Briefs for October 28, 2010

Peakview School celebrates Oktoberfest tonight

WALSENBURG- Peakview School will hold an Oktoberfest Party with balloons, games, prizes, pie throwing (at deputies!), balloon animals, bingo, popcorn, snow cones, cotton candy, a cake walk, clowns and more!  There will also be a smothered burrito dinner served. Come out tonight from 6-8 pm and join in the fun!

Hysterical Historical III: Trick or Treat

TRINIDAD- Where can you meet Trinidad pioneer Sarah Bloom and television matriarch Morticia Addams?  And what in the world do they have in common?  Come find out at “Hysterical Historical III: Trick or Treat at the Trinidad History Museum!”

    The silly, scary, and free event takes place in the bookstore, at 312 E. Main Street, on Fri. Oct. 29 from 3-5 pm, as part of Trinidad’s safe trick-or-treat celebration for children of all ages.

    Scooby-Doo History Detective can’t wait to meet all of Trinidad’s kids and whoever else stops by!  But beware! La Llorona, the creepy Weeping Woman from Hispanic lore, makes her debut at the third annual event.  You never know who else might show up… has anyone seen Itt?  But don’t worry! Dr. Davenport and Dr. Barglow will protect you!  They had medical practices in the historic building that is now home to the museum bookstore.

    For more information, call the Trinidad History Museum, at 719-846-7217.  The museum complex is a property of History Colorado.  The Safe Downtown Trick or Treat is sponsored by the First National Bank of Trinidad.

Ken Salazar and Roy Romer in town

WALSENBURG- Former governor Roy Romer and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar will be in Walsenburg on Sat. Oct. 30 at 4 pm at the community center.  The Get Out the Vote rally is the second such event held in Walsenburg in the past two weeks.  These rallies are a great way to meet our state and national leaders.  Come out and show your support.

Friends of the Library to meet

WALSENBURG- The Friends of the Spanish Peaks Library District will be meeting in the “Upstairs Retreat Room” (3rd floor) 415 Walsen Ave. on Tues. Nov. 2 at 2:30 pm.  Please join us with your ideas on how to help library services and programs.

Spanish Peaks Library Events Day of the Dead Celebrations

WALSENBURG-   Oct. 25-Nov. 2 Day of the Dead/Día de los Muertos is a holiday celebrated by Mexican Americans that focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died. Traditions connected with the holiday include building private altars honoring the deceased. You may want to add family memorabilia to the altar at the Library. 

    The Day of the Dead is a time of celebration, where partying and eating is common. Come to the Library to learn more about this holiday and join in the potluck on Nov. 2, 4-6 pm; anyone wishing to participate is encouraged to bring a loved one’s favorite food.

Introduction to Video Production

    On Fridays 2-4 pm, join an 8 week class taught by local videographer, Kenny Schneider, This course introduces the fundamentals of video production from pre-production, to post-production. Please sign up for this workshop at the main desk.

Craft Get Together

    This group begins October 29, 2010.  Get together with friends for crafts on alternate Fridays from 1-3with Roseanna Olguin. Bring your own craft or work on one provided. A lanyard craft will be available, Oct. 29. Please call the library if you are bringing a large group.

National Gaming Day

    On Nov. 13, 12:30-3:30 pm, join the Spanish Peaks Library as thousands of libraries throughout the country host special gaming events in celebration of National Gaming Day at your library.

    Try the new board game Wits & Wagers: Family donated by North Star Games; play old favorite board games; or join the video games tournament sponsored by Kids Klub.  Tournament participants should arrive 15 minutes early to check in. Food will be sold in the meeting room or you can bring a snack. Please sign up for Gaming Day at the main desk.

    If you have questions, please call 738-2774.

Navajo homeowners to meet

NAVAJO- The Navajo Ranch HOA will have their regular monthly meeting Tues. Nov. 2 at 7 pm.  The meeting will be at the Navajo Western Water District building located at 705 Navajo Rd.

Huerfano County Community Coalition

WALSENBURG- The regular monthly meeting of the HCCC will take place Thurs. Nov. 4 at noon in the Community Room of the Spanish Peaks Library. “Solutions West” representing Tri State Energy will be presenting a program. Debbie Channel will also give a presentation on “Live Well Colorado” and other available health programs. Everyone welcome. Any questions can be directed to Debbie Channel @ 738-2718.

