{"id":2455708,"date":"2020-03-12T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-12T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=322419"},"modified":"2020-03-12T15:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-03-12T21:00:00","slug":"mountain-mayhem-woodsy-chic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/mountain-mayhem-woodsy-chic\/","title":{"rendered":"Mountain Mayhem: Woodsy chic"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
The Wildwood School board in their “into the wild” wear.<\/strong>
May Selby<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

When the dress code calls for \u201cwoodsy chic,\u201d you can safely assume the benefit you\u2019re attending is bound to be a fun and festive occasion \u2014 and one with flair. Such was the case for the Wildwood School\u2019s annual gala held Friday, March 6, at the Hotel Jerome.<\/p>\n

For those who aren\u2019t familiar with Wildwood, it truly is a treasure in a natural setting, situated just a few miles up Independence Pass, nestled in the woods and surrounded by beaver ponds, willows and evergreens. Its mission of creating \u201ca happy, caring and nurturing preschool dedicated to environmental exploration and artistic expression,\u201d encourages children to learn and appreciate their environs.<\/p>\n

It also meshes quite well with the \u201cInto the Woods\u201d theme of their popular fundraiser. For the well-attended benefit, many women wore floral patterned dresses or shirt-and-skirt combinations with flower crowns while the gents went a bit more Western, sporting oxfords and trousers, suede or leather jackets and a few even donned cowboy hats.<\/p>\n

The evening began with handcrafted cocktails and apps in the Antler Bar, a silent auction in the ballroom then a buffet dinner, live auction and dancing. Wildwood parent Mandy Welgos was the MC and auctioneer, raising the bar on exciting travel packages and adventures up for bid.<\/p>\n

While this year\u2019s event may have been a great success, it was also a bit bittersweet, serving as a ceremonial farewell to outgoing executive director Becky Helmus who is retiring after a 39-year tenure there. She arrived at the school in 1981 and, surprisingly, given the demands of running a preschool for nearly four decades, hasn\u2019t aged a day. She looked as youthful and radiant as ever as she stood at the front of the room during dinner, expressing immense gratitude for the opportunity to lead generations of students and sharing pearls of wisdom from her years in preschool education. Several gems that resonated with me were to \u201cStop and smell the roses, celebrate everything that makes children special, go to their games and practices and recitals and just be there for them.\u201d Also, to remember \u201cchildren keep it joyful, real, honest and fun. And their random acts of kindness are the most meaningful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Becky closed with a quote from \u201cThe Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.\u201d \u201cGoodbye? Oh no, please. Can\u2019t we just go back to page one and start all over again?\u201d Needless to say, there wasn\u2019t a dry eye in the house as all applauded her for her lovingness and leadership.<\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Wildwood School board in their “into the wild” wear.May Selby When the dress code calls for \u201cwoodsy chic,\u201d you can safely assume the benefit you\u2019re attending is bound to be a fun and festive occasion \u2014 and one with flair. Such was the case for the Wildwood School\u2019s annual gala held Friday, March 6, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2455708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-18 10:58:05","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2455708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2455708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2455708\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2455708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2455708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2455708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}