementary School, and, within days, started covering Tana Rinaldi’s kindergarten classroom during Tana’s maternity leave for her son Dominic. Before long, Lisa accepted a lead teaching position at the school.

This May, McGuire will finish her final school year after teaching at AES for 28 years. In addition to kindergarten, she has also worked in grades one and three, and as a reading specialist. Before AES got new windows this fall, her classroom windows were painted with aspen trees that decades of kindergartners will remember. They’ll also recall eating green eggs and ham to celebrate Dr. Suess’s birthday, and hatching baby chicks each spring.

When each of her daughters, Maggie (age 23) and Maeve (age 20) were born, McGuire was fortunate to be able to take an extended leave of absence, to “be at home during their first year of life.” Once the girls entered school, matriculating through AES, AMS, and AHS, they were always within a short walk of their mother’s classroom. The threesome stayed late after school many days for the girls’ soccer or ski team practices. “I never wanted to miss anything,” McGuire recalls, adding, “I know what goes into planning parent-teacher meetings, and leading team sports, and all of the performances, so I took every opportunity to show up.”

One thing her students taught her, which served Lisa in her parenting is that, “They are always watching and listening and learning from us. And mistakes are good because this is how we grow and learn.” Meanwhile, her own children helped Lisa better relate to the parents of her students. “Parenting is the hardest job out there. Parents are doing their best and they need our support.”

“I will miss the children terribly and the close connections I form with each of them,” McGuire shares, noting that throughout this school year as beloved annual traditions have come, such as an autumnal field trip to the Maroon Bells, and winter days Nordic skiing, she has taken time to pause and soak it up. After retiring, she shares, “I will not miss the meetings, the high stress, the hamster wheel – all of this has intensified in the past few years, and I, along with many colleagues, feel stretched. One thing I learned from my colleague Carolyn Fields, who taught at AES until retirement, is that, ‘We have all these glass balls that we juggle in the game of life. Though you don’t want to drop or break any of them, most of them can break and you will be alright. The “health” ball must be the most sacred. Take care of yourself!’”

Lisa McGuire with her daughter Maggie, who followed her mother into the teaching profession, working in an inner-city Denver school through AmeriCorps before teaching last semester in Valencia, Spain. “I admire my mother even more now that I’ve worked as a teacher,” said the 23-year-old. “At this moment, I’m honestly at a crossroads, still searching for my path.”

YMCA of the Rockies Camp Chief Ouray Where

Nature Meets Nurture

KIDS NEED TO ROAM

Whether backpacking, climbing or hiking, Camp Chief Ouray campers build life-long relationships with friends and the great outdoors.

Gina Mile

MARBLE CHARTER SCHOOL DIRECTOR

“I had no desire to become a teacher,” Marble Charter School’s administrator Gina Mile said, a little embarrassed to admit it, adding, “I was a little intimidated by children.”

This was twenty years ago, when she was hired as an after-school program coordinator. She and her husband Andrew lived in Marble, and so were well aware of the “small school with a big heart,” although it would be several years before they became parents. “I looked at this purely as a job. I remember working with students one day during a knitting class, and I realized that they were just little people. From then on, I realized how I love being with children and teaching them some of the skills I am passionate about.”

She soon became a classroom aide and art teacher and then continued to take on more responsibilities, earning her teaching credentials ten years ago. Mile has taught mostly kindergarten through second grade, though at one time or another, she has taught art and social studies to every grade in the K-8 public charter school.

Gina stepped into the Director role in autumn of 2020. However, this was not a step out of the classroom. She teaches second-grade English Language Arts and Math most mornings, then in the afternoons, she squeezes in her admin time – while not plunging toilets, shoveling snow, chaperoning Outdoor Ed trips, driving the school’s mini school bus (which brings students to and from Carbondale, Redstone, Marble, and all points in between).

“My favorite moments with the students are spent singing with them. I have some songs that I have been singing with students for the last 15 years. Bringing us all together with song fills me up,” said Mile, who in her free time, plays the mbira dzavadzimu (a Zimbabwean thumb piano) and dances with an African dance troupe.

The school shares space with the Marble Historical Society in a 1901 building originally constructed as a high school to serve around 100 students when the marble mine was in full operation. The town recently passed a bond to support a planning process for assuring that the historic structure will remain functional for another generation of students.

MCS is part of the Gunnison County School District. The town of Marble, despite being part of the Crystal River Valley Watershed and the broader Roaring Fork Valley work shed, is actually situated in the far northern corner of Gunnison County, the seat of which, as the crow flies, is 39 miles away from Marble, and 86 miles away over two passes by car. So, somewhat isolated, MCS seems akin to a frontier school, in that it has its own culture, which has grown up out of its surrounding community.

“I have always been passionate about the culture of the Marble Charter School and felt I could help that continue by stepping into the Director role,” Mile said. “It is a very special place that feels like a family. In all of the work I have done and the research I have read about what makes a great teacher, it always goes back to relationships. That is something we are able to do with such a small school. We may not have funding for the latest and greatest of everything, but, I can say the staff has amazing relationships with the students.”

Gina’s children, Soren (age 14), Elsie Jane (age 12), and Fo Fo (age 9 and shown here) have all attended MSC since kindergarten, though they’ve been integrally part of the school community since birth.

SHE’S LEARNING TO CLIMB

.

Also learning to quiet her mind. Hone focus. Find balance. Build strength. And work hard. She will try one way, then another. She will fall, shake it off, watch her friends, see it differently, then try again. And again. Then she will see another possible solution. Because what she’s discovering is true, independent problem-solving.

KIDS CLUB / TEAM

Fun. Friendly. Supportive. For beginners to competitive team climbers. Tuesdays and/or Thursdays. 4-week commitment.

Ages 8-13 @ 4:00 – 6:00 p.m.

Ages 12-17 @ 6:00 – 8:00 p.m.

Kids Club enrollment includes unlimited membership during open hours. Youth and adult climbing – all open hours except during Kids Club. Birthday party bookings available.

MOUNTAIN PEARL Summer Camp

& Now

CHILDCARE FROM BIRTH TO AGE 3

From Aspen to Parachute, working parents with infants and toddlers are seeking nurturing, safe, consistent care for their children. Spots for infants and toddlers are limited. Local childcare facilities are unable to meet this growing need.

WHAT CAN BE DONE?

Licensed, home-based childcare can be a successful business model for parents wishing to provide this much-needed service. This is a career that can be as nourishing for the caregiver as it is for the children and families involved.

MOUNTAIN PEARL and THE HELIOS CENTER are HOSTING A FREE COMMUNITY DISCUSSION FOR PARENTS AND OTHERS WISHING TO LEARN MORE ABOUT PROVIDING THIS SERVICE.

PLEASE JOIN US

TUESDAY, APRIL 11 – 6:00-7:30 PM THE HELIOS CENTER, CARBONDALE RSVP AND DETAILS @MOUNTAIN-PEARL.COM

22 PROGRAMS FOR AGES 3-18

BOOSTED ONLINE THROUGH LABOR DAY.

QR FOR EVERY DETAIL ALL IN ONE PLACE.

PHOTOS

DATES

MAPS

PARENT REFERRALS

DL TO SIGN UP

+ DYNAMIC SEARCH BY CHILD’S AGE , INTEREST & YOUR WORK SCHEDULE.

