Here we are halfway through 2023 and already looking into 2024. From January through June, the OptiMystics found themselves adapting to the consequences of their past successes and scaling expectations forward. With great success comes the responsibility to adapt to our growth and keep the momentum going, and we’re already looking to grow beyond what we’re growing into this year—which already happens to be huge.
A notable instance was our most recent Cinco de Mayo Street Festival. Although the number of vendors was nearly double from 2022, accommodating them on the actual day of the event proved to be easier than years before, given our experience in placing them. However, we learned that, with so many vendors, it would behoove us to block them off into the middle of Adams Street to leave the sidewalks free for pedestrians to visit local businesses. Assuming we get bigger—and we’ve increased vendors and attendance every year since 2021—we already have much to think about for 2024.
Every event is a learning experience and we’ve learned much from other groups we have worked with, namely, the Mystic Valley Art Council and their Third Friday Art Walks and SLV Fast Friends Draggin’ on Main. Our bicycle rack art projects are morphing into memorial benches. Our V.I.B.E. networking luncheons are becoming evening gatherings and moving to the Vali 3 Theater, now under new management.
Meanwhile, we continue to attract the attention of other community groups looking to improve the economics and the aesthetics of the San Luis Valley. As the OptiMystics see it, what benefits the Valley benefits Monte Vista. We are not in competition with anyone. We just want to shine up our little corner of southern Colorado here. If we can help others get their corners shined up, that helps us, too. We can raise each other’s expectations for what our towns should look like, for how others from outside the San Luis Valley see us when they ride in looking for a hotel room and a place to eat.
As of this writing we’re focused on the upcoming SoCo Suds & Sounds, featuring the Poor Boys Car Club, scheduled for August 19 at Chapman Park. We’ve rebranded the Brewfest and Car Show to something snappier and more familiar (“Suds & Sounds” festivals abound, and everyone knows what they’re about), and the “featuring” tag gives us flexibility in regards to whom we partner with in the future. We’re happy as can be with our relationship with the Poor Boy Car Club, but something may draw them somewhere else down the road, who knows? This is just another way of preparing for changes which may or may not happen, but just might.
The OptiMystics’ Tuesday night meetings are open to the public, and we hope to see some new faces in the months to come. No one has to “join” or pay dues, but nothing happens without people to move the tables and chairs around. Maybe you have some ideas of your own to improve Monte Vista. The idea is to get as many people in the community engaged with improving the community. Everyone who lives and works in Monte Vista is a stakeholder. When enough people take pride in where they live, wonderful things happen. That’s what the OptiMystics hopes to inspire.
L. Roy Aiken, Secretary
OptiMystics CAN!