All Local, All The Time
All Local, All The Time
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After a five-hour meeting to review its five-year strategic plan, the Niwot Local Improvement District Advisory Committee decided that the best course of action would be to host the leadership of all of the non-profit organizations serving the Niwot community at a roundtable discussion. The purpose of the meeting will be to give each organization, including the LID, a better understanding of each organization’s purpose and short-term goals, as well as start a conversation about how best to share resources. Eight of the nine LID committee member...
Vocalist Rianna Rickford loves to perform, whether it's in Niwot's prestigious Evenstar choir, or in a theater department musical, such as Cinderella or Little Shop of Horrors. For choir director Laura Roberts, Rickford's dedication to her craft is nothing short of inspiring. "She is probably one of the most improved singers in the choir program," Walters wrote of the senior, who is currently a member of the school's Evenstar choir, and is deeply involved in the fall musical. "She has the...
This month's Left Hand Laurel goes to Thom Lynch. Lynch moved to Niwot in September 2018 and decided the best way to meet folks and to make a difference was to jump in with both feet. So, the new guy in town joined the Rotary Club of Niwot and not long after became the president-elect of the organization. Lynch had been an active Rotarian for a year before he moved to Niwot, after being recruited to the organization by his then girlfriend who was the president of a chapter in Syracuse, NY "I...
Sometimes you just have the music in you, and other times you just wanna get the music in you. Either way, the annual RISE Benefit Concert in Niwot will help satiate music lovers of all ages. The very danceable event returns Saturday, Sept. 11, for the fourth year following an obligatory COVID skip in 2020. This year the event will be held at Whistle Stop Park in Niwot at the corner of 1st Avenue and Murray Street, after the 2019 event was held at the Boulder County Fairgrounds. RISE stands for...
Playing NCAA Division I college volleyball has long been a dream for Niwot senior Zoe Gibbs and, after three impressive seasons as a varsity middle for the Cougars, one clearly within her reach. Unfortunately for the versatile Gibbs, her optimum recruiting period coincided with the Covid-19 pandemic, making an already fraught process even more of a headache. But Gibbs didn't let the hassle derail her plans, and after months of patiently making highlight videos and sending out emails to coaches,...
It's been a week since students, teachers, and staff started the new school year. After the pandemic created an unconventional, some would say difficult, year of learning, returning to full-time, in-person classes throughout the district is something that many parents are grateful for. At the same time, the community is not having the same kind of back-to-school experience as in years past. Students are required to re-acclimate to a more conventional social and learning environment after the...
The school community was hopeful that when they returned to school this fall masks would not be required in SVVSD schools. As it turns out, that won't be the case. Following guidance from Boulder County Public Health through Public Health Order 2021-07, the St. Vrain Valley School District (SVVSD) is requiring masking for all students, faculty and staff in grades PK-12 while indoors. The school district did not provide a direct response to the Courier's questions about the decision. Instead,...
Niwot Community Association board members had a bit of a "green-storming" session at their August meeting. Niwot resident Terry Purcell approached the group with the suggestion that Niwot needs a community garden. "I've been talking to people as I work at the Niwot Market and everyone has been enthusiastic about the idea," he told NCA board members. "This could be a really wonderful social gathering place for the community." Purcell said he was bringing the idea to the NCA because of the...
Fire protection in Niwot goes back at least 100 years, as evidenced by the Firehouse Museum next to the Left Hand Grange in Niwot. An early cart used to put out fires with a chemical mixture rests outside the museum, a relic from early days of firefighting efforts. Today, fire protection and rescue services are provided by Mountain View Fire and Rescue, a sprawling special district that was originally established in 1961 as the Longmont Rural Fire District to provide professional fire...
He was 120 pounds of black and brown love at the end of the school day for kids at Niwot Elementary School. For the past two years Sully the German Shepherd would wait outside the school to pick up his three "sisters," Maggie, Abigail and Emma, and walk them home. The girls and their classmates would blast out of the school doors, eager to find Sully and engulf him with their affection. "I don't really think the kids were ever scared of him, because he just had this demeanor to him that you...