MOUNTAIN-PEARL. COM

Is Your Home Fully

ACES

ASPEN CENTER FOR ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

HALLAM LAKE IN ASPEN ROCK BOTTOM RANCH IN BASALT/WILLITS

GRADES K-8

JUNE, JULY & AUGUST

WEEK-LONG SESSIONS

HALF-DAY & FULL DAY (970) 925-5756

“OUR WEEK-LONG DAY CAMPS are based on exploration, teamwork, having fun, and asking questions about the natural world. Our middle school week-long day camps and overnight trips seek to inspire young adults to gain confidence in the outdoors, instill curiosity, and develop leadership styles. Participants will explore their interests while making new friends and creating their own adventures in the Roaring Fork Valley. ACES environmental educators will be your guides for hands-on learning experiences at our sites and beyond.”

PHEBE MEYERS

ACES Community Programs

Senior Manager

ASCENDIGO

AUTISM SERVICES

SUMMER ADVENTURES CAMP

CARBONDALE HEADQUARTERS

VALLEY-WIDE ADVENTURE (970) 927-3143

JUNE 12-AUGUST 4

8 WEEK-LONG SESSIONS

DAY CAMP

AGES 7-17

LIMITED RESIDENTIAL CAMP

CMC SPRING VALLEY CAMPUS

AGES 18+

AUTISM-FRIENDLY SUPPORT from expertlytrained sports specialists/coaches. Campers are encouraged (but not required) to try rock climbing, horseback riding, mountain biking, and lake sports. They learn important life skills, make new friends, and build confidence as they explore their strengths and abilities in a safe, supportive environment. Parents (and campers) are pleasantly surprised at what the individuals can achieve, which is usually beyond expectations

ASPEN YOUTH CENTER

AT THE ARC

GRADES 4-12

OPEN YEAR-ROUND SUMMER HOURS: 9:00 AM - 6:00 PM

FREE DAILY DROP-IN (970) 544-4130

AYC IS NOT A CAMP.

Since 1991, it has been a safe and supportive place where youth connect, learn, and grow during their out-of-school hours – free of charge.

EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING

DAILY, STAFF-LED PROGRAMS: Art Spot, Top Chef, Community Lunch, Mad Science, and academic support.

ROBUST OUTDOOR PROGRAMS: Rafting, horseback riding, hikes, flights with EcoFlight, and hut trips.

SUMMER RECIPES: Thanksgiving in July, pancakes and bacon, homemade tortilla chips and salsa, energy bites, sheet pan pizza, asada lunch.

MAIN STREET, CARBONDALE (970) 963-2529

JUNE 12-AUGUST 11

WEEK-LONG SESSIONS 2.5 HOURS/DAY

HAND BUILDING AGES 5+

WHEEL THROWING AGES 9+

$150 /SESSION Scholarships available. Discounts for sibling enrollment.

“MY KIDS HAVE TRULY LOVED their time participating in classes and camps at Carbondale Clay Center. They love the small class size, fabulous teachers and always leave with lots of beautiful work!”

COLBY JUNE, Carbondale

ASPEN RECREATION DEPARTMENT

ASPEN CITY CAMP

ASPEN MIDDLE SCHOOL

AGES: 5-10

MONDAY – FRIDAY

8:00 AM – 5:00 PM

(970) 920-4100

JUNE 8 – AUG 22 ( NO CAMP JULY 4TH)

Grouped by rising grade K–1 & 2-4

Swimming, ice skating, rock climbing, hiking, arts & crafts, group games, and mindfulness exercises.

Field trips to Basalt, Carbondale, Glenwood Springs, and Independence Pass.

$47 PER DAY ONLINE. SPOTS FILL QUICKLY. REGISTRATION OPENS: APRIL 10 – 10:00 AM

ASPEN SCIENCE

CENTER

VALLEY-WIDE

AGES: 3-13

(970) 236-2360

FUN DISCOVERY, EXPLORATION, EDUCATION

JUNE, JULY & AUGUST

WEEK-LONG SESSIONS

HALF DAY + FULL DAY

SUMMER OF SCIENCE

ROBOTICS

ROCKETRY

EXPLORERS

GIRLS IN STEM

KINDER STEM

EARLY STEM

“MY SON CAME HOME SO HAPPY TODAY. He said, ‘It’s the best camp ever!’ I have never seen my son so happy and excited about camp. He also shared with me knowledge about green caterpillars that he found today. I’m very happy and looking forward to rest of the camp days!”

NATALIA , Snowmass

CARBONDALE RECREATION

DEPARTMENT

ALL AGES

JUNE, JULY & AUGUST

DAILY, MONTHLY & FULL DAY OPTIONS (970) 510-1290

TOO MANY PROGRAMS TO LIST.

FIND DATES, TIMES, AND DETAILS ONLINE.

Youth Baseball, Softball, & T-ball

Bike Rodeo & Pump Track Time Trials

Adult Softball

Friday Fun days

Sports Camps

YOUTH SUMMER HIKES

ALL-DAY EXCURSIONS

Avalanche Creek, Hunter Creek and the Grottoes

OVERNIGHT BACKPACK TRIP

DETAILS TBA

CREATIVE FLOW STUDIO

MERMAID ART & SWIM CAMPS

CARBONDALE

THIRD STREET CENTER & RIVER VALLEY RANCH (970) 963-5546

ENTERING GRADES 1-6

JUNE, JULY & AUGUST

WEEKLY SESSIONS: TUESDAY - FRIDAY 9:00 AM – 1:00 PM

ART, CREATIVITY, SELF-EXPRESSION, & FUN.

The Creative Flow Studio’s camp is designed as a refreshing retreat for a small group. Children meet for three days of mermaid art projects and games at Pam Porter’s beautiful Third Street Center studio. On the fourth day, they play and swim at the River Valley Ranch pool.

2023 THEME: NORDIC MERMAIDS

Spinning fjord seascapes with mermaids and Viking ships, pompom reindeer and seals, Northern Lights lanterns, folk art booklets, and other Nordic mermaid projects.

GARDEN BOOT CAMP

CCS GARDEN OF YUM

CARBONDALE (970) 274-2472

AGES: 4+

MONDAY – FRIDAY 9:00 AM – 3:00 PM

JUNE 5-9

MAGICAL CREATURES IN THE GARDEN

JUNE 12-16

FOOD FOREST FAIRIES AND GNOMES

AUGUST 7-11

HOW TO FEED YOUR DRAGON OR UNICORN

AUGUST 14-18

YUMMY BUNNY SNACKS

GARFIELD COUNTY

LIBRARIES

SUMMER READING CHALLENGE CARBONDALE, GLENWOOD SPRINGS, NEW CASTLE, SILT, RIFLE & PARACHUTE ALL AGES

JUNE & JULY (970) 625-4270

ARE YOU UP FOR A CHALLENGE?

Try to read 1,000 minutes this summer to help your library reach a collective goal of 50,000 minutes of reading as a community. Earn prizes by tracking your reading using an app. Or, log your reading hours by hand with a bookmark from your branch.

LOOKING FOR SUMMER READING IDEAS?

Check out these 2023 children’s books, with more titles and descriptions with the QR link.

PRE-K – AGE 7: Honeybee Rescue: A Backyard Drama. By Loree Griffin Burns.

GRADES 3-5: Maizy Chen’s Last Chance. By Lisa Yee.

