People who visited Durango during the winter months in say, 1964, would not recognize the winters we currently enjoy. Durango was busy during the tourist season, which ran from Memorial Day to Labor Day, and the rest of the year, this was a pretty quiet little town.

The change began in 1965, when Purgatory Ski Area opened. And the man who not only helped identify the site where folks schuss and glide also ran our destination ski resort for its first 19 years as general manager. His name is Chester “Chet” Anderson, and he was inducted into the Durango Sports Foundation’s Hall of Fame on Nov. 12.

Anderson was the assistant Forest Service district ranger and snow ranger at Idaho Springs before moving to Durango to work as the biologist for the San Juan National Forest. In his spare time, he volunteered as the head coach for Durango Ski Club’s Alpine Team. Before Purgatory, these young athletes trained at Chapman Hill and Hesperus Ski Area, which, as you can imagine, put them at a major disadvantage against competitors from places such as Aspen and Vail.

In his extra spare time, Anderson and his fellow Forest Service employee Bob Fisher toured the area seeking potential winter sports sites in Southwest Colorado. The dream of Purgatory came to fruition after Ray Duncan, who was also involved with the team, said after a race, “It’s too bad Durango Ski Club doesn’t have a big mountain to train on.” Of course, Anderson agreed.

Duncan, the founder and first owner of Purgatory, was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2009, but it’s great that the foundation has recognized Anderson’s tremendous contribution as well. (Now if you all will induct the members of the San Juan Development Corp., a group of local businessmen who raised much of the seed money for Purgatory, you will have covered all the bases.)

For almost 20 years, Anderson helped lay out the runs, develop the mountain and oversee all operations. I was just a kid in those early years, when my mother, Kathy Butler, headed up the accounting side of things for Purg, but I had an inside view of the ski area’s operations, and it was clear Anderson set a tone of excitement and energy that great startups have. (It was all hands on deck in the early years. I was really good at stamping grommets in season passes, one of the earliest of my own several jobs at Purgatory.)

Mike Elliott, the executive chairman for the foundation, also worked at the area in those early days. He said, “Chet was the right man, at the right time, to be the general manager of Purgatory. He worked so hard, and he could do any and all things necessary at the resort. He was great to work for, because he made it fun to be a staff member at Purgatory.”

Anderson left Purgatory in 1984, and now spends his days farming and taking incredible black and white photos. He and his wife, Beverly, have been married for 56 years, and have five children, Kathy, Jon, Chester, Christine and Karl. But the mark he left on the ski area is indelible.

Of course, celebrating his induction was a principal part of the evening. But the gala is also a large fundraiser for the foundation. Since 2006, it has donated more than $320,000 to Durango ski and snowboard teams, and has provided more than $30,000 in scholarships.

Organizers designed a fun evening, too. A ton of silent auction items, many of them winter-related, and socializing kicked off the evening before everyone sat down for dinner. After the formalities, The Lawn Chair Kings got everybody rocking.

It was a celebration of generations, with early local ski greats, including Anderson and the very first inductee, Dolph Kuss, my generation, the first to grow up at Purgatory, and our kids and grandkids. Way cool.

While I’m on the subject of Purgatory, it’s important to note that its current incarnation as Durango Mountain Resort has continued the 25-year relationship with Music in the Mountains with great generosity.

This winter, to celebrate that partnership, CEO Gary Derck of DMR, announced a tremendous donation to the classical music festival – two 25-year season passes. You are definitely reading that right, 25 years, good through the ski season of 2036-2037.

One will be raffled off, with tickets going for $25, and only 2,500 will be sold. The other is being auctioned online. Both the tickets and the auction are available online at www.musicinthemountains.com. (The current auction bid is $1,100.) The value of each season pass is valued at more than $20,000. Sorry, kids, you have to be at least 18, and taxes will be involved.

And still on the theme of skiing and the history thereof, Derailed Saloon is hosting “Snow Way, Dude: A Retro ’80s Ski Dance Party” to benefit the Southwest Colorado Chapter of the American Red Cross starting at 4 p.m. today.

The event will feature a 1980s ski costume contest, a silent and live auction, live music and giveaways. Some lucky attendee will win a trip for two to Hawaii. And for those who just can’t wait until Thursday for Thanksgiving, a traditional turkey dinner will be served for $10.

Derailed is located at 725 Main Ave.

The Red Cross is there for our friends and neighbors when disaster strikes. For it and its staff and volunteers to be there when tragedy happens, we have to help them keep the doors open and equipment up-to-date, so it behooves us to attend events like this. (Plus, you know you have that old ski outfit in a box in the attic – you told folks it would come in handy someday.)

