Rooted in its vision to create a community where youth and their families are empowered, connected and thriving, the nonprofit Stepping Stones is sprouting new growth — and serving more youth — having recently opened its latest drop-in center in Glenwood Springs. Located at 1630 Grand Avenue, the new center opened in October 2025 and […]
Education
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Defying limits: Austria’s Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner to speak about climbing the world’s tallest mountains
On Feb. 24, Aspen’s Wheeler Opera House hosts a speaker who will turn the audience’s attention to the heights. Not just any heights: specifically, 8,000 meters, the 14 tallest mountains in the world. She is Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner, one of the only women to have climbed the planet’s tallest mountains, and the first woman to have […]
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CMC partners with CSU Global to create new pathways for graduate school
Creating yet another clear pathway for rural mountain community members to achieve new heights, Colorado Mountain College (CMC) has recently announced a new partnership with Colorado State University Global. As part of the CSU system, CSU Global is the first 100% online and institutionally accredited public university in the United States. Designed for working adults […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Swords to plowshares, turning weapons into tools
On Sunday, Feb. 15, the Western Slope Mennonite Fellowship hosted a book preview and blacksmith demonstration at Bethel Chapel in Glenwood Springs , where a crowd of participants took turns slowly transforming a gun into a garden tool. At the forge was Mike Martin, heating and turning a gunstock barrel, instructing participants where and how […]
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Writer Susan Orlean never imagined doing anything else
Susan Orlean cuts a slight but certain figure. When she and moderator Christine Benedetti took the Paepcke Auditorium stage on Jan. 28, no one in the audience could doubt that Orlean enjoys a good conversation. That was how she passed the next hour: Cheerful chatting about her years as a features journalist and her newest […]
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RFSD Report: Board discusses declining enrollment, budget, safety
In addition to January’s planned regular board meetings on Jan. 14 and 28, the Roaring Fork School District (RFSD) also held a community meeting on school safety on Jan. 27 from 7 to 8pm to discuss its current strategies and protocols with families. The gathering complemented the regular meetings’ focus on updates to the 2025-2026 […]
Posted inYouth News
Confronting vaping across schools
With the stress that modern life presents to the youth, it is no surprise that many have turned to controversial sources for relief. Throughout the Roaring Fork School District (RFSD), tobacco and vaping use in schools appear to be a large problem. According to Joel Hathaway, executive director of schools at RFSD, there have been […]
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Glenwood charter school seeks legal ruling on ability to bus students from neighboring district
A decision whether the charter Two Rivers Community School (TRCS) will be able to continue busing students from the neighboring Garfield Re-2 School District now rests with a judge. Re-2 Superintendent Kirk Banghart in October 2025 sent a letter to Roaring Fork District Re-1 Superintendent Anna Cole requesting an end to TRCS’s practice of busing […]
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Carbondale Education Foundation coming into its own to support local schools
An effort to resurrect a Carbondale-centric foundation to support the local schools has yielded a fair amount of success over the last two years. In October of last year, the new Carbondale Education Foundation (CEF) also resurrected the town’s Oktoberfest celebration, taking it on as a primary fundraiser for the organization. The event raised more […]
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New Aspen Science Center executive director set to expand programming
Alex Tarika first joined the Aspen Science Center (ASC) as a member of the education staff in February 2024. She came from a background in classroom science education, having taught at Aspen Middle School from 2018 to 2022 and Carbondale Community School from 2022 to 2023. When Tarika joined ASC as a new mom, she […]