GRADES 6-8: In the Key of Us. By Mariama J. Lockington

MONKEY HOUSE

CLIMBING COMMUNITY

CARBONDALE (970) 340-4988

KIDS CLIMBING CLUB

ALL ABILITIES CLIMB TOGETHER BEGINNER TO COMPETITIVE TEAM IN A FUN, ENCOURAGING PLACE

INSTRUCTION TWICE WEEKLY TUESDAYS & THURSDAYS

AGES 8-13 – 4:00 – 6:00 PM

AGES 12-17 – 6:00 - 8:00 PM

“TRAINING

FOR

THE MONKEY HOUSE TEAM

has allowed me to fall in love with a sport and to create long-lasting friendships and relationships with amazing people. The coaching and training have also qualified me for high levels of competitions, and I have made friends across the state. The friendships I have made through the team continue to be my closest friends.”

BEAU TOEPFER, AHS

PITKIN COUNTY

ASPEN (970) 429-1900

2023 SUMMER READING THEME: “ALL TOGETHER NOW”

ALL AGES: KIDS, TEENS, & ADULTS

JUNE, JULY & AUGUST

ONGOING + WEEKLY ACTIVITIES

THURSDAY, JUNE 8

SUMMER READING SIGN-UP BEGINS

OUTSIDE “THE BOX”

Venture down the Hunter Creek trail to discover Story Walk Aspen.

CAMPFIRE COOKING 101

Check out an extensive collection of cookbooks for kids and families.

RIVER VALLEY RANCH

JUNIOR GOLF

AGES 6-8: TUESDAYS – 9:30-11:00 AM

AGES 8-10: WEDNESDAYS – 1:00-2:30 PM

AGES 11+: THURSDAYS – 1:00-2:30 PM

SESSION ONE

4 WEEKS STARTING JUNE 6, 7, 8

SESSION TWO

4 WEEKS STARTING JULY 11, 12, 13

PGA JUNIOR LEAGUE

AGES 10-16

PRACTICE: MONDAY AFTERNOONS COMPETE IN 6 NINE-HOLE SCRAMBLE MATCHES

JOIN A ROCK BAND

Each week, a changing mix of musicians comes together to form bands and learn songs that they love.

After learning, practicing, and growing musically over the course of a week-long session, each group gives a rock concert for family and friends.

NO MUSICAL EXPERIENCE REQUIRED –ONLY A WISH TO MAKE MUSIC AND FRIENDS WHILE EXPLORING YOUR CREATIVITY. INSTRUMENTS PROVIDED. SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE.

“As women, we have unique health and wellness goals at every stage of our adult lives. My goal is to provide holistic, patient-centered care considering your mind, body and spirit to make you a better version of yourself.”

SNOWMASS VILLAGE RECREATION DEPARTMENT

KID’S SUMMER DAY CAMP (970) 922-2240

JUNE, JULY & AUGUST

MONDAY – FRIDAY

8:00 AM – 5:00 PM

AGES: 5-10

REGISTRATION OPENS

TUESDAY, MARCH 21 – 8:00 AM

SIGN UP PER DAY SPOTS FILL QUICKLY

CAMPERS ENJOY

Swimming at the SVRC pool, a solar-heated, salt-water facility; climbing at the Rec Center’s bouldering cave; playing group games in nearby parks; going on hikes and bike rides; taking scheduled field trips; watching movies; arts and crafts; and plenty of downtime for open-ended play.

PARENTS ENJOY

Picking up happy kids at the end of a workday.

THEATRE ASPEN EDUCATION

WEEKLY CAMPS & PRODUCTION CAMPS

(970) 925-9313

WEEKLY CAMPS

SING. DANCE. CREATE. PERFORM.

JUNE 12 – AUGUST 11

WEEK-LONG SESSIONS

GRADES K-2 & 3-6

THE TEMPEST

JUNE 12 – JULY 1

GRADES 7-12

SHREK THE MUSICAL JR

JUNE 19 – JULY 22

GRADES 3-6

THE 25 TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE

JULY 17 – AUGUST 6

GRADES 3-6

WSRF

EARLY CHILDHOOD CAMP

WALDORF SCHOOL ON THE ROARING FORK

MONDAY – FRIDAY

8:30 AM – 3:30 PM

AGES* 3-5 (970) 963-1960

WEEKLY SESSIONS: JUNE 5 – JULY 23

Week 1: June 5-9

Week 2: June 12-16

Week 3: June 19-23

Week 4: June 26-30

Week 5: July 10-14

Week 6: July 17-23

CHILDREN CONNECT WITH NATURE and live into the rhythms of a Colorado summer on the school’s 13-acre campus along the Roaring Fork River. Each day, campers spend ample time outdoors hiking through the wetlands to mellow side-arms of the river; exploring nature; enjoying openended imaginative play; and tending to a garden. Outside activity is balanced with storytelling, singing, crafts, and circle games. Homemade, organic snacks are provided every day.

*MUST BE POTTY TRAINED.

WINDWALKERS

EQUINE ASSISTED LEARNING AND THERAPY CENTER

MISSOURI HEIGHTS (970) 963-2909

ALL INCLUSIVE/ ALL ABILITIES CAMPS ONGOING WEEKLY EQUINE THERAPY SESSIONS

PONY PALS

AGES 4-5

JUNE 6-8

JUNE 20-22

AUGUST 8-10

Children play and learn through art, education, and equine therapy.

ALL INCLUSIVE/ALL ABILITIES

AGES 6-11

JUNE 13-16

JUNE 27-30

AUGUST 1-4

Campers will participate in art, ranch chores, riding, and educational activities.

YEWFLOW BIKING

CAMP

NEW! BIKE CAMP CREATED BY COACH ANDREW MANN MAY, JUNE, JULY, & AUGUST CARBONDALE, BASALT, SNOWMASS, & COAL BASIN RANCH IN REDSTONE (404) 992-2491

Focused on building bike park skills, connecting with yourself and nature, and growing into your personal riding style.

3 TYPES OF SUMMER CAMPS: YEW CAMPS

3 FULL-DAYS PER SESSION

AGES 7-14

Focus: Beginner riders having fun on bikes.

SKILLZ CAMPS

3 FULL-DAYS PER SESSION

AGES 7-10 & 11-14

Experienced riders focused on technical park skills and stepping up your bike game.

BIKE & PAINT

3 FULL-DAYS PER SESSION

(GIRLS ONLY) AGES 9-12

She-redders looking to combine their love of art, nature, and riding bikes.

YMCA OF THE ROCKIES

CAMP CHIEF OURAY (CCO)

GRANBY, COLORADO (8,750 FEET ABOVE SEA LEVEL) (970) 887-2648

AGES 5-17

GROUPED BY AGE

JUNE, JULY & AUGUST SLEEP-AWAY CAMP

HALF-WEEK & WEEK-LONG SESSIONS

Children make friends from all around the world in CCO’s programs, which are designed to build confidence, independence, and resilience.

Campers live in cabins of up to 10 kids and 2 staff members. This community living is the core of the CCO experience. It builds a camper’s ability to group problem-solve and make group decisions.

