The New York Metropolitan Opera’s production of “Ernani” will be simulcast in high definition on Feb. 25 at Colorado Mountain College in Breckenridge. Featured in photo is Angela Meade as Elvira. Photo: Marty Sohl/Metropolitan Opera (c) 2008

The New York Metropolitan Opera’s production of “Ernani” will be presented via live high-definition transmission at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 25, in the Eileen & Paul Finkel Auditorium at Colorado Mountain College in Breckenridge.

Set in 1519 Spain, “Ernani” explores the inherent dangers of love in a time of shifting alliances. Seeking revenge on the new king, Ernani makes a hasty pledge of loyalty to his beloved Elvira’s uncle, Silva — a pledge Ernani will regret with his last breath. Angela Meade, winner of the 2012 Beverly Sills Artist Award, takes center stage as Elvira. Marcello Giordani portrays her ill-fated lover.

A generous grant from its founding sponsor, The Neubauer Family Foundation, makes “The Met: Live in HD” series possible. Bloomberg provides global corporate sponsorship, and the HD broadcasts are supported by Toll Brothers.

Admission to the HD showing of “Ernani” is $20 for adults, $16 for seniors and Met members, and $10 for students and children under 16. More information is available at 453-5825, david@pessel.com or www.nromusic.com.

This article originally appeared in the Aspen Daily News. By Chad Abraham.

Aspen Animal Shelter Director Seth Sachson howls with dogs in his office. Photo: Chris Council.

The pig arrived at Colorado Animal Rescue outside Glenwood Springs on Wednesday from the Front Range.

Oinking quietly in an employee’s arms, the swine helps define one of the latest trends that the valley’s animal shelters routinely find themselves in these days, that of helping out other facilities. In taking in the pig, Colorado Animal Rescue (CARE) assisted Longmont’s shelter, and, in turn, the Aspen Animal Shelter often takes care of CARE when the latter is overflowing with animals, officials at both facilities said.

The heads of the two main shelters in the Roaring Fork Valley say their days are filled with hard work, unexpected animals, people overjoyed at their new pet and those saddened by the circumstances that force them to give up their dog, cat or chickens. But the prevailing emotion is an all-encompassing love of allowing a critter another chance at life.

Consummate at sales pitches intended to get animals a home, either a new one or a return to their former environs, the directors, Leslie Rockey of CARE and Seth Sachson of the Aspen Animal Shelter, were both immersed from a young age in the issue of pet ownership.

And when ownership fails, the staff at both facilities focus on one goal: pet protection.

Expect the unexpected

“We actually got 100 chickens in 2010 because the [owners] got evicted from their house,” Rockey said Wednesday, watching a staff that was answering phones, giving a volunteer orientation and doting on the pig. “They just couldn’t take care of them anymore so [the fowl] came through here.”

Many were egg layers, and all found new homes. “They flew out of here,” she said. “Not literally.”

A sense of humor appears requisite for what can be an intense and bewildering job. CARE is responsible for stray animals in Garfield County’s nearly 3,000 square miles. Comparatively, Pitkin County is less than 1,000 square miles.

The pig, now named Priscilla, was a stray from the Longmont area north of Denver, where no shelter would take it, she said.

The woman who found it “called us, and we’ve never had one,” Rockey said. “We said, ‘Sure, we’ll take it.’”

Sachson, too, has had experience with a pig. As a volunteer at the Aspen Animal Shelter’s former digs in the nearby Aspen Business Center, he helped care for a potbelly that was found in the Old Snowmass area.

He put it in the doggie yard by itself, but the pooches inside still caught its scent.

“And the dogs went crazy,” he said. “They smelled the pig” instantly.

When the well-fed animal went into a dog house, it got stuck, and Sachson found himself literally greasing a pig.

“I put Vaseline all over the pig to get it out,” he said.

Animalistic roots

Sachson’s parents told him that he’s always been passionate about critters, to the point where he’d fall asleep with the newspaper classifieds showing dogs that needed homes.

“I wasn’t reading the front page, and I didn’t know about current events or geography,” he said.

Horses, dogs, cats and chickens were among the animals he brought home to roost growing up in Plano, Texas. On ski trips to Snowmass Village as a child, he preferred hanging out at Krabloonik, and he plastered photos of the dog-sled business on his room back home.

After graduating from the University of Arizona with a degree in animal behavior, he tried a stint at Krabloonik. Though he still enjoys sled-dog racing, Sachson said Krabloonik didn’t match his preconceived notion of the sledding life, and he found himself volunteering at the Aspen shelter.

