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Evening of Lights 2021 Recap
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RED RIBBON WEEK 2021 IN QUESTA
This year Vida Del Norte partnered up with other groups and helped to organize a truly memorable Red Ribbon Week in Questa. Through out the week the individuals involved in organizing Red Ribbon Week in Questa kept remarking that this was the best Red Ribbon Week yet.
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Vida Del Norte Annual Retreat
We want to invite all of you to attend our annual retreat which will be on Saturday, January 22 from 10am-2pm. The annual retreat is a time for people to get to know more about the goals of the Vida Del Norte coalition. The retreat is also a time to build capacity within the coalition, plan how we can work together to increase our impact preventing youth substance misuse in our community and get to know one another better. The retreat will be at the Vida Del Norte office in Questa which is #62 Highway 38, across from the Granite company's building. You can also attend the retreat online using Zoom. You can download the agenda by clicking here. We will be having a simple lunch and there will be coffee and snacks. We hope very much that you can attend and we also encourage you to
The Zoom info is:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83144115176
Meeting ID: 831 4411 5176
Vida Del Norte Annual Retreat 2022
Vaping Webinars, Video and Articles
Youth Leadership Webinars, Videos and Resources
Webinars, Videos and Trainings Relating to Substance Misuse and Wellbeing
Skatepark Planning Meeting – January 4, 2022 @ 6pm at the Questa Library and on Zoom
Evening of Lights 2021 Recap
This holiday season, the Village of Questa partnered with the Vida Del Norte community coalition to organize the Evening of Lights which was held on December 4 in the village town center. During the Evening of Lights there was a tree lighting, a Christmas Tree tour, music, food, local craft sellers, a light parade and Santa even made a jolly appearance.
During the days before the event, workers from the village, Vida Del Norte and volunteers spent the afternoons outside in what was thankfully glorious weather to string up lights and arrange decorations. The village staff lined up beautiful handmade farolitos/luminarias that were lit one by one before the Evening of Lights. Mayor Gallegos went out with workers from the village to choose the tree from the Questa forrest for the town center. Kit Carson Electric Cooperative graciously came out to string the lights on the tree. Valerie and Armando Vigil made a beautiful wooden sign with the word “Joy” on it outlined in lights with material that was generously donated by Questa Lumber & Hardware.
During the Evening of Lights, Santa sat by the tree to spend a little quality time with the kids and families of Questa. The joy sign illuminated next to Santa to make the scene even more cheerful for family photos. Vida Del Norte provided Santa with some brown bag treat sacks full of apples, oranges, peanuts and candy to hand out to the kids. Vida was even able to sneak in some brochures about the dangers of vaping and underage drinking into the snack sacks to help spread some information about preventing substance misuse for the holidays. The Granite company generously donated the candy for the sacks.
Wendy Medina and her daughter Alexandra Romero who own the local catering company called Evelyn's Treats made delicious green chili stew, pasole and biscochitos to give away. Valerie Vigil came from Rael's coffee to give out hot coco and Bubba's BBQ food truck was there all evening selling world class BBQ.
For the Christmas Tree Tour, the Questa Girl Scout Troop and The Alta Vista Elementary School Art teacher Ms. Maya MacDonald had all the kids grad's Pre-K to 6th make ornaments to hang on trees sponsored by local businesses. During the tour people who found their ornaments received prizes from the Village of Questa.
Before the tree was lit, Mayor Gallegos made a speech to thank everyone who participated in making the evening possible. Once the lights turned on, the scene came to life. Families got a chance to mingle and children got to play amongst the magical glow of the lights making all the hard work that went into the display very rewarding.
The Light Parade was lead by the Taos County Police and Questa Fire Department blaring their sirens and playing Christmas music. Many local businesses and community members volunteered to be in the parade, creating elaborate holiday floats, and spectacular light displays on their vehicles. It was impressive to see how much effort and attention to detail people put to transforming their vehicles into holiday works of art.
One of the best floats of the evening was on display after the parade outside of Rael's Coffee Shop. This float was a Nativity Scene that was made by the Denise and Edward Vigil in memory of Enriquetta Vigil. A photo of Enriquetta and her beautiful smile was illuminated in lights next to the nativity scene on the float reminding us that like Enriquetta, the hard work that we put into making our community a better place can make a difference and continue to inspire into the future.
Vida Del Norte and the Village of Questa want to thank all of the local businesses and volunteers who participated and made donations to make the Evening of Lights a special and memorable time for the holiday. Also, a special thanks to everyone who came out on the 4th to help spread cheer and a sense of pride in our Questa community.
Text taken from an article published in the January edition of the Questa Newspaper. Written by Rachel Kuc' - Download the January Edition of the Questa News
Photos from the Evening of Lights and Volunteers Setting it Up
HELP PLAN THE SKATEPARK IN QUESTA
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Red Ribbon Week in Questa Recap – 2021
This year Vida Del Norte partnered up with other groups and helped to organize a truly memorable Red Ribbon Week in Questa. Through out the week the individuals involved in organizing Red Ribbon Week in Questa kept remarking that this was the best Red Ribbon Week yet.