In his final stretch at Niwot High, the dreaded senioritis has eluded pitcher/outfielder Micah Sheats on the baseball diamond. His two-way talent shined on May 22 when he pitched a six-inning shutout and hit a home run during a 12-0 mercy-rule victory at Thompson Valley. The performance was nothing new as Sheats owns an over .300 batting average in 52 career games through May 30. As a freshman in 2018, Sheats hit .311 and played in all 23 of Niwot's games. He followed that season up with a...
The following is text of Niwot High Student Council President Benjamin Goff's commencement address: In the years of 2002 or 2003, what would eventually be the Class of 2021 came into the world. We came into radically different circumstances from one another. It led us all here. The last 18 or so years have led to the end of the beginning of the journey which we will spend the rest of our lives on. I'm sure many questions will be asked, some without answers, but perhaps the most crucial will be,...
Nancy Pitz, (left) Niwot Elementary School, happily accepts coffees for the teachers that Pat Murphy of Niwot Real Estate brought to the school May 6. Old Oak Coffeehouse and wiNot Coffee made the treats that Murphy brought to the school to show the teachers appreciation for all their hard work, which has been exceptionally challenging during Covid....
Niwot Elementary's Jessica Easley says she has an amazing job. Her passion for teaching and dedication to her students earned her Teacher of the Year for her school, an award she's won multiple times in her career. "It is a tremendous honor to have been chosen for this award," Easley wrote in an email after being honored at the Tribute to Teachers celebration on Friday night. "I am very grateful. I have taught for 26 years, most of them in Niwot. I love my job and my students. I am excited to...
It's not every teen who can find an emergency bandmate in their house, let alone one who can play Zimbabwean music. When Niwot High senior Noah Randall couldn't play in-person with his band during the pandemic, he would say, "Hey Mom, can you play with me?" It makes sense since she is the one who introduced him to music from Zimbabwe. She saw a band in Boulder and decided to take lessons on the marimba, an instrument similar to a xylophone. Randall was in elementary school at the time and had...
It's always a great honor to be named a finalist for Teacher of the Year, but this year's group earned recognition in a pandemic year that brought unforeseen challenges to them, students and schools. Their principals praised them for finding new and creative ways to engage and support students, while adapting to teaching virtually or in socially distanced and masked classrooms. Each St. Vrain Valley School District has three finalists and will eventually have a winner chosen from their school...
On April 6, Niwot Elementary School and the Mwebaza Foundation are hosting a fundraiser at Chipotle on Ken Pratt Boulevard in Longmont. From 4 - 8 p.m. Swing by and grab a burrito, bowl, or tacos and Chipotle will donate 33% of its sales to Mwebaza. Make sure to tell the staff you're there to support Mwebaza Foundation and show the attached flyer. Mwebaza Foundation is a local Niwot non-profit that connects schools in Colorado with schools in Uganda for cross-cultural exchanges and service...
You're in the midst of Thomas Studholme's artwork when you shop and stroll in Niwot. Studholme's paintings are found throughout the Niwot Market and likely, Studholme himself is at the market, so mask aside, he's got a very recognizable face. For the last four years, he's painted holiday scenes on the windows of local businesses and won several awards as a result. We asked this Familiar Face some questions to get to know the man behind the art. Left Hand Valley Courier (LHVC) - How did life...
The Niwot boys didn't end up on the winning end of the score in their 2021 season finale, but even that wasn't enough to dampen Michael "Misha" Barrett's spirits before, during, and after the game. A longtime Cougar basketball fan, the three-point specialist has dreamed about suiting up for the Niwot varsity since middle school, and on March 5, he finally got the chance to do just that in front of a supportive home crowd. "I will remember this moment for the rest of my life," the senior said...
School volunteer Lydia Moy looks at every opportunity and raises it up a notch. "Your job is not to do 10,000 cutout Valentines for second grade, your job is to spread the love," Moy said. Moy has been spreading the love for 14 years in elementary, middle and now high school. She's a realtor who used to work with emerging markets in finance, which she said helped her think about the big picture, "I'm a long term person." That mentality influences the way she approaches volunteering. When she...
