Burge concert kicks off RFL library celebration

By Stephen Clearheart Johnson
North Forty News

Lovers of books, music and wildlife will come together this month in a special Call to the Wild concert featuring composer and pianist Patricia Burge.

This unique concert will benefit the Red Feather Lakes Library District and kicks off a season of special events as the library celebrates its 40th birthday.

The concert is slated for 7 p.m., May 22, at the Morningstar Community Church at 23628 Red Feather Lakes Road. Attendance is free, but Friends of the RFL Community Library, a 501(c)(3) tax-deductible organization will gratefully accept goodwill donations. A reception will follow.

Burge will present an evocation of the voices of wild creatures. "I've tracked many animals in the wild and written music around their voices," she said. "This has created a setting for them to speak."

She goes on to say, "Only by becoming aware and heeding the call of the wild can we preserve what remains of our endangered earth--for this generation and for our children to come."

Raised in Alaska, where she helped rehabilitate injured wildlife, Burge said, "The animal kingdom has very little room left, and we are losing many species, plant and animal, every day."

Burge has deep roots in the Red Feather area. She and husband Dick were the first year-round residents in Crystal Lakes. "When the weather was bad, I brought our kids out (to school) by snowmobile and horseback," she fondly recalled.

A locally famous musician, Burge is also known nationally as a music teacher, having taught at Colorado State University for 25 years. She will be donating 50 percent of CD sales at the concert to the library. "I honor the library there now, and know that it services a large area, and that it offers much of quality to old and young alike," she said.

The library is hosting other Memorial Day weekend events as part of a summer-long series devoted to the anniversary. On May 23, Friends of the Library will hold a book sale featuring hundreds of volumes.

On that same date, the library and the historical society will host a talk by Colorado author Eric Jensen at the POA Building from 1 to 2 p.m. Jensen is the author of "Forever and a Day-The World War II Odyssey of an American Family," an insightful work on "the price of war on those sent away to fight on distant shores, and those who remain behind on the home front."

The POA building happens to be the original home of the library when it was formed in 1969.

Now located across the street, the library is facing special fund-raising needs. New state water-quality mandates require that the building's water system be upgraded. Sarah Myers, library director, expects the cost to be $12,000 or more.