What an adventurous time it was for The OptiMystics last year. Here is a brief look back at 2021, recapping all the exciting things that happened with our grass roots movement.
We kicked off the year by providing an update to the Monte Vista City Council in mid-February and briefly covering our plans for the year. We returned to the city council chambers several times over the past year to provide updates and information on what we were doing.
When the year began, we felt Monte Vista was ready for something special, so we put together the first St. Patrick’s Day Parade. For so early in the year, we had seventeen entries in the parade, with several hundred coming out to watch. Local establishments on Adams Street and even City Hall, all got in on the excitement.
After over a year of planning, the lights on Adams Street were finally replaced. One brisk April morning we came together with SLVREC and the City of Monte Vista to get all the old lights on the one hundred block of Adams Street replaced with high efficiency, dusk to dawn LED lights. By summer’s end, most all the lights were on and working. The few remaining lights that are not functioning are slated to be fixed in early 2022.
May was another exciting month as The OptiMystics came together to pull off the first Cinco de Mayo Celebration on Adams Street. The weather was perfect, the street was lined with excited vendors and about a dozen fancy cars. It was estimated that over a thousand people made it out to enjoy the day, support local businesses, indulge in some great food, and watch the parade. Our venture was recognized all the way up at the state level.
Behind the scenes, a wonderful event was taking place all during the spring and summer months. Early in the year, The OptiMystics were offered the opportunity to take over an existing non-profit organization whose goals and objectives aligned perfectly with ours. By August, all the paperwork came together and The OptiMysics became an official 501(c)(3) organization.
Along the way, we met as a group almost weekly throughout the spring, summer and into the fall. Many wonderful and supportive faces have been to our meetings, and we appreciate all that they brought to the table.
To cap off our events last year, the OptiMystics, in conjunction with the Poor Boy Car Club, hosted our inaugural Beer Fest & Car Show in Chapman Park. This one-day show is estimated to have pulled in around 3,000 attendees, better than eighty great looking cars and over 2-dozen local vendors.
The Poor Boys and The OptiMystics were also able to make a nice contribution to the Homelake Veterans Home with proceeds from the festival and car show.
We made our first attempt at obtaining a DOLA revitalization grant in July & August. The city, council and all the business owners were on-board with the plan. While we were unsuccessful in obtaining the grant, we learned a lot about the process and met with practically every local business and building owner in the downtown area. Throughout the process, we even found ourselves able to help match up empty store fronts with prospective tenants.
In October we participated in the Kaboom project at Sanchez Park, in conjunction with the city, Kaboom & the CO Health Foundation. Several OptiMystic members volunteered for an afternoon and then attended the grand opening later that week.
In the fall we were approached by Friends of the Sandhill Cranes with a proposal for bicycle racks in Monte Vista. It quickly turned into a Bicycle Racks/ Art project. Each bike rack will be designed and built by local artist John Patterson, sold to sponsors and placed in strategic spots all around town.
We are working to establish a great repour with our new City Manager Gigi Dennis-Lounsbury. We met with Gigi, City Financial Manager Anita Kinsey, and Public Workd Director Robert Vance to discuss and begin the processes for the next Grant that is available for making improvements to Monte Vista
As a year-end close, a holiday party and a thank you to all our active members we met at Ninos Mexican Restaurant for Food, Beverage and Comradery. A good time was had by all!
One last time we want to thank all our wonderful sponsors over this past year, we could not have done it without you and deeply appreciate your support:
2021 Sponsors include RG Bank, SLVREC/Ciello, Monte Vista Coop, Sandhill Inn & Suites, SLVoices, Jack’s Market Pharmacy, San Luis Valley Broadcasting, Waste Management, Troy Plane State Farm, Wayne’s Print Shop, Monte Vista Police Department, City of Monte Vista, Monte Vista Public Works, Rocky Mountain Memorabilia, Krazie Pete’s Bounce House, Monte Vista Golf Course, Monte Vista Chamber of Commerce, San Luis Valley Amateur Radio Association, Hauser Handcrafted, Kids Connection, Alpine Achievers, Monte Vista Journal, Valley Communications, Southern Colorado Computer Services, FaeMoon Wolf Designs, The Polished Edge/Bean, Rain Brews, Quincy’s Tavern, Rancho de Animales and the Vali-3 Theater.
And of course, we could not do all of this without the support of our members. We are indebted to you for your tireless hours volunteering to help in our cause of revitalizing downtown Monte Vista. We look forward to the new year and the excitement it will bring to our historic town in the heart of the San Luis Valley.