Barbara Lawlor, Nederland. It was a time for mountain residents to eat some spaghetti, listen to music, find something special at the silent auction and think of, talk about, and remember Sophia DuBose, the 13-year-old Rollinsville resident who died in a tragic car crash in Boulder Canyon last month.

The community gathered Sunday, June at the Nederland Community Center to give support to the DuBose family, to embrace them and share the love they felt for Sophia. The proceeds from the spaghetti dinner and the silent auction went to the family memorial fund and many people went home with a treasure that will remind them of the generosity of our community and the enduring spirit of one of our young.

Local Nederland musicians Sam Churches, Luke Harrison, and Ben Rubio performed, singing some of their original songs and some songs inherited from their work with the Nederland High School Loquations. Volunteers cooked the spaghetti and tossed the salad and worked the donations for the silent auction.

Hundreds of notes to Sophia were strung around the gym walls; one of them an angel, with the words: "May your journey through the planetary spheres be filled with the love, wisdom and truth that you know so well. Thank you for the love and light you bring to our beautiful community."

Local teens gathered Sophia's twin sister Eliza into their midst as they exchanged stories and pictures of Sophia.

It was a quiet, reflective and peaceful time for friends, family and neighbors to feel the strength and courage of a grieving community coming together to share the loss and the love of Sophia.

The  benefit was organized by Maggie McCarthy. Kim Stefane organized and prepared the meal. Ross Alper started the GoFundMe account that created one family memorial fund. Another fund  resides at the Mutual of Omaha Bank. The family asked that gifts in her memory be sent to the Wild Bear Mountain Ecology Center.