Durango’s annual Christmas Party

To the editor,

Durango’s annual Christmas party is on for Dec. 5! Noel Night was first organized 11 years ago by Jane Gould and Nancy Juliana, and the event has changed little since then because everyone enjoys it just the way it is. Folks take a few hours on a festive winter day or evening to be entertained by local musicians, enjoy the hospitality of Main Avenue merchants and see friends they haven’t seen in months. Many meet for lunch or dinner at a local dining establishment.

While Noel Night is a time to savor our historic downtown for shopping and socializing, it was started as a way for the merchants to show appreciation for their customers, according to Gould.

Customers loved it and wanted to show appreciation right back, as evidenced by their spending habits that day. So a mutual-admiration celebration was born.

The merchants deserve all the appreciation they can get – our downtown businesses are the guardians, custodians and curators of our shared downtown heritage. And the shoppers certainly deserve a big hug for eschewing the impersonal online shopping experience that brings, often, zero sales tax revenue into our community. Online businesses do not invest in local nonprofits or circulate money in the local economy the way the local businesses do.

The night also belongs to the entertainers who are, in their turn, expressing appreciation both for the businesses that have supported them through the years and their public.

The event is produced by Local First, La Plata County’s nonprofit business alliance, which partnered this year with locally owned Durango Herald for a blitz of advertising and event planning. All the downtown merchants who display a “Noel Night Participant” poster have contributed at least $125 (and sometimes much more) to help pay for the many behind-the-scenes costs of the event. (So those who shop at a business without the poster, ask your merchant pay up. Better late than never. Don’t forget, we are all in this together.) The City of Durango contributed to all the good vibes by declaring parking free after 10 a.m. and scheduling the trolley to run until 9 pm.

So, no need to RSVP for Durango’s annual Christmas party – just come on down ... downtown, that is!

– Kristi Streiffert, director, Local First

Share your story with students

To the editor,

I am the eighth-grade humanities teacher at Mountain Middle School in Durango. I am currently conducting a project that will honor local community members for their resilience in life, culminating in a public spoken-word performance in Durango that will pay tribute to them on Dec. 16. 

My biggest challenge at this point is to gather a pool of people that my students can interview and use as the resilient person to base their spoken-word performance on. These individuals would be invited to our exhibition in late December to hear the performances honoring them.

I know that Durango is full of people who have amazing stories to tell, and we want to connect the stories of our young locals with those of local adults. If you know of someone, perhaps even yourself, who would like to share their story with us it would help to make this a very special event. I can be reached via: ed.whritner@mountainmiddleschool.org. Thank you.

– Ed Whritner, Mountain Middle School

The Gettysburg Address

When Lincoln delivered his Gettysburg address in 1863

He took about two minutes to state what actions were best for the nation’s strength

Edward Everett shared the platform with Lincoln that day

And his speech was about two hours in length

Edward Everett was the ex-President of Harvard and the ex-governor of Massachusetts

A former U.S. senator and congressman, all in all, a man very eminent

He was so highly regarded that it was thought by many

That his speech would be as important as that delivered by the President

Everett’s speech touched on ancient Greek history, current political and military developments, and various other subjects

In a very complicated and abstruse way

Fortunately for him, he spoke before Lincoln, so he retained much of his audience

Because to hear Lincoln they had to stay

Lincoln said that day, “The world will little note nor long remember what we say here”

But of course about that he was absolutely wrong

And today virtually everyone past kindergarten age is familiar with what he said,

And many can remember every word of the speech that was two minutes long

So if you want people to remember

What you expressed as your thoughts

The primary rules to remember

Are to keep it simple and keep it short

– Chester Salkind, Durango