Santa Claus is Coming to Town

Santa Claus is coming to town once again for the annual Singing with Santa event November 25th. But there’s been a slight change to his usual routine this year. The City of Durango has launched a new webpage for community engagement and a central location for topics of high public interest. Durango School District 9R wants to hear from parents, students and community members about the district’s websites as it begins to implement changes. And the Community Foundation serving Southwest Colorado wants to help keep donations for Colorado Gives Day local this year through Southwest Colorado Gives. You’re watching the Local News Roundup brought to you by the Ute Mountain Casino Hotel and 2180 Lighting and Design. I’m Wendy Graham Settle. Singing with Santa Returns to downtown Durango on Friday, November 25th to ring in the season with traditional carols and the lighting of the community Christmas tree in Buckley Park. There’s a slight change to Santa’s schedule this year. Instead of parading from the train station to Buckley Park, all festivities will take place in the park this year. Come join the Lisa Blue Trio beginning at 5:30 pm for free hot chocolate and cookies and sing traditional Christmas carols. Santa will arrive at 6:00 pm for the lighting of the Christmas tree and photos. For more information and the schedule events, go to downtowndurango.org/singing-with-santa. The city of Durango has launched a new webpage to better provide details on current topics of public interest. The new page called Engage Durango is meant to help encourage more engagement with topics, such as the ongoing parking study downtown, the proposed changes for the look and feel of downtown Durango, plans to address the needs of the homeless population and the ongoing River City Hall project. There is a place to sign up for notifications as well as a form to add comments, suggestions or ideas about these and other topics. View the website and learn more about the ongoing projects at durangogov.org and search Engage Durango. Durango School District 9R has begun the process of updating all its websites, including school specific sites, and wants community input on use. The school district has put out a survey to learn how you and your family use and interact with the websites, what information is most important to you, layout and design comments and other content inputs. To take the survey, visit durangoschools.org and look for the website improvement survey under News and Announcements. The Community Foundation serving Southwest Colorado is spearheading our regional effort to increase donations to local nonprofits during this year’s Colorado Gives Day through Southwest Colorado Gives. Colorado Gives Day is a day of giving to Colorado-based nonprofits held on the first Tuesday of December. This year, Colorado Gives Day is December 6th. Last year, 55 million were raised for nonprofits across Colorado. This year, donations opened on November 1st and will continue through December 6th. Southwest Colorado Gives is aiming to raise at least $550,000 for over 100 nonprofits in La Plata, Archuleta and Montezuma Counties with the goal of keeping donation money local. To learn about which organizations are participating in Colorado Gives Day or to donate, visit swcogives.org. That’s it for this week’s Local News Roundup. Thank you for watching. I’m Wendy Graham Settle.

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