Angel Fire Visitors Center Busy Booking 2011 Summer
Even though the ski slopes close this weekend, officials at Angel Fire Visitors Center are busy getting ready for summer.
There are 10 Veterans Healing and Wellness Retreats planned this year in Angel Fire and the staff is also booking events and planning cooperative efforts to bring more tourists to the area. It all begins April 2-9 with the first veterans retreat.
“The first retreat is totally full with 18 couples booked,” Karen Kelly director of the Visitors Center said. “Some retreats will be with a lesser number of couples and some will have more.”
According to Kelly, a $350,000 grant will be put to good use to help facilitate the healing retreats and she is hoping to raise another $70,000 through another grant of $20,000 and private donations. The grant Kelly is applying for is through the New Mexico Rural Alliance.
“If we get the grant it will add to the target of the $70,000 we need for the 10 retreats,” Kelly said. “So far we have collected $5,000 from private donations towards the $70,000 we will need.”
Kelly said the financial benefit to Angel Fire will be pretty substantial. She said the retreats will bring in approximately $6,000 in gross receipts taxes and another $15,000 in lodgers tax revenues.
The lodgers tax money brought in from the retreats will be used to promote Angel Fire through marketing. “Ninety percent of the money we get for the retreats will be used locally on local clinicians, with Angel Fire Resort and at local restaurants,” Kelly added.
Angel Fire has already played host to two such veterans retreats — one in October of 2009 and one in April of 2010. Kelly is also helping Kit Carson Electric Coop with logistics as they prepare a major broadband project in Angel Fire.
She said “we are a priority for the Coop bringing broadband into our community and the Coop has already hired some local people to help with the project.” Sales and Events Manager Tracy Orr said she is very busy with planning SummerFest slated for August 5-7 this year. “I’m working on that project right now booking bands and vendors,” she said.
“We have already sent out vendor applications.” She said during SummerFest the village will also celebrate its 25th Anniversary as a municipality. “We are planning a barbecue for the community, bands and a big birthday cake,” Orr said. “We’re bringing the community together for this event and although all the plans are not complete we want to make our 25th birthday celebration memorable.”
Also at the SummerFest will be the annual balloon rally with morning ascensions, tethered balloon rides and a balloon glow. “All vendors and bands will be at Angel Fire Resort’s decks at the base of the hill,” she said.
“Everything will be free like last year.” Orr is also one of the point people coordinating the new Allen Fields construction that will begin again soon. “We have a meeting scheduled this week with a representative of Lone Mountain (the construction company building the fields) and the recreation committee going over the basics of what is needed to be done and when we will begin working again this year.”
Orr said soon she will begin trying to book softball tournaments and is looking at a Labor Day event as will as other leagues and tournaments, like an adult soccer league. “Hopefully we will be playing on the fields by July 1st,” she said.
Shay Tiblijas coordinator at the Community Center is also looking for a busy summer of bookings and camps.
“We will be doing the village summer recreation program again June through August, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. with many events and activities planned,” she said. “We’re looking at hiking, arts and crafts and incorporating horseback rides, gardening — it’s all in the works.”
Tiblijas said she is currently looking for a supervisor for the summer camp and anyone can apply. The cost will remain the same as last year — $20 per day and $15 for each additional child or $80 per week for the first child for residents.
Visitors will pay $40 per day and $35 for a second child or $175 per week. Other bookings include • Cinco de Mayo on May 7 • Zumba classes beginning in June • Fly fishing clinic on June 4 • Health and Wellness Fair on June 18 • Sock-hop for Holy Angels Catholic Mission July 2 • Trash to Treasures on July 8-10 • Music From Angel Fire Aug. 16 through Sept. 7 • Open gym everyday and times vary
