Voter Outreach Seeks Your Día De Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) Homage & Reflection
The City of Longmont will be having the community’s annual Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead) festival on Saturday, October 14th, from 11 am to 3pm, in the Downtown area of 4th Avenue and Main Street. The festival kicks off several community activities and exhibits that will occur during the remaining weeks of October and when the Day of the Dead is traditionally observed on November 1st and November 2nd. For a complete lineup of the community’s exhibitions, celebrations, and information on regional traditions click on Longmont's website. According to the city’s website, the celebration is the longest-standing in Colorado with more than 6000 people attending annually.
As in recent years, the League of Women Voters of Boulder County will be joining the festivities by having a voter outreach booth during the October 14th celebration. Along with educating voters during the event, the LWVBC Voter Service team will be introducing a new spin for this year’s booth by asking members and anyone who stops by to post a handwritten tribute to a deceased loved one who is an inspiration to their civic and voting life.
As the LWVBC Voter Service team prepares for the October 14th festival and the decorations for the League’s booth and altar, I, Stacie Johnson, the LWVBC Voter Service Director, am asking all members who read this article or notification, to email me (at: voterservice@lwvbc.org) a digital photo of a loved one that has transitioned and include a note how that person inspired or mentored you towards an active voting and civic engagement life. If you do not have the capacity or ability to send a digital photo or note, please reach out to me anyways and I can provide some options and arrangements so that your homage is included with the LWVBC’s altar. If you are not comfortable sharing a photo of a deceased loved one, please feel free to take a photo of a cherished item, keepsake, or object that your ancestor or mentor often used or something that often reminds you of them. Some examples are a photo of a caregiver’s apron, a deck of cards, a walking stick, jewelry, their favorite pen, their coffee mug, their favorite food or drink, or any object that speaks to their everlasting love and mentorship to you.
To inspire you, I am going to share my reflection of a deceased loved one that inspired my voting and civic life and although I can share reflections of so many people, my top pick is of course my mom. Like so many of our ancestors, she undoubtedly faced hardships throughout her life. She was a German born immigrant who came into the world illegitimate and after the war, she decided to come to the United States to forge a new existence and life for herself. When it came to civic engagement, my mother was the one who knew politicians and elected officials on a first name basis as she often cornered them and gave them an earful of what wasn’t right or what they and other elected officials could be doing better. When I was a youngster I remember asking her how it was that so many Germans fell in line to the Hitler dictatorship and all its cruel hate and oppressive rule that killed so many, and she remarked loudly that it's happening now, look around you. I can go on and on in sharing many memories of her, but I’ll stop there. A photo of my dear mom is below.
Please note the annular solar eclipse will occur during the morning of the October 14th festivities, so bring your solar shades and while that is occurring let us salute all our deceased loved ones as the sun and moon gives us an extra nudge.
For more inspiration for the upcoming event, the link below is a personal write-up of when my husband and I created our first ofrenda during the fall of 2020 as a way to counter the dismal days of the pandemic.