Ten residents of the upper Roaring Fork Valley received recognition for their volunteer service on Tuesday from Pitkin County commissioners.

Commissioners gave the 2023 Pitkin County Cares Volunteer Service Awards during a ceremony and lunch. The awards program, in its 23rd year, honors individuals and groups for their outstanding service, leadership and civic involvement. The recognition includes the Greg Mace Award, established in 1986 in memory of Mace, a dedicated Mountain Rescue Aspen leader and volunteer who died in a climbing accident on North Maroon Peak.

Seniors Award: David Freeman

Freeman has built his professional career and business around caring for older adults through his nonprofit organization, Aspen Compassion Adventures, aimed at connecting older adults (including and especially those with physical, mental and financial limitations) with outings and activities to help them stay engaged in the community. He also is a member of the Aspen Rotary Club and Pitkin County Senior Council. 

 
 

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It looked like cancer was going to take her quickly. They said she might have six months. That was three years ago. By the hand of God, the team at the Melville Oncology and Infusion Center at AVH chalked up another medical miracle and, with the other, He kept her believing her loving caregivers from Aspen Compassion were old friends visiting for a few days.

At first she had been mentioning, not complaining, because she never did that, that her back and knees were giving her fits. The stairs in her home had become a challenge. In an attempt to make her short time left more comfortable, her kids and their spouses, Marlis (John), Steve (Charlotte), Mike (Shelly), and I (Susan), installed one of those mechanical chairs on rails that run up and down the staircase. You see them advertised in the backs of some magazines along with things like sans-a-belt slacks in a half dozen pack and commemorative coins for Princess Di that you can buy on an installment plan.

We unveiled the home “improvement” with great fanfare. She gauged the contraption, patted the vinyl seat, disinterestedly toggled the control switch and nodded. She didn’t use it until the day before she died, nor did she ever again say much about the pain in her knees or back. She stubbornly continued climbing the stairs on her own, slowly, steadily, as part of her new ”exercise plan.” If her children are fitness nuts, she’s to blame.

Elizabeth Ann Beck (“Betty”), born on Dec. 30, 1932, in Abbotsford, Wisconsin, to Albert and Caroline (Hutter), moved to Aspen in 1956. While she was in nursing school in Wausau, she discovered skiing on Rib Mountain. Its 700 vertical feet of decidedly mediocre midwest skiing was enough for her to see potential in the sport. A stranger sensed her delight and mentioned, “If you think this is great, you ought to try a place called Aspen!”

Shortly thereafter, she said goodbye to her parents and six older siblings to head west with a girlfriend. If her children are adventuresome, this also is due to her colorful tales of cross-country travel in the 1950s, culminating in her finding her place in a backwater town in the Rocky Mountains she had never seen.

Betty loved nursing. As her short-term memory quietly quit, she often repeated stories about getting free room and board on the third floor of the old Aspen Hospital, a free swimming pass at the Hotel Jerome, a free ski pass, and they even laundered her uniforms. They say you can’t live in the past, but her mind forced the issue and she did it with immeasurable joy.

She met my father, Max Marolt, sometime around 1958. It was a match made in the recovery room. He was an Olympic ski racer with a back injury and she nursed him back to health. They were married on July 7, 1960, in St. Mary Catholic Church in Aspen.

My mother was devoutly Catholic and pragmatically spiritual. We didn’t eat meat on Fridays mostly because it was expensive and every hardship in life she instructed us to “offer it up,” with little follow-up explanation. She took great pride in seeing spirituality and trust in God eventually becoming the focal point in her children's and husband’s lives.

Betty ran, swam, gardened, fished, played tennis, golfed, rode her bike like a yellow jersey depended on it, took photos of everything, baked and, above all, was a diehard skier well into her 80s. In the last few years when her mind wandered more out of her control, it oftentimes led her to Ajax or Maroon Creek Road.  Many summer days when we visited on her front porch, she would ask if I skied today. I would answer with a smile, “No, mom, I didn’t get up there.” She would shake her head and say, “Ah, that’s too bad. The powder was great!”

On May 23, her last day on Earth, we got the call at 1:30 a.m. that we ought to come over. When we arrived she was smiling, being funny (she had a wickedly sharp sense of humor) and doing her best to make sure we knew there was nothing to worry about. We set up video chats with family members across the country which amused and perplexed her. My brothers and I spent this final night of our virtual childhood sleeping in our old bedrooms which seemed to comfort and spark an almost forgotten joy in her heart. When the sun rose, her bedroom filled to capacity with grandchildren, spouses, significant others, and the caregivers whom she loved along with us. By noon she was revived and angelically glowing. Eventually she instructed everyone to go home, take a shower and come back for dinner. She knew.

