Corrections: The Sopris Sun miscredited a letter to the editor titled “CAFCI endorsements” in the April 2 issue, stating that Age Friendly Carbondale, rather than the Carbondale Age-Friendly Community Initiative (CAFCI), signed the letter. And a happy belated birthday to Dan Markoya, who celebrated 40 rotations on April 3 and whose name was misspelled in last week’s birthday list.
Re: CAFCI endorsement
Last week’s edition of The Sopris Sun carried a letter to the editor from The Carbondale Age-Friendly Community Initiative (CAFCI) endorsing certain candidates in Carbondale’s April Elections. Unfortunately, the letter was signed “Age Friendly Carbondale” (AFC). These are two distinct not-for-profit corporations. CAFCI is a 501 (c) 4 corporation permitted to make such endorsements. AFC is a 501 (c) 3 corporation prohibited from endorsing and does not endorse political candidates. The letter came from CAFCI and only CAFCI.
Ron Kokish
CAFCI
Garden Mentoring
If you have wanted to grow a vegetable garden but have been overwhelmed or not sure how to start — this might be the support you have dreamed of. The Garden Mentoring project pairs you with a Master Gardener for the entire summer to support and lead you through the entire process. Learn what you can grow and how to use less water in a potentially dry summer.
This project is a collaborative effort between Roaring Fork Food Alliance, Garfield Agricultural Extension Office and Garfield and Eagle Master Gardeners. The purpose of this project is to train people how to grow food, and help create more long-term food supply resilience throughout local communities. We will provide installation support, supplies and one-on-one mentoring from a Master Gardener for you to create a successful and productive garden. Please fill out this form to express your interest: tinyurl.com/mr2ex38u or email gwen@gwengarcelon.com to request a form.
And many thanks to Frias Properties for their donation to this effort. We are so grateful for your support of our local food system!
Gwen Garcelon
Carbondale
Wells Kerr
I was moved by A.O. Forbes’ recent piece about Edwin Silas Wells Kerr. I knew Wells too, and reading the column brought back a flood of memories and gratitude.
My parents were teachers at Colorado Rocky Mountain School in the 1960s, and I grew up there as a faculty child. Even though I was quite young and Wells was decades older, he always treated me with genuine respect and kindness. I never felt like “just a child” in his presence — he made me feel seen, heard and important.
Wells had a rare combination of integrity, warmth, and attentiveness. He carried adversity with quiet grace — having lost part of his hearing as a child due to a medical error — but remained fully engaged with the world. And most importantly to me as a child, he was fun.
He took time with me in ways that mattered. He wrote me letters when he was away, gave me small Christmas ornaments that I still have, and would recite playful poems that delighted me. In fifth grade, I wrote a paper titled “The Most Remarkable Person I Know.” It was about Wells.
Looking back, I can see how profoundly he shaped me. His example inspired my own path as a teacher and my belief in treating every child with dignity and care.
A.O. Forbes captured something essential about Wells. For those of us who knew him, he remains unforgettable.
Pam Horner-Porter
Carbondale
Thank you, Aspen Thrift
Roaring Fork High School thanks the Aspen Thrift Store for their $1,500 grant to our school garden renewal. This garden has been the learning ground for students since 2010, but needed new boxes and soil to be usable for many more years of serving food, fun and learning activities to students. Thank you to all the volunteers who make the thrift store such a generous benefactor to our community. We are grateful!
Lindsay Hentschel
RFHS Principal
Beautify Carbondale
Thanks to the generosity of a friend sharing her Carbondale home with me eight years ago, I first time stumbled into Carbondale. The coincidental timing of Mountain Fair was all I needed. Carbondale has been my home now for seven years. Just retired and with a passion to contribute good karma into my community, a friend of mine, and I loosely organized the Carbondale Beautification Club last year (AKA: The CBC).
On a handful of Saturday mornings, we gathered volunteers to do general clean up, and a few gardening projects around Main Street. We are NOT a nonprofit, formal entity or anything more than a community-based volunteer group doing cleanup and beautification projects in partnership with the Town, businesses and other stakeholders. As an example, we just adopted the Town garden bed on the back side of Sopris Park bordering the pool property. We’ll beautify that garden bed in May.
On Saturday, April 25, we’ll kick off this year’s effort with a Spring Cleanup Day. Volunteers will gather at the pavilion in Sopris Park at 9am. Families are welcome. Depending on the number of volunteers, we’ll assign a few folks to all the east/west and north/south streets covering as much of town as we can. The CBC will provide the trash bags, so just bring your gloves, water and a happy spirit.
I feel so much gratitude for the blessing of Carbondale as my life base camp. I just returned from another winter abroad. For sure, the world and today’s US government have discouraged me. Offsetting those feelings are the positive vibes we share as a community and relationships we enjoy with the arts and our natural landscape. I welcome anyone interested in volunteering to join our Facebook/Instagram pages for calendar updates, or email cbc81623@gmail.com to receive a heads up on a Saturday gathering.
Jeff Basler
Carbondale Beautification Club
Re: Wall-E
DJ Sugar Monkey wrote a review of Wall-E, which was fine, but his decision to demean Peter Gabriel about the song Down to Earth leads me to try and imagine what song he would have approved of. On second thought I really don’t care. He obviously knows more than me about great music since he’s a DJ?
Steve Kuschner
Glenwood Springs
Re: Harvest Village
I loved Mr. Berliner’s column about the Harvest Village horror show. One thing though: He was totally too nice to the greedy developers.
We all laud preserving our ever-
shrinking open spaces. Now, come capitalistic clowns wanting to foist over as many as 5,000 more people and 1,500 units plus a huge hotel on 283 acres of God’s creation right next to our overcrowded “Killer 82.” Why not pave paradise for another stinking parking lot?
The Garfield County (GarCo) Planning Commission recommended denying approval of this further destruction of our quality of life. These developers’ proposal doesn’t meet GarCo’s comprehensive plan nor the county codes.
One-hundred-fifty unaffordable wor-
ker units and 1,350 full-price plots for millionaire refugees from blue cities.
Like JFK said in Germany in 1963, “Ich bin ein Berliner.” (Pun intended). Damn the developers, just say NO!
Bruno Kirchenwitz
Rifle