Bayfield businesses build expo

Friday, Aug 21, 2015 12:55 PM Updated Thursday, Sep. 17, 2015 2:37 PM

Anne and Tony Schrier invite visitors and locals to check out the Pine River Valley Historical Society Museum on Mill Street in downtown Bayfield. Annette Schultheiss from First National Bank of Durango was one of many people attending the event.

Photos by Melanie Brubaker Mazur

Dianne Milner, a Bayfield mom, artist and teacher at Bayfield High School, points out the varieties of leaves that she uses to spraypaint into her original Colorado-themed artwork.

Milner's art is touchable and eye catching. Every piece also has a heart spay-painted on it in memory of her daughter, Maddie.

Mercy Family Medicine of Bayfield donated a cruiser bicycle as a door prize. Anyone who donated cash or food to area food banks received a door prize entry.

Members of the Jeepers Creepers gang display their cool wheels at events throughout the Four Corners.

The Build a Better Bayfield Expo filled Pine River Public Library on Thursday, Aug. 20 with 46 businesses, community organizations and others sharing information and providing resources for residents of the Pine River Valley.

"I'm really happy about it," said Rhonda Kline, the owner of IWC Workers Bees, which organized the event. "We had a lot of people."

Attendees donated cash or food items to earn door prize tickets. Prizes included a cruiser bicycle, restaurant meals and lots of goods and services from local businesses.

The food donations were split between the Bayfield Family Center's backpack program for elementary school students and the Bayfield Food Bank in town hall. Each organization received two large boxes of donations, Kline said.

Kline said she only received positive feedback about the event and she plans to organize another one next year. Her business, an employment agency, received nine job applications at the event, as well as job postings from two employers.