Most of us get a mostly in tune and somewhat half-hearted “Happy Birthday” when it’s our day to shine. (Mostly because our friends aren’t all that comfortable with singing, not because they don’t want us to have a happy birthday.)
But Mae Forleo’s 99th was a little different – she was serenaded by members of the Durango Choral Society, who took time out of their Sunday on May 29th to provide some special cheer to an honorary member.
Forleo is spending a few weeks at Cottonwood Inn Rehabilitation and Extended Care Center at Three Springs for some rehab after a fall. So Choral Society members decided a concert in her honor was just what the doctor ordered, not just for her, but the other residents as well.
Margi Coxwell on piano and Duane Heidenrich on the autoharp provided accompaniment as the group sang several of her favorite hymns along with two Italian songs in honor of her heritage – “Funiculi, Funicula” and “That’s Amore.” The former is an Italian classic, composed by two Neapolitans for the opening of the first funicular cable car up Mount Vesuvius. The latter is hardly a classic Italian tune, written by Jack Brooks and Harry Warren, sung by Dean Martin, but it’s the spirit that counts.
Blending their voices in beautiful harmony were Abby Bowen, Jeanne Bandy, Julia Dodd, Karla Brown, Sara Illsley, Ellie Teyze, Russell Farkouh, Katherine Reynolds and Gisela Lott – who, regular readers may recall, had her own memorable birthday celebration a few weeks ago.
Forleo joined in the singing and fun. Her secret for a long, healthy life? A teaspoon of olive oil every day – Italian, of course.
The birthday girl’s son and daughter-in-law, Jim and Julie Forleo, brought armfuls of flowers, not just for the birthday celebrant but also for the choral members as a heartfelt thank you for their music.
HHH
These locals will be wishing for precipitation for their birthdays – Ed Cash, Wayne Hose, Dennis Polsfut, Arden Peters, Dan Holseth, Bella Kidd, Bruce Diro, Rita McClain, Ron Williams, Kate Scott, Jim DiSanto and Marjie Wilson.
Special wishes go out to Verlena Collentine.
HHH
I can’t imagine life without the wonder, inspiration and sheer joy of reading. And the best way to love reading is to start early, before it becomes work – homework, that is.
That’s why I’m a big fan of One Book 4 Colorado, and I’m thrilled that the Durango Public Library is participating in the program. One Book 4 Colorado is based on the premise that picture books are a great way to entice young readers into the wonders of reading, and parents reading to young children is a key factor in future success in school. The free book encourages families to read together every day and adds new books to home libraries – because you know how many times you have to reread favorites. Won’t it be nice to add a new favorite to the mix?
Even better, with so many Colorado children reading the same book, they can begin a lifetime of sharing and talking about books.
So, listen up parents of 4-year-olds, preschool and child care providers: From April 13 to 27, you can pick up a free book at all three branches of the Durango Public Library, the main branch on East Third Avenue and the school-based branches at Fort Lewis Mesa and Sunnyside elementary schools. (If you’re a preschool or child-care provider, you need to call 375-3380 first for details.)
We won’t know until April 13 which book will have been chosen from the three finalists – Mouse Mess by Linnea Riley, Read to Your Bunny by Rosemary Wells or How Do Dinosaurs Get Well Soon? by Jane Yolen. It sounds like they can’t go wrong. All three sound pretty enticing to me, too.
Books will be available in either English or Spanish, and can be picked up every day the libraries are open during regular hours.
One Book 4 Colorado is a collaboration between Reach Out and Read Colorado clinics, the Colorado State Library, public libraries , the private sector and the foundation community.
It’s really worth checking out the organization’s website at www.onebook4colorado.org, because it’s also got all kinds of tips for reading and playing with children from newborns through 6 to 8 year olds, including what they respond to plus the skills and knowledge the reading and activities impart.
I remember Paulette Church, former executive director of the Durango Education Center, telling me the statistic that the child of someone who has not finished high school will only have heard about 800 words by the time they start school. And many of those words are commands, such as “Be quiet,” “Put your toys away” and “Go to your room.” The child of a college graduate, meanwhile, will have been exposed to about 20,000 words, including higher level thinking such as concepts. The child who only heard the 800 words quite probably will never catch up.