“The shelter became my anchor,” he said. “That’s where I felt right, that’s where I felt comfortable. That’s where I was drawn to every single day.”

In 1992, he was named executive director. Two years later, he took over ownership of the contract between the shelter and the city of Aspen and Pitkin County.

In another two years, he envisioned a new shelter that would be upbeat, where people could walk away, even without a pet, with a smile instead of sorrow. To do that, he developed a business model that he said now makes the Aspen Animal Shelter self-sustaining.

The for-profit facility has a doggie day care component that allows owners to work without worrying their pet is bored or tearing apart their home (or both), and a longer-term kennel. There is also a pet shop and grooming business, Wags to Riches, that Sachson co-owns with Cheryl Wyly and Anne Gurchick.

“I look at the boarding kennel as the engine that generates 90 percent of the revenue to pay my operating costs,” he said, naming employee salaries, utilities and insurance that that component helps cover. “What’s beautiful about it is the animals with homes generate revenue for the animals without homes. It’s just really cool.”

The Wylys, part-time Aspenites, occasionally fill their private jet with dogs scheduled to be euthanized in Texas and fly them here into Sachson’s arms.

“She’s flown that jet up with a lot of dogs,” he said of Cheryl Wyly.

The current facility opened in 2006 after a nearly $4 million capital campaign. The city of Aspen and Pitkin County own the building and lease it out to Sachson. The for-profit business has a nonprofit arm, the board members of which constantly encourage him to save animals from elsewhere if his shelter has space, he said.

So Sachson routinely shelters animals that are set to be euthanized at facilities elsewhere in the state and around the nation because of overcrowding and other factors.

Board members of the nonprofit, providing funding for transportation and other costs, allow “me to save, save, save,” he said.

The animal kingdom that is his home in Old Snowmass is comprised of eight dogs, two horses, two goats, 14 chickens, four ducks and a cat. He uses six of his dogs in races as part of the Rocky Mountain Sled Dog Club around Colorado.

CARE’s community gives and takes

Leslie Rockey has been with CARE since the Spring Valley campus opened in 2000, performing every job until she was named executive director in 2004.

Raised in Memphis, Tenn., animals were a constant in her life, she said. A graduate of CMC’s veterinarian tech program, she worked at several facilities and returned to the Glenwood area right before CARE’s facility opened.

“It was just by chance,” Rockey said. “It was great, very lucky.”

Her home menagerie includes two dogs, two cats and a rat. “And I really want to take the pig home,” she said, half-jokingly. “I would be divorced if I do, but I really want to take the pig home.”

CARE has been in its current Spring Valley spot, 3 miles up County Road 114 above the Thunder River Market complex and next to a Colorado Mountain College (CMC) campus, since 2000. A couple of veterinarians and concerned citizens started the organization, Rockey said.

Funding comes through Garfield County, its largest contract, and from the city of Glenwood Springs. The rest comes from private donations, including through an annual fundraiser, and from a small amount of grants.

“We get a lot of community support,” she said.

To adopt out a current plethora of cats, the shelter during the month of February is charging only $5 to get a feline older than 5 years of age. The usual adoption fee is $100, and CARE is also offering, from Valentine’s Day until March 1, its “Fall in Love Puppy Pallooza.” For $150, those seeking a pup will get a free training session, vaccines, spay/neutering services, a microchip and a bag of puppy food.

On a recent day, a litter of 9-week-old puppies from the Missouri Heights area snoozed in a heap in one of CARE’s “real-life rooms.” A small TV in the upper-left corner showed an episode of “The Big Bang Theory” as part of staff’s goal to acclimate them to what the dogs may experience in an actual home environment.

Despite such efforts, “We’re always too full,” Rockey said. “We need a whole other building this size.”

She said cats are the facility’s biggest challenge, and people who need to give up their felines often are put on a waitlist.

Despite such efforts, “We’re always too full,” Rockey said. “We need a whole other building this size.”

She said cats are the facility’s biggest challenge, and people who need to give up their felines often are put on a waitlist.

“And so while they’re on our waitlist, we try to give them any kind of help that they might need,” Rockey said. “If the animal needs to be neutered, we’ll do that. If it’s behavioral, if it’s peeing on your pillow, we try to help them with that.”

For dogs, CARE retains a trainer on staff who will make a visit to a person’s residence — “whatever we can do to keep the animal in a home” is the goal, Rockey said.

