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What was your Valentine's Day celebration? A Colorado State Open Thread, February 17, 2025 [1]

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Date: 2025-02-17

Colorado was full of Valentine's Day activities, providing some stories NOT related to the firehose of political news. Some I read about:

Loveland, CO continued a 79-year history as the nation’s Sweetheart City. 130 couples gathered at Loveland Ski area to make or renew their marriage votes. In addition, twenty-three couples came to tie the knot or renew their vows in the 9th annual Valentine’s Day Group Wedding . For those not ready for such a commitment, the Loveland Sweetheart Festival included ice sculpting, fire and art demonstrations, a Sweetheart Classic 4-miler Race, musical and dance performances on our community stage, and the Little Miss Valentine & Little Mister Cupid Contest. And the 14th was the end of the stamping — The Loveland Chamber of Commerce expected to receive, stamp, and re-send over 100,000 Valentine’s cards this year,

Paul Lopez, Denver’s Clerk and Recorder, organized and delivered the 13th Annual Marriage Marathon , encouraging couples to get married. Couples who filled out a license application online could come down to the Wellington E. Webb Building between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. for their ceremony. At the end of the day, there was a giveaway of numerous donated gifts.

Some spent their Valentine’s Day weekend in challenging driving conditions. The Aurora Sentinel reported:

Authorities in Colorado reported eight people were killed in fatal vehicle crashes since Valentine’s Day and warned drivers to be cautious as the weather made driving more difficult. The causes of the fatal crashes weren’t immediately known. Also in Colorado, three state patrol cruisers that had pulled over along roadsides were struck by other vehicles, including one on Sunday where a trooper had stopped as officials prepared to close a road because of ice. In each case the troopers were out of their cruisers at the time and were uninjured.

KDVR Denver had another story: After a day of skiing, one driver reported going over Loveland Pass instead of facing traffic at the Eisenhower Tunnel:

Drivers were stuck on Loveland Pass for hours after an avalanche slid a car off the road…. “Crews were in the process of closing Loveland Pass. They were actually escorting vehicles out when the slide hit. It actually struck a vehicle and pushed it 50 meters over the road,” said Trooper Sherri Mendez of Colorado State Patrol…. “At the top, it was basically blizzard conditions, which was pretty awful. The wind was blowing so hard my parking sensors kept going off that I was about to hit something. It was pretty treacherous up there.” …

Valentine's Day is also National Donor Day, an observance day originally designated in 1998 to raise awareness for organ, eye, tissue, marrow, platelet and blood donation. Every 2 seconds, someone in the U.S. needs blood, whether due to surgery, trauma, or chronic illness. Vitalant, an organization serving 95% of the hospitals in Colorado, said they need 600 units of blood every day. You can be among the elite helping with the need: only about 3% of eligible Americans donate blood annually. In Colorado, Children's Hospital Colorado, Red Cross, UCHealth, and Vitalant have locations to accept donations. [I made a platelet donation appointment for next month, when my deferral period ends.]

Add your story or one you read about. And if you are willing to pull together a Colorado column for next Monday, you can volunteer here, too.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/2/17/2304032/-What-was-your-Valentine-s-Day-celebration-A-Colorado-State-Open-Thread-February-17-2025?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=latest_community&pm_medium=web

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