ACTIVITIES

Archery

Arts & Crafts

Campfire Skits/Songs

Group Games

Hiking

Nature Studies

Outdoor Survival

Rafting and horseback riding (additional fees)

WSRF

SOPRIS CIRCUS CAMP

WALDORF SCHOOL ON THE ROARING FORK

MONDAY – FRIDAY

8:30 AM – 3:30 PM

AGES 9-14

(970) 963-1960

TWO WEEK-LONG SESSIONS

JULY 31–AUGUST 4 & AUGUST 7-11

FACULTY:

Cynthia Johnson from San Juan Circus

Julianna Lichatz from the Sopris Circus at WSRF

Jesse the Juggler

ACTIVITIES:

AERIAL SILKS

TUMBLING

JUGGLING

OBJECT MANIPULATION

HAND BALANCING

PARTNER ACROBATICS

UNICYCLING BALANCE GAMES

YOUNG WRITERS’ INSTITUTE

OF ASPEN 2023

GENEROUSLY HOSTED BY ASPEN COMMUNITY SCHOOL

WOODY CREEK

ENTERING GRADES 3-10

(720) 338-2240

AWARD-WINNING GUEST AUTHORS

KATHLEEN PELLEY & JOVAN MAYS

JUNE 12-16

9:00 AM –12:00 PM

“THE BEST DECISION OF OUR ENTIRE YEAR! The instructors made it fun, engaging and meaningful. Our older daughter later applied the techniques and strategies in school whenever she was stuck with writing assignments. Our younger daughter continues to drag us to Home Depot so she can collect sample paint chips for writing poems based on a lesson she learned at camp. There is simply no doubt –this camp provides countless opportunities for kids to find their voices and experience writing in fun, non-threatening, and creative ways. Friday Sharing Day was a powerful opportunity for us to hear what all of the kids created.”

Jasmine and Harvey, Denver, CO

Mountain Family’s school-based health centers offers affordable medical, dental, and behavioral healthcare conveniently located at your child’s school. Our providers can help your children with vaccines, sports physicals, and wellness checks. Year-round services are available at:

• Basalt Middle and High Schools

• Roaring Fork High School

• Glenwood Springs Elementary School

• Avon Elementary School

Looking for whole family care? We have integrated health centers in Basalt, Glenwood Springs, Rifle, and Avon that also offer prenatal, postpartum, pediatric, and adult healthcare.

That’s Our Family,Caring for Yours.

Call 970-945-2840 ext. 6065 to make an appointment or visit our website https://mountainfamily.org to learn more.

Se habla Español.

“SHARING WHO WE ARE THROUGH A PENCIL.”

Join Coach Andrew Mann for a steller lineup of bike camps, clinics, and private lessons throughout the RFV! details:

1. William Royer, a senior at ASPEN HIGH SCHOOL , took advantage of an early-release Wednesday on February 15 to head to Little Annie’s on the backside of Aspen Mountain with his dad Chris. Need one more reason to love this place? After school on a powder day.

2. RIVER VALLEY RANCH opens its driving range to the community during sledding season, and on this powder day in January, kids flocked there with their parents. “We love to provide that access to the community. It is well-loved and well-used,” said Julie Warren of RVR Golf. (PHOTO: STEVE VAN DYKE)

3. THE BUDDY PROGRAM ’s Gingerbread House Workshop is the organization’s second-largest annual fundraiser. Participants purchased kits to assemble at home, or they could join a packed house at the Third Street Center on December 4 for a festive opportunity to decorate houses with Little Buddies. (PHOTO: JEANNE SOULDERN)

4. ROSS MONTESSORI SCHOOL’s Visual Arts teacher “Ms. Mitzi” Brasier led the school community in a collaborative art project. Every student, faculty, and staff member was asked to color, paint, or draw a paper feather, which was later assembled into two largerthan-life wings for the school’s annual Art Show, where a wide variety of student work was on display for parents and the public.

(PHOTO: JEANNE SOULDERN)

5. A wintertime highlight for WALDORF SCHOOL ON THE ROARING FORK third grade students is a weekly trip to Spring Gulch Ski Area. (PHOTO: LIESL BELLACK)

6. A Valentine’s Weekend date night, involving a pottery wheel, wine, chocolates, and roses at the CARBONDALE CLAY CENTER. Sounds like a scene from Ghost with Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore – except way, way less steamy, and filled with a lot more laughter, fun, and friends.

(PHOTO: ELISE HILLBRAND)

Whether we’re launching off a catwalk, or soaring down a sled hill, or taking flight with handmade paper feathers, we live in a place that begs us to let our spirits fly.

Summer of Science

Explorers Camp

Ages 7-13

Robotics Camp

Ages 7-13

Rocket Camp

4

Girls in STEM

Ages 6-8

Kinder STEM

Ages 7-13 5

Ages 5 -7

Early STEM Ages 3-5

Sign up for Camp AspenScienceCenter org

YOUNG WRITERS’ INSTITUTE OF ASPEN

summer camp

Aspiring authors and poets work alongside peers with award-winning writers to explore a variety of forms, grow their writer’s voice, and experience the power of the written word.

JUNE 12-16

9:00 AM – NOON DAILY

$4OO BEFORE 4/30 • $450 AFTER 4/30

RISING GRADES 3-10

generously hosted by ASPEN COMMUNITY SCHOOL

LEARN MORE AND REGISTER:

EAM COLLABORATIVE Elizabeth Maloney (702) 338-2240

PRODUCTIONS Springtime 4

RYAN CAMP

I’ll always be grateful for the opportunities I’ve had to take the stage. Starting in first grade at WSRF, then at RFHS, and in a Theatre Aspen summer production of Mary Poppins Jr., I experienced an unmatched feeling being part of a theatre production. It is stressful yet exciting, and challenging but deeply rewarding. Anyone who has taken part in theatre knows the feeling of taking your final bow after the curtain closes after each show. It is an unparalleled sense of accomplishment, excitement, and relief that can only be matched by the most daring adrenaline junkies. It is a beautiful thing not only to participate in but to watch as well. Save the date for these upcoming student productions for audiences of all ages. (PHOTO: THEATRE ASPEN’S THE DROWSY CHAPERONE. NIK HOUSE MEDIA, COURTESY OF TA.)

THE FANTASTIC MR. FOX

Roald Dahl’s classic tale of three nasty farmers and a family of clever foxes.

PRODUCED BY SOL THEATRE COMPANY

MARCH 9, 10 & 11: 6:00 PM; MARCH 12: 2:00 PM

STAGED AT THUNDER RIVER THEATRE

PIRATES OF PENZANCE

This witty musical is filled with love, laughter, adventure, and best of all, pirates!

ASPEN HIGH SCHOOL (WITH TICKETS AVAILABLE THROUGH THEATRE ASPEN)

MARCH 16-18: 7:00 PM

MARCH 19: 2:00 PM

ASPEN DISTRICT THEATRE

THE SOUND OF MUSIC

There is nothing better than unforgettable music and a timelessly beautiful story.

BASALT HIGH SCHOOL IN COLLABORATION WITH ROARING FORK HIGH SCHOOL

APRIL 8: 7:00 PM

APRIL 9: 2:00 PM, 7:00 PM

APRIL 15: 7:00 PM

APRIL 16: 2:00 PM 7:00 PM

STAGED AT BOTH RFHS AND BHS

HARRIET THE SPY

Based on the classic novel about the amusing mishaps of a want-to-be spy.

THEATRE ASPEN’S MIDDLE SCHOOL PRODUCTION

MAY 11-13: 7:00 PM

MAY 14: 2:00 PM BLACK

MARCH 8 & 10

KID’S DANCE & ART

COLORADO MOUNTAIN COLLEGE (GLENWOOD) TWO BACK-TO-BACK CLASSES

WEDNESDAYS, STARTING MARCH 8 FRIDAYS, STARTING MARCH 10 CLASS TIMES VARY BY AGE

Instructors Maurine Taufer (Dance) and Thelma Zabel (Art) aim to instill a love of art and dance and increase confidence and artistic expression. Learn the foundations of dance in movement, ballet, and modern dance, and explore art using a children’s book or a famous work of art as inspiration for each class meeting. Students with qualifying disabilities are welcome; contact CMC staff to coordinate a plan.