A huge success has been a recent program that offers financially strapped owners free food for their pets “so they don’t have to surrender their animals,” she said. Once a month, four distribution sites are set up from Battlement Mesa to Carbondale, and the people that need it are “loaded up with food” for their pets.

“People need it,” Rockey said. “And they’re so appreciative because they’re struggling, and we can kind of ease that burden for a little while so they can keep that animal that they love until they get back on their feet. That’s the main purpose of the program.”

A volunteer effort

Sachson and Rockey are overly enthusiastic about those who come in and merely want to interact with their wards, be it a short walk with a dog around the shelter grounds or giving some attention to cats.

Inherent in his organization, Sachson said, is “the beauty and the truth and the purity [of] the volunteers who come and give the extra love and socialization to the animals.”

He said dog-walking by volunteers is the facility’s best way of keeping the animals happy. It also exposes them to the public and helps get them adopted sooner.

“It sets the vibe” for the shelter, he said. “It just feels like Aspen.”

Despite such efforts, “We’re always too full,” Rockey said. “We need a whole other building this size.”

She said cats are the facility’s biggest challenge, and people who need to give up their felines often are put on a waitlist.

“And so while they’re on our waitlist, we try to give them any kind of help that they might need,” Rockey said. “If the animal needs to be neutered, we’ll do that. If it’s behavioral, if it’s peeing on your pillow, we try to help them with that.”

For dogs, CARE retains a trainer on staff who will make a visit to a person’s residence — “whatever we can do to keep the animal in a home” is the goal, Rockey said.

A huge success has been a recent program that offers financially strapped owners free food for their pets “so they don’t have to surrender their animals,” she said. Once a month, four distribution sites are set up from Battlement Mesa to Carbondale, and the people that need it are “loaded up with food” for their pets.

“People need it,” Rockey said. “And they’re so appreciative because they’re struggling, and we can kind of ease that burden for a little while so they can keep that animal that they love until they get back on their feet. That’s the main purpose of the program.”

The ninth annual Loppet’s 10K, 22k and 44k nordic ski race courses start at CMC in Leadville, rolling along the Timberline Trail network before jumping onto the Mineral Belt trail and then returning to CMC for the finish.  The 5K race is a costume party open to all forms of boards, including homemade skis, telemark skis, splitboards, randonee, and 2 x 4 planks from your local lumber scrap yard. Costumes encouraged for the 5K race, as well as climbing skins for your choice of ski gear.

You must pre-register for all but the 5k:  Visit the Leadville Loppet website or head on into the KW room of CMC’s Climax Leadership Building on Friday night, from 4- 9 pm. An awards banquet will be held in the new CMC Climax Molybdenum Leadership building after the race.

The first Leadville Loppet, held in 2003, was created by students in CMC Leadville Ski Area Operations instructor Paul Rauschke’s event management class as an effort to raise funds and awareness for the city’s Mineral Belt Trail.  The 11.6 mile long trail circles Leadville, affording jaw-dropping views of the Sawatch and Mosquito ranges. Groomed all winter long, the trail offers Leadville residents and visitors easy access to nordic ski and snowshoe trails just outside of town.  Join the fun this Saturday!

Colorado poet laureate David Mason.

The fifth annual Poetry Slam, hosted by Colorado Mountain College in Breckenridge, welcomes community members, students and faculty to rock their original verse on Thursday, March 22, at 6 p.m. in the Eileen & Paul Finkel Auditorium.

Colorado’s poet laureate, David Mason, will serve as emcee and perform a reading from his own work. Mason is the author of the verse novel “Ludlow,” set during the Colorado mining tragedy of 1914.

“Many students at CMC are currently studying Mason’s poetry as part of their spring coursework, and they’re looking forward to meeting a working poet,” said Dr. Joyce Mosher, Poetry Slam organizer and associate professor of English communications. “His writing takes a deep look at the history of place, which is an important concept to students and community members interested in sustainability.”

Poets of all stages and styles are invited to recite, perform or read up to three minutes of original poetry at the Poetry Slam microphone. Performers can use no props other than a simple folder, if they’ve not memorized their poem. Sorry, but no group pieces or music.

The event is free and open to the public. Parents of school-age children should note that some poems may contain adult content.

For those who want to practice before this year’s event, members of the creative writing faculty at the college will host a free writing and performance workshop on Wednesday, Feb. 29, at noon at Colorado Mountain College in Breckenridge. Contact Joyce Mosher at 453-6757 ext. 2607 for more information.

This article was first published in the Summit Daily News.  By Kathryn Corazzelli.