Like all seniors in the class of 2021, Niwot girls basketball point guard Grace Wardle has been dealt a rough hand. The Cougars' season had already been cut down to 14 games and that number is even lower for Wardle. She has played in just three games this season and has missed another three and counting due to COVID-19 exposure protocols. Wardle said it has been hard to watch her team play from the virtual sideline in what has been a "disappointing" thorn in her senior season. Despite the...
In a year full of challenges, educators have gone above and beyond to support their students. Teachers have been placed in situations they didn't ask for and had to quickly build new skills to reach learners who were often on the other side of a screen. Now, the St. Vrain Valley Schools Education Foundation and the St. Vrain Valley School District are asking those who know of someone who has gone to lengths to help their student, to nominate them for 2021's Teacher of the Year award....
Looking over the long list of Elizabeth Duncan's high school achievements, a few words leap to mind: varied, wide-ranging, unconventional, and, finally, impressive. From stints on the cheer and track teams, to honor choir and color guard, there's no question that the senior has trod a unique path through Niwot High, and shows every sign of continuing on it after graduation. Duncan's story originates about 25 miles east of Niwot, in Brighton, where the senior lives with her parents and younger si...
The COVID-19 pandemic turned life upside down for most of us over the past 12 months, but it was especially hard on the local non-profit community, which saw its donations dry up as traditional fundraising events and activities were postponed or canceled. Fortunately, there's still time to help balance the scales as we count down the final hours of 2020. Among the many provisions of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES) passed back in March, was a change to an IRS rule...
On Wednesday, Dec. 16 the St. Vrain Valley School District Board of Education held a special meeting to discuss the return to school in 2021 and on Friday, Dec. 18, sent out an email to all parents, including a roadmap to in-person learning. Don Haddad, the superintendent of SVVSD, along with the counsel of many others, has created a plan to get students back in-person and ready to learn. In short, the plan is to have elementary students to be fully in-person starting Wednesday, Jan. 6, but...
It almost seems that since COVID shook the nation in March, it has been an easy scapegoat for many shortcomings. Even if it's not the complete reason for some sort of decline, it does appear to be a contributing factor in many cases, and 2020 school enrollment is no different. Last Wednesday, the St. Vrain Valley School District board of education started the meeting with the enrollment report. Scott Toillion, the district's planning director, emphasized that all districts across the state have...
The Niwot Patriotic Cookies Moms have been hard at work since Thanksgiving, packing up goodie boxes for the Christmas mailing to the troops. Julie Breyers' 3rd grade class from Niwot Elementary school provided wonderful pictures and notes, as did others. Each of the 28 boxes eventually sent out included many home baked treats, as well as a holiday letter from the group, and a copy of the most recent Left Hand Valley Courier....
In 1975, the Lutheran Medical Center Foundation was created as a way to support a nonprofit hospital in West Denver. Since then, it has been renamed the "Community First Foundation" (CFF) and has sought to create change beyond just the Denver Metro. Then, CFF became involved with ColoradoGives.org, an online tool that is a way to connect with and support nearly 3,000 nonprofits around the state. In 2010, CFF and ColoradoGives.org kicked off Colorado Gives Day, which has garnered $355 million in...
Jane Leland Langdon's art expresses what's in her heart - a genuine love for life and others. You've seen Langdon's oil and watercolor paintings in Niwot and Boulder County businesses and homes. She's the Niwotian you just can't help but notice because of her lovely large smile and easy laugh. I met Langdon years ago waiting in the check-out line at the grocery store where she struck up a conversation and I was thrilled that we continued to cross paths again and again. This Familiar Face column...
With the return of in-person learning on Oct. 5, Niwot schools and the St. Vrain Valley School District (SVVSD) are working to manage the impact of COVID-19 on their school communities. It has not proven to be an easy or simple task. This month, SVVSD implemented a COVID-19 tracker to keep the public informed about new and existing cases that have been documented during the current school year. The tracker segregates cases between students and staff, and between cases that are currently active...
