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Singer-songwriter Judy Collins, a self-proclaimed Colorado girl, is now a goodwill ambassador for Rocky Mountain National Park, according to the Rocky Mountain Conservancy, the park’s nonprofit partner.
“We are hoping that her role as goodwill ambassador reminds all of the folks who have been to Rocky Mountain National Park, tens of millions over the years, that they have an opportunity to feel connected to this special place and think about how to pay it forward for this national park,” Estee Rivera Murdock, the nonprofit’s executive director, told The Denver Post in an interview on Tuesday.
As an ambassador, Collins promotes the Rocky Mountain Conservancy, which is responsible for the park’s trail work, conservation efforts and educational programming. Park enthusiasts can donate to the nonprofit in the singer’