Stephany Nellessen
La Puente Volunteer
The Help Keep Milagros on Main Street campaign has received an astounding amount of support from the wider community. Together we have raised over $6,000 from over 100 donors, and there is still plenty of time to reach our goal of 250 individuals contributing $10 each to the purchase of the Milagros building. Even greater than the monetary support we have received is the stories and comments the community has lent to the project. Hundreds of stories have come to us through Facebook, mail, the comment board on the Milagros display, and the Milagros Scrapbook. Below are comments from various community members explaining what Milagros means to them. Enjoy, and don’t forget to check out our display at Milagros, our Facebook event page: Help Keep Milagros on Main Street, and our online fundraising site at razoo.com: Milagros on Main. For questions call 587-3499 or email our Community Education office at communityeducation.lapuente@gmail.com.
Daniel Key
As a long term volunteer at Milagros between August of 2009 and August of 2010, I can tell you that Milagros is an important community space. Not only does it provide a real community living room, its central location in Alamosa makes it an essential educational space for La Puente. I remember explaining on daily basis what the mission of La Puente, and by extension Milagros, was to people from out of town or just to people that hadn’t heard of the organization before. The location of Milagros was also central in providing a safe place where people from different parts of the community could come together to socialize, meet, and generally break down barriers. In short, Milagros and its location are important factors in community cohesion and economy in downtown Alamosa.
Sheri Shortridge
I was there when the beautiful tile work was being created by Roberta Kaserman and Gary Bloom. This is a wonderful, needed addition to our town. TOURISTS (isn’t that who our City and Chamber of Commerce are trying to attract?) head there first for a great welcome to our town, yet it remains a favorite place for locals.
Jamie Sutton
Favorite memory… All summer our freshman year my old roommate and I would drive down from our home town at 4 a.m. to get to Alamosa by 8 a.m. for soccer stuff, but we would always stop at Milagros for breakfast and to look at the local art that is up at the time. I hope it stays the way it is!
Allen Kleine Deters
Milagros is my second office where I meet with parishioners, meet new friends and gladly support the work of La Puente. … Milagros is the hub of downtown. It’s one of the best things going.
Becky Steenburg
When my girls were small, I often felt the need to get out of the house. We would load up the stroller and bikes and head over to our community living room. We would spend hours talking, reading, visiting with others, enjoying coffee and tea and scones—even napping. I truly believe it saved me—my sanity especially. As the kids got older, we came less often, but still regularly.
One day my daughter—then about ten, decided she wanted to have tea with Phoebe, and it had to be at Milagros. Now we all love to come for open mic night and also a lot during the summer.
We’ve met friends here who were passing through town. We’ve also met strangers from around the world who stopped as they passed by.
This location really makes Milagros what it is.
Danny Ledonne
I have so many memories of my Milagros. Lunch meetings. Film Screenings. Open mic nights. Ice cream. Music. A warm drink in my belly as the snow falls outside. There is a reason in every season for Milagros. It is the center of town. The place I tell people to meet if it’s their first time in town. The place to go in between places to go. I was the first local to write a review of Milagros on Yelp.com. I gave it five stars. There will never be another place like my Milagros. And there can be no other place for it than right here—in the heart of town in the heart of a valley in the heart of the Rocky Mountains. And in the hearts and minds of so many. This is my Milagros. And it should be yours too. Because the best things in life are worth sharing.
What’s Been Said…