First Day!

Mr. Hoppen captured the morning rainbow...

The day began with a double rainbow, followed by free coffee and donuts:  good any morning - and a fun part of welcoming students and parents to DPCA for the 2014-2015 school year. Staff and volunteers greeted students and parents coming into the building, manned the donut and coffee stations, and helped with remaining paperwork needs.

First day of school!

As the day began, everyone gathered in the cafetorium for a brief opening chapel featuring some singing, Psalm 19, and prayers of thanksgiving for the summer and petition for a new school year together. The elementary students headed down the hall to their new classrooms, while junior and senior high did a brief orientation and reviewed some school policy and ideals.

With the secondary students, Mr. Ritschard reviewed some of our school's commitments, including that "we honor and care for everyone in our school community: we don't call names, pick on others, exclude those who want to join us, or harass, haze, or bully in any way."  Mr Ritschard noted, "if we just stopped there - if we just worked diligently on our commitment as a school to honor and care for everyone in our school community - we would be doing well.  And really, all the rest of this if just elaborating on what care and honor look like."

Following orientation, secondary students received their schedules and began the first classes of the year.

At the end of the day, we asked several students, "What did you think of your first day?"

Royal did an awesome job as our mascot this morning

"We didn't do any work"  Nathan, 6th grade

"Tiring - I usually sleep until noon."  Heather, 10th grade

"It was fantastic!" Lily, 6th grade

"We did music class and we got the rules." Liam, Kindergarten

"It was fun - do I get to go back tomorrow?" Mikayla, Kindergarten

"Awesome" Malachi, 5th grade

"It was actually pretty good." Marshal, 8th grade

"I was upset because we didn't get language or spelling homework - but otherwise it was fun."  Misty, 6th grade

Well, Keely looks happy to be at school...

"It went by fast and easy."  Adam, 8th grade


"It was good - it went by really fast, and I saw a lot of new faces."  Shelby, 10th grade.

Big thank you's to parents Vanessa Durbin, Cindy Lewis, and Courtney O'Neill for helping out this morning, as well as student volunteers Royal and Sydney.  We're looking forward to 171 more great school days to come this year.  Go EAGLES!

Mrs. Akers and Mrs. O'Neill help parents and students get settled.

Welcome New Busy Bees Staff!

Busy Bees Preschool is “busy” preparing for its 32^nd year serving young students and their families in Buena Vista.  For the past 31 years, the preschool has been under the direction of Joyce Markham, who has just retired at the close of the 2014 spring term.  “We’re deeply, deeply grateful for Joyce’s years of dedicated and loving work with our preschool students,” commented Erik Ritschard, DPCA Administrator, “and for all the staff at Busy Bees over the years who have made it such a great place for our preschoolers. We’re also grateful for new staff who will continue moving us forward with fantastic programming for our youngest students.”

 Monica Holick

The board and administration of DPCA are very pleased to announce that effective July 15, 2014, Busy Bees will be under the direction of Monica Holick.  Monica has recently moved to Buena Vista from Wichita, Kansas,  where she completed her Master of Arts in Teaching degree (Early Childhood Unified) through Wichita State University.  Monica also holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Public Administration and Health Science from Wichita State, and is a 1986 graduate of Rhema Bible Training Center.  In addition to church and public and private school experience with preschool and elementary students, Mrs. Holick has years of experience in business administration in non-profit organizations.  Regarding joining the DPCA staff at Busy Bees, Monica says, “I am excited to be part of Busy Bees Preschool and the Buena Vista community.  I have served the Lord all my adult life and now I can serve Christ in my career as an early childhood teacher and director. I believe I have the best job ever!”  Monica has two grown daughters, both residing in the Wichita, Kansas area. Monica also enjoys all kinds of outdoor activities and serving her community.

