{"id":49080,"date":"2021-01-20T17:16:27","date_gmt":"2021-01-21T00:16:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/pine-river-valley-residents-find-mystery-notes-celebrating-mlk-day\/"},"modified":"2021-01-21T00:16:27","modified_gmt":"2021-01-21T00:16:27","slug":"pine-river-valley-residents-find-mystery-notes-celebrating-mlk-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/pine-river-valley-residents-find-mystery-notes-celebrating-mlk-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Pine River Valley residents find mystery notes celebrating MLK Day"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Mystery
Mystery notes popped up in Bayfield and around the Pine River Valley on Monday, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, offering a positive message and a small cash gift.<\/span>Courtesy of Amy Hepler<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Amy Hepler and her fiance found the letter when they were walking their dog in Bayfield on Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy fiance was like I don\u2019t know if you should open it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"Mystery
Mystery notes popped up in Bayfield and around the Pine River Valley on Monday in celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.<\/span>Courtesy of Amy Hepler<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The letter, she discovered, included $5 and a positive message celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. Day.<\/p>\n

Mysterious letters, celebrating the holiday and carrying a bit of cash, popped up around Bayfield, Forest Lakes and other Pine River Valley communities this week. They included popular quotes attributed to the civil rights leader, drawings and encouragement to celebrate the holiday using the small monetary gift.<\/p>\n

Hepler gave her card to her 14-year-old daughter, prompting a discussion about spreading kindness.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was very surprised and she thought that was a great way to spread that message,\u201d she said. \u201cWith everything going on in our world today, it\u2019s nice to have someone out there doing something kind for people spreading the message of inclusiveness and of Martin Luther King.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sarah Murphy\u2019s 4-year-old daughter found another letter in the Forest Lakes subdivision north of Bayfield.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe kind gesture started more conversations about what the day is meant for between myself and my 3 little girls,\u201d she said in a social media post. \u201cI could go on about the deeper meaning of this gesture and the importance of civil rights to our family however it gets incredibly personal, so please know it meant a great deal to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joanne Graves found a letter at Lake Simpatico in Forest Lakes with $2 and left it, hopefully, for a child to find.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith everything going on in the world, even knowing what to expect, it was still heartwarming to know that someone out there wanted to make a stranger\u2019s day brighter,\u201d she said in an email to The<\/em>Durango Herald<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Whoever was leaving the letters was a mystery to most.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think what it brings is a sense of mystery and kindness, and I think that\u2019s what we need,\u201d said Katie Sickles, town manager. \u201cI think right now, there\u2019s too much noise about our differences, and it can be very traumatizing in a lot of ways. \u2026 We don\u2019t have to know who it\u2019s from \u2013 just having kindness in this time is refreshing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The letter writers were members of the Los Pinos Anti-Racism Project, a group of Pine River Valley residents who advocate for equal treatment for all residents in the valley.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying to center Martin Luther King, Black voices, the historic movement of civil rights in this country, and additional moves we need to make,\u201d said Emily Jensen, a member of the group. \u201cWe just wanted to be able to spread Martin Luther King\u2019s message in a fun way.\u201d<\/p>\n

smullane@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Letters carry positive messages, cash<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49081,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[2766,1175,28,29,4259,1231,598],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-49080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-bayfield-school-district","tag-civil-rights","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-newsletter-sign-up","tag-pine-river-times","tag-public-holiday"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49080\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49080"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=49080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}