Ear to the ground:

“Next time I have to remember not to wear flip flops because I got poo between my toes.”
– A greenhorn’s comment on attending her first rodeo
 

Rainbow connection

A grassroots community effort is working to change the lives of local youth, all while proving that to raise funds, one needn’t spend any.

This Sunday, from 3-10 p.m. in Rotary Park, the local nonprofit Tiospaye is hosting a day (and night) of music, food, kids activities, yoga and more. Proceeds from the day’s events will go to La Plata Youth Services and the newly created Rainbow Youth Center. The center, which is meant to be a refuge for local gay, lesbian and transgender students to hang out in, do homework and seek support, is currently looking for a home.

According to organizers, the event is meant to help counter local problems of teen suicide, drug and alcohol abuse, and incarceration. “We wanted to support established at-risk youth programs,  like the Rainbow Center, which is trying to find a home,” said Tiospaye member Nicole Thompson Goring.

Goring is among a group that joined Tiospaye in March and has been tasked with raising $30,000 toward a community service project of their choice: in this case youth programs. However, no money can be spent in reaching that goal; rather everything related to the fundraiser must be donated. “The community has to sponsor it,” she said.

According to the group’s co-founder Crystal Wolfchild, “tiospaye” is a Dakota/Lakota word meaning “the making of relatives.” It is a Native American worldview that everything is interconnected. The mission of the nonprofit – which she co-founded last year with her mother, Della Romero and sister Monica Colvig – is to unite the community in working toward the common good.

There is no web page, no brick and mortar offices, no national sanctioning body. Rather, the group generates awareness and interest through word of mouth and referrals. People either hear about it through friends or are invited to a series of “transformational” trainings. Wolfchild said the trainings help to change people’s pre-conceived notions and beliefs about the world.

“It’s very powerful and profound and life-changing,” she said.

Wolfchild, who grew up in Durango, became involved in the idea while living in Los Angeles as a make-up artist. She said the concept has been around for 40 years, with similar groups in larger cities. “The goal is to create a sustainable community,” she said, “to empower people to live an extraordinary life for what they choose.”

Thompson-Goring said in addition to helping the Rainbow Center find a home, she hopes the project eventually leads to a Tiospaye program for teens.