DeeAnn Brown, a Chipita Park resident, was surprised to learn that her friends from the Ute Pass Library nominated her for the 2023 Volunteer of the Year Award for the Pikes Peak Library District. She was even more surprised when she won!
“I was speechless,” she said.
Brown has been the president of the Friends of the Ute Pass Library since 2015, after moving to Colorado from Kansas. The group is comprised of volunteers who love the library. They meet every other month with a mission to promote literacy.
The friends raise money through book sales, money that is put to good use for library purchases, gifts and miscellany. Part of Brown’s role is to manage the Ute Pass Friends’ bookshelves and sales. She sends donated or discarded library books to the Juvenile Detention Center as well as distributing donated books to other library branches.
The award is an annual one, and is the highest a PPLD volunteer can achieve. Brown’s dedication and devotion to promoting literacy and reading has made her an exemplary member of the Ute Pass Friends. She is known for her diligence, for being fair, honest, kind to all and respectful.
Brown is also known for making meetings fun and interesting. With her “Library Facts,” she tells members unheard-of tidbits at each meeting, such as the fact that the longest overdue book belonged to George Washington and was found in his home 221 years after he checked it out. It was titled “The Law of Nations” and was returned in 2010!
To Brown, receiving the award allows her to “talk about libraries, and to highlight the Ute Pass Library.”
“I consider the Ute Pass Library to be a hidden gem in our area. Patrons have free access to books, eBooks, audio books, DVDs, magazines, adult, teen and children’s programs, genealogy resources, computers and more. You can even borrow a ukelele with your library card,” she said.
Brown also handles the organization of the well-loved Chipita Park Arts and Crafts Fair that takes place every November.
We are proud to have the recipient of this prestigious award in our own small Ute Pass Library District! The Ute Pass Library at 8010 Severy Road in Cascade.
Yoga in the Wildwood
Beth Knox, who teaches community yoga at Church in the Wildwood in Green Mountain Falls, will be expanding her class offerings starting in March.
Knox has been a GMF resident for 25 years and a body worker and yoga teacher for more than 20 years. She believes that “movement is medicine,” and strives “to make yoga accessible to every body.”
She is offering two donation-based classes: Gentle Flow at 9 a.m. Tuesdays and, beginning in March, a chair/mat hybrid class at 9 a.m. Thursdays.
To support space for community wellness and activities, 20 percent of donations are shared with the church.
Church in the Wildwood is at 10585 Ute Pass Ave., Green Mountain Falls. Contact Knox at bethknoxgomez@gmail.com.
GMF Board of Trustees Candidates’ Forum
A Candidate Forum and Reception will start at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 28, at the GMF Town Hall. Four candidates are vying for two Board of Trustees seats in the April 2 election.
The board candidates are John Bell, Brandy Moralez, Ann Speir-Esch and Donald Walker. Todd Dixon is running unopposed to continue serving as mayor. Darlene Avery will moderate the forum in Town Hall, 10615 Green Mountain Falls Road.
The evening concludes with a reception with the candidates.
The hills are alive with the sound of music?
Church in the Wildwood in Green Mountain Falls is embarking on a campaign to restore music to the church bell tower as part of its celebration of 135 years serving the community.
The church celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1939 with the addition of the bell tower to the vestibule. Mr. and Mrs. J.B. Sanders brought the first bell to the church in August of that year, moving it on a trailer from an abandoned church on their property in Kansas.
For a few years, the bell rang whenever there was a fire in Green Mountain Falls.
For 40 years, the Green Mountain Falls community had been united by the sound of bells coming from the church steeple. The current Schulmerich carillon, installed and dedicated in 1982 with technology that dated back to the 1960s, is no longer functional. A vision for a new Schulmerich digital carillon has been initiated.
Come be part of the community conversation to restore the sound of bells ringing in the mountains at 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 6, in Tatter Hall at Church in the Wildwood, 10585 Ute Pass Ave., Green Mountain Falls.
Send news and/or photos to judypiazza@gmail.com.