In addition to a new Director for Busy Bees, DPCA is delighted to be adding a new assistant director as well.  Andrea Vijverberg has been a Buena Vista resident since 2012 and has been working for Young Life at Frontier Ranch.  Andrea is currently completing both her Director credentials through Colorado Mountain College, and a bachelor’s degree in organizational leadership through Eastern University.  Andrea notes, “I am thrilled to be starting this school year with Busy Bees! Teaching preschool has been a dream of mine for some time and I have spent years volunteering with little ones. I have been drawn to teaching my entire life and especially love the preschool years. Preschoolers possess a natural curiosity and openness to learning; these years are the prime time to instill a love of learning in a child.”

Andrea Vijverberg (VI-ver-berg)

Andrea has four children, the youngest of whom  just graduated from Chaffee County High School, and in addition to her family and preschool students, loves gardening and enjoying “the complexity of God’s creation” so evident in and around Buena Vista.

“We are grateful and blessed to be adding two such exceptional women to our DPCA and Busy Bees staff,” says Ritschard. “Both Monica and Andrea are highly energetic, enthusiastic, and experienced staff who are going to be phenomenal at building on Miss Joyce’s legacy at Busy Bees and helping our preschool program thrive and grow.  They are both deeply committed to preschool students and their parents, and we couldn’t be happier to be welcoming them both to our DPCA community.”

Busy Bees Preschool is enrolling students for fall 2014 and will be holding an Open House August 7^th.  More information is available by calling 395-2661, or by emailing info.busybees@dpcaweb.org

"My Favorite Week of the Summer"

It's an energetic crowd!

With over 100 children gathering in the DPCA building each day this week, we're reveling in all the music, bright colors, and happy sounds of the Vacation Bible School put on by Clearview Community Church.  We love the privilege of having Clearview's VBS in our building each summer, and school staff are quick to comment on how much fun it is to see all the children, student helpers, and adults come together to put on a great summer event that focuses on making sure that our children know that God loves them, and that they can know God through Jesus. "Miss Amy," our elementary principal, said this morning, "This is my favorite week of the summer."

DPCA high school students Jacob and Seth are helping out...

Many DPCA students are among those gathered here, a big number as attendees, and many more as student-helpers.  Part of our joy is simply the sense of shared partnership and ministry with local churches as we work in different ways to help children find the Lord and come to know Him.

Friendship!

Clearview's VBS will continue through the rest of this week, and church staff assure us there is room for more children - so if any of our readers want to get their kids involved, come on down! Each day runs from 9:00 AM to noon, and is packed with fun activities and great music. A dinner celebration for everyone involved will be held on Friday evening at 6:00, and will round out the week.

A big thank you to all the Clearview staff and volunteers who have worked so hard to bring us and so many children a great blessing this week!

Leading singing...

Attentive faces...

All smiles!

Remembering a Great Year!

by Erik Ritschard, School Administrator

It's impossible to ever fully recapture all the life, learning, growing, achieving, thinking, connecting, encouraging, confronting, asking, praying, studying, and doing that makes up each great school year at DPCA.  We probably shouldn't want to try, either - the Scripture says, "Do not say, 'Why were the old days better than these?'" (Ecclesiastes 7:10) I get the impression that the Lord wants us to rejoice in things past that were good and brought blessing, but not dwell there.  And so we raise our children to look ahead to their adult years.  We finish projects and move on to the next task.  We finish a school year and begin to think about the next one.  Still, it does bring thankfulness and rejoicing sometimes to look back and count our blessings, and we see places in Scripture where the Lord encouraged that kind of remembering as well. (see Joshua 4:7 for one example...)

I hope this short video capturing just a few of the students and the moments of our past year together helps us each reflect on God's many blessings to us, on his provision for a school in our community that lifts up His name, and on all the ways in which we loved and lived and learned together during the 2013-2014 year. I'm personally deeply grateful and blessed to be part of the DPCA school community, and am thankful for the so-many ways in which I saw the Lord working through and among us this year.