Born on the cusp of Scorpio and Sagittarius, these folks live interesting lives – Ann Casler, Sharon Harris, Maggie Scott, Judy Hook, Jo Fusco, Kay Baker, Katherine Burgess, Annabelle Eagle, Sherry Wilmoth, Stacy Waterman, Ivey Hermesman, Branden Marquez, Margie Winkelbauer, Sarah Von Tersch, Elizabeth Crawford, Ben Arriza, Chandler Jackson, Jama Jones, Amanda Mulkey, Brayden Harms, Grace Pansze, Jacob Rudolph, Judith Johnson, Wayne Pratt, Tim Williams, Robert Maple and Vance Thurman.

Unless you were living in a cave, you noticed that October was rosy indeed as we marked Breast Cancer Awareness Month. There were Bras Across the Belle – Diamond Belle, that is, Pink for the Digs, Pink Streaks of Durango and An Evening in Pink at the Moulin Rouge.

So where to start is a conundrum.

Perhaps the first of many kudos should go to Terene Foutz, the creator of “Pink Digs for the Cure,” which pulls in a ton of money ($17,000 by mid-October alone) courtesy of the girls volleyball teams at Miller Middle, Ignacio and Durango high schools and Fort Lewis College.

It’s great for several reasons, first and foremost because the money raised goes to help many local folks undergoing treatment for some form of cancer. Secondly, it inspires young women to learn about giving to others. And finally, it gets my colleague on the sports desk, Dale Strode, into a pink baseball cap for the month.

Gwendolyn Stoddard and the 11-year-old Durango Youth Soccer Association players also made a healthy donation.

Then there are the numerous, count ’em – 17, salons that donated their services dying pinks streaks in people’s hair so they can make a statement of support for the cause.

Overall kudos go to the Women’s Health Coalition, formerly the Breast Health Task Force. For 17 years, members have been raising money for the cause, first for women undergoing breast cancer treatment, now for anyone undergoing cancer treatment.

The WHC recognizes that at as expensive as medical care is, people who are missing work also find it difficult to pay for housing, groceries and utility bills, too. So its grants go for those nonmedical expenses, including vouchers for gas money to get to treatment and help paying for mammograms as an early diagnostic tool.

In 2009, the WHC awarded $10,000 in grants to 20 people and $4,500 in gas vouchers to 50 patients. In 2010, that more than doubled, with $21,500 in grants to 43 people undergoing cancer treatment, with $11,000 in gas vouchers to about 100 patients.

In 2011, as of September, the WHC had distributed more than $40,000, with 45 grants totalling $22,500; $15,000 in gas vouchers to 125 people; cards to women traveling from Pagosa Springs to Durango for treatment totalling $1,100; and $5,000 to assist with mammograms for women through Planned Parenthood.

Some of that money was raised at In the Pink at the Moulin Rouge, which celebrates survivors and recognizes the battles against cancer still being fought. It was held at the DoubleTree Hotel on Oct. 14, and it was memorable indeed.

The staff at the DoubleTree did a fantastic job of serving and feeding a packed house. The menu included a green salad with Granny Smith apples and toasted pecans topped by raspberry vinaigrette, with a choice of chicken cordon bleu with garlic cream mousseline served with herb-roasted new potatoes and asparagus for the carnivores and roasted vegetable Wellington with bearnaise sauce and herb-roasted potatoes for the vegetarians. Dessert was a wicked good profiterole filled with espresso mousse and topped with dark chocolate ganache.

It was hard to pay attention to the meal, because we were all rapt at the performance by members of the Salt Fire Circus, who created a series of vignettes about the stages of breast cancer, from the disbelief at the diagnosis, through surgery, the care and bonding with friends and emerging out the other end triumphant. Using poetry, dance, live music and juggling, it’s a show they should take on the road.

A tradition at the event is a fashion show featuring cancer survivors. This year’s models were Ginny Brown, Laura Webb, Kay Tally, Cindy Heaston, Whisper Stoddard and Jenny Newcomer, as well as one very special guest, rancher Houston Lasater. It was a good reminder for all of us that cancer, even breast cancer, affects men, too. Lasater’s was only discovered when he was being treated for injuries from a fall, so self-exams are important for all of us.

The event also featured a table for ovarian cancer survivors, who waved teal napkins instead of the pink the rest of us sported.

My thanks to coordinator and mistress of ceremonies B.J. Boucher for making sure I didn’t miss this great event.

These folks are thankful for their time together for their anniversaries – Charles and Ruth Guarino and Bob Pope and Alice Robinson.