Posted on: December 17th, 2021

Holiday Greeting Friends, Families, and Supporters of Gold Hill School!

Just last month, we should have been serving you tacos at the Gold Hill Inn as part of our annual Fall Fiesta. In our second year without this important community event, we can truly say we are missing you and the opportunity to see you all in person. 

We’ll be honest here. These past 18 months have been challenging for the kids, the parents, and the teachers alike. From last-minute homeschooling to hybrid learning to sudden quarantines, “rhythm” is a word that was only ever spoken over Google Meet during music class. It’s been tough.

However, despite the roller-coaster ride of COVID, the fun and educational activities have continued at the best mountain school around. The kids have performed plays outdoors, created phenomenal pieces of art, and even built a town complete with businesses they created as one of their “real-life” lessons. Perhaps the most important real-life lesson they have learned is RESILIENCE. We are proud of how they have done through it all, and we hope you are too.

As you may have noticed, we suspended our fundraising last year due to the financial challenges we knew many people were facing as a result of COVID-19. And this year, we felt it would not be fair to ask our community to gather for an indoor Fall Fiesta. However, the activities that make our little school so unique still require money out of our PTO budget. 

We have been fortunate to have extra support from the district during COVID to pay for our wonderful – and critical – paraprofessional, but we can’t count on that in future years. The kids also need a new stage for the annual plays, as the old one was unsafe and has been discarded. PTO funds also support reading programs, special events like the CU Shakespeare performance, and, believe it or not, buying toilet paper for the school. 

As we sit here perched between the Season of Thankfulness and the Season of Giving, we’d like to ask you what the Gold Hill School has meant to you. Were you a student, who learned stream ecology by flyfishing or had your first chance to stand tall on that stage during a school play? Are you a parent seeing that spark for learning in your child’s eye? Or are you a member of our community who smiles when you think “wow – schools like this still exist, against all odds?”

We hope you will join us in supporting this school that has touched your life in some way. Our goal is to raise $8,000 this year to ensure that we can give these kids the rich social and educational experience they deserve. Please consider what you might be able to give, and share this email with others who value multi-age, small school education. Tax-deductible donations can be made on our website at https://goldhillpto.wixsite.com/website.

Checks can be made out to Mountain Meddlers and sent to Gold Hill School, Attn: Mountain Meddlers, 890 Main Street, Boulder, CO 80302. 

Thank you in advance, and Happy Holidays!

The PTO and Proud Parents of Gold Hill School 

Gold Hill School / Mountain Meddlers PTO 501c(3) Tax ID Number #20-3169406