Thanks to each of our families, supporters, teachers, staff, and students for making it a great year! A quick thanks as well to Nate Ritschard (DPCA class of 2010) for putting the slide show together.

Aim to Serve

Seventy shooters on 14 teams came together for DPCA's 2nd Annual Aim to Serve fundraising event on Sunday, May 18.  The Clay Shoot and celebration dinner that followed were the culminating fun events for our spring fundraiser that kicked off in April, and as of the date of this writing has raised just over $27,000 to support student financial aid at our school.

The top three shooting teams of the day were the Ritschard team in 3rd place, the Mason team in 2nd, and the White team taking home the 1st place trophies.  Top individual honors went to Dave White in third place, Erik Phillips in 2nd, and Michael Burnt in 1st place with a score of 45/50.

Following the shoot, team members, parents, students, and other friends of the Academy gathered at DPCA for a celebration dinner and silent auction.  Featuring smoked ribs and pulled pork prepared by Michael Courson and Rory Gillete, the dinner was a great way to end a fun day.  Thanks to the generosity of many businesses in the community and Beth Mason's diligent work putting it all together, the silent auction was  also a fun and helpful addition to the day and our fundraising efforts.

The Clay Shoot is the "aim" part of "Aim to Serve:" the "Serve" event took place on Friday, May 16, with all the DPCA students fanning out into town to collect food from our collection stations on behalf of the Arkansas Valley Christian Mission.  We estimate that we were able to deliver nearly a $1000 worth of food goods to the mission that afternoon. 

Special thanks to the Buena Vista Sportmen's Club for hosting the Clay Shoot event, to our host team of volunteers who did all the work behind the scenes to make the events happen, to all the churches who hosted Aim to Serve food collection boxes for us, and to Nate Ritschard for putting together the highlight video of the Clay Shoot afternoon and evening featured below. 

And of course, GIGANTIC thank you's to each of our sponsors who contributed funds and gifts-in-kind to make our event and fund drive a success!  We are grateful!

Business sponsors for the 2014 Aim To Serve are:
ACA Products
Alpine Hot Spings
Autumn Twilight Photography
Bearss Landscaping
Brown Dog Coffee
Harvard City Stables
Indian Paintbrush
 Lundy Excavating
Noah's Ark Rafting
Re/Max MVP
Rocky Mountain Life Center
Rocky Mountain Lumber
Sangre De Christo Electric
Steadman's at BV Shell
Souled Out T-Shirts
The Staudt Family and Scanga Meat Co.
Tom Parks Fishing Guide
The Trailhead
Trout Creek Handyman
Van Deel Homes
Best Western Vista Inn
V3 Homes

We encourage our readers to take every opportunity to thanks our business sponsors for their help with this year's event!

Of course, many, many individuals signed on to sponsor shooters, kids, staff, and parents for our fundraising events, and we are deeply grateful to each of our individual contributors as well!

And it's not too late! Any of our readers and friends who are still interested in contributing to DPCA's 2014 Aim to Serve funding efforts to support financial aid for students may do so by clicking here. Thank you!

Graduation 2014

Challenged by graduation speakers to make their lives count for Christ, two seniors received their high school diplomas at DPCA's annual graduation ceremony on May 16, 2014.

In addition to conferring diplomas on graduates Levi Jelinek and Rebecaa Wade, we also recognized five 8th graders for their achievements to date, and welcomed them to the high school class of 2018.  Students who  completed the Ekklesia Mountain High Wilderness courses were recognized as well for their achievements in that program over the year.

Commencement 2014 featured Dave Wade, father of graduate Rebecca Wade, reading the senior's Scripture selection, the traditional address to the 8th graders from Mrs. Pat Tritz, a valedictory address from Rebecca Wade, and the address to the senior class from Pastor Zach Bearss of Clearview Community Church.  Additional highlights of the program included an Ekklesia Mountain High commemorative video, presentation of scholarship awards from community organizations and families, and the annual Parent's Blessings to the senior graduates.  Following the awarding of the diplomas, Pastor Dave White of Redeemer Presbyterian Church brought the commissioning prayer and benediction.