That afternoon we got a text to come back “now!” Steve and Charlotte made it by a minute. The rest arrived moments too late. Our tears were as unstoppable as the lifetime of love we felt was uncontainable. Her last whispered request was, “a Manhattan sounds good.” It was the drink she toasted my dad with every Saturday evening since he died 20 years ago. I see it now. She was ready to drink one with him again.

(Editor’s note: A funeral mass for Betty Marolt will be held at 10:30 a.m. June 20 at St. Mary Catholic Church in Aspen.)

 
 

Allison “Sunny” Meeker |. March 11, 1941 – May 20, 2021

Sunny Meeker, a beautiful child of God, passed peacefully in her home in Aspen on May 20, 2021 surrounded by her loving family and devoted caregivers. Her long and valiant battle with Alzheimer’s disease is mercifully over. We find comfort knowing she is at peace and with our Lord.

Sunny was born to Burt and Jane Dunn on March 11, 1941 in Wichita, Kansas. Her family moved to Durango, Colorado in 1946 and then to Denver in 1949. She graduated from East High School in Denver and attended Colorado State University in Fort Collins. Searching for the next best adventure she moved to Seaside, Oregon and then to San Francisco where she worked in the financial district for two years. In 1964, she moved back to Colorado and settled in the old mining town and relatively new ski town of Aspen. In order to support her mountain lifestyle she worked the front desk of the Hotel Jerome and later for the Aspen Association in the Wheeler Opera House. Here she fostered wonderful relationships with like minded people who pursued their passion for skiing and introduced her to all the majestic mountains had to offer.

Allison was nicknamed “Sunny” at birth by her father as she was his “little ray of sunshine.” Sunny loved the outdoors and was always up for adventure. As a child she fell in love with the Rocky Mountains through ski trips from Denver on the train to Winter Park and with her family skiing Cooper Hill near Leadville.

Sunny met her future husband, Dick Meeker, while skiing Aspen Highlands in the spring of 1969. They were married on August 28, 1970 near her parents home in Cherry Hills, Colorado. Sunny found her match in Dick. They were married for over 50 years; were nearly inseparable and shared passions for family (especially children Michelle and Andrew, son-in-law Jeff and granddaughter Jade) and their Christian faith.

Sunny was physically strong with impressive endurance and determination. She traveled the world to ski and hike and to follow her children to join their pursuits. She didn’t just go down slopes she went up them. She was a successful competitor in America’s Uphill race on Aspen Mountain. Sunny hiked many of the trails in the White River National Forest and reached several of the peaks. She stayed in most of the 10th Mountain Huts and Braun system huts, cycled long routes, including Ride the Rockies, and skied the mountains of Aspen countless times. Sunny was always game.

Sunny took great joy in being with family and friends while preparing wonderful and healthy meals always followed by chocolate! She cared deeply about Crossroads Church; her 35 years of volunteer work in the patient care unit of Aspen Valley Hospital; her music and her friends. What stands out most in her 80 years of life was her “Sunny” disposition, compassion for others, generosity, down to earth spirit, patience and her contagious laugh. Her favorite phrase was: “I love you more than tongue can tell.” Sunny was a wonderful caring daughter to her parents, she was a devoted and loving wife to Dick and an attentive and compassionate mother to her children.

Alzheimer’s is a terrible disease. Sunny’s family and friends will remember her beautiful spirit which continued to surface as the disease progressed.

Sunny is survived by her husband Dick Meeker, daughter Michelle Meeker and her husband Jeff Marsoun, granddaughter Jade Marsoun, brother Ed Dunn his wife Nina, sister-in-law Mary Meeker, cousins Rick, Penny and Jane Goldcamp, nephews Eric, Ricky and Blaine Dunn and niece Midi Daddis. Andrew Meeker, their son, preceded Sunny in death.

Memorial contributions can be made to Home Care & Hospice of the Valley in memory of Sunny: 823 Grand Ave, Ste #300, Glenwood, Co 81601 or Aspen Compassion Adventures, 204 Park Ave, Unit 2c, Basalt, Co 81621

A memorial service is scheduled at Crossroads Church October 2nd at 11am. Reception to follow at the Home Team at the Inn at Aspen.