Wellington directories available

The Wellington Area Directory is now available for people who live outside town limits. Visitors to Wellington may pick up free copies at Ace Hardware, Main Street Market, Wellington Town Hall, The Chocolate Rose and many local hair salons.

The 96-page directory follows a new concept. Directory sponsors invited people from the area to voluntarily sign up for a white pages listing, allowing residents to list a landline or cell phone, or no phone number at all. Residents could also include an address or leave it out. About 1,000 names are in the directory.

"We're trying to make it a flexible resource that can be shaped by the community," said CT Hart, a member of the volunteer group C3 (Concerned Community Citizens), which produced the directory.

From the proceeds, C3 is donating about $10,000 to programs at Wellington schools.

Hart explained that two of the group's members are the chairpersons for Eyestone Elementary PTO and the Rice Community Support Team. They wanted to find a way to raise money for school programs "without beating up the businesses so bad," he said, and selling advertising in an annual directory seemed the best way to do that.

Here are some of the highlights of the book:

• Cover artwork by local cowboy cartoonist Mad Jack Hanks. "With our focus of 'community' with this directory, we were blessed to have the contribution of an artist the community knows and appreciates," Hart said.
• A two-page street map for Wellington and information about town facilities and services.
• Community resource pages including agency names and numbers by category of service.
• Business names and numbers in the white pages with additional listings and advertising in the yellow pages.
• An invitation to submit a favorite recipe and its story for an upcoming "Serving Wellington" cookbook. Submission deadline is April 30.

C3 worked as a committee of the Northern Colorado Rural Development Association, which is a nonprofit organization.