RECREATION DEPARTMENT Aspen

FITNE SS CL ASSES

When it’s cold outside, head inside for a variety of fitness classes at the Red Brick Recreation Center or Aspen Recreation Center. Classes include BodyPump, Yoga, and Spin. Reservations required.

SWIMMING LESSONS

Get ready for summer with private or group lessons. All ages from tots to adult.

POOL AMENITIES

The Aquatic Center at the ARC is home to a 25-yard six-lane lap pool, a zero-entry leisure pool, and a two-story water slide (must be 48” tall to ride). Enjoy master swimming, water aerobics, lap swimming, and family swim.

PUBLIC SKATE

Glide around the ice rink at two different locations offering public skating almost daily. Lewis Ice Arena (at the ARC) and Aspen Ice Garden (233 W Hyman Ave.) Rentals available.

PARKRUN

Join Aspen Rec for a free, fun, and friendly weekly 5K community event. Walk, jog, run, volunteer, or spectate. Enjoy post-run coffee and muffins donated by Paradise Bakery. Register at parkrun.us/aspen

LEARN MORE & REGISTER aspenrecreation.com

YOUTH & ADULT SPRING ACTIVITIES

Get ready for Spring! Sign up for spring/summer activities including: basketball, summer camps, and softball.

(PHOTO, LEFT, NATUZA OLEN, COURTESY OF CMC.)

WRITTEN BY JEANNE SOULDERN DESIGNED BY MIMI DIAMOND

MARCH 2-5

AUDI FIS SKI WORLD

ASPEN MOUNTAIN

MARCH 10

CUP

MARCH 3 & 4, 10:00 AM - 2:00 PM

MARCH 5, 9:00 AM - 2:00 PM

Opening ceremonies kick off with a torchlight parade and fireworks in Snowmass Base Village. Then all eyes turn to America’s Downhill™ course on Aspen Mountain. Premiere alpine racers will suit up, clip in, and compete against each other (and the clock) in men’s super-G and downhill. Throughout the weekend, show up for free outdoor concerts, evening events, and podium ceremonies. Bring your cowbell to cheer for racers like an old timer.

AYC FAMILY FEUD ASPEN

HOTEL JEROME 6:00 PM

Hosted Live! The 5th and final Family Feud Aspen will feature eight teams competing in a game show-style competition. Festivities include a cocktail reception, virtual silent auction, paddle raise, three-course dinner, and an after party hosted at the W Hotel. The event benefits AYC’s programming that’s fun and socially supportive for kids in grades 4-12. Open when school is out, all day, year round, even most holidays. It’s an invaluable resource for working parents, offered completely free.

S nowmass Vi llage

RECREATION DEPARTMENT

MARCH 21

SUMMER PROGRAM SIGN-UP

8:00 AM

Programs include group and private swim lessons, tennis lessons, fencing camps, AND adult leagues.

CAMP REGISTRATION UPDATE

SWIM LESSON PLACEMENT

Get priority access to swim lesson sign-up, and determine what class level best fits your child for placement in group swim lessons. Sign up for 15-minute time slots. $10 (Free for Rec Center members.) Dates to be announced at SnowmassRecreation.com.

APRIL 8

AGUA EGG HUNT

A Snowmass Village Recreation Easter tradition because our favorite bunny loves taking a dip in the heated outdoor swimming pool. Prizes for all participants.

REGISTRATION REQUIRED –Spots open on March 21 at 8:00 AM $5. (Free for Rec Center Members)

HOST A PARTY

Starting in 2023, SMVR will be changing its registration processes to make it easier for parents and staff. The most up-to-date details are available in the Rec Department’s online programming catalog.

Have your next party at the Snowmass Village Recreation Center. Rental and party options include the swimming pool, bounce houses, and an indoor climbing wall. Ask about packages, prices, and times.

SNOWMASS REC IS HIRING

Looking for talented individuals to join the team for the summer. Positions include:

• Summer Camp Counselor

• Lifeguard

• Water Safety Instructor

• Soccer Referee

• Recreation Assistant

• Parks & Trails Specialist

• Softball Umpire

The Town offers competitive pay, a flexible schedule, and plenty of perks – including bus passes, recreation benefits, and paid holidays.

(PHOTO: LEMOS MEDIA)

(PHOTOS: OLIVE AND WEST PHOTOGRAPHY, COURTESY OF AYC.)

MARCH 15–MAY 10

ART IN THE FIELD TEEN PROGRAM

ASPEN ART MUSEUM

MARCH 15, 17, 19, 29; APRIL 19, 21-23, 27, MAY 19

TIMES AND LOCATIONS VARY

On March 15, the free Art in the Field teen program kicks off at 4:00 PM Teens will meet with staff and learn about jobs in every department of the museum. Then they are encouraged to experience what really goes on at local Valley arts organizations: Carbondale Clay Center, Aspen Chapel Gallery, the Resnick Center for Herbert Bayer Studies, Carbondale Arts, and The Art Base. A highlight, shown above, will be a Poncili Creación two-day puppet-making and performance workshop.

(PHOTO:

Carbondale RECREATION DEPARTMENT

MARCH 15

LIVING WITH WOLVES: CO-EXISTENCE IN COLORADO

WHEELER OPERA HOUSE, ASPEN

6:00 - 8:00 PM

Wolf reintroduction in Colorado is coming to fruition, since Colorado voters decided to restore gray wolves to the state by December 2023. While the reintroduction timeline is being debated, the public is encouraged to participate in the discussion. Join Aspen Center for Environmental Studies (ACES) for an evening of short videos, a speech from professor and scientist, Joanna Lambert, a panel discussion about living with wolves, and a live performance by the group Lost Walks.

MAY 29–JULY 31

YOUTH BASEBALL

MULTIPLE LOCATIONS

MULTIPLE PRACTICE TIMES

AGES 7-12

Registration opens April 3. $100

MARCH 1 22

EARLY RELEASE DODGEBALL

AGES 8-14

WEDNESDAYS 3:00–4:00 PM

CARBONDALE RECREATION & COMMUNITY CENTER

Registration opens Feb 15. $35

ONGOING PROGRAMS YOUTH CLIMBING BEGINNER (6-8) - TUESDAYS INTERMEDIATE (9-14) - THURSDAYS 4:00–5:00 PM

MAHJONGG MONDAY ALL AGES 1:30PM

YOGA EARLY RELEASE WEDNESDAYS 2:30-3:15 PM

TAEKWONDO ALL AGES TUES. & THURS. 6:00 - 7:00 PM SATURDAY 10:00 - 11:00 AM

FRIDAY FRENZY AGES 1-6 11:00 AM–12:30 PM

APRIL 8

WHERE MY PEEPS AT? SCAVENGER HUNT 9:00–10:45 AM

Teams race around downtown Carbondale on foot completing tasks and solving clues. Prizes awarded for costumes plus first, second, and third-place teams. Bonus prize for finding the Golden Peep.

LITTLE PEEPS HUNT

AGES 7 AND UNDER

Kids hunt for an Easter basket then use clues on the list inside to fill their basket. All teams guaranteed one Easter basket & photos with the Easter Bunny.

MAY 27

CARBONDALE POOL OPENING DAY

Currently accepting applications for the new Aquatics Coordinator. Lifeguard and Swim Instructor positions open in March and April. Lifeguard Training will be held mid May & early June. All dates and times for trainings TBD.

