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Pine River Shares enters new phase

Group is forming new nonprofit organization

Pine River Shares, which organizes monthly community potlucks in Bayfield or Ignacio, has separated from La Plata Family Centers and is now operating under the umbrella of the Community Foundation of Southwest Colorado and seeking its own 501c3 nonprofit status. They continue to expand their programs and the communities where they are offered.

"We are committed to continuing the activities residents from Vallecito to Arboles count on," said Dotty Beaudin, a member of the group's new advisory board.

Briggen Wrinkle, executive director of the Community Foundation, said, "We are glad to welcome Pine River Shares as a partner. We are proud to support their mission and believe they have a compelling vision for the future."

Pine River Shares started with one community dinner in October 2013 that became monthly potlucks and expanded from there.

"When I came over (to Bayfield), I was working with the Family Center and was charged with opening the office here; and starting the parent and family leadership program," Pine River Shares coordinator Pam Willhoite said. "The way Pine River Shares got started, I held a community meeting in January 2013 at the town hall for people to talk to us about what was happening in the community that was impacting the health and welfare of their families. We had child care, and we fed people."

She said 25 to 30 people showed up. That was at the height of concern after the disappearance of 13-year-old Dylan Redwine from Vallecito, "so we expected to hear about that, but what we heard about was food, access to healthy food." And that when something goes wrong, like a vehicle breakdown, for someone who works two or three jobs in Durango, the financial hit centered on food access, Willhoite said. Particpants also were concerned about jobs and access to transportation and health care.

"We asked them how to address it and also about community assets," such as neighborliness and being helpful, she said.

After that town hall meeting, "We started holding meetings within a month, first in the evening until we realized how hard that was if you worked in Durango. In the meanwhile, we had people showing up during the day at the office. We came up with the community dinners sitting outside of AJ's Pizza" on Mill Street when they spotted a man they knew to be going to Manna Soup Kitchen in Durango. Some of the people talking volunteered at the soup kitchen.

"We talked about starting one here and were told it would never work, because people are too proud," Willhoite said. People who need food assistance also tend to go to the food bank in Durango instead of the one in Bayfield's town hall.

"The idea came up for the community dinner with gleaning tables" that would have food, clothing, toys, and other items that anyone could take. "The gleaning table was the point of it," Willhoite said. Town Parks & Rec Director Scott Key brought food from the town hall food pantry, and Willhoite brought food they'd gathered.

The first community dinner was in October 2013 at the old gym on South Street. At the time the plan was it would be the only one, Willhoite said. Three hundred people showed up.

The community potlucks "are the cornerstone of Pine River Shares" and have happened monthly since that first one, Willhoite said. Powered mostly by volunteers and generous donations from individuals and businesses as well as some grant funding, Pine River Shares has steadily expanded activities beyond the potlucks and beyond Bayfield to Forest Lakes, Ignacio, and Arboles.

The next project after the dinners was the kids' food backbacks, Bayfield Kids 4 Kids (BK4K) to get food to families that need it and also to uplift the Bayfield youth community at a time when several of their peers had died. "We wanted a way for them to feel helpful, to show them that they could help their school-mates," Willhoite said. "It's always been a partnership with the kids and teachers."

Next came community resource mapping. "We had to ask why people are hungry, not just feed them," she explained. "We asked, why are people hungry? It's not because people aren't working. They are working hard."

The Pine River Valley is a fertile part of the county and used to have things like a grain mill and creamery. The mapping started with food producers and then medical resources. "We got a $5,000 grant from the Colorado Trust for that. We pay our people stipends to do the mapping. It's an ongoing project."

Next came teaching people how to grow their own food in their yards, plus asking people who were already gardening to "grow a row" for sharing.

Then there are social aspects. "We work to end geographic and social isolation, such as for new families, new parents. We have summer programs, crafts, picnics, we share food." Activities expanded first to Forest Lakes, and last year to Ignacio and Arboles.

Last year Pine River Shares held a community potluck in Ignacio, and the January potluck was in Ignacio instead of Bayfield. Willhoite said they want to have them occasionally in Forest Lakes and even Arboles to "encourage people to move around and meet new people."

In the works is a student leadership group at Ignacio High School centered around food security, Willhoite said. "We have a lot of support from the ELHI (Community Center in Ignacio), we hope to have a food pantry in Ignacio. All this is just getting started... What we hope to do this summer with Cooking Matters is cooking classes at the ELHI." Cooking Matters is a series of free classes that show participants how to buy and cook healthy food on a tight budget, including food they can take home.

A Pine River Shares core group meets every Wednesday morning at the Pine River Shares office, "and every week, ideas come to the table," Willhoite said. The people who do the weekly planning are paid leadership stipends. Some 65 people have put in 2,500 hours of leadership, separate from volunteering with the dinners and loading backpacks, she said. "We use a lot of volunteers. If I had to pay staff for all the stuff we're doing, it would be impossible."

"Our mission defines us and sets us apart in the community, really focussed on the health and welfare of people in the valley," she said. "We know them because they are us. We help them, and then we invite them to the table" for their ideas. "We believe it shouldn't be hard to share. If everybody shares, there's plenty to go around."

Pine River Shares has a new logo, a pine cone with a red heart in the center, designed by graphic artist Lisa Marie Jacobs. She also designed the new Pine River Shares web site, www.pinerivershares.org. Their new phone number is 884-6040.

They are busy seeking support from grant foundations and businesses, now with a professional-looking prospectus to show to businesses.

"We're blessed to have people on our team that can write grants," Willhoite said. About the prospectus, she said, "We have talented people who do this for free." They need financial help from individuals, churches, civic groups, and businesses, and all donations are used in the Pine River Valley.

In the past couple years, a local anonymous donor has matched any financial contributions during November. Last year she matched $8,000, Willhoite said. "She wants to extend her campaign through the year" to match any business donations this year.

Pine River Shares has moved their office and the furnishings they own just around the corner from their previous office in the Aspenwood Building, located at the corner of Bayfield Center Parkway and Mountain View Drive. The Bayfield Family Center still occupies the office on the south side of the building.

Pine River Shares also has a "freecycle" clothing unit next to the office, where free clothing is available to anyone. Steve Adams, one of Pine River Shares' core founding members and ongoing helpers, died earlier this month. Willhoite said he did most of the work on the new clothing unit as well as the previous locations. He also was a fixture at most of the monthly potlucks.