Digital textbooks aren’t only gaining popularity across the United States, but among Summit’s college students as well.

In the past year alone, the number of textbook titles available for digital download at Colorado Mountain College went from 50 to 233.

For CMC student Zachary Johnston, it’s a lot simpler than using a textbook. He likes being able to search through pages for key words, like a document.

“In terms of getting work done … it’s faster for me,” Johnston said. “Cost was a huge part of it for me. It makes a lot more sense financially.”

Johnston is a student of Robert Cartelli’s, who teaches e-commerce and e-business courses at the college. The textbooks for his classes are available online in a few different forms: a free version that’s online only, a downloadable format (which students can also print), an audio version or as a regular, old-fashioned bound book.

“For almost all my courses, I try to use something that is online, low-cost or free,” Cartelli said. “There are a number of formats to suit their learning styles, and a number of price points to suit their budgets.”

Cartelli said he has offered the online version for a little while now, and up until last year, most students opted for a printed version. The trend came to a tipping point last school year.

“It seems now that there’s very little reluctance to not having the paper copy,” Cartelli said. “The feedback I get is that it’s working.”

Johnston said it works for many his age because they don’t mind reading off of a screen; he hears from his parents and other older folks they don’t like the practice.

“With our generation, the screen reading isn’t so bad,” he said.

Steve Boyd, purchasing manager for the CMC, said students today do learn differently than in the past. He doesn’t know if e-books will ever eliminate or take over textbooks, but he does think they will become even more popular than they are now. And, it’s good for students to have more options as far as price goes — Boyd said many traditional textbooks can cost as much as $150-$200.

In Cartelli’s classes, if students opt to download the book rather than read it online for free, it costs $25.

The price of a device

Bob Follett, longtime Summit County resident and former president of academic publisher Follett Publishing Company, said it’s pretty clear the movement is toward using digital technology, but it’s not quite there yet. He teaches at the University of Denver, and when he asks students if they’re ready for an electronic textbook, many tell him they like to be able to underline, write notes and flip pages back and forth.

And while e-books do cost less than a traditional textbook, Follett said one of the biggest issues is the platform: Professors are reluctant to tell students to buy a certain device, especially when iPads start around $500. The e-textbook trend could grow even more when there’s a standard format that goes across all platforms, he said.

“Since January, Spring Valley staff, leadership from all our Roaring Fork Valley locations and central services, and representatives from CDOT, RFTA, Garfield County and the City of Glenwood Springs have been working to select a company to complete that study,” said Joe Maestas, a CMC vice president. Maestas oversees the college’s locations at Spring Valley, Glenwood Springs and Carbondale.

Once a company is selected through a competitive bid process, those partners will form a working group that will solicit input from Spring Valley students, faculty and staff, and residents living in Spring Valley, to determine possible options.

“The safety of our students and employees is of great importance to us,” said Maestas. “For years we have been talking with various government and other partners about improving this public road, and this latest development is great news. We are very pleased to be moving forward together.”

Shukree Hassan Tilghman, a 29-year-old African-American filmmaker, sets out on a cross-country campaign to end Black History Month. He stops in various cities, wearing a sandwich board, to gather signatures on his petition to end the observance. He explains relegating Black History Month to the coldest, shortest month of the year is an insult, and that black history is not separate from American history. Through this thoughtful and humorous journey, he explores what the treatment of history tells us about race and equality in a “post-racial” America.

Rocky Mountain PBS presents Community Cinema screenings in 12 locations across Colorado, featuring powerful documentaries from the Emmy Award-winning PBS series “Independent Lens,” followed by panel discussions.

The free Rifle screening begins at 7 p.m. in the campus’s Clough Auditorium, 3695 Airport Road. A complimentary reception and post-screening discussion, led by Dr. Brad Tyndall, senior vice president of academic affairs at the college, will follow.

Retired Ski Area Operations Professor Curt Bender taught snowmaking to a generation of new ski area managers.

When looking for an authoritative source for a story about the history of snowmaking, a New York Times writer  sought out Colorado Mountain College retired Professor of Ski Area Operations Curt Bender. Curt spent several decades in the middle of the industry, training a new generation workforce and advising ski areas as far away as Russia. Read the NY Times story here.

By Mike McKibbin

Humanities professor Dr. Tom Buesch is the full-time faculty of the year for Colorado Mountain College in Aspen. Photo Anne Maclean

When you hear someone called a “rock star” in their profession, you probably think they are popular and, hopefully, great at what they do. That’s definitely the case with Dr. Tom Buesch at Colorado Mountain College in Aspen.

