School’s Out for the Summer!

Is it officially summer yet? School’s out in our district, so I think we made it! I can’t be the only one who chose routes around town to avoid school zones during the semester. If it seems like school zones are everywhere, it’s because there are over 40 schools and 20,000 students in D51. Even though the monument served a tenth of that, it still felt like a lot with only one permanent education ranger (me)!

Outside of special events, like the Mesa County Safety Fair in February, we served 1,209 education contacts in the spring 2023 semester alone. That number includes students, teachers, and chaperones. A little over half the groups we saw were from the Grand Valley. The other half were from across Colorado or even the country; one distance learning program was with a middle school in Florida! In the fall 2022 semester, we served 1,254 contacts – pretty close numbers! We had a couple of groups cancel this spring that couldn’t reschedule, otherwise we might have met the same number.

Volunteers-In-Parks and EUREKA staff help us with programs – and this spring they were needed even more! I broke my ankle at the end of February with surgery in March, so running the spring programs relied heavily on their availability and willingness to support the monument. Since then, we also hired a seasonal ranger, Paul Bartling. He was once a fourth grade teacher and has been an incredible asset to our educational programming. Now that the semester is over, you might want to join Paul for an evening program or daytime ranger-led hike sometime!

This summer, the monument isn’t hosting our own summer camps, but we’re still staying busy! Paul will be helping with some of EUREKA’s summer camps when their groups visit the monument. I’ll be heading to Montrose a couple of times to assist with the Ute Indian Museum’s summer camps, led by my friend Kellie Carroll – who, by the way, gives a great Shavano Rock Art tour! Once a week, I’ll also be helping our Youth Conservation Corps. My other big plan for this summer is to create a handful more educational videos for the monument – stay tuned!

If you’re interested in helping our education programs, send me an email or let anyone at CNMA know! I can always use assistance with leading classroom groups during the school year and fine-tuning our programs. Thanks for welcoming me into the community! I’m so grateful to live and work with all these amazing people and places.