Amongst the shapes, colors, and textures inside Niwot's Osmosis Art and Architecture on 2nd Avenue, there's a face locals are well acquainted with - that of Michelle Henzel. She's raised a family, worked, and been an integral part of community events and organizations for more than 35 years. The Courier reached out to learn more about this vivacious member of the community. Left Hand Valley Courier (LHVC) – Where is your hometown and what path brought you to Niwot? Michelle Henzel (MH) – I gre...
In 2020, the public receives news from an enormous number of electronic as well as traditional sources. The information onslaught is relentless, can be frustratingly inaccurate, and isn't always able to portray what occurs in a localized area. Local journalists have an important role to fill in this kind of potentially confusing environment. Community newspapers such as the Left Hand Valley Courier tell stories about businesses, schools, parks, open spaces, neighborhoods, local infrastructure,...
A growing number of local families are deeply frustrated with full-time remote learning in the St. Vrain Valley School District (SVVSD), and now they've banded together in an effort to get students back into the classroom. Earlier this month, five parents from Erie launched the St. Vrain Educational Advocates in hopes of bringing attention to their struggles and working with school and public health officials to combat the "unseen negative consequences" of keeping students isolated at home. "We...
In last week's edition of the Left Hand Valley Courier, we covered the story behind Niwot's Ritz Field, named after Colorado Rockies pitcher Kevin Ritz. We now turn our attention towards its neighbor, Hagen Field, named after the late Greg Hagen. Hagen was a parent volunteer for Niwot Youth Sports. When NYS lost the use of borrowed fields in Niwot at 83rd and Neva Road, Hagen helped erect the backstops at three new fields on Left Hand Water District property off Nimbus Road. When Hagen died...
The annual Sunrise Stampede 10K run-walk has served as the unofficial kick-off to the new school year in St. Vrain Valley for more than three decades, and brings together hundreds of runners, volunteers, and vendors for some exercise, camaraderie, and family-friendly competition in the waning days of summer. It also has raised more than $250,000 for special needs students in the district, so when the COVID-19 pandemic threatened to cancel the 2020 edition, organizers quickly shifted to a format...
It's not the school year that parents and students would like, but at least it's better than last spring. That's how several families in the Saint Vrain Valley School District feel about new plans for the upcoming school year. Basic information was released by the district last week, though there are still plenty of questions. Details may be revealed in a couple of weeks when the final plan will be released. "It's school, with only the worst parts," said Ben Goff who will be a senior at Niwot Hi...
Much of what students learn in school is something called "crystalline knowledge," or knowledge that is based on memorization of previously learned facts. While some classes, like math, might teach some degree of problem solving--think back to those pesky train problems--students arguably do not have the opportunity to frequently exercise their problem-solving skills. With this in mind, in 1978, two college students in New Jersey founded the first "Olympics of the Mind." It brought together...
In the fall of 2019, St. Vrain Valley School District formally announced its participation in awarding the Seal of Biliteracy. This award recognizes students who achieve multi-lingual proficiency by the time they graduate high school. Niwot High School, which boasts the International Baccalaureate Program, has encouraged language acquisition for years now; and with the IB program, this also extends to an encouragement of having a strong world view. Thanks to this mission and the district's...
During his four years at Niwot High, James Tran was always eager to accept a new challenge, from joining the knitting club, to heading up the Innovation Center's curriculum development team, to teaching himself website testing. Now that penchant for self-improvement is paying off in a big way. In April, Tran was one of 100 students from across the U.S. to be awarded the Amazon Future Engineer scholarship, worth $10,000 per year over the next four years. "It's a really cool scholarship," Niwot Hi...
This year has been strange and challenging for educators everywhere, including in Niwot. In a time of unprecedented change and uncertainty, three Niwot teachers and one administrator are retiring and being honored for their service to the students and to the development of the greater community. Two teachers are retiring from Niwot High School (NHS) this year, as are a kindergarten teacher and an administrator from Niwot Elementary School. Kathy Benning served as registrar and attendance clerk...
