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Friday letters: Reading, mental health, hockey, museum

Happy ‘I Love to Read Month’

In honor of I Love to Read Month, thank you to the Kiwanis Club of Glenwood Springs for donating proceeds from the fun Holiday Burn-Off Fundraiser in January to Raising A Reader and Valley Settlement. 

Also, thank you to the major sponsors, Alpine Bank, Bank of Colorado, and Adam Decker State Farm Agency, for providing the support needed to make this event possible.

The funds will support our two organization’s ability to purchase over 800 Spanish- and English-language books for hundreds of preschool-age children in our region to support families joyfully reading at home together!



Suzanne Wheeler-Del Piccolo, Raising A Reader Aspen to Parachute

Sally Boughton, Valley Settlement



Support mental health services in schools 

I am a student from CSU in the general psychology program and working on a piece to advocate for school psychology.

School is a huge part of a adolescent’s life. Students spend 1,080 hours per year in school and deal with many different stresses such as social, academic, and even mental health. In 2021, 42% of students felt persistently sad, 29% experienced poor mental health, 22% seriously considered suicide, and 10% actually attempted suicide (CDC, 2023). 

Students spend most of their time at school so you would expect that schools would be more prepared for mental health situations and be able to help their students more.

According to a study done by Skundberg-Kletthagen, “school nurses requested more knowledge about inter- and multidisciplinary cooperation regarding follow-up of pupils with mental health problems,” which means students were seeing their school nurses for mental health issues. Schools have had a lack of help and training for mental issues faced by the student population. 

However, schools are identified as critical for detecting youth mental disorders such as depression and anxiety (Green et. al., 2013). These issues even if spotted go untreated or not talked about with the students and the resources they may need.

To combat the problem, suggestions say that education on symptoms and help for educators, staff members, parents, and students (For Educators, 2022). 

Education is key to changing lots of minds and ideas. By educating students, parents and staff members signs and students who face mental illness problems will get the help that they need. Another way to combat the problem of mental health in school is to encourage helping others and to encourage good physical health (For Educators, 2022). 

When looking at the signs educators should look out for, helping others and good physical health will help students feel better both mentally and physically. With these suggestions, mental health in the school system will help protect their students as well as help those who are affected by mental health problems.

Sequoia S. Israel-Olson, New Castle

Great hockey year

Congratulations to coach Cota, his assistants and the players of the Demons hockey team. What a great year! 

Even though they lost a heartbreaker in the state championship, they have every reason to be proud of their efforts. Everyone worked extremely hard all season and it paid off!

Look forward to next season and I think I can speak for all the fans and supporters; we thank the entire organization for your contributions to the greatest game in the world!

Michael Hamilton, New Castle

Fund the museum

It seems to me that it is a no brainer when it comes to funding the (Frontier) Historical Museum. It needs to be part of the tourist experience when they visit our town. 

We have the revenue from the accommodation tax that is controlled by the Tourism Board, which receives in the neighborhood of $1.5 million a year and growing each year. The “board” needs to set aside a percentage for the museum each year as part of their budget. 

To start off with 4% would give the museum $60,000 and as the revenue keeps going up, so will the funding. If the city finds funding from another source the percentage could be less. There is no excuse not to find the funds for the museum.

Don “Hooner” Gillespie, Glenwood Springs


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