Kellen Collins’ death has shaken those who knew and loved him.

Kellen died by suicide Feb. 26, and those who loved him packed Eagle’s Brush Creek Pavilion on Friday to share hugs, tears and stories of a gifted athlete who also shared the gift of laughter with everyone he knew.

The Rev. Ethan Moore of Trinity Church officiated the service. Moore noted that in times of great sadness words “can ring hollow.”

But referring to Psalm 46, Moore noted that “God is our strength … we will not lose hope … Even in times such as this, we’re invited into hope.”

Speaking to the crowd of mostly young people, Moore noted that Collins at some point found himself without hope.

“That’s where you may be today,” Moore said. “But hear this: Your life is precious … your life is eternal …”

“If you hear any voices that you’re not worth it — they’re wrong,” Moore added.

Moore also noted that God’s love allows us to let go of the chains of “What if” and “If only.”

Those two chains bring only regret and loneliness, he added.

As others spoke, Collins’ dad, Chuck, was first to the microphone.

“We never knew how loved we were and how many friends he and we have,” he said. “Thank you so, so much,” he said.

Jay Lucas runs the Eagle BMX track next to the Eagle Pool and Ice Rink where Kellen spent a lot of his time. Lucas noted that the Collins family has spent so much time and effort at the track that turn two on the course is named for them.

Lucas also noted that Collins was a mentor to younger riders, and was able to talk articulately to adults, something some teens have trouble with.

Collins was remembered as happy, athletic, quick with a joke and quick to lend a hand.

In the back of the room, Halsey Lucas said he’d coached Collins in BMX. Collins first came to the track when he was about 4, and was racing almost immediately. He was soon coaching at camps.

Kellen’s death came as a “huge surprise,” Halsey Lucas said. He wasn’t alone.

People also shared that they don’t want to go through this again.

“I want to make sure this never happens again,” Jay Lucas said, a sentiment echoed by many who spoke.

Wrapping up, Moore noted that Eagle County is “blessed with amazing resources,” including The Hope Center and SpeakUp ReachOut. He added that Eagle Valley Behavioral Health has Olivia’s Fund, started in the wake of the death by suicide of another local youth, Olivia Ortega. That fund will provide funding for up to six free counseling sessions to those in need.

“Grief and love are two sides of the same coin,” Moore said. “We grieve because we love.” But, he added, grief and love aren’t the same.

“Grief is temporary, but love is eternal.”

An Eagle beautification project that was put on hold in 2020 has jumpstarted yet again. Near the East corner of the intersection of Eby Creek Rd. and Chambers Ave., local artist Amy Dose’s three murals will likely be on display later this year. 

The paintings will line the Alpine Lumber property in frames built specially to hold the wood panels that the murals are painted on. When mural project plans originally debuted, Alpine Lumber had partnered with the town to complete the project. Since, the company has backed out of the mural project. Despite this, the murals will still be erected before the same stretch of road and welcome locals and visitors to Eagle with a splash of color.

“The artwork [will] include elements that showcase the town’s identity and why Eagle is a special place,” a 2019 artist call describing the project’s initiatives read. “The artworks are envisioned to instill pride and happiness in community members of all ages.”

The muralist chosen, Dose, lived in Eagle for about 15 years and had raised her now 22-year-old daughter in the town. 

“I love that town, I’m connected to the community there,” Dose said. “So, it feels really exciting to be able to do something like this.”

The murals will be the first public art installation in the town of Eagle. Dose, despite completing other mural projects valley-wide, said the Eby Creek mural project is also a first for her. 

The murals will be her first very big, very public project. Previously, Dose installed a colorful mural to the Vail Health east wing connector hallway. She also helped brighten up many other interiors in her mural, decorative finishes, repair and faux painting business, Flying Shoe Arts.  

However, with an audience as extensive as cars and pedestrians traveling on Eby Creek Rd., Dose said she was unexpectedly glad to have a hiatus in the project’s momentum. Like many other projects that were scheduled for completion in 2020, the Eagle mural project started slipping through the cracks in the face of the pandemic. 

