If there’s any career that’s got legs in this fast-changing world, it’s feeding people. Everyone’s got to eat, after all.
So the ProStart Program at Durango High School is a particular favorite of mine, because whether or not the students end up going into the food and beverage industry for the rest of their lives, use the skills learned to earn their way through college for another career or just have the best fed family in town, it’s valuable to know how to cook.
On Oct. 8, Patti Buck, the president-elect of the American National Cattle Women and Mae Morley, the president of the La Plata County Cowbelles, worked with two ProStart classes and their teacher, Susan Francis, on a lesson about local beef production and cooking beef. (All the Cowbelles seem to be great cooks, but Buck has been a finalist in several national cook-offs, so they were learning from someone who has taken her beef from the pasture to the award platform.)
Just knowing where our food comes from counts, too, so teaching the students that the cows they see calmly grazing as they drive around La Plata County may ultimately be the hamburger sizzling on the grill is a good lesson.
The Colorado Beef Council donated the beef for the cooking lesson, and the Cowbelles took care of the rest, contributing some additional ingredients to allow more creativity. They taught the students a recipe for apricot teriyaki stir fry, a recipe from the National Beef Cook-Off. (It’s available at www.beefcookoff.org for those whose tastebuds have been tantalized by the photo with the column.)
Buck said the day felt somewhat like the Food Network’s show “Chopped.”
The cooking program is a two-step process at DHS, with students beginning their studies with a culinary arts class before proceeding to the ProStart program. ProStart was started by the National Restaurant Association Education Foundation and now reaches more than 95,000 students in 1,700 high schools across the country, Guam and U.S. military bases. It includes more than cooking, with lessons in management skills as well.
Our local ProStart team has competed at the national level and is on display at Taste of Durango.
Francis said this was a great experience for all the students involved, and they look forward to learning more in collaboration with the Colorado Beef Council and the Cowbelles.
Worley is still marveling at the creativity and presentation skills, and I’m still wondering why my invitation got lost in the mail!
HHH
Happy birthday wishes go to the first of my fellow Scorpios – M.J. Moseley, Kathy Myrick, JoAnn Trimberger, Matt Stilwell, Mary Jo McLaughlin Wickman, Susan Wright, Wayne Hilgedick, Carrie Forsythe, Jayson Helms, Marley Pinkerton, Hannah Robertson, Grace Caldwell, Judy Katzin, Elizabeth Carter, Sarah Larsen, Dan White, Samantha Szura, Marie Davidson and Megan Dignum.
HHH
A main focus of this column is nonprofit fundraisers and service club projects, but I don’t ever want to forget the ways we build community as individuals and families.
On Oct. 12, I was honored to be invited to Ruby Adeyla Epstein’s bat mitzvah, the female coming-of-age ceremony in the Jewish faith tradition. She was flawless in her reading of the Torah, and her parents, Mark and Alison Epstein, clearly made an effort to create a warm familial atmosphere for the ceremony and subsequent luncheon.
Ruby’s brothers Mathew and Corey Epstein, her Uncle David and Aunt Cheryl Epstein, cousins Missy and Cindy Brodey and Sue, Steve and Alison Ochs all participated in the ceremony. It was also touching to see Ruby’s teachers on this journey, Lisa Smith, Marla Stills and Stacey Singer, as they watched a clearly beloved pupil shine.
One thing I learned is that students practice a particular reading in Hebrew in the Torah based on the time of year in the liturgical calendar. Reading in Hebrew is difficult – no vowels or punctuation – so much practice is needed.
Ruby chose to read the same Torah portion, “Lech Lecha” that was read by her mother at her adult b’nai mitzvah ceremony, which dictated the Oct. 12 service.
Mark Epstein wrote a song for Ruby for the occasion that had everyone in tears. One of the lyrics reads, “I smile each time I think of you, and I smile a lot.”