Buesch has taught philosophy, humanities, literature and music appreciation classes at the college for the past 20 years. Now a professor of humanities, Buesch was recently named full-time faculty of the year at the college’s Aspen campus.

Every year, each of the college’s seven campuses, plus the department of online learning, can nominate an adjunct (part-time) and a full-time faculty of the year. From those honorees, senior administrators select a collegewide award recipient in each category.

The 69-year-old professor of humanities describes himself as a “huge fan” of the liberal arts.

“That’s really another way to say the humanities,” Buesch said. “I really like teaching at CMC because it’s a college that has maintained that tradition.”

He credits former campus dean Ann Harris as a “great supporter” who urged him to become a full-time instructor in 1992.

The nomination letter from instructional chair Margaret Maxwell praised Buesch with “nearly rock star status at the Aspen campus.”

“Not a week goes by, and I have had somebody stop by to gush about a class that he or she is taking with Tom,” Maxwell wrote. “The comments are actually getting kind of cliché at this point, which is funny, but clichés exist because they are true.”

Buesch’s students often return to take his classes for years and years, she said. And his sense of humor in the classroom is part of the reason, as explained in student comments included in Buesch’s nomination.

“He makes learning fun,” “Makes coming to class fun and exciting,” “His sense of humor is extraordinary, his all-around knowledge most unusual” and “As a student I am inspired by his knowledge and humor — a FANTASTIC teacher,” students wrote.

“There’s a lot to joke about in this valley,” Buesch said. “Humor is everywhere and it adds to people’s lives, so why not in the classroom?”

Safety, life-saving skills critical for students, staff

Kerry Wirth, American Red Cross trainer for Colorado Mountain College in Aspen, has fun with Eileen Hinchliffe, division director for physical activities (behind and in pink gloves), after receiving a certificate as the campus adjunct faculty of the year. Photo Anne Maclean

While the topics and skills Kerry Wirth teaches are deadly serious and potentially life saving, she tries to make learning fun.

Wirth, who was recently named the Aspen campus’s adjunct faculty of the year, teaches classes in water safety, first aid and CPR for both professionals and homecare responders, among others. She’s been a certified American Red Cross trainer since 1976 and an instructor at the college since 1992.

“I try to keep things in perspective,” she said. “These are life-threatening situations in which people can find themselves or someone they know, so it’s important they know what to do. But that’s why I try to keep it fun, too.”

Wirth said if someone takes a class or two, they stand a better chance of knowing what they can do to help someone after calling 911.

“What I tell my classes is they may not know the outcome after they’ve helped someone in trouble, but they will know they’ve done everything they could do,” she said.

Wirth is also the campus safety coordinator, something Maxwell took note of in her nomination letter. “Kerry is devoted to getting every student and staff member trained in these methods and does not rest until she is assured her students know the material,” she wrote.

Maxwell summed up Wirth’s contributions to the college and its students: “Kerry is devoted to her work at Colorado Mountain College and we are lucky to have such an enthusiastic staff and faculty member. Student learning is always forefront on Kerry’s mind, as evidenced by the many nominations we received from her students.”

Other Colorado Mountain College full-time and adjunct faculty of the year 2011

Collegewide and Carbondale, Glenwood Springs, Spring Valley full time: Dr. Kimberly Harding, science

Collegewide and online adjunct: Joanne Yantz, education, early childhood education, English

Breckenridge and Dillon full time: Drew Mikita, psychology

Breckenridge and Dillon adjunct: Justin Pollack, anatomy & physiology

Carbondale, Glenwood Springs, Spring Valley adjunct: Janet Wolf, business and accounting

Edwards full time: Aggie Ramos-Doyle, developmental education

Edwards adjunct: Bart Ducey, English as a Second Language

Leadville and Buena Vista full time: Kelli McCall, developmental education

Leadville and Buena Vista adjunct: Rich Utech, English

Online Learning full time: Barbara Jackman, early childhood education

Rifle full time: Nephi Thompson, science

Rifle adjunct: Cathy Slaymaker, computer science

Steamboat Springs full time: Fred Hampel, business

Steamboat Springs adjunct: Tim Opyt, history

Erick Becerril at the Frisco Recycling Center. Photo by Kate Lapides.

Erick Becerril wants to get his hands on your garbage.

If that seems odd and unsavory, consider the context. Becerril, at age 23, is the enthusiastic founder of a Summit County waste diversion business called Faction and Company.  His business takes care of waste from residential and small commercial clients by ensuring that separated compostable materials, standard recycling, and reusable items end up in the right place.