“It’s actually been kind of a good thing because I’ve changed, solidified the designs,” Dose said. “It’s just more intentional than it was going to be. It’s the same subject matter and the same kind of idea, but I think the fact that it ended up taking a little bit longer was good, so I was able to get a little bit of distance from (the murals). Then, I think I created a stronger design that’s going to really show up well from the street.”

Dose spent the extra time allotted to the project refining the design, but in her time leading up to this, her career as an artist helped her refine her skills to get to the level that she’s at today. 

Getting her start in theatre set design, Dose said she was already accustomed to blowing images up and creating large-scale art. Then, with Flying Shoe Arts, she honed that skill even further, learning to bring clients’ imagined interiors to life. The public mural plunge seemed to be waiting for Dose just around the bend. 

“I always knew that I could do something like this,” Dose said. “I think as a mother and a small business owner, my priority was always those two things first, though.”

Without parameters, Dose said her art mainly centers on nature and wildlife. With a studio positioned perfectly for viewing wildlife, Dose said it’s easy to find inspiration from majestic mountain animals such as deer and elk. 

Dose’s studio is dotted with paintings of the creatures. 

“My daughter is 22, and her friends came up (to the studio), and they’re like, ‘Wow. Your mom really likes deer.’”

The three murals Dose is creating for the Eby Creek project are all aligned with her usual subjects. One mural depicts fish, another will picture deer and the final will be of an elk. The animals are not only all found within Eagle, but they also represent the strong value Eagle community members place in wildlife, the outdoors and recreation.

With projects as public as Dose’s murals will be, there will always be people who don’t like the turnout, she said. She even described an instance when she heard negative feedback about her Vail Health mural. 

“The other day, my husband had surgery—it wasn’t for anything serious, it was not a big deal at all—but he was walking with a nurse, they were walking him down the hall that I had painted and so he said to the woman, ‘So, do you like the hallway?’”

When her husband told her the woman said no, Dose said she thought it was hilarious. 

“He said, just sort of laughing, ‘Oh yeah, my wife painted that,”’ Dose said. “And she said ‘Oh—’ and he goes, ‘Don’t worry, don’t back-peddle. We’re all entitled to our opinion.”

While an artist may want everyone to like their work, Dose said the reality doesn’t always turn out that way. 

While making sure the audience of the artwork is overall satisfied with the piece is important, Dose explained that to her, having the opportunity to do what she loves and pour that love back into the community is what makes her work worthwhile. 

“That’s what draws you to it, you want to be connected,” Dose said. “But, I think all the other judgments and the voices and all that distracts. You have to kind of try to just let that all wash away and be inside yourself.”

Painting is typically a solitary activity, but for Dose, it’s how she connects with the world around her, but it’s also how she is able to feel most herself, most comfortable and most content. 

“There’s so much emotion tied up in (painting),” Dose said. 

Wanting to explore all the emotions painting can bring her, Dose said she’s often one to experiment with her own expression, never wholly adhering to a specific style. In designing the murals that she’s currently completing for the project, Dose said determining the style of the paintings involved combining her own style with elements she knew the town of Eagle was looking for. 

“Real creativity doesn’t happen when you’re trying too hard to make people happy,” Dose said. “You can’t force it, or else you lose all the magic of it.”

 In bright colors with geometric elements, the murals are intended to be eye-catching for even the quickest of impressions from drivers going through the intersection’s roundabout. 

Each mural takes about a week and a half to paint, Dose said, and the first of the three is already complete. 

“I know they’re planning to get them installed this year,” Dose said. 

Alongside the mural installation, the town is also planning on “dressing up” the roadside area in front of the artwork. Dose said a landscaping company coordinated with her to determine best placement of foliage for viewing the murals. 

“I think in the long run, they want to put in a little seating area and just kind of make it look more welcoming,” Dose said. 

And welcoming was exactly the town of Eagle was going for when the project was first underway in 2019. The artist call for the mural project described the display as a “welcoming gateway” for those entering Eagle.