Song of Pueblo Concert

PUEBLO- Experience music and history with this live and intimate performance on Fri. Nov. 5, the last concert for this year.  This original Oratorio, written and composed by noted playwright, composer Daniel Valdez, tells the diverse and compelling stories of Pueblo’s past through song, narration, vignettes and historical images. Music performances are by the members of El Pueblo Ensemble. Doors open at 6 pm; concert is at 7 pm. Tickets are $15.   

    El Pueblo History Museum is located at 301 North Union, Pueblo. For more information call 719/583-0453.

IOWA CITY, IOWA- Registration is now open for the Dec.11, 2010 ACT achievement test. Students who wish to take the college admission and placement exam must register before Nov. 5.

    The ACT is a curriculum-based achievement exam.  It tests what students have actually learned in school, not their aptitude for learning. The ACT also measures what students need to know to be ready for first year credit-bearing college courses based on ACT College Readiness Standards™. Every student’s results can be tied directly to these consistent standards.

    The ACT has four sections—English, mathematics, reading and science—and takes about three hours to complete.  Students who take the ACT Plus Writing complete an optional writing test that requires an additional 30 minutes.  Unlike other exams, students are not penalized for guessing or answering all the questions on each test section. In fact, it is beneficial for test takers to answer all questions within the time allowed.

    During registration, students may select up to four universities to receive their score reports.  ACT scores are accepted by all four-year colleges and universities across the United States.  ACT reports scores only when requested to do so by the student.  Additional score reports are available for a small fee.

    All students complete a detailed inventory of questions during ACT registration.  Each test taker receives an ACT score report that includes a wide variety of information to assist with high school course selection, college readiness, career planning, and college admissions.

    The cost for the ACT test without writing is $33.  When combined with the optional ACT Writing Test, the total cost is $48.  Students who qualify may apply for a fee waiver through their high school counselor.

    The ACT website, www.actstudent.org, has helpful information, free sample items, and options to order inexpensive test prep materials to assist test takers get ready for the exam.  However, the best preparation is to take rigorous core courses in school, study hard, and learn the academic skills needed in college.

    Most students register online at www.actstudent.org.  Students may also pick up registration forms from their high school counseling offices. Registration is available until Nov. 19 for an extra $21 fee.

Pueblo Holistic Health & Living Fair

PUEBLO- The Pueblo Holistic Health & Living Fair is a mind ~ body ~ spirit  bi-annual event that will take place on Sat. Nov. 6, 10 am to 6 pm and Sun. Nov. 7, 10 am to 5 pm at the Student Center of CSU in Pueblo.

    Pueblo′s own fair offers everything you seek in a holistic, metaphysical event including: holistic health options, readings, meditation tools and techniques, aura pictures and metaphysical merchandise.  Learn the value of the holistic approach to life while you explore holistic and metaphysical alternatives in a setting that is educational and uplifting.  Find your true self, explore greater depths of being and meet friendly people who are like-minded. Your health, well-being and happiness are waiting to be discovered!  The Pueblo Holistic Health & Living Fair just might have the answers to your questions.

    Included in the cost of admission is your ticket to two full days of informative workshops.  Spend your weekend enjoying the fair: gain insight, attend the workshops, eat good food and have fun!  The admission price is $5 for one day or $8 for both days.  Senior, student and military discounts are offered. 

    Transform your life as you discover how to be happy, healthy and free! Explore the possibilities at the Nov. 6 & 7 New Age Event.  Your life is waiting!

    Visit www.PuebloHolisticFair.com to view a detailed program of all participants and workshops.  For more information, call Temara Speaks at 719-547-4883 or Mimi Barriere at 719-544-3815 or email Linda Weiner atPuebloLight Connection@yahoo.com.

Entrance fees waived on Veterans Day

GREAT SAND DUNES-Entrance fees to all National Park Service areas, including Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve, will be waived in honor of Veterans Day, Thurs. Nov. 11.

    "From everyone in the National Park Service, I extend gratitude to all who have served in the U.S. armed forces and defended the people, freedoms, and resources of this country," said National Park Service (NPS) Director Jon Jarvis as he announced the fee-free day.  I invite everyone to take advantage of this opportunity and savor places that our veterans have kept safe for us."

    This fee-free day is held annually on Veterans Day.  Visitor Center hours at Great Sand Dunes will be 9 am to 4:30 pm, while the park is open 24 hours/day.

