Plaque dedicated to Paul Stone

CREEDE— According to the Miners Minutes new letter, the Creede School District hosted an open house for the public and honored one of Creede’s beloved residences that passed away two years ago.
“On Friday, Sept. 28, the CTE Program and the Ladies Aid Society (LAS) co-hosted an Open House for the community. The event culminated with the presentation of a plaque made by the students honoring the eccentric, wonderful and intelligent Creede citizen, Paul Stone.”  
The event was planned as a thanks to LAS for the donation that was made last year to the district to help with funding to get the new vocational programs up and running. The school received a $10,000 award from the Paul Stone Memorial Foundation gifted to them through the Ladies Aid Society in December of 2017.
The funding was made possible through the foundation that was split between the Creede Repertory Theatre and the Ladies Aid Society per the wishes of Stone. According to Superintendent Lis Richard, the Ladies Aid played a huge role in the last moments of Stone’s life and made a huge impression on him through their kindness and devotion. Stone left the society and the theatre a total of $60,000 that was to be used as they saw fit.
Through a request prompted by the LAS, Richard sent a letter of request for funding to help with start-up costs associated with the school’s new career and technical educational program that began at the beginning of 2018.
The school now has a Career and Technical Education program that offers several career-based classes to students. The program consists of automotive, engineering, graphic design, woodshop and welding come January. These courses are dual credit courses that include both high school credits as well as college credits for students who participate in the program.
During the open house, the plaque that was created by students in the graphic design, wood shop and automotive programs was presented to LAS President Rhonda Brown and will hang in the school in memory of Stone. “Those who knew Paul, knew that he was creative and loved working with his hands. He would have been proud to see his donation was used for these types of programs,” said school Principal John Goss.
Students also took time to lead small groups of the public and LAS around to the different classrooms where additional students waited to show attendees their new equipment and ongoing projects. “It was a wonderful day and everyone who attended really enjoyed the insight to our school’s new programs,” finished Goss. “We are really proud of our students for the work they have done to say thank you not only to LAS but to Paul as well.”