“The artwork should make community members of all ages feel proud and happy,” the artist call read. “Residents should say: ‘I’m home,’ when they see the artwork and feel like Eagle is where they belong. Visitors who see the artwork should say: ‘I’m excited to be here,’ and ‘I look forward to coming back.’”

Nearing completion of painting the murals, Dose said she’s glad to be involved in the launch of Eagle’s first public art installation and an effort to make people feel more welcome and happier in Eagle. 

Confirmed cases of monkeypox continue to climb in Colorado, with 109 total infections recorded in the state one week after federal health officials declared the virus a public health emergency in the United States. While no residents of Eagle county have tested positive thus far in the outbreak, as the spread continues, the virus could be closing in on the valley. 

Colorado’s first confirmed case presented in May in Denver where (like many major U.S. cities currently facing the brunt of the virus) in-state transmission has been concentrated. According to the state dashboard, as of Monday, Aug. 8, Denver has recorded 45 cases of monkeypox, accounting for just under half of the state’s total infections. Increasingly, however, the virus is popping up in counties outside of the capital’s metro area, including several counties surrounding Eagle. Garfield, Routt and Summit counties, all announced their first confirmed monkeypox cases last week.

Rebecca Larson, the deputy public health director for Eagle County, confirmed that her office and local health care providers are doing what they can to be ready for potential cases in the community. 

While, in the latest outbreak, monkeypox has predominantly affected gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men, the disease is not exclusively spread through sexual contact and all citizens are susceptible. The virus can be transmitted through any type of close contact, or through shared fabric, clothing and bedding.  

According to Larson, local practitioners are equipped to perform medical evaluations, administer tests, and provide care for residents who demonstrate symptoms. The infection typically presents with a rash and painful lesions, often, but not exclusively, in combination with flu-like symptoms that last around four weeks. Larson added that county public health has secured “additional testing resources” to confirm suspected cases should they present locally.

Vaccines, however, are not in such ready supply. Larson reported that there are no vaccines available in Eagle County. If a confirmed case arises locally, there is a process of special authorization to transport a dose to treat the infected individual.

According to Carrie Godes, a public information officer with public health in Garfield county, the state employed this response to address the county’s singular case. 

Monkeypox vaccine eligibility in Colorado remains limited to at-risk demographics, including individuals who have been exposed to the virus within the last two weeks or men who have sex with men who have had multiple sexual partners in that time period. All recipients of the vaccine must be over the age of 18. 

Even with criteria in place to curb demand, Colorado is struggling to vaccinate all interested, eligible citizens. Amid federal shortages of Jynneos (the primary vaccine approved by the U.S. for use against monkeypox) vaccine clinics in the state are fully booked through Aug. 13 — those who are newly eligible or have only recently sought out an appointment to receive the vaccine are now being added to waitlists until the state is issued more doses.

Colorado requested an additional 5,080 doses from the federal government on Aug. 1. 

According to Paul Galloway, a spokesperson with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s Division of Disease Control and Public Health Response, the latest shipment of vaccines arrived in Colorado on Aug. 3. The state can place its next order for vaccines on Aug. 15.

“With last week’s federal declaration of monkeypox now classified as a public health emergency, we are optimistic that our vaccine supply from the federal government will continue to increase, and we are working to enroll providers to ensure access throughout the state,” Galloway shared in a written statement.

Gov. Jared Polis also announced that 30 additional providers enrolled for vaccine administration on Aug. 3 in an effort to facilitate distribution once an additional supply of the vaccine is acquired.

Correction: An earlier version of this story included a photo from the Vail Public Library that featured the book “Lawn Boy” by Gary Paulsen. Paulsen’s book is the story of a 12-year-0ld boy who starts a lawn mowing business. The “Lawn Boy” currently gaining traction on banned book lists is the semi-autobiographical novel by Jonathen Evison that is an entirely different book.

The start of the academic year is less than a week away for Eagle County Schools, which, for many students cues the end-of-summer scramble to finish up summer reading. But while students anxiously cram in what they’re required to read, school districts and legislatures across the country may be more concerned with the titles that are prohibited.

