‘Belonging’ more than a slogan

(This commentary was co-signed by the Welcoming Week Steering Committee: Gunnison County Commissioner Liz Smith; City of Gunnison Community and Policy Liaison Ricardo Esqueda; City of Gunnison Clerk Erica Boucher; Gunnison County Multicultural Resources Coordinator Yazmin Molina; DHHS-Gunnison County Health Navigator Specialist Mayte Burton; Juntos por Gunnison Marketa Zubkova; Gunnison Valley Hospital Bilingual Patient Navigator Cinthia Saenz; Gunnison Country Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Leora Wallace;  

Gunnison Country Food Pantry Food Security Coordinator Jake Bartholomew; Gunnison Country Food Pantry Food Security Coordinator Natalie Pax; Western Colorado University Dean of Students Gary Pierson; Sanctuary Somatics representative Heidi Magnus; Community Foundation for the Gunnison Valley Executive Director Lauren Kugler.)

This week, our community is joining with others around the world to celebrate Welcoming Week, a time to honor the ways immigrants and long-term residents together weave the fabric of belonging in the Gunnison Valley. This year’s theme, “Stories We Share,”

 reminds us that our community identity is not a single story, but rather the many stories we tell about our past and the stories we are writing together now.  

For the fourth year, we invite you to be part of the evolving story of welcoming in the Gunnison Valley. We’re celebrating with a full week of events, from a music cruise and Welcome Western event at the Quigley bandshell on campus, cultural celebrations, a diversity walk down Main Street, and more. Each of these events is designed to create moments of connection, from seeing friends and neighbors, listening to one another’s experiences and discovering how our lives intertwine. The events are made possible by a growing coalition of local partners, including nonprofits, schools, faith groups, housing advocates, health providers and local governments. Our coalition is itself part of the stories we tell: welcoming flourishes when we bring our collective resources and commitments together. 

This collaboration builds on decades of groundwork. In the mid-1990s, community institutions stepped forward to address the needs of Latino and Indigenous Mexican families living in the Valley. The Gunnison Public Library expanded its Literacy Action program to serve Spanish-speaking adults and the school district hired its first English Language Learner teacher in 2001. The county’s Multicultural Resource Office was founded in the same era to help new families navigate health services. These were the earliest steps toward creating a culture of welcoming. 

A few years later, partnerships deepened. The Colorado Trust’s Serving Immigrant and Refugee Families Initiative brought resources that sparked unprecedented collaboration among local institutions. At the same time, immigrant families themselves organized through Inmigrantes Unidos de Gunnison, growing a voice of self-advocacy that remains active today. By the time federal DACA protections arrived in 2012, Gunnison’s families and allies were ready: schools, churches and volunteers mobilized to help Dreamers secure education, work permits and stability. 

These efforts remind us that welcoming has always been a group endeavor — not the work of one organization, but of many. The Hispanic Affairs Project helped nurture local advocacy; teachers supported students who would become the valley’s first college graduates from immigrant families; volunteers across churches and nonprofits opened their time and homes to mentor young people. Each generation has built on the one before, steadily transforming Gunnison into a place of belonging. 

Welcoming Week is a chance to pause and recognize this trajectory. The events themselves are not isolated celebrations but part of a living story that shows what happens when a community chooses inclusion, invests in connection and continues to widen the circle of belonging. 

Belonging is more than a slogan. It is felt when a child hears their name spoken with care, when families can speak in their primary language when visiting a doctor or when neighbors share food and music across differences. Welcoming Week is our opportunity to affirm that Gunnison is a place where everyone is valued. 

We invite residents from all corners of Gunnison County to join us at one or more events next week. Whether you come to dance at the Hispanic Heritage Celebration, cheer at the soccer game or walk down Main Street with neighbors during the Diversity Walk, your presence matters. By showing up, you are part of a living story about how our community thrives when everyone is seen, valued and included. 

Welcoming Week reminds us that the stories we share are not only about where we have come from, but also about the future we are building together. We hope to see you there. 

(Liz Smith is a Gunnison County commissioner.)