Thank you, CEF!
The staff and students of Crystal River Elementary School had the opportunity to partner with artist Daniel Dancer last week and create an all-school piece of art that was featured by The Sun on the cover! We are incredibly grateful to the Carbondale Education Foundation (CEF) for making this opportunity possible. Our community is so lucky to have this relatively new foundation, which is providing funding to all Carbondale public schools. Thank you to the CEF board for all of your work on behalf of our children, as well as the volunteers and donors.
Principal Kendall Reiley
Crystal River Elementary
Buy local
I eat at the Village Smithy, not the Village Inn. I view films at the Crystal Theatre, not Movieland. I shop for groceries at Mana Foods, not City Market. I gas up at the Roaring Fork Valley Coop, not the Cowen Center. I bank at Alpine Bank, not Chase. I listen to KDNK, not Colorado Public Radio. I read The Sopris Sun, not the Denver Post.
This is not only because I want to promote the local economy, but it gives me a warm and cuddly feeling to do business with my neighbors. These big corporations don’t know me and I don’t know them. I don’t know if I can trust them. Given my past experiences with large national companies, I probably can’t. The corporations don’t know what I need, want or can afford.
Buy local.
Fred Malo Jr.
Carbondale
Congrats, ‘Mama Sandy’
As a child, I thought all parents were alike, only later realizing I won the lottery with mine — two people dedicated to helping the less fortunate.
Sandy Mulcahy, known globally as “Mama Sandy,” was lying in her mother’s arms at 7, during World War II, when her Mom suddenly died. She was raised and cared for by Gussie, their maid, who gave her a supernatural love for the people of Kenya. A University of Texas graduate and 60-year Arlington resident, with a seasonal home in Basalt, she’s led as the president of Chi Omega Alumnae, taught Bible Study Fellowship for 25 years and currently teaches adult Sunday school while also serving as a historian for the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra League. She received the 2015 Ruby Award in Education from Christian Women’s Job Corps and is being honored by Pitkin County with the Good Samaritan Award.
In 2012, she and her late husband, Bud, co-founded Africa Water Wells, a ministry supporting Kenyan communities and often written about in Colorado and Texas. Africa Water Wells’ eight team trips provided women’s life skills training, men’s teaching enhancement, a rehab center, Khan Academy’s RACHEL-Pi for offline education computer labs for students and free medical exams and medicine.
The ministry has drilled 17 water wells for schools and hospitals and trained rural families about clean water filter systems. Sandy’s book, “Into Africa,” recounts how a 50th anniversary safari sparked this transformative work and is available for check-out at the library.
Please join me for a brief talk about Sandy’s journey on Tuesday, Sept. 16 at 2pm in the Dunaway Room of Aspen’s Pitkin County Library, or at 5pm at the Basalt Library.
For less than the cost of an Aspen lift ticket, a filter can provide Kenyan families with a million gallons of clean water for 20 years. For $10,000, one can dedicate a water well at Kipkelion Special Needs School, Moi Minaret Boys School or for the 1,156 students at Chebirbelek Secondary on behalf of a family member or loved one. One of the highlights of an African safari trip would be experiencing the gratitude of the Kenyans by attending an unforgettable well dedication ceremony at a chosen school.
Lee Mulcahy
Basalt
Protecting workers
I am proud of my town, Carbondale, and folks in the Roaring Fork Valley and the State of Colorado who showed up for Labor Day rallies to support our workers. I hope everyone will contact their elected officials whenever issues arise that affect workers. These include immigrants, who are vital to our community, state and national economies. Trump and his administration are attacking these workers, who help make America great by harvesting our crops, maintaining our landscaping, caring for our children, keeping our homes clean and preparing our food in restaurants. The list goes on and on. We should be grateful for and respect them.
Like many others, I am the granddaughter of immigrants who came to America to seek a better life for their families, especially their children. Is it fair to deny these hardworking people the opportunities that many of us had?
In addition to supporting our immigrants, we should stand up against the massive firings of our federal workers — from the EPA, FEMA, CDC and other agencies — who keep our country safe. They have been replaced with workers, some at top levels of our federal government. Most of them are not qualified to oversee the departments and agencies they lead. How does this make us greater or safer? Not only are individuals traumatized by deportations and dismissals, so are their families and communities. If you think it can’t happen here, it already has.
Nancy Peterson
Carbondale
Roadless Rule
The Roadless Rule protects 59 million acres of remote wilderness forest land from road construction, timber harvesting and oil and gas lease holders who could extend their permit applications to include these threatened lands.
The Trump administration wants to revoke the Roadless Rule and sell our public lands to the “Highest Bidder” for profit.
President Bill Clinton’s administration instructed the Forest Service to protect roadless areas in the National Forests; 1.6 million people commented on this initiative.
Colorado Representative Jeff Hurd voted against specific measures that would have sold or transferred public lands, citing the importance of local community input. However, he supports rolling back environmental protections on public lands to increase energy development and oil, gas and mineral extractions. You can’t have it both ways!
Coloradans are clear: Our public lands are not for sale!
I am writing to protest and comment against revoking the Roadless Rule Act. Stop Trump and the takeover for profit!
Call or write: United States Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins at feedback@USDA.gov or by mailing a letter to 1400 Independence Avenue, S.W. Washington, D.C. 20250; the United States Forest Service at the same address as USDA or by calling 800-832-1355; the Forest Service Rocky Mountain Region (1617 Cole Boulevard, Bldg. 17, Lakewood, CO 80401 or at 303-275-5350); and Colorado Representative Jeff Hurd at 202-225-4676, 970-208-0455, 970-317-6167 or 719-696-6968.
For a USDA all-states directory, visit www.rd.usda.gov/about-rd/offices/state-offices
Holly McLain
Carbondale
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