Ruby’s mother, Alison Epstein, not only created a book to commemorate the occasion, she and Ruby made yarmulkes using yarn from the family llama, Silver, and small herd of alpacas. (They jokingly called them llamakes.)
Grandmother Barbara Denk brought an ecumenical touch to the service, sharing thoughts of wisdom ranging from the Golden Rule to Buddhism.
Rabbi Eliot Baskin also worked to create a welcoming spirit at Har Shalom Congregation. Understanding that many of the family’s gentile friends don’t know much about Judaism or bat mitzvahs, he included a lot of background on various aspects of the ceremony, even inviting guests up to see the Torah, which is a scroll of parchment written by hand and only taken out of the ark for worship services.
As part of Ruby’s preparation, she was required to do a mitzvah, or act-in-the spirit-of-charity project, and I think one could consider her project a mitzvah on many levels.
Her dog Birdie came to live with the Epstein family two years ago after they saw her featured as the “Dog of the Week” at the La Plata County Humane Society.
Mitzvah No. 1: Birdie finds a “forever” home.
Mitzvah No. 2: Birdie, who came to the Epsteins with a tumor on her leg and carrying too much weight, is now tumor-free and an athletic, energetic 6-year-old beagle.
Mitzvah No. 3: Ruby and Birdie are officially Canine Good Citizens and certified to make therapy dog visits. The dynamic duo has brought many a smile to the faces of residents at Four Corners Health Care Center.
As I sat in the congregation, I contemplated how rare rites of passage are in our society. Getting a driver’s license at 16, registering to vote at 18 or going drinking with friends at 21 are neither solemn nor ceremonial enough. High school and college graduation ceremonies are closer, but young people do most of that en masse, so there’s not much sense of individual accomplishment.
We need to work on that.
Congratulations to Ruby on becoming a young woman with such poise, and thank you for including me in your big day.
HHH
New Face Productions is a very good friend to the Durango Arts Center. Made up of a group of supporters who want to bring in world class exhibits, it has held some great fundraisers – the TOP T-shirt fashion show and Bill Cunningham documentary come to mind – and already mounted a textile exhibit that knocked my socks off.
Now they’re gearing up for another seminal show. Called TOP Jewels, it will feature 100 to 150 pieces of one-of-a-kind wearable works of art selected in a competition by local artistes Jeff and Susan Wise (who have a national reputation of their own). In fact, just as Ilze Aviks was our local connection to the best textile artists working today, it’s the Wises’ connections that promise this show, which will run from May 16 to June 28, will be a blockbuster.
On Oct. 10, the organizing committee for TOP Jewels had an Adopt-An-Artist reception at the Rochester Hotel. (Not only are members art patrons, they’re superb cooks, too.)
The Wises informed partygoers about a some of the jewelers who will be offering workshops and lectures to accompany the exhibit. Let’s just say there were numerous oohs and aahs, not to mention pointed hints, to the husbands who came along.
The call for entries with a prospectus is available at http://durangoarts.org/top-nationaljewelryexhibition and the TOP Facebook Page. Check the adult classes section under education for the jewelry workshops. They’re expected to fill up fast, so this is not a sign-up-at-the-last-minute-Durango thing but a hustle-and-get-your-reservation-or-you’ll-miss-it thing.
Regina Hogan is the chairwoman of the exhibit, and any of the other committee members can give you the scoop, too. They are Nancy Conrad, Jane Gould, Pamela Hasterok, Petra Hinke, J.M. Jones, Tim Kapustka, Sandra LeFevre, Phyllis Max, Mandy Mikulencak, Stew Mosberg, Carol Salomon, Jill Schuman, Diane Welle, Deb Wright and Fort Lewis College intern Lizbeth Anaya-Ramos.
HHH
Enjoying the last fall days for their anniversaries are Stephen and Rosine Stout, John and Shanan Campbell Wells, Troy and Leanne Moore, Lee and Sandy Campbell and Creighton and B. Jo Hatten.
HHH
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