In recent years, book banning has been steadily on the rise nationwide, with 2021 marking a dramatic resurgence in the practice. The American Library Association tracked 729 challenges to library, school, and university materials last year — an all-time high in the organization’s 20 years of data, and more than double the 273 books challenged or banned in 2020.

Overwhelmingly, books targeted in the recent wave of bans engage with topics of race and LGBTQ content. According to the American Library Association, “Gender Queer” by Maia Kobabe was the single most-challenged book in 2021. “The Hate U Give,” by Angie Thomas, Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye” and “This Book is Gay,” by Juno Dawson also make the top 10. 

Currently, there are no school districts with active book bans in Colorado. 

Katie Jarnot, assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction for Eagle County Schools, confirmed that there have been no challenges to books or educational materials since she took on her current position four years ago. 

“I am not aware of any challenges that we have had in the 12 years I’ve been in the district,” she added in an email to the Vail Daily. 

The school district’s current policy requires administrators to review curricula (including books and other materials that will be taught) every five years. Its text specifically calls for considerations of “curriculum breadth,” “all student populations,” and “educational equity” in this process.

“It is important for school districts to have policies like these in place, so that there is a basis for the selection of curriculum and educational resources and so that any challenge can be addressed in an objective and fair manner,” Jarnot wrote.

In Eagle County, the culture war on book banning has not made classrooms a battleground. But according to Linda Tillson, director of Eagle Valley Library District, book challenges are not unheard of in the county. She reported that the library district typically receives one to two completed reconsideration request forms each year, usually reflecting concern about “sexual content, LGBTQ+ topics, and age-appropriateness.”

Tillson reported that the only challenge that has been approved in recent years removed a children’s book about Thanksgiving that contained an “outdated and inaccurate” portrayal of Native Americans.

Reconsideration forms are standard procedure in libraries across the U.S. as a means to gather input from a concerned patron about a particular resource. Forms generally request information about the contested item, including if the objector has examined the entire resource, what specific concerns the objector holds, and what action the objector suggests the library staff should take (e.g., a reclassification, restriction, or removal of the resource). 

Completed forms are reviewed by the library director who, with the counsel of other staff members, makes the ultimate decision on how to address the request. Decisions may be appealed and put to the citizen Board of Trustees for reconsideration.

While book bans are historically rare in the state (especially compared to bordering Kansas with 30 active bans, Oklahoma with 43, and Utah with 11), challenges and controversy are not. In 2001, the Denver Post reported on one parent’s crusade to ban Lois Lowry’s “The Giver” from school classrooms and curricula, arguing that the book’s discussion of suicide and euthanasia were unsuitable for young readers and promoted a disregard for human life that could motivate tragedies like the Columbine shooting. 

James LaRue, who worked as the director of the Douglas County Library from 1990-2014, reported that in that time he received 250 challenges to library materials — more than in any other library he’d heard of. The experience motivated him to write “The New Inquisition,” a book exploring modern challenges to intellectual freedom. 

In 2016, he left Douglas County to work for the Office of Intellectual Freedom for the American Library Association, where he addressed about one challenge a day. He believes that in this point in his career he’s dealt with over 1,000 challenges. 

LaRue, who returned to Colorado to serve as executive director of Garfield County Library District in May, has observed a “shift in the wind” with the practice of book banning: challenges that were once isolated events, brought forward by concerned parents, have been interspersed with more concerted, sometimes political, efforts. 

“It’s not just individual people complaining about one book, it’s somebody showing up with 380 books and so it’s far more coordinated and less individual,” he said, “Most of these challenges, you would have to describe as partisan.”

LaRue cited groups like Moms4Liberty and CatholicVote, which have launched campaigns to remove books of controversial subject matter. But the politicization of the issue has also been presented on a legislative scale.