Though difficult to comprehend in our current environment, the events of COVID-19 mark an unprecedented moment in our shared human history. Focusing on local historic impacts, the Niwot Historical Society has put out a call for pandemic-related information in an effort to, as its mission states, "preserve, collect, and protect the history of Niwot." The historical society is asking volunteers from the community to help document this moment and the impacts of COVID-19 in Niwot's history. The...
When historians write the history of the coronavirus pandemic, they might want to add this description of online learning from Niwot Elementary School teacher Dale Peterson, who does Google Hangouts with his first graders. "It's like if you go to a pet shop and let all the pets out of the cages and you spend the rest of the time trying to put them back in the cages," Peterson said. "I have 23 little boxes. One might have his feet in the air or his bottom in front of the camera, another is...
She howls, sews masks, plots to honor grads, helps kids learn, gets them moving, organizes the occasional birthday car-parade, and that's just some of the stuff Diane Zimmermann does during a pandemic. Supporting others is a way of life for the Niwot resident. "Anywhere there is room for helping out. I'm always up for that," Zimmermann said. Some of her volunteering is organized, such as her work for the Niwot Community Association and the Niwot Historical Society, and some she does on her own....
Make a float out of your car and come celebrate with a graduation parade. That's what a mom in Heatherwood is telling graduates of any age or school in the area. She's organizing a car parade for May 9 in the Heatherwood neighborhood of Gunbarrel. Kathy Kester's daughter, Sara, is graduating from the University of Colorado. Kester said she wanted to do something to mark the occasion since colleges and schools aren't doing in-person ceremonies. "I felt bad that they aren't going to have any...
The Education Foundation of the Saint Vrain Valley School District recently announced the winners of their 2020 Tribute to Teachers, which honors individual teachers at the Pre-K through 12th grade, who exemplify excellence in teaching. In what has been an unprecedented end of the academic year, these three award-winners have continued to play a critical role in the growth and development of the youngest members of our community. Jess Esinhart: Legacy Elementary School Jess Esinhart is no strang...
The socially distant version of the annual Tribute to Teachers awards may have lacked the glamour of a gala, but that didn't make it any less special to Megan Schlagel, recipient of Niwot High's 2020 Teacher of the Year award and a finalist for St. Vrain Valley Teacher of the Year. "I was really honored by the recognition," Schlagel said of hearing the news of her award. "I'm not usually a crier, but I was crying. I've been teaching 11 years, and it's definitely the highlight, I would say, just...
Our local nonprofits do tremendous work in supporting the Boulder County community. However, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and market drop, they have taken a hit. Many have had to shift day-to-day operations and get creative with funding to ride out the current storm. Via Mobility, which provides free or reduced cost transportation for older adults, people with disabilities, and others living with mobility limitations, has noted a 50 to 70% ridership decrease across its four ride divisions, of...
By the time she reached high school, senior keeper Quinn Gossett thought her soccer playing days were well behind her, but an impulsive decision to try out for the Niwot girls team as a ninth-grader resurrected a long buried passion for the game, even if it took a few days to surface. "I stopped playing in fourth grade, and I really don't know why," Gossett said, recalling her return to the sport at the invitation of former Cougar junior varsity coach Jeremy Drake. "On that first day of tryouts...
According to Cathy Olkin, a planetary scientist at Boulder's Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), "Probably you've never heard of Trojan asteroids. They don't really teach that in elementary school when you're learning about the planets." Olkin, a Niwot local for the past 16 years, is dedicating much of her work to changing the knowledge base with respect to the Trojans. She is the deputy principal investigator of the NASA Lucy mission that is sending a space probe to the Trojans, which orbit th...
This past Wednesday, Niwot Elementary School hosted its 12th annual Children's Book and Art Sale to benefit The Mwebaza Foundation, a local non-profit started in 2008 by the school's first-grade teacher, Dale Peterson. Each year, this fundraiser garners donations from parents, students, and visitors from used children's book sale purchases. What set this year apart was the inclusion of children's art, made and donated by students from all grade levels at Niwot Elementary. The Niwot Elementary...