MAY 1

SWIM LESSON

REGISTRATION

SIGN UP FOR SUMMER CLASSES

AGES: 6 MONTHS – AGE 12 SWIM LESSON DATES & TIMES TBA

MARCH 12 & APRIL 20

ROARING FORK YOUTH ORCHESTRA WINTER & SPRING CONCERTS

WINTER CONCERT, MARCH 12

SPRING CONCERT, APRIL 20

4:00 PM

THIRD STREET CENTER, CARBONDALE

The Roaring Fork Youth Orchestra brings student musicians together throughout the Valley and gives them the opportunity to play in an orchestra from kindergarten through high school. Rehearsals are hosted in Aspen, Carbondale, Glenwood Springs, and New Castle. Children of all ages and young musicians are encouraged to attend these free, public concerts.

LIBRARYPitkin County

MARCH 21

“A RIVER OUT OF TIME” FILM SCREENING + Q&A WITH DR. TOM MINCKLEY

THE ARTS COUNCIL AT WILLITS (TACAW) DOORS OPEN AT 6:30 PM, SHOW AT 7:00 PM

In 1869, a small group of surveyors led by John Wesley Powell set out to map the unknown extent of the Colorado River Basin. One hundred-and-fifty years later, a group of artists, writers, photographers, and scientists, led by Dr. Tom Minckley, followed in Powell’s footsteps to experience his journey and explore what the future may hold for water in the American West. Hosted by TACAW, in partnership with Roaring Fork Conservancy, this is an all-ages seated event.

(PHOTO: A RIVER OUT OF TIME)

APRIL 7

HEALING HOOF-IT ANIMAL PARADE

MAIN STREET, CARBONDALE

5:30 PM

Carbondale’s First Friday celebration this month brings the community together around Smiling Goat Ranch’s Healing Hoof-It for Autism and PTSD awareness. A 5K run/walk and 1-mile walk starts at the Carbondale Recreation Center at 5:30 p.m. The parade, with horses, miniature horses, and goats from Smiling Goat Ranch, will follow walkers through local neighborhoods and finish at Chacos Park on 4th Street in downtown Carbondale.

MARCH 14 & 21

APRIL 11 & 25

ASPEN SCIENCE CENTER CODING CLUB

GRADES 8-10

4:00 PM

Learn Python in a fun, engaging, and casual environment.

AFTER SCHOOL WEDNESDAYS 3:30 PM; 2:00 PM - 2ND WEDNESDAY

Crafts, science fun, and other projects for school-aged children.

MARCH 13 & 27

APRIL 17 & 2 4

EARLY STEM EXPLORATION WITH ASPEN SCIENCE CENTER

AGES 1-5 10:30 AM

Explore the wonders of STEM at an early age.

MARCH 1 & 15

APRIL 12 & 19

GIRLS WHO CODE

GRADES 3-5 4:00 PM

This session of GWC includes a book club discussion and practical application activities.

WEEKDAY MORNINGS 10:30 AM NEW TIME

BABY STORY TIME AGES 0 - 2

TUESDAYS

SNOWMASS VILLAGE STORY TIME THE COLLECTIVE ALL AGES

TUESDAYS

STORY TIME AT THE LIBRARY ALL AGES

WEDNESDAYS & THURSDAYS

BOLISTAS ROJAS / LITTLE RED BAG CLUB ALL AGES

FRIDAYS

Bilingual stories and activities for young children.

DOLLY PARTON’S IMAGINATION LIBRARY AGES 0-5

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library mails free high-quality, ageappropriate books to children from birth to age five. Learn more and sign up online. PRESCHOOL-AGED

(PHOTO: JEANNE SOULDERN)

MAY 15-19 14TH ANNUAL BONEDALE BIKE WEEK

CARBONDALE

TIMES AND LOCATIONS

VARY

In 2008, Bonedale Bike Week was founded by Tracy Wilson, and Jess and Dave Downing, as means to celebrate the bicycle in all of its forms. “We hope local schools will partake in Bike Week by commuting together,” said Wilson. Participants have a chance to win prizes for riding their bikes to school. Show up for free morning coffee and donuts each day from 7:00-9:00 AM on the corner of 4th and Main. Plus daily scheduled activities for all ages to promote bike awareness. All events are free, and everyone is welcome.

LIBRARIES Garfield County

CODING CLUB WITH ASPEN SCIENCE CENTER

CARBONDALE BRANCH LIBRARY

GRADES 8-10

SECOND & FOURTH THURSDAYS

Have fun while learning Python, the most useful coding language. You will be amazed at how fast you learn and how much you can create. Perfect for students at any experience level. This course is led by Baker Casagrande, an educator for the Aspen Science Center who studied Computational Physics at Colorado College.

STORY TIME

Stories, songs, and new friends for young children with their adults.

CARBONDALE THURSDAYS – 10:30 AM

GLENWOOD SPRINGS

TUESDAYS – 10:30 AM

RIFLE THURSDAYS 11:00 AM

NEW CASTLE TUESDAYS & WEDNESDAYS – 10:30 AM

PARACHUTE WEDNESDAYS – 10:30 AM

SILT

WEDNESDAYS – 10:30 AM

THE DIGITAL LIBRARY IS ALWAYS OPEN

Enjoy reading eBooks and audiobooks as well as streaming movies and TV shows on your device anytime, anywhere.

CLUB DE BOLSITAS ROJAS

Padres y/o Cuidadores de Niños(as) e hijos de 0-5 años de edad, acompáñenos para disfrutar de cuentos y actividades en español. Los participantes pueden formar parte del programa “Bolsitas Rojas” de Raising A Reader, y llevar prestada una bolsa con libros cada semana.

CARBONDALE – LOS LUNES 10:30 AM

GWS – LOS MIÉRCOLES 10:30 AM

RIFLE – LOS VIERNES 12:00 PM

NEW CASTLE – LOS VIERNES 10:00 AM

PARACHUTE – LOS JUEVES 12:00 PM

SILT – LOS LUNES 10:30 AM

FIRST AND THIRD TUESDAYS PAWS TO READ - READING WITH THERAPY DOGS FROM HEELING PARTNERS OF THE RFV

CARBONDALE BRANCH LIBRARY ALL AGES 3:30 PM

MARCH

5-11

TEEN TECH WEEK

ACTIVITIES AT EACH BRANCH LOCATION

DETAILS ONLINE

Check out brand-new gadgets. VR headsets, drones, coding robots, and 3D printers.

CHECK OUT A NEW LAPTOP OR WI-FI TO-GO

Adults can now borrow laptops and hotspots are now available at all Garfield County Library Branches. Patrons can check them out and take them home for up to three weeks. Reserve online or at your local branch library.

CARBONDALE, GLENWOOD SPRINGS, NEW CASTLE, SILT, RIFLE, AND PARACHUTE (970) 625-4270 GCPLD.ORG gcpld.org

(PHOTOS: TRACY WILSON)

COLDWELL BANKER MASON MORSE ELIZABETH CAMPAIGNE

(970) 309-6713

Always drawn to the outdoors, Elizabeth moved to Aspen more than 25 years ago. After being a client of CBMM, her decision to join CBMM as an agent was easy. A mother of three, Elizabeth is active in the community and serves on the Smuggler Park HOA.

5POINT FILM FEST

STARTING MAY 1

The 5Point Educator Reel offers a free, inspired, high-quality film program paired with a useful curriculum for public school educators to use in their classrooms. This resource was created to support student learning and engagement.

