Hope and Restoration
The town is coming awake after the long winter’s sleep and it is green green green with summer rains. The Ovando Inn has visitors and—apart from these days of rain—the fisher folk are enjoying the lure of the Blackfoot River. Kathy and Travis are busy in the Blackfoot Angler. We now have a beautiful new town website, upgraded from our old beautiful town website. If you would like to take a peek at what goes on in this town of 50 and the Greater Metropolitan Area that surrounds it, (i.e. mountains, valleys, creeks, ranches and the million acre Bob Marshall Wilderness), here it is: ovandomontana.net
There are three businesses below me: On the left is Kathy and Travis’s realm, the Blackfoot Angler. In the center is Colleen’s Stray Bullet Café and on the right is the Blackfoot Challenge. Above them is my Hermitage with the great view you see at the top of the letter, taken from my desk.
Here is a description of “the Challenge” in its own words:
OUR STORY begins in the early 1970s, when landowners along the Blackfoot River recognized the need to build partnerships with public agencies in order to address natural resource threats facing the watershed. By focusing their early efforts where they agreed, these partners realized they could accomplish much more by working together. These early conversations paved the way for what would become public stream access and walk-in hunting on private lands in Montana.
Today the Blackfoot Challenge is active on many fronts, including the Blackfoot Community Conservation Area (BCCA), an innovative effort involving community ownership and cooperative ecosystem management across 41,000 acres of public and private land formerly owned by Plum Creek Timber Company that encompasses an important transition zone between wilderness, national forest, and productive private valley bottoms, with lush riparian and wetland areas and important wildlife habitat.
Here is a description of “the Challenge” in its own words:
OUR STORY begins in the early 1970s, when landowners along the Blackfoot River recognized the need to build partnerships with public agencies in order to address natural resource threats facing the watershed. By focusing their early efforts where they agreed, these partners realized they could accomplish much more by working together. These early conversations paved the way for what would become public stream access and walk-in hunting on private lands in Montana.
Today the Blackfoot Challenge is active on many fronts, including the Blackfoot Community Conservation Area (BCCA), an innovative effort involving community ownership and cooperative ecosystem management across 41,000 acres of public and private land formerly owned by Plum Creek Timber Company that encompasses an important transition zone between wilderness, national forest, and productive private valley bottoms, with lush riparian and wetland areas and important wildlife habitat.
Among its projects is a program with Fish and Wildlife to bring back the Trumpeter Swans that became so endeared to many of us as children through E.B. White's The Trumpet of the Swan. I think this is as good a story for adults as E.B. White’s was for children! Here is a heart-warming real-life scene that takes place right here in Ovando.
The Blackfoot Challenge’s Adopt-a-Swan Project is not only a restoration program, but also a hands-on education program. School children from as far away as Bonner, near Missoula, get to be present for the release of the swans and then to follow them through a tracking program.
You can see how far this project ripples out in this request to sponsor a swan.
Hello,
My family lives in the Woodworth area during the summer,
and the rest of the year we live in Quito, Ecuador.
I teach 4th grade at Academia Cotopaxi, and every year
we read The Trumpet of the Swan, by E.B. White. Our class
would like to sponsor a swan.
Please let me know how to help.
Thanks and regards,
Jody Chritton
I have mentioned before that the education of Ovando’s children is a community project in which Ovando School children can take advantage of rich local resources. Below, an Ovando School group prepares to release their swan.
As the return of the Trumpeter Swans offer hope for our local wildlife, thanks to the dedicated efforts of folks near and far, here is another moving story of literally rising up from the ashes. Notre Dame Cathedral endured a shocking destruction from a fire which erupted in April 2019.
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An entire world looked on aghast as this lovely, iconic structure which had graced the Paris skyline since the 13th century, erupted in flames. How on earth do you begin to resurrect it? Once again, human ingenuity and dedication comes to the fore, applying 21st century technologies to 13th century craftsmanship. Have a look!
Here is one visionary view of how the renewed structure might be designed, blending elements of both its past and its present. Human imagination is an amazing thing.
Much closer to home was the devastating fire in Paradise, California in November 2018, which reduced the town to ashes in a matter of hours and took the lives of 85 people. Academy award-winning director Ron Howard teamed up with National Geographic to produce the documentary Rebuilding Paradise, which will be released at the end of this month. For every ticket sold, $1 will go to charities supporting the town of Paradise, California. Said Howard:
“Now more than ever, we need to remember that when people come together for the greater good we can make a positive change on our shared future. The passion and commitment of the people of Paradise, to one another and to rebuilding their community, is a reminder of the strength and resilience of the human spirit.”
These comebacks are cheering as the hard times continue and there is still no sign of let-up. As always, the international language of hope is music and people continue to join together across continents to comfort, console and express gratitude to first responders. (I include Fred and Leigh Ann at the Blackfoot Store among those). Here is the One Voice Children’s choir, “always looking for opportunities to share hope through music.”
From Quimper, France: Isaac and Nora, the 12 and 9 year-old you met in a previous letter, joined another sibling pair in Mexico to make amazing harmonies across thousands of miles with the Garcia sisters, and all from their respective homes. Isaac and Nora's father, from South Korea, introduces their song in Spanish. This is a very multi-lingual multi-instrumental family. Their mother is filming them.
Here is another cross-continent collaboration. In this global choral and orchestral performance, "people from 5 continents, professional or amateur musicians and singers, join together to sing and play Amazing Grace to give hope to those who despair, console those who mourn, and encourage those who are on the frontline!"
From the realm of classical music comes this extraordinary moment between two world-famous orchestra conductors—Zubin Mehta and Seiji Ozawa. Ozawa has been afflicted with Alzheimer’s Disease. Here his friend Zubin Mehta draws him into a performance with his orchestra and the deep reservoir of musicality within Ozawa comes alive. It’s an amazing and lovely thing to watch.
Now to another international language that just rises up, untutored, in the human. At least that is the case with two-year-old William Stokkebroe of Denmark. You are going to love him! I wish he could do a reprise right here in Trixi’s Antler Saloon.
If William demonstrates that you are never too young to take to the boards, here is a couple who prove that you are never too old! Honestly, I was gasping for breath just watching them!
To catch your breath, here is a reprise of Yoga with Man’s (and Woman’s) Best Friend, which you’ve got to love. Honestly!
To catch your breath, here is a reprise of Yoga with Man’s (and Woman’s) Best Friend, which you’ve got to love. Honestly!
I close the theme of hope out with this short animation narrated by Jane Goodall.
Gracias a mi Comadre en Mexico.
| whisper.mp4 |
Please stay well and enjoy your summer.
Sheri Ritchlin
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