I am the new President of Scraps-to-Soil (S2S), a 501C3 non-profit with the mission to inspire sustainable lifestyles in Clear Creek County and want to tell you about what we have been up to with our programs.

This summer, we finally celebrated the completion of the reconstruction & beautification of the Idaho Springs Community Garden. As you might remember, the garden was shut down for the reconstruction of Colorado Boulevard in 2016. By 2020 we had it rebuilt thanks to the sponsorship of Freeport McMoran Foundation; donations from the City of Idaho Springs, BeauJos, Smokin Yards BBQ and many residents.

The beautification phase was sponsored by the North American Rock Garden Society, Albert Frei & Sons; Jeff Szentmartoni; Margie Marlin; IMAGE TEK, Chris Crouse, Linda Campbell, Sarah Grundemann, Angie Mora and garden renters. Special thanks to Cris Slaymaker for leading the Community Garden program.

Another reason to celebrate is the renewed partnership with the Clear Creek Metropolitan Recreation District (CCMRD) that will ensure the sustainability of the Pumpkin SMASH. It could not be more fitting to pass it on to an organization focused on providing recreation activities to our community, especially when a Scraps-to-Soil co-founder and former board member is their director allowing for S2S volunteers to focus on the educational piece of the event. CCMRD has been a partner to Scraps-to-Soil from its inception and we are very grateful for their support and everything they do for our community. 

At Scraps-to-Soil we are all volunteers, and are very proud to have been able to secure the sustainability of the Community Garden and the Pumpkin SMASH programs. We’ve leaned into strong partnerships with organizations like the School, Library & Recreation Districts, Mountain Youth Network — Trek, the City of Idaho Springs, Green Team Super Heroes and others.

This organization exists because a group of county residents felt motivated to get together to dream and explore how our communities and our lives could be improved by collective action. We feel the need to reignite that feeling by inviting folks in our community who care about sustainability to re-connect with each other, share our wants, needs, motivations, ideas and inspirations.

Join the conversation: send us an email to scraps.to.soil@gmail.com. Follow us on FB - Scraps2Soil & IG - scrapstosoil.  Everyone is welcome because as Helen Keller once said, “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.”

Ursula Cruzalegui, Scraps-to-Soil President