The Vail Valley Partnership’s 18th Annual Success Awards took on a new form this year as the VVP team surprised award winners at their place of business and crashed staff meetings (both in-person and virtual)…
We are Austin music, repeats Jonathan Chaka Mahone.
He states those words emphatically in reference to not only his own musical endeavors, but the unappreciated depth of Black talent in the Texas capital. Putting the Black and brown face on music is what they should be doing, he continues. Get out of the way. Stop acting like we re still in the Willie Nelson and Stevie Ray Vaughan days. The symbol of [Austin] music is still a guitar. That day is over!
His passion transcends virtual confines necessitated by the coronavirus pandemic. After 11-plus years of hustling alongside his wife, Ghislaine Qi Dada Jean, the hyperactive social justice advocate earned the right to voice his opinion in unadulterated terms. The two unite as Riders Against the Storm, a hip-hop duo focused on uplifting its community in lieu of promoting dysfunction for album sales.
Two Mountain Rec staff members have been recognized for their efforts over the past year: Janet Bartnik, executive director, was recognized by the Colorado Parks & Recreation Association with the President’s Award; and Eddie Campos, marketing and communications manager was listed in the National Parks & Recreation Magazine’s 30 Under 30.
Bartnik was recognized with the prestigious President’s Award given at the discretion of the current president of the Colorado Parks & Recreation Association for her leadership in the past year.
“[Janet] recognized that the directors of so many agencies throughout the state needed support during the pandemic and [she] provided that support by having directors lean on each other,” CPRA President Justin Perdue said in a news release. “Building on that recognition, [she] made every effort to bring the directors together, doing outreach, facilitating phone calls, fostering that ongoing communication, and in doing those things, provided
Pam Boyd/pboyd@vaildaily.com
It was a proverbial “it takes a village” moment in Edwards last Saturday when around three dozen volunteers turned out to build the community’s new outdoor ice rink.
The rink is located at a parking area next to the Edwards Field House and will be open to the public, free of charge, in just a few days. The facility is a project of Mountain Recreation.
Project is the operative term there. It took a public process to approve the rink and it takes a lot of work to actually produce a skating surface. All this started several months ago, when Mountain Recreation came up with the idea.