For Becerril, the right place for waste is getting it composted and upcycled – the process of converting old products into new ones in order to repurpose them for new uses – as much as possible.  Hence, Becerril’s passion for your leftovers, whether they are last year’s skis or kitchen table, or, even better, last night’s pad thai. Since the EPA estimates that over 60% of the municipal solid waste that ends up in landfills is organic material comprised of food scraps, yard trimmings, paper and paperboard, Becerril is especially keen to expand his compost efforts to ensure that your organic waste never meets the landfill at all.

“The largest impact on our land that I see is the daily waste routines of single stream waste disposal,” says Becerril.  “This inspired me to develop a business to fulfill the need to efficiently separate compost, recycling, and waste before reaching the landfill.”

A cutting-edge education that opens doors

Last fall, the young Summit County entrepreneur decided to grow his capacity to create a greener world by enrolling in Colorado Mountain College’s new Bachelor of Arts in sustainability studies program. He feels that the experience and knowledge he’s gaining will significantly help his business grow.

“I find myself in a cutting-edge program that is teaching society about the repercussions and responsibilities that we must hold to preserve our future,” says Becerril.  “It (the degree) has opened up a lot of doors for me, not only in the business sector but also just being a professional within my community. You’re able to just flourish and be who you want to be in that program.”

The road to reuse

Becerril came to the bachelor’s of sustainability program after a three-year stint as a permit technician for Summit County Community Development Building Inspections department.  He had already earned an associate degree in construction management from Front Range Community College, and was passionate about sustainable building. He wanted to see if he could marry his skills and interests to help green up the construction process in Summit County.

While Becerril was encouraged by the local building code’s emphasis on energy efficiency, he also felt the very same codes sometimes put up barriers to homeowners’ capacities to reuse recycled building materials.  He became increasingly intrigued by the idea of recycling and upcycling old building materials, appliances and other waste.  He saw a recycling and composting business as one way he could attain that goal.

In the summer of 2011, Becerril and business partner Ethan Mason started Faction as part of a three-month pilot partnership in composting with the Summit County government and the High Country Conservation Center (HCCC).  Both had just completed the Master Mountain Composter class, a program co-hosted by HCCC and Colorado Mountain College.  In class, they learned that Summit County residents wanted to compost, but there was no transportation system in place to support it.  They decided to fill in the gap.

In the pilot project, Summit County residents who signed on were able to drop off their food scraps and non-recyclable paper waste at the Frisco Recycling Center for a cost of $51 for the entire summer, and Faction and Company took care of it from there.  Sixty residents participated, and the partners hope the program can expand to Breckenridge this summer.  After the three-month pilot project ended, Faction continued on as a for-profit company dedicated to continuing to keep compost and other recyclables out of the landfill.

Accolades for making Summit County greener

Faction is now on its way to growing into a viable business. The company currently composts all food waste from the kitchen of A-Basin Ski Resort, helping them divert more than 5000 pounds of food waste from the landfill.  He’s acquiring new residential and commercial business customers monthly, and handles the overload from Summit County’s Family Intercultural Resource Center’s Thrift Store, storing excess books and other reusable materials that the store can’t handle until he can find a new home for them.

Becerril’s energy, passion and commitment to keeping Summit County a greener place earned him HCCC’s Julia Butterfly Hill Individual Achievement Award in 2011.  The award is bestowed annually on “an individual who makes Summit County greener and keeps an eye on the environmental movement of our community.”   In 2011, he also took part in Leadership Summit, a community program that builds leadership skills and connects leaders from non-profits, businesses, and government in Summit County.

Hopes for a zero-waste society

Awards are great, but Becerril’s real goal stretches towards a much broader, altruistic end.  While he believes Summit County is a community that values and works towards sustainability, he says our species’ record on the planet as a whole needs to vastly improve.

“I love the community here,” says Becerril. “There’s a lot of really amazing people. This community is definitely passionate about the environment, and I think that’s really cool. That’s something you don’t really find everywhere.”

“I hope that our society realizes the effects of resource depletion before its too late. We only have one planet so we need to love what we have and take care of it,” he says.

“We have not done the best job these past several decades, so it is up to students to obtain the knowledge required to steer us in the right direction. Our lifespan as humans is half of a second on a clock showing the life of this earth – yet we have done devastating impacts to our natural resources. We must find a new route of living.  I hope that one day we will be a zero-waste society that can develop new ideas that help develop energy out of our waste.”

By Kate Lapides.