{"id":50704,"date":"2020-10-30T22:34:00","date_gmt":"2020-10-31T04:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-county-turns-porch-lights-green-to-support-veterans\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:52:36","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:52:36","slug":"montezuma-county-turns-porch-lights-green-to-support-veterans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-county-turns-porch-lights-green-to-support-veterans\/","title":{"rendered":"Montezuma County turns porch lights green to support veterans"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The city of Cortez and the town of Mancos are encouraging citizens to change one of their outdoor lights to green in recognition of local veterans and their service to the country.<\/span>Emily Hayes\/The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The city of Cortez and the town of Mancos are asking residents to change one of their outdoor lights to the color green in recognition of local veterans and to celebrate National Veterans and Military Families Month.<\/p>\n

\u201cGreen is a color of hope, renewal and well-being,\u201d Mancos Mayor Queenie Barz said during the Board of Trustees meeting Wednesday evening.<\/p>\n

\u201cGreenlight\u201d also signifies forward movement, so \u201cgreenlighting\u201d for veterans is \u201cintended to spark a national conversation regarding the recognition of veterans,\u201d Barz said.<\/p>\n

Both municipalities proclaimed November as National Veterans and Military Families Month.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet us honor our veterans not only on Nov. 11, but all year-round by changing one light to green in a visible location \u2013 on your porch, your home or at your office and keep it glowing every day as a symbol of appreciation and support for our veterans,\u201d Barz said.<\/p>\n

Cortez Mayor Mike Lavey has had a green light glowing on his porch since Veterans Day of 2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cGreenlight a Vet is a national campaign to establish visible support for U.S. veterans by inviting Americans to change one light in their homes to green,\u201d Lavey said in a phone interview.<\/p>\n

\"Cortez
Cortez Mayor Mike Lavey, a Navy veteran, stands with his green porch light in honor of those who served their country.<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The green light becomes a \u201cperennial beacon of support and appreciation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

As a veteran, Lavey said it is very reassuring and inspiring to him to see green lights shining on porches and in businesses across the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s reassuring to see vets are being remembered,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

2020 Montezuma County Veteran\u2019s Day Parade<\/div>\n

The Ute Mountain American Legion Post No. 75 is sponsoring the 2020 Montezuma County Veterans Day Parade on Wednesday, Nov. 11 at 1 p.m. on West Montezuma Avenue between Chestnut and Harrison streets.<\/p>\n

The Cortez Police Department, color guards from local chapters of veteran organizations, the Cortez Fire Protection District, Humvees from the Montezuma County Sheriff\u2019s Office, transport vans from the Disabled American Veterans and various other groups are expected to drive down West Montezuma Avenue.<\/p>\n

The Montezuma County Patriots and the Daughters of the American Revolution also are expected to join the event.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir participation will be apolitical \u2013 there won\u2019t be any political signs,\u201d Mike Brunk, a Vietnam veteran and organizer of the parade, said in an interview with The Journal<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The Pagosa Springs San Juan Squadron will fly planes over the parade at the start and the end of the event.<\/p>\n

The Montezuma-Cortez High School and Middle School band will march and play music.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s wonderful seeing children enthusiastic about veterans,\u201d Brunk said.<\/p>\n

Of Montezuma County\u2019s population of 26,000, 10% are veterans. But that number is most likely higher now, because it is based on the 2010 Census and includes only veterans registered with the U.S. Department of Veteran\u2019s Affairs.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving lived in Maryland and the Florida Keys, it is nice to come home and find what a tremendous support is provided by the community for veterans,\u201d Brunk said.<\/p>\n

ehayes@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Veteran\u2019s Day parade set for Nov. 11<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50705,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-50704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50704","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=50704"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50704\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87808,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50704\/revisions\/87808"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50704"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=50704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}