In the furor over the visit by former Blue Angel and leadership trainer John Foley to benefit the Jeff Kuss Memorial Scholarship, the visit to Durango of another bestselling author and motivational speaker flew a bit under the radar.
Tommy Spaulding is the author of It’s Not Just Who You Know, which became a bestseller on the lists of The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today. He visited Durango in early August after an invitation from Jack Llewellyn, executive director of the Durango Chamber of Commerce, and Doug Fuller, a board member of The Liberty School.
The Liberty School is a private school that works with students who have dyslexia, are gifted or are twice-exceptional – gifted and dyslexic. That connects because Spaulding shared stories of how dealing with dyslexia shaped his life.
Dyslexia is a dominant theme in his personal story.
“My unlikely journey began as a dyslexic kid in a small village in upstate New York,” begins a paragraph on the first page of his most recent release, The Heart-Led Leader. Attendees at the Durango event received a signed copy of the book.
He called The Liberty School “a gem,” a description I’ve heard many adults dealing with dyslexia use regarding the school. Just as I am jealous of project-based learning, they are jealous of the techniques and personal attention the school uses to help students learn to deal with the wonky wiring in their brains. Too many of them were considered “slow” or “stupid” because dyslexia was not understood when they were young.
Spaulding encouraged attendees to be ambassadors for the school as it launches its capital campaign to build its new school. The school has already raised about $700,000 with the help of staff members and the board of directors, Head of School Christian Holmen said. To build the new facility, which needs to open fall 2017 when the Juniper School, a charter elementary school, takes over its digs in the Durango District 9-R-owned building, the school will need to raise a minimum of $1.5 million. It would be ideal though, with its growth rate, to build a facility designed to accommodate its maximum-allowed student body of 49, which will cost $3.5 million.
Spaulding interviewed people who built businesses, turned around corporations, transformed a prison and summited K2, the second highest – and perhaps most dangerous – peak in the world for the book, and he shared a number of stories from those connections with his Durango audience.
Spaulding knows about leading from the heart. Formerly the president and CEO of Up with People – an organization many Durangoans have toured the world with, by the way – he saw firsthand how young people from around the globe came together to build bridges between cultures, languages and religions. There’s nothing more full of heart than that.
Liberty School may be private, but it reaches out to the community by bringing in speakers and educators to improve education for all of the students in Southwest Colorado who are dealing with dyslexic, gifted and twice-exceptional skill sets.
And the school continues to grow. Liberty has a record enrollment of 27 students for this school year, Holmen said. Between 30 and 40 percent of students receive some scholarship help, ranging from several hundred dollars to half-tuition.
Celebrating birthdays as summer marches inexorably to a close are John Bryan, Sheri Collins, Ken Fusco, Tom Kyser, Sandy Jones, Kevin Jones, Bonnie Rossmiller, Jonathan Wince, Beverly Brown, Diane Calfas, Dianne Williams, Eryn Orlowski, Jenny Williams, Julie Williams, Dan Osby, Kathy Pratt, Fred Riedinger, Scott Wallace, Joan Kuhn, Joanie Peterson and Tom Geyer.
I meant to get a story in earlier this summer, but time flies ... Liz Mora, who served as executive director of the Women’s Resource Center for a decade, is now the executive director of The Arc of Southwest Colorado, which provides advocacy and connections to available services for families of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Christy Schaerer, who served as program director of the Women’s Resource Center under Mora, has stepped up to direct the organization.
The WRC thrived under Mora. While this is by no means a comprehensive list, the center, under her leadership, added college scholarships and certificate/professional certificate training for women working to achieve financial sustainability; created a low-bono program with affordable legal help for women dealing with divorce and custody issues; established Get Your Girl Power for girls transitioning from elementary to middle school; and advocated for causes that affect women and children.
Schaerer has big shoes to fill, but there’s no doubt she can fill them.
Congratulations to both of you in your new positions.
Enjoying a cooler stretch for their anniversaries are Tom and Cris Spahr, Lou and Jane Steele, John and Stella Welcher, Paul and Susan Plvan, Don and Barbara Bruning, Tom and Denise Dey, Jim and Marty Monn, Terry and Diane Sadler, Peter and Liza Tregillus, Bruce and Sue Rodman, Gordon and Dene Thomas, Les Lundquist and Carol Tookey and Mark and Sue Chiarito.
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