Red Ribbon Week is an alcohol, tobacco, and other drug and violence prevention awareness campaign observed annually in October in the United States. It began as a tribute to fallen DEA special agent Enrique Camerena in 1985. According to the United States DEA, Red Ribbon Week is the nation's largest and longest-running drug awareness and prevention program.[1]
Red Ribbon Week is a perfect time to celebrate how good it can be to live Drug Free and it is also a time to honor the people who have lost their lives because of drugs. This year in Questa, Red Ribbon Week was both a lot of fun and also a time to learn, reflect, honor and show support for one another.
Red Ribbon Week was kicked off this year with a speaker named Fabian Ramirez that Vida Del Norte invited to come speak on Monday, October 25 to the junior and high school students at Questa High School. Fabian Ramirez is an anti-bullying speaker and drug prevention specialist based out of Washington, DC. He speaks to students at schools across the country. He used his knack for storytelling to talk to Questa junior and high school students about his personal experiences with bullying and also talked about the dangers of using various kinds of drugs and alcohol. He intertwined his stories with facts and jokes which made his presentation as enjoyable as it was informative. He kept the students listening, learning and laughing through his entire presentation.
Fabian Ramirez told the students how valuable it can be to try to not just be “a student” in school but to strive to be “the student” that people notice and remember, that influences others and that people look up to. He also talked about how important it is for young people to have good adult role models who encourage them and remind them that they are important and have potential and that this is a great responsibility.
Vida Del Norte is able to share short excerpts of recorded video from his presentation. These can be viewed on YouTube here:
The next event that took place in Questa during Red Ribbon Week was a Candle Light Vigil on Wednesday, October 27. The vigil was organized by the Harvest Questa church and was held in the center of Questa. The vigil was a time for the community to come together to think about, remember and pray for those who suffer, have lost their lives because of substance misuse and also celebrate, honor and pray for those who are in recovery. Various members of the community spoke about the pain endured by themselves and their families because of losing a loved one because of substance misuse and also about the hardship of having a loved one who struggles with using. Others spoke out about positive changes they are experiencing in recovery. At the vigil, Pastor Peter Martinez and Pastor Gayle Martinez from the Living Word Ministries church in Questa let people know that Living Word has been hosting a Grief Share group on Wednesdays at 6pm and also a Cristian Recovery Program called “New Thirst” that is on Fridays at 6pm. Both of these groups are open to the community.
On Thursday, October 28, the National Guard Counterdrug Task Force was invited to land a helicopter in the Questa Elementary school parking lot. Other members of the task force brought a climbing wall and an inflatable obstacle course that they set up outside the school. The elementary school students were encouraged to wear Halloween costumes that day to remember to “spook the drugs away.” The students took turns challenging themselves by climbing the wall and going through the obstacle course. They also were invited to go inside the helicopter.
Vida Del Norte is extremely grateful to the National Guard Counterdrug Task Force and the staff at the elementary school for helping to coordinate that day and for being such good role models to the students.
Here are some photos from the day that the National Guard visited the elementary school:
On Friday, October 29, Vida Del Norte participated in a Trunk or Treat event that was organized by the Village of Questa and took place in the parking lot by the village municipal buildings. It was great to see how many members of the community showed up to decorate their trunks and give out candy. It was also a lot of fun to see all families that came in their costumes to trick-or-treat. Vida Del Norte took the opportunity to spread a message about prevention by putting up pictures on their trunk that said “Say Boo to Drugs” and “Don't let Drugs Turn You into a Zombie.” During the Trunk-or-Treat event, volunteers for Vida Del Norte, William and Nancy Borges asked participants to sign cards to say thank you to our county law enforcement officers for all that they do to prevent substance misuse in our communities.
Here are some photos from the Trunk or Treat Event by the Village of Questa Municipal Building
Later on Friday evening, Vida Del Norte hosted a Halloween Teen Night that was very well attended. The good attendance at the teen nights is motivation for Vida Del Norte and other community groups to keep providing activities for the youth in Questa so that they have things to do that don't involve alcohol or drugs.
Here are some photos from the Halloween Teen Night:
Red Ribbon Week came to a close on Sunday, October 31 which was also the day that Harvest Questa and Living Word Ministries came together to host a Harvest Fest. This harvest fest had games, another trunk-or-treat event, pumpkin decorating, a bouncy house and other fun alcohol and drug free activities for the community.
Thank you to everyone who helped to organize activities for Red Ribbon Week and thank you to all of the students, families and other community members who participated this year. Thank you to everyone who shares how good drug free can be.
Winter and Holiday Events and Activities
You can download the application to be in the Light Parade HERE.
You can either fill out the application and bring it to Dina Coleman at the Questa Municipal Office or email it to her at: dcoleman@villageofquesta.org
