Durango stretches to connect

An estimated 6,000 people gathered Wednesday on the Animas River Trail for a second attempt to create an unbroken human chain meant to be reflective of Durango’s unified community.

Mayor Dick White told the part of the human chain snaking through Rotary Park that Durango Connect “is a symbol of our community, and what a great community it is that you can have this kind of event.”

White said Durango School District 9-R, which for the second year running was the largest body-donor to the event, was “truly special.”

District 9-R Superintendent Daniel Snowberger said Durango Connect helped “recognize the greatness we have here in Durango” and said character development was more important than merely being successful.

At 10:10 a.m., Jack Turner, organizer of the original Durango Connect, once again was directing the event, affably yelling at some children – who’d unhelpfully clumped together – to redistribute themselves.

“Stretch toward the bridge,” he called to another group of elderly people. “Don’t be a missing link.”

Logistically, the human chain was, once again, more beautiful as an idea than in execution.

One problem was getting enough people to stand on the bridge in Rotary Park, which Durango High School students – perhaps because of their tendency to perch themselves atop railings – were forbidden from crossing.

Other human-chain breaks stemmed from participating humans’ varying aptitudes and experience.

For instance, DHS students were much better at forming a human chain than their younger colleagues. In part, that was because of simple wingspan. Smaller elementary-school students could barely extend 3 feet. Meanwhile, some tall high school boys, their arms fully extended, covered twice the distance or more.

But another was concentration. The high school students were naturals at the human chain, often waiting until the very last minute to hold hands, except for one older boy, who pronounced the whole event “stupid” though he was holding the hand of a female classmate several minutes before the helicopter flew overhead.

Needham Elementary children, by comparison, held hands enthusiastically but struggled to stay still, and when the helicopter finally arrived, several broke the human chain, preferring to boisterously wave at the pilot.

Though there were fewer adults in attendance this year, Durango schools spokeswoman Julie Popp said this Durango Connect had attracted a fair number of newbies. Those included a busload of Canadian tourists, who joined in after they’d been denied entry to Mesa Verde National Park because of the federal shutdown.

Though Durangoans failed to form an unbroken chain across 7 miles of river trail, the spectacle of Durango mightily trying once again proved hopeful, hapless and very happy.

That, anyway, is the school district’s take.

In a news release issued after the event, Popp wrote: “A full and complete human chain is not the most important aspect of the event, but rather what the community engagement epitomizes, as well as the dedication to the character of the community it demonstrates.”

cmcallister@durangoherald.com