ASPEN VALLEY HOSPITAL DR. RAHUL SHAH

(970) 279-4111

Specializing in pediatrics, Dr. Shah provides friendly care for infants, children, and adolescents. Comprehensive internal and family medicine services, treating the whole child through wellness visits, treating illness, and integrating behavioral health and nutrition. AVH Primary Care in Aspen and Basalt/Willits.

ALL KIDS DENTAL

(970) 928-9500

All Kids Dental is always looking for kind, friendly employees. They offer a great work-life balance, training, and full benefits. Reach out to start your dental career. You can join the team in creating healthy, confident smiles with compassionate care.

ASPEN VALLEY HOSPITAL DR. CAROLINE MEARS

(970) 279-4111

Specializing in women’s health, Dr. Mears is now accepting new patients. Well-women visits, pap smears, pelvic exams, nutritional counseling, weight management, comprehensive lab analysis, and patient-centered care. AVH Primary Care in Aspen and Basalt/Willits.

ALPINE BANK

(970) 945-2424

An independent, employee-owned Colorado bank employing more than 800 people. Serving more than 160,000 customers with retail, business, mortgage, and electronic banking services. Supported more than 700 Colorado nonprofits in 2021 with $1.82 million in grants, sponsorships, and gifts.

COLDWELL BANKER MASON MORSE AUDREY IMHOFF & GELLA SUTRO

(970) 379-3880 • (303) 870-6974

"They made the biggest transaction of our lives seamless, smooth, and incredibly successful from the very start. We are forever thankful for these lovely ladies!"

Chris and Ami Maes, Carbondale

LAZURE CUSTOM WALL DESIGNS

(970) 309-5559

Clients worldwide hire Charles Andrade for custom children's murals and decorative painting. Lazure technique, murals, faux finishes, complete decorative painting services, commissioned fine art, and Lazure workshops.

ENGEL & VÖELKERS

ASPEN. SNOWMASS. BASALT. CARBONDALE. (970) 925-8400

Passionately guiding those looking to purchase, sell, rent, or invest in the Roaring Fork Valley with expert advice - and forming lasting friendships in the process.

COLDWELL BANKER MASON MORSE MARIA WIMMER

(970) 274-0647

From listing 100-acre ranches in Rifle to helping first-time home buyers purchasing a condo in Basalt, no transaction is too large or small for Maria.

THE ENCHANTED EVENT

(970) 309-6427

Heidi and Clara are the creative women behind this locally-owned business offering magical party setups. From custom teepees to super heroes. So you can focus on creating magical memories with your friends and family.

CORNERSTONE HOME LENDING

(970) 704-6440

Richard Fuller works closely with customers to understand their goals and ensure they understand their options so they can find the mortgage program that’s right for them.

ROARING FORK TRANSIT AUTHORITY

(970) 925-8484

RFTA serves more than 100 stops between Aspen and Silt. Operating around the clock. Kids 5 and under ride free. New youth fare = $1 for ages 6 -18.

MARTIN INSURANCE GROUP

(970) 963-6161

Options, integrity, expert advice. That's why you have an agent. Finding the right coverage can be daunting. Let Lucas Huttenhower and the team at Martin Insurance Group handle the details, so you can relax with your family, knowing everything is covered.

RJ PADDYWACKS

(970) 963-1700

New – expanded freshwater fish department with 31 tanks. With supplies for cats, dogs, birds, and reptiles. Highest quality pet food, ranch feed, treats, toys, brushes, and beds. CBD pet wellness. Delivery from Aspen to Silt.

RED HILL ANIMAL HEALTH CENTER

(970) 704-0403

A full-suite veterinary practice supported by an in-house lab, on-site operating room, and a boarding facility for daycare or loving longterm lodging when families travel.

THE AGENCY MONICA VIALL

(970) 319-1119

Professional, local, committed, and knowledgeable, Monica Viall connects buyers and sellers on property transactions, while helping them through the process, start to finish.

MEET OUR PEOPLE Say HELLO

“I asked her, dreamily, if we had met, and when she told me that we had not, I gave her a little finger wave, the type a leprechaun might offer a pixie who was floating by on a maple leaf.

Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls

HERE & NOW Summer Camp Planner: 45-51

SPRING EDITION SPECIAL SECTION

ROARING FORK ORAL SURGERY

(970) 945-9644

Oral surgery for the whole family. Wisdom teeth, bone grafting, dental implants, full arch rehabilitation, IV and oral sedation, kids and special needs, facial trauma, pathology, botox, and TMJ dysfunction. Dr. Colin Galbraith, DMD.

RICHARD CAMP

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

(970) 948-7066

"With every new project, I meet a new challenge. Each site has its own amenities and constraints; each owner, their vision and style," Rich said. "It's my job to bring these elements together in a way that unites function and beauty."

MOUNTAIN FAMILY HEALTH

(970) 945-2840

School-based health centers providing medical, dental, and behavioral care for students at BMS, BHS, RFHS, and GSHS. Mountain Family Health also maintains four integrated health centers offering prenatal, pediatric, and adult care.

SOTHEBY’S INTERNATIONAL REALTY PENNEY CARRUTH & SARA KURZ

(970) 379-9133 • (970) 379-2148

Combining a seasoned perspective with invigorated creativity, they are able to service any client. If you are looking to upgrade your real estate needs, contact them today.

Working parents start booking spots in the Valley’s day camps as soon as programs announce their upcoming schedules. Our special section gives kids’ programming advertisers a place to tell more of their story than can fit in an ad. We work with our partners to present a wide range of ideas for every age, location, and interest – so parents can see lots of options all in one place. This content is expanded online. Scan QR codes for each camp to find photos, detailed descriptions, and calendar items tied to the first day of each camp session. As camps announce new classes, more scheduling options will be added and boosted until Labor Day.

School Enrollment: 62

MEET OUR PEOPLE SPOTLIGHT

When you choose your child’s school, you are choosing the shape of their education, their school friends (and yours), as well as the place where your kids will spend the majority of their waking hours for rest of their childhood. We asked parents, alumni, and faculty from our advertising schools to tell us why they love their school.

EVERYONE IS INCLUDED

Our checkerboard here is where you’ll find the rest the gang. It shuffles seasonally, depending on who is in the spotlight.

EVERYONE GETS THEIR SEASON TO SHINE

SPRING = Summer Camp Planner

SUMMER = Homelife

AUTUMN = Back to School

WINTER = Wellness and Local Retail

WE’RE HERE FOR YOU ALL THE TIME.

Between editions, we published more than 250 online calendar items in Winter. Our readers can search by date, location, age, and interest. Our partners get unlimited listings for classes, workshops, open houses, and every public happening.

‘Well, hi there,’ I whispered.”

DAVID SEDARIS

If you’ve never gotten a chance to say Hello to our community partners, please let us introduce you.

ASPEN COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL

85 COUNTRY DAY WAY, ASPEN

(970) 925-1909

GRADES: PRE-K – 8

INDEPENDENT SCHOOL TUITION ASSISTANCE

BUS FROM CARBONDALE TO ASPEN

“The progress of school at ACDS is similar to going up and down ski lifts, with new terrain and new challenges. Sometimes we fall, and sometimes we hit that perfect run. We definitely all learn to get up again and continue smiling, knowing that life, too, is filled with ups and downs.”

Brighton Johnson, alumnus

“Excellence doesn’t just happen. It takes bold and intentional preparation. So everything we do at ACDS is thoughtfully designed to challenge and nurture children as they build confidence, resilience, and joy in learning.”

