As we reflect on 2025, a difficult year by many measures, I wish to raise a cheers to every conscious effort made to share kindness and understanding. Here at The Sopris Sun, we strive to be a bridge to many places and, most importantly, between people. This isn’t achieved by casting judgement, but honoring each perspective.
Among our staff, contributors, board of directors and in our interactions with the community, while we gather each week’s stories, we extend courtesy. We support one another and cheer each other forth. Because these days, simply existing is an act of courage. Showing up in the turmoil and making the best of it is how we survive, with care and humor intact.
The Sopris Sun is, consequentially, an incredible place to work. Our team hums along, laughing often, pausing to check in, trusting one another with personal truths and sketches of thought. Our regular Monday-morning editorial meetings are attended by far-flung contributors. Some tune in who moved away years ago and rarely write, I believe simply to enjoy the thoughtful, inclusive company.
It’s no mistake we’ve amassed an all-star team, from exceptional artists like Brian Colley and Larry Day to now-seasoned reporters like Myki Jones and Kate Phillips and longtime Valley journalists like Amy Hadden Marsh, John Stroud and now Ray K. Erku. We have guest appearances by writers of renowned caliber, like Jon Waterman and Alison Osius, and some of the best photographers I’ve met (looking at you, Jane Bachrach, Will Sardinsky, Landan Berlof).
In case it’s not evident from the colorful pages meticulously dialed in by our talented designer Terri Ritchie, week after week, we delight in doing this work for you. Not only are we so lucky to labor for a thriving newspaper in a heavenly place, you our readers are fortunate to hold it in your hands. Not every town shares in this fortune; a growing number of places are without a newspaper to call their own.
Through Sol del Valle, we’ve spread the community-driven newsmaking brand to our Spanish-reading population, all the way to Parachute, brightening the lives of countless more people. Editor Bianca Godina — together with Ingrid Zúniga, Margarita Alvarez and all of the Sol team (advisory council, contributors, cartoonists, advertisers and readers) — has taken that resource to the next level. From its humble origins as a four-page insert back in 2021, to its boosted reach with Aspen Daily News, to the relaunch in June of 2024, Sol del Valle has seen a meteoric rise indicative of the plain need for such a paper in our Valley — totally dedicated to our robust Spanish-speaking population and the many cultures that compose it. At The Sopris Sun, we constantly draw inspiration from the Sol del Valle team.
I am beyond proud of Contributing Editor James Steindler and his efforts to bring our creative Works in Progress into the fold, and for sustaining the Youth Journalism Program with unwavering commitment. Each year we are astounded by the crop of bright high school students drawn to that program and the work they produce. We take pride in educating the next generation of journalists while providing their perspectives in print to our readership with the now-monthly Sopris Stars insert.
And we couldn’t do it without a steady flow of support from advertisers, donors, grantmakers, volunteers and faithful readers. I wish to begin this year by thanking every single person who did something to support The Sopris Sun in 2025. Your care does not go unnoticed and we couldn’t exist without you.
Since the Valley Journal first printed in April 4, 1974, Carbondale has churned out a weekly newspaper serving the region. That’s 2,701 consecutive weeks, with the exception of six in early 2009 while citizens conjured The Sopris Sun from the ashes of its abruptly folded predecessor. You are part of keeping that tradition alive, which in turn helps keep all the other traditions alive which form the culture of this place, our home.
Let’s keep it rolling, from hard times to good times, through it all.