Recently two major events took place here in our corner of Colorado thanks to the concerted efforts of the Montelores Early Childhood Council’s coordinator, Vangi McCoy, and her staff in organizing, publicizing, and hosting them.

The first of these was the Kids Count presentation by The Colorado Children’s Campaign, held at the First National Bank of Cortez at noon on 9/25, with many community leaders, representatives from school districts, and early childhood professionals in attendance. Because of the strong professional relationship developed by Ms. McCoy with the CO Children’s Campaign staff, Bill Jaeger, VP for Early Childhood Initiatives, left Denver in the wee hours of the morning to drive to Cortez to make it on time for the presentation after his flight was cancelled. The presentation was a resounding (if somewhat sobering) success, with a lively discussion afterwards that relied not only the expertise of Mr. Jaeger, but also that of Ms. McCoy, her staff, and others present. Tobie Baker of The Journal was in attendance and covered the presentation in a recent article.

The second of these was the day-long Literacy Tour by Lt. Gov Joe Garcia on 9/28/15, again, organized and hosted by MECC in coordination with the Lt. Gov’s office, who reached out to Ms. McCoy requesting the visit. The tour began at the MECC offices with the Lt. Gov’s presentation of a Literacy Week Proclamation to Ms. McCoy, and continued at venues all over Montezuma and Dolores counties. Children and their early childhood teachers all benefited from and enjoyed the day’s activities. Kudos and many thanks to Ms. McCoy and the MECC staff for their efforts on behalf of young children and families in our communities.

David N Rainey

Cortez