Josh Wolman, Head of School

“You’ll find us doing different activities –going on a hut trip, biking in the desert, swimming on the shores of Lake Powell, walking in the ruins of Peru, talking to senators in DC. I’ve done things I never would have done otherwise.”

Max Marshall, alumnus

SCHOOL ENROLLMENT

OF LEARNINGSparking a Love

ROSS MONTESSORI SCHOOL

109 LEWIES LANE, CARBONDALE (970) 963-7199

GRADES K-8

FREE PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL

BUS FROM GWS TO WILLITS

LOTTERY APPLICATION DEADLINE: MARCH 20

“Each classroom is designed to meet the needs of each student. You will see children working independently and in small groups; deeply engaged in their work; and respectful of themselves and their surroundings.”

Beca Martinez, Enrollment Coordinator

“I feel like the way that Montessori is designed so students are in charge of their education has really helped me with my time management skills, and it helped me challenge myself. I felt prepared for college and for high school, because I had the ability to take ownership of my education at a young age.”

Maeve Cassidy, alumna

“A student told me this, and I think he said it better than I can. ‘At Ross, they teach us grace and courtesy, and how to observe real beauty. Real beauty is important. We can learn other things when we get where we’re going.’”

Sonya Hemmen, Head of School

WALDORF SCHOOL ON THE ROARING FORK

16543 HIGHWAY 82, CARBONDALE (970) 963-1960

GRADES: PRE-K – 8

PARENT & CHILD: BIRTH-AGE 4 INDEPENDENT SCHOOL TUITION ASSISTANCE BUS SERVICE FROM GWS & ASPEN

“What I love about Waldorf, which has carried me through high school, college, and now my doctoral program, is that you learn how to use all of your senses to learn.”

MacKenzie Small, alumna

“Waldorf education teaches your brain to connect all the dots. As students, we learn to fill out the whole picture of a subject, and how it relates to us. Education that integrative is like a complete, living, breathing experience you never forget.”

Anthia Gillick, alumna

“The goal is not to make the students artists. They are already artists. The goal is to help make them balanced human beings.”

Charles Andrade, parent

“Every component of Waldorf curriculum is carefully considered to meet the developmental needs of the child and nurture human capacities, including critical thinking, creative problem solving and adaptability.”

Liesl Bellack, alumna, Marketing Coordinator

We asked teachers, parents, students, and alumni of our advertising schools to tell us what works in their classrooms and why.

SPOTLIGHT

Pearls Grit FROM

PLAYLIST

It takes grit, and at times, it also takes that certain song to pull us through whatever heartaches (or headaches) life places before us.

As Aretha Franklin said, “Music does a lot of things for a lot of people. It’s transporting, for sure. It can take you right back, years back, to the very moment certain things happened in your life. It’s uplifting, it’s encouraging, it’s strengthening.”

MP’s creative team queued up a Top 10 list of “survive and thrive” songs.

1. I WON’T BACK DOWN. TOM PETTY

It’s a little cliché, but it definitely got me through some rough patches, especially in my early twenties. This song continues to give me a little extra motivation whenever it plays on the radio. ~

SARAH KUHN

2. COVERED IN RAIN. JOHN MAYER

From his live album Any Given Thursday, this song is comforting to me. It is calm yet driven, and this is highlighted by the beautiful and emotional guitar solo played in the middle of the piece. The song has the same feeling for me as watching a heavy rain from the comfort of the indoors. ~RYAN

CAMP

3.

NO ONE SAID IT WOULD BE EASY. CLOUD CULT

Cloud Cult’s songs feel like they understand my emotions, fears, and desire to grow and be a loving human. My husband Lewis brought Cloud Cult into my life, and I love their whole discography. This band has gotten me through hard times, illness, and personal growth. Another empowering Cloud Cult song that you’ve got to check out is, “One way out of a hole.” ~ RENEE

RAMGE

4. SOMETHING TO BELIEVE IN. SHAWN COLVIN

I love Colvin’s line, “There will always be stars and the wind, and little lines on your face when you grin.” It cheers me up every time. Social Distortion’s cover of Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire” is a close-second, especially when my husband Rich covers it. ~ KATHRYN

5. AMERICAN TUNE. PAUL SIMON

CAMP

This song, written during the Nixon Administration, has always been one of my favorites, and it took on renewed significance these past several years. The version that stands out most to me is Chris Thile’s performance, opening his NPR show “Live From Here,” four days after the 2016 presidential election. There, amid my despair at the results, was Chris singing that sweet, prescient song, giving me hope that we as a people would persevere – again. ~

KEN PLETCHER

6. RETURN TO INNOCENCE. ENIGMA

Many things in my life had to quickly change in March of 2020. As the school where I teach headed into Spring Break, we learned that we had one week to transition our teaching to a virtual platform. Three years later, the absolute joy of being together in person once again wove a heartfelt string of pearls in our school community. Through it all, I’ve reached for this song.

DIANA ALCANTARA

7. YOU FCKN DID IT. JASON MRAZ

The entire catalog of Jason Mraz’s music has been an incredibly positive force in my life - getting me through both good times and bad - since I first discovered him in 2005. This song is upbeat and the positive message always puts me in a good mood. Whether it’s something small like achieving my step goal for the day or something bigger like ending a toxic relationship, it is never a bad time to acknowledge that something good was accomplished. Whenever I am having a bad day, I try to remember, as the song goes, “You are A-W-E-S-OOO-ME!” ~ MIMI

DIAMOND

8.

SINCE I FELL FOR YOU. BONNIE RAITT

Bonnie Raitt’s self-titled debut album, released in 1971, was recorded at a studio near Lake Minnetonka, Minnesota, not all that far from where I grew up. She seems like a sister from another mister to me. As I was coming of age, Bonnie became my sassy, hearton-sleeve-wearing, no-nonsense role model. ~

JEANNE SOULDERN

9. ISLAND IN THE SUN. GREEN DAY

I’ve been playing this song since the kids were little. It makes me feel happy and reminds me of what is important.

~ ELANA ROYER

10.

HEROES. DAVID BOWIE

This title raises the spirits of several members of MP’s Creative Team. Jeanne Souldern wrote, “My carpé diem rally song when I’m feeling down is David Bowie’s “Heroes.” I love the line – “We can be heroes, just for one day!”

Pediatric Medicine for Our Valley’s Kids

Compassionate, integrative care for the littlest members of our Roaring Fork Valley community, with locations in Aspen and Basalt.

“As a father myself, I share the goals and concerns that parents of infants and young children have. I look forward to being a part of your child’s healthy journey, to provide expert guidance on the adventures ahead.”

Schedule your visit today, call 970.279.4111.

Virtual visits are available.

Se habla español.

Our patients benefit from the assurance of a 24/7 phone line for pressing medical concerns at any time of day.

More ways our Network of Care serves you and your family.

ASPEN BIRTH CENTER

Where Families are Born

Schedule a pre-admission navigation or class today.

970.544.1130

EAR, NOSE & THROAT CARE

Offering in-person and virtual appointments.

970.544.1460

REHABILITATION SERVICES

Traumatic brain injury & concussion care; physical, occupational & speech therapy for adults & kids.

970.544.1177

AFTER-HOURS MEDICAL CARE

For you or your child’s urgent medical needs, we’re open evenings and weekends. Walk-ins welcome!

Mon – Fri, 3 – 11 pm Sat & Sun, 8 am – 5 pm

970.544.1250

Dr. Rahul Shah Pediatric Medicine