So, we as a society need to work to make sure every child goes to school with a foundation to begin learning, and boy, howdy, is reading to them a key element in the picture.
The first week of the giveaway period is National Library Week, and the second is the Week of the Younger Child, so it’s perfectly timed to coincide.
One Book 4 Colorado expects to hand out at least 75,000 books in the two-week period.
HHH
Talking about younger children, research for many years has shown that investing in early childhood education gets our society the best bang for the buck when investing for the future of our country. But when it comes time to do the budgeting, more money goes to prisons, roads and defense than getting our youngest citizens off on the right foot.
Lynn Urban, the executive director of United Way of Southwest Colorado, sent me an invitation to a screening of “The Raising of America: Early Childhood and the Future of our Nation” at 5 p.m. Tuesday at Miller Middle School, 2608 Junction St.
We’re very lucky that Durango resident Jim Foster is the chairman of the board of Rocky Mountain PBS because not only do we get to participate in Community Cinema, we get the opportunity to see PBS documentaries like this.
The “Raising of America” brings to life classic economic studies and other initiatives on the subject, and a panel of local experts will share insights about what’s happening here, not to mention what they’d like to see here.
Screenings will also take place at 6:30 p.m. April 23 at the Liberty Theater in Pagosa Springs and 6:30 p.m. April 28 at the Sunflower Theater in Cortez, so organizers want to create a conversation across Southwest Colorado.
HHH
Life in the newsroom is so hopping, I sometimes take a little while to get to a story. Sorry about that.
Anyway, I thought Peggy Zemach might want to be taking it a little slower after she stepped down as executive director of the Durango Arts Center. But it turns out she’s just freeing herself up to spread out her expertise.
She has joined the boards of directors of both Crow Canyon Archaeological Center and the Powerhouse Science Center, with an eye to expanding opportunities for collaboration between the two.
It’s so easy to take for granted people we see all the time. It wasn’t until I Googled my old high school friend, Dr. Margaret Liu and sat down with her for an interview that I understood what her life’s work on vaccines means to health around the world.
And it wasn’t until I read the press release about Zemach’s joining the Crow Canyon board that I truly got a picture of what she brings to our area. I bet you don’t know about her talents, either.
She earned a bachelor’s degree in environmental education from Colorado College and a master’s of basic science in museum studies from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Zemach has served on the boards of the Colorado Alliance for Environmental Education, the National Association of Environmental Education and as board president for the Utah Society for Environmental Education.
Locally, she has served as an education consultant for the Southern Ute Cultural Center and Crow Canyon, where she helped develop the center’s history trunks. She has worked with the Children’s Museum of Durango and its incarnations as the Durango Discovery Museum and the Powerhouse Science Center as well as the Animas Museum, the San Juan Mountains Association, Durango Nature Studies, the Center of Southwest Studies, the Utah Museum of Natural History, the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and, the cherry on top of the sundae, the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Yikes, I think I need a nap.
Oh, and did I mention that she’s a founding member and board secretary for the Durango STEAM Park Project, the campaign to create science, theater, education, arts and music center? I thought not.
Retirement sounds like it will be busier than working.
If you don’t know anything about Crow Canyon, this is a good time to learn. Based just west of Cortez, it is dedicated to understanding and teaching the history of the ancestral Puebloans who inhabited the canyons and mesas of the Mesa Verde region starting about 1,400 years ago. It’s in an area with one of the densest concentrations of well-preserved archaeological sites in the world. (Another thing we take for granted – there are so many archaeological sites, it just seems normal to have them.)
Crow Canyon does a number of things extremely well, and I’ve greatly enjoyed covering it over the years.
Its archaeological digs have greatly increased our understanding of the people who once called this area home. Its activities and the grounds of the center provide opportunities for kids and adults alike to participate in a real dig, to experience a pithouse environment and get a look at all the different subdisciplines involved in studying the past, from botany to pottery. And finally, archaeologists at the center work closely with Native American tribes, including the pueblos in New Mexico and Arizona, the Hopi, and of course, the more local Southern Ute, Ute Mountain Ute and Navajo tribes, to see how an ancient culture has evolved to the present.
HHH
A happy anniversary for Mike and Paula Kirchner would be an end to these red flag warnings.
HHH
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