By Kathleen Spring

Redstone Review

LYONS – The fabulous Quarry Gals sang for the seniors at the Walter Self Housing Center in the community house. The performers snapped their fingers, moved and swayed with the music, and shared big smiles with the packed room of seniors. The audience members returned the broad smiles, and said that it was probably the best Friday musical program of the year.

The singing group began almost three years ago when a couple of the choir members from the Lyons Community Church decided that they wanted to reach out with music into the community. They formed the musical group with talented Lyons women singers and began to perform at nondenominational venues.

The Quarry Gals include six singers, one conductor and a piano player. Member Nancy Thorwardson has written a number of songs for the group, including Painting Up the Town. She is the conductor of the group but was not able to make it to this performance. Piano accompanist Marilyn Penn did double duty. The repertoire includes many old-time favorites like Amazing Grace and Tell us about the Boy from New York City. The singers often create their own synchronization and harmony and highlight different singers in each song. It was tentatively decided that the group would come back and sing for the Golden Gang around Thanksgiving time.

The Golden Gang reported that all of the Rotary duck race tickets have been sold. The next fundraiser is the monthly breakfast. This month the date has been changed to Saturday, July 24 from 8:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. in hopes of getting some of the Planet Bluegrass fans to stop by. The August and September dates remain at the second Saturday of the month. A full adult breakfast is $5.

Volunteers are needed at the Walt Self Center. A driver is needed to pick up food in Longmont on Wednesdays and to deliver it to the senior center and to approximately five individual homes in the Lyons area. Also, when school starts in August, replacements will be needed for the youth volunteers. Call Mary Lou Wallace at 3O3-823-6386.

The Golden Gang will be starting a new business year as of Saturday, July 17, when the newly elected officers will be meeting with the departing officers. On the other hand, elections were not held for Lyons Area Advisory Council on Aging. It appears that the group will be disbanding mainly due to lack of members. Lyons elderly can still receive local aid through the Boulder County Aging Services consultant Lisa Rose at 303-823-9016. While messages are picked up daily, someone is in the Walt Self Center office Wednesdays between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. and Fridays between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.

During the 2010 Good Old Days, Lyons’ pioneer families were honored as Mr. and Mrs. Good Old Days. A family that has lived in Lyons 50 years or more is considered a pioneer family. Several families were represented at the program on the Lyons Redstone Museum lawn. They told stories about life in early Lyons.

Also honored was Frances Brackett, deceased, who was a long-time Golden Gang member. She had been mayor of Lyons as well as a diligent worker in many civil endeavors in Lyons, including maintaining Odd Fellows Hall, the Lyons cemetery and working as an ambassador in the Lyons Visitor Center. Her family attended a ceremony in Sandstone Park where Brackett had an engraved sandstone park bench installed in her honor.  It was announced that the center would now be called the Frances Brackett Memorial Visitors Center. There is a lovely portrait of her in the building.

Kathleen Spring is a journalist, photojournalist and author. She conducts creative writing and journaling workshops at her mountainside retreat Spring Time Writers. She is a freelance writer and is the director of Lyons History Video Project.

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