Explore Lifestyle: Community Services

The Esperanza Shelter for Battered Families, Inc. will host “Oasis in the Desert Silent Auction” an art auction and fundraiser at the Nedra Matteucci Gallery, Thursday, June 11, 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. The first Esperanza fundraiser was in 2007.

An interfaith coalition that organized a round-robin system for sheltering homeless families last winter realized the first step toward its dream of a permanent shelter when it opened its doors at 1601 St. Michael’s Drive on Saturday night.

“This is so exciting and just in time ” the Rev. Ken Semon, a member of the group’s board, told the Journal earlier in the month. “God bless the city for its help.” Semon, rector of Holy Faith Episcopal Church, has been active with the coalition since its inception more than a year ago, and his church was one of those providing shelter during the 2007-08 winter.

With the help of a $60,000 grant from the City of Santa Fe, what...

Monday may have been Columbus Day, but at the Institute of American Indian Arts it was Indigenous Peoples Day, an opportunity to reinterpret the holiday with a student voters’ rally.

“This is a day to remember our past, the struggles and wars, and the battles and the victories we have won ... to protect our people and our land,” said Wizi Garriott, a Lakota who serves as First Americans director for the national Barack Obama campaign.

“Voting is a way to continue that fight,” Garriott told the group of about 150 students gathered in the school’s outdoor circular plaza. He urged the students to vote early and then to sign up to help in the election process.

Absentee-in-person voting: Begins Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Location: Santa Fe County Clerk’s Office
102 Grant Avenue, Santa Fe (on Grant between Palace Avenue and Johnson St.)

Hours of Operation: This poll is open Mondays through Fridays from 8am – 5pm including lunch time. This poll will be open on only one Saturday, November 1, 2008 from 10 am – 6 pm.

Early Voting: Saturday, October 18, 2008 - Saturday, November 1, 2008
Hours of Operation: Tuesday-Friday Noon to 8pm and on Saturdays from 10am – 6pm. The early voting polls are closed on Sundays and Mondays.

Early Voting sites in Santa Fe County:

It may be difficult for Santa Feans to think a tourism problem might exist, since providing directions and restaurant suggestions to out-of-towners seems to be part of almost everyone’s life here.

But this week’s International Conference on Creative Tourism is dealing with some serious issues facing the tourism industry.

With the dollar so weak and foreign currency so strong, “we should be doing much better,” said New Mexico’s Tourism Secretary Mike Cerletti, speaking Wednesday during the five-day conference at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center.

Cerletti said the United States used to have 9 percent of the world’s market share for inbound tourism, b...