Monica LaSalle, Nederland. The phases any one person goes through in life are often varied and complex. Commonly in our country we spend the first 18-25 years of life in formalized education of some sort, with chances to focus on one interest or another. Often times the results have little to do with how we end up making money to support ourselves. Some know their path and have support in laying out and achieving the appropriate milestones that leads to a successful career making money working their chosen passion. Then there are the rest of us, jumping into a job as soon as we are done with formal education, often having nothing to do with whatever it is that actually feeds our souls in order to begin supporting ourselves. We pursue our passions on the side with as much energy as we have left after slaving for the almighty dollar. 

Having visited Colorado after pursuing a Bachelors in Music with an Emphasis on Instrumental Music Education (she graduated magna cum laude) as well as obtaining her teaching certificate at Glen Ellyn in Illinois, Serene Karplus found herself back in her parents’ home and getting a job as a bank teller to fund her first steps toward an independent adult life on her own. Eventually, she climbed the ladder of her small bank towards the upper tiers, but she set the goal of leaving and achieved it 20 years later. She seized an opportunity to switch gears in life and end her career in banking when a much larger bank swooped in to make a big buy out, offering the employees settlements to leave. She packed her bags, and moved into a family home in Boulder where she set up camp, got another temporary job banking and started investigating her next move. 

Serene found herself following her curiosity to Nederland, where she moved a year later and, using her vast banking experience, won the Executive Director position with the Nederland Chamber of Commerce. She began making friends and nearly 20 years later has found herself immersed in this tiny community that we all call home. Serene recalls getting involved in a group started by Kayla Evans, Oh, Horrors! It’s Murder!, which tapped into her lifelong love of music and enabled her to get involved with the community. You see, when she left the banking world, it was because Serene found herself constantly driving out of her home community to various banking branches in other communities which left her with little time to devote toward giving back to her own beyond occasionally participating in neighborhood activities. The constant travel away from her home left her with a gap in her life that she was determined to change. When she got to Nederland, she found her chance. 

While working as the Executive Director for the Nederland Chamber of Commerce, Serene met many longtime residents who were deeply involved in the community on several levels; Frank Lutz was one of them. He was on the board for the chamber, and was head of the board for the Nederland Area Seniors at the time. When a position opened up, she left the chamber for a position with the Nederland Area Seniors and has not looked back. 

Serene spent the last twelve years devoting her life to the Nederland Area Seniors program, often working long hours and volunteering much of her time due to a limited budget. She credits the loss of her mother during the four years she had worked for the chamber (which took her back to Chicago to deal with her affairs) with her decision to change life course. Upon her return, she immediately left the chamber for the senior program. She says taking the position enabled her to fulfill her need to put the main portion of her life energy into the community in which she lived. Serene’s eyes grow misty as she tells me that when she took up the position, it was clear to her that she finally arrived in Nederland, for she found a group of people who had spent their lives building and giving to the community and who were internationally known to be a remarkable sort. 

Mountain folk are exceptionally strong to live out their senior years on the mountain, she says, and the mentoring she has received from them in the form of strength, love and relationships has been priceless. With a smile, she tells me that she loves watching them do something as complex as folk dancing, for it is another illustration of their resilience that she has always longed to share with the rest of the community. Watching them live their lives, she strove to show the rest of the community the wondrous human beings she has always marveled to be with each day, participating in a Life Stories workshop that she later instituted into the senior community with great success as well as writing a weekly column in the newspaper detailing events and activities for the senior program. She believes that there is still room for growth in this department, and looks forward to new staff blowing fresh air ideas into community involvement. 

Wonder what happened to Serene’s musical talent and interest? Perhaps you may have seen her playing her beloved french horn during the Fourth of July parade…although Serene put down her horn for a very long time it was her sweetheart that noticed it gathering dust and encouraged her to pick it up again. While she taught around the Front Range in places such as CU and Shining Mountain Waldorf School as well as volunteering time towards the Nederland Elementary School band for a few years, Serene was so focused on the senior program that she had little time to put towards her other passion. This is something she intends to remedy as time moves on and she switches gears to again, following another path of her heart. 

Originally published in the July 11, 2019, print edition of The Mountain-Ear. You can buy a low resolution, downloadable pdf of this paper at https://themtnear.com/product/2019-07-11/