Graduate Rebecca Wade was honored to receive scholarships and awards from the Buena Vista chapters of the Optimist, Rotary, and PEO organizations, as well as additional awards from the American Legion and American Legion Auxiliary.  Miss Wade was also honored by the Akers family as the recipient of the 2014 David K. Akers Servanthood scholarship.

Future plans for our 2014 graduates include the study of International Business at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs for Levi Jelinek, and for Rebecca Wade, enrollment at Colorado Christian University with plans to pursue a major in Psychology.

The following video captures a few of graduation's highlights; thanks to Nate Ritschard for creating this short video album of the day.

An Evening of Drama...

What do you get when you mix an eccentric caretaker, a bag lady from the city, some wanna-be detectives, a goofy petty crook, a creaky old hotel, and a few other wacky characters?  You get Tim Kelly's Laffing Room Only, performed by the DPCA drama class Friday, May 9.

Hazel holds Falbo and Vicki up as Donald pats him down.

Putney and Irma discuss life as legendary recluses.

Sophomore Jacob Lewis opened the play in the role of Nick Falbo, a detective-of-sorts from the Vermont district attorney's office who wants to use the decrepit Whispering Pines Hotel for a sting operation to catch some thieves. Eben Putney, the hotel's caretaker and handyman, played by Chase Macnab; and Gloria, the long-suffering owner of the hotel, played by Sarah Dages, are a bit slow to catch on as a strange list of "guests" begin to arrive at their usually-empty hotel.  A wacky tale of petty thievery, foiled plots, and odd relationships unfolds as the other characters join the romp through the Whispering Pines.  In the end, bag lady Irma, played by senior Rebecca Wade, and caretaker Putney have found a way to take possession of the hotel, send Gloria off to "sand, sun, and romance," and start their new lives as Vermont's latest pair of recluses. A sold-out audience enjoyed the Friday evening performance of the family-friendly, two-act comedy.

The drama class students and teachers had a great time preparing for the play.  The cast  performed under the direction of Mr. Jordan Euler and Mrs. Jani Ritschard.  The complete cast in order of appearance were:
Jacob Lewis as Nick Falbo,
Chase Macnab as Eben Putney,
Sarah Dages as Gloria Alexander,
Katie Busch as Hazel, Donald's rather desperate wife,
Marilena Burdick as Vicki, Falbo's partner from the DA's office,
Tanner Culp as Rondo Muldoon, petty thief extraordinaire,
 Seth Turner as Donald Parrish, wanna-be police chief and crazy schemer,
Rebecca Wade as Irma, the bag lady,
Maddie Montera as Wilma Potaine, scary insurance adjuster, and
Kate Lundy as Mrs. Martin, rich socialite and diamond necklace owner.

The cast and crew.

A student crew led by Ms. Kandice Alkire and Mr. Erik Ritschard built sets, prepared sound effects, and worked as stage crew during the production. Students building sets and working sound effects and stage properties were Heather Burdges, Sydney McManamay, Tori McManamay, Joel Parker, Shelby Phillips, Noah Ritschard, Bree Turner, and Hawk White.  Adult help for set building included Mr. Brad Pranger and Mrs. Venus Phillips.  Mrs. Marla Pranger prepared publicity materials.

Special thanks to Mrs. Kathy Akers, Mr. Harvey Brasser, Mr. Justin Willis, the White family, the Phillips family, Chaffee County Habitat for Humanity ReStore, and Rocky Mountain Lumber for help with properties and set materials.


 DPCA's junior and senior high drama class typically performs a play each spring.  Laffing Room Only was performed by special arrangement with Samuel French, Inc. Many more pictures are available at DPCA's Facebook page!