    For information on NPS battlefields, military parks, and historic sites that commemorate the service of American veterans please visit the NPS website at:

 www.nps.gov/pub_aff/veterans/honor.htm

SCA to meet

WALSENBURG- The Huerfano/Las Animas  local group of the Society for Creative Anachronism will hold its November business meeting at 6 pm on Thurs. Nov. 11 at Spanish Peaks Library District in Walsenburg. This meeting is free and open to the public.

    The SCA is an international organization dedicated to researching and re-creating the arts, skills, and traditions of pre-17th-century Europe. Members of the SCA study and take part in a variety of activities,including combat, archery, equestrian activities, costuming, cooking, metalwork, woodworking, music, dance, calligraphy, fiber arts, and much more.

    Please visit www.sca.org for more information about the Society, or call 719-334-6937 for information about this meeting.

Night-time Mercado & book signing

PUEBLO- The frontier comes alive at a pre-sunset 1840s Mercado on Fri. Nov. 12 from 4 pm to 7 pm.  Throughout the placita and six period rooms of El Pueblo trading post, costumed living history interpreters will go about their evening tasks and pastimes. Fully engage your senses as you smell food baking in the horno, fresh tortillas and Dutch oven cooking, feel the warmth of the traders’ campfires and hear their stories, see nightly chores being performed and hear the clang of the blacksmith’s hammer as he forges iron. Adults will have a chance to play Monte while children make frontier crafts and play games.

    In the bookstore, Deborah Martinez-Martinez will introduce and sign her new book, Trade on the Taos Mountain Trail, a children’s history book that explores the region’s trade network between the American Indian tribes of the plains, American and Spanish/Mexican traders. The artists who contributed to the book will have their artwork also on display.  They include the book’s illustrator Robert Pacheco, artist Doug Candelaria, and photographers Barbara Engles of Bent’s Fort and Carol Rivera and Glori Hyder.  A children’s quill writing activity will be in the classrooms.  The first 100 children will receive a small “possible” bag filled with historic goodies.

    Admission is free to the Mercado and Book Signing. The Museum galleries will be open and will be discounted.

    El Pueblo History Museum is located at 301 North Union, Pueblo. For more information call 719/583-0453.

COLORADO- The deadline is quickly approaching to enter the 13th Annual “Colorado…it’s AgriCultural” photography contest. Entries must be postmarked by Dec. 31, 2010.

    “Entries are already coming in, and it is exciting to see such high quality photographs showcasing the diversity of Colorado agriculture,” said Wendy White, marketing specialist for the Colorado Department of Agriculture. “I encourage photographers of all ages to send in their best pictures for this year’s contest.”

    Entries must be submitted to the Colorado Department of Agriculture with an official entry form by Dec. 31, and all photographs must relate to Colorado agriculture in some way.  Prizes will be awarded in four subject areas:  agritourism, crops, livestock and people.  A $150 gift card will be awarded as the grand prize for the photograph that best portrays the spirit of Colorado agriculture.

    Judging will be based on theme, creativity and technical quality. All winning photographs will be displayed in the Beede-Hamil Agriculture Building at Northeastern Junior College in Sterling, Colo.

    Visit www.coloradoagriculture.com or call (303) 239-4119 for complete contest rules and an entry form. The contest is sponsored by the Colorado Department of Agriculture, the AgInsights Committee and Northeastern Junior College.

Pinon Canyon Expansion Opposition Coalition gives Congressman John Salazar an A+ Rating

PINYON CANYON- John Salazar has earned an A+ rating from the PCEOC for his efforts to stop the Pinon Canyon expansion. He is a candidate that has put his congressional votes and legislative efforts where his mouth is to keep Pinon Canyon from expanding. He has a proven four year track record no one else has on stopping the     Pinon Canyon expansion.

    The future of southeastern Colorado hangs in the balance — we survive if Pinon Canyon isn′t expanded — we are eliminated if it does. The issue has a great many manifestations in property rights, citizens rights, conservation, national defense, community planning, historical preservation, economics, and ethics.

    The only thing that keeps the expansion from happening at this point is the congressional funding ban that originates in the Committee on Military Affairs.  John Salazar worked to get on the Military Affairs Committee and is in a key position to renew the funding ban each year.

    If Colorado loses Congressman Salazar′s position on that committee we are concerned the funding ban will not be renewed allowing the expansion to go forward.

    A vote for John Salazar is a definite vote against the Pinon Canyon expansion.