In 2021, 54 bills in 24 states were introduced to ban books on controversial issues such as race, gender, and sexuality. The Colorado House of Representatives considered the “Public Education Curriculum And Professional Development Information” bill last year, sponsored by Tim Geitner, an El Paso County Republican. The bill called for local education providers and school districts to publish a comprehensive list of educational materials used in classrooms PK-12, including the title, internet address, publisher, publication date, and international standard business number for each item. It also stipulated that education providers must provide a copy of any book or resource used in the classroom to parents upon request. The bill was introduced and did not pass.

“New legislation … represents a very concerted attack, not just on a couple books that people are upset about, but trying to suppress whole topics from a public institution,” LaRue said, “it’s a fight for the soul of the institution.”

LaRue reported that he has already received four challenges to Garfield County Library materials since taking on his post with the district in the spring.

“I think that the best route to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is literacy,” LaRue added. “This is an issue worth talking about.”

Limbs for Liberty, a local charity organization dedicated to crisis relief in Ukraine, is offering a new opportunity for residents and businesses in Eagle County to support those affected by the conflict with Russia. The “Adopt a Family” program, which launched Monday, allows private sponsors to financially back an internally displaced family, funding their housing, food, and other costs of living.

Since its founding in May, Limbs for Liberty has worked to aid Ukrainian amputees in acquiring and adjusting to medical prosthetics — the organization’s first five recipients arrived in the U.S. last weekend to be fitted with assistive artificial limbs.

Now, with the amputee program officially in operation, the young organization is taking on a broader definition of what it means to be harmed by war: Limbs for Liberty is now developing a new “Adopt a Family” effort to support families living in Ukraine amid ongoing conflict.

“I think it’s easy for Americans to wonder ‘Why don’t the people in the East just leave?’” said Kelli Rohrig, an Eagle County resident and co-owner of Mountain Organic Landscaping and Irrigation. Rohrig helped to found Limbs for Liberty after returning from Poland, where she traveled earlier this year to aid in the relief effort.

“For some people, they don’t have the financial resources to get out,” she said.

Yet, according to Rohrig, proper support for those who remain in Ukraine is not as simple as a fundraiser for flight tickets. What, on its face, appears to be a monetary issue is complicated by national pride and an unwillingness to abandon a country long called home.

“They don’t want handouts. They want their country back. A lot of these people, they don’t want to come to the United States,” Rohrig continued.

Rohrig brought up a recent Zoom forum, which connected activists in the U.S. (including organizers affiliated with Limbs for Liberty) with individuals currently living in Ukraine. Speaking on the topic of fleeing, those present on the call expressed sentiments of reluctance, even refusal.

“We made the decision not to leave the country. My daughters absolutely refused to leave,” said Iryna Prudkova, one of the speakers from Ukraine, in a statement translated by activist Ellen Bedenko. “They said, ‘If we are leaving then who is going to support Donbas?’ So we are here to support Donbas.”

Prudkova’s family, including her husband and two daughters, will be one of the first families supported through the “Adopt a Family” program.

According to Sviatlana Masenzhuk, an employee of the Vail Health Foundation and co-founder of Limbs for Liberty, situations like Prudkova’s — in which certain family members’ inability or unwillingness to leave prevents the entire unit from travel — are common. Differences in family structure and dynamics are often insurmountable barriers to seeking refuge across borders. 

“From very little ones to the elderly, everyone lives together. Two people can’t just flee the country and leave everyone else behind,” she explained. “You have multiple generations in one household and not everyone is equally able to travel.”

Masenzhuk spoke from a personal perspective: While she first moved to Eagle County in 2003, she is ethnically Ukrainian and spent some time living in the country.

While many families have decided not to seek refuge across borders, for many, travel within the country has been unavoidable. Many living in “hot zones” in eastern Ukraine, where conflict and bombings are most concentrated, have been forced to migrate westward, abandoning their homes in favor of makeshift shelters in schools and theaters. Additionally, in moving away from home and employment, these families are often foregoing their source of income.

Limbs for Liberty’s new “Adopt a Family” program aims to harness community support to help, matching Eagle County sponsors with a Ukrainian family in need.

