Monica LaSalle, Nederland. It’s a snowy day in April with another fast hitting snow storm dumping several inches on the ground and roads at once. I pick up my phone and dial Amanda up for the interview we were meant to do face to face, and she laughs knowingly as she answers, for there isn’t a good reason to leave the house if you don’t absolutely have to during a spring dump. After a good chuckle, we begin talking about the good old days when Nederland was much different than the town we know today.

Amanda arrived in Nederland a few years prior to my arrival, but many of her memories ring a bell in my own past reflections as well. Sometimes, a person does something so impactful to her community, she becomes known for nothing else. But Amanda McDonald has always been so much more than just FDGD.

Having arrived in Colorado from her hometown in Massachusetts, she attended CU as a Political Science major because she has always been interested in politics. In 1992, she considered law school, but decided to take a job first as a volunteer and then as a paid victim’s advocate with a mentorship program for Boulder County Partners. She also ran a teen’s program in Gilpin County. As you can see, Amanda has always been dedicated to giving back to community, to people, to making the world a better place in whatever way she can.

The unfortunate part of working these types of jobs was that it was hard to make a living wage, so she realized she had to broaden her horizons. She worked as a wrangler for Gold Lake Resort, and it was there she met her lifelong friend, Hillary Buchanan.

There’s a ring to her voice as she describes this job as her favorite job because every day was an adventure. She tells me of giving unchartered trail rides on spunky horses with vague destinations in mind. Once, she was leading a family on one such trail ride when out of the blue, lightning struck no more than 20 feet away from them. Though they were beginners, she turns to the stunned group and says “Ok, we are all going to learn how to gallop. Grab your horn, lean forward and follow me,” causing me to laugh out loud at the image her story evoked in my mind. She managed to lead them galloping out of the woods and to safety without further incident, making it a humorous story of triumph rather than tragedy.

After this seasonal job ended, Amanda went to work with Spyder Active Sports, starting in customer service. She worked the job for 5 years, eventually ending up the North American sales director before she left to move to Nederland. She felt very drawn to the uniqueness of the community and its residents, and it was there, working at Annie’s Café, that she met a whole host of people that have become lifelong friends and family as well as the “partners in crime” that would help make her future ventures into event planning for the Nederland Chamber of Commerce not only extremely successful but a cherished personal experience of bonding and working together that so often can only be experienced in a small town.

Amanda also met her husband, Andy Coulson, in Nederland. She describes him as a man who was a big part of the community, who was well loved and respected for being a person that constantly helped others. An avid outdoor enthusiast, they were always hitting the slopes, climbing, hiking trails and mountain biking. They started Nederland Plumbing and Heating together, and later got married in 2001.

She describes working with Andy in their business while at the same time working as the event coordinator for the Nederland Chamber of Commerce where she began directing, what was called at that time the NederNederland race, (inherited from Wendy Williams and taken over by the Chamber in 2005) and the Summertime Fun Fair from 2005-2006 (that became the High Peaks Art Fair later on). It was then she got her feet wet with festival experience.

Working with the Chamber, she met Teresa and Brent Warren, then the coordinators of the all-volunteer FDGD, and in 2005 she was asked to take over coordinating the event for the first time. With a 3- year-old in tow, Amanda took on the event with relish, as she enjoyed working with her friends and fellow residents as well as local business owners to throw what they thought of as a great party. I could hear the mist forming in her eyes as she described to me how incredible a time it was, with the entire community helping and everyone feeling like they had a job and a part in putting it on by showing up and helping.

She describes it as a very powerful experience and a privilege to be involved. Her heart has always been with figuring out how she could provide the best experience and help businesses make money through slow times of the year. Businesses participated in creating the events that were featured, events like the salmon toss, turkey bowling and frozen t-shirt contest were all brain-children of business owners participating in the planning. When rumors float around every year of Amanda selling the event, she is trying to figure out how to preserve the festival and not just sell for the dollar.

It is this experience of community and love that truly carried her through the sudden loss of her husband on Father’s Day in 2006. It was a tradition for the fathers and men in their group to go skiing on Mount Toll, in the Brainard Lake area, while the mothers and women would go biking, regrouping for a party afterwards. When the men didn’t show up to the party, Amanda and her friends knew something was dreadfully wrong, and shortly thereafter they were informed that Andy, always a healthy and fit person, had had a heart attack on the way out after a great day of skiing.
It was at that point that Amanda dropped out of everything she had put so much time, energy and love into doing for the community. Taking her 4-year-old son, Callam, and 5-month-old son Wyatt, she hibernated in their home in Rollinsville to lick her wounds and let the community she had given so much to, give back to her and her family.

In 2008, she decided to sell her home and move to Boulder where it would be easier and less isolating for her to be a single parent and try to move on. After spending some time doing farmer’s markets and living off survivor benefits, she eventually came back to FDGD in 2010 and that, along with her children, became the focus of her life.

Even though she moved, Amanda has always been a part of the Nederland community and she believes that some faces stay, some are new but there’s a common thread in the Nederland Community of taking care of each other, paying attention and helping each other out. Though it is not a favorite memory, she says when her husband passed, the community took care of her and her family and out of town friends that came in for the funeral.
For a long time, she was taken care of. She describes Nederland as a unique and strong community and feels privileged to be a part it. It’s a battle to fight against that diminishing, but one that she feels is well worth the effort.

(Originally published in the April 18, 2019, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)