“Our goal is to get 50 businesses to sponsor a family, be that a one-time or a monthly (donation). A hundred dollars or $400, it helps more than you might think because a small apartment in Lviv can be around $200 a month,” Rohrig said.

Limbs for Liberty has already identified several families in need of financial support, to be listed on the organization’s website once the program is officially launched. The organization will also assist families in the process of securing housing that is affordable, but comfortable enough to restore basic amenities such as a private bathroom and kitchen, which are not accessible in shelters.

“We really hope to provide families with households where they can live a decent life, be safe, and overcome this traumatizing situation,” Masenzhuk said, “I hope ‘Adopt a Family’ will bring awareness to people that we can’t get used to this conflict, our community really can help.”

Winter Park artist Shannon Foley Henn has always loved storms, in part because of the way a heavy downpour or severe snowfall slows the world down.

But in March 2020, the coronavirus pandemic brought the world to a standstill, causing Henn to seek shelter from a different kind of storm and inspiring her to create a unique, four foot by four foot acrylic painting paying homage to the times.

As the viral disease was shutting down ski resorts, spreading through communities and changing lifestyles and lives, Henn found her oasis on Grand County’s cross-country ski trails off Vasquez Road.

“My escape was going up Vasquez and skiing up at the top,” she said. “I just kept feeling how lucky we are to live up here.”

As the storm raged in Colorado’s mountain towns, Henn knew she wanted to create something out of the headlines inked in local newspapers to preserve the moment for posterity, even though she wasn’t sure what.

Henn started with a call for people to send her ski town newspapers and she began collecting them as well. Some copies were gifted by strangers. Others were gathered locally. Including the Sky-Hi News, clips came from the Winter Park Times, Steamboat Pilot, Summit Daily, Vail Daily and the Aspen Times.

Ultimately, Henn had a stack of papers waiting for their next life.

“Each day, as I sat in my home painting, the stack of newspapers was sitting there, taunting me,” Henn recalled. “I knew I really wanted (the painting) to be about what life was like in the mountains.”

Throughout the year, ideas would come to Henn for the project, but it wasn’t until December and January, when her friends and family started to get the COVID-19 vaccine, that she began to process the newspapers and decide on the artwork.

“I quite literally felt like I could see a light at the end of the tunnel,” Henn said.

Around the same time, Henn also settled on her vision for the painting: a cross-country skier making their way through the forest over top of the tempest of news, a reflection of her escape during the shutdown.

Realizing the one year anniversary of the first headline in her collection was coming up, Henn focused on finishing the painting in time to mark the event on March 13.

In the end, all of the headlines and articles included in Henn’s piece are from March and April 2020, with a heavy focus on the ski resorts, outdoor recreation and business closures. She also included light-hearted throwbacks, like an advertisement for a sale on toilet paper and another for Truly spiked seltzer.

“To me, there was no other way to tell the story other than the stories,” Henn said, gesturing to her piece. “I like this yin and yang with the beginning of the story being the stories you guys wrote (in the newspapers) and the end of the story being the painting itself and the emotion.”

In similar fashion to the creation of the painting, Henn said it took awhile to settle on a name for the artwork. She considered “Ski Ya Later,” “The Lockdown” and a few profanity-laced options before deciding to go with “The Storm.”

“Though, to me, it will always be ‘The S—storm,’” Henn laughed.

When asked about the meaning behind her acrylic and chalk paint vision, Henn said she loves that multiple perspectives of the moment come though.

“Some people might look at it as going into the unknown or the abyss, while others look at it as coming out the other end,” Henn said. “I certainly feel the lightness.”

The painting is on display at Henn’s Winter Park gallery, Uptripping, where it will remain through April 17. After that, she is unsure what she will do with the artwork. One early idea is to have a traveling display in the ski towns included in the painting.

Because the work wasn’t commissioned, Henn is also still deciding whether she will make prints or auction off the one-of-a-kind piece. Without knowing if there will be more than one copy, Henn has yet to put a price on it.

“Part of me feels that the story of this piece is one moment in time and history, so maybe I won’t do prints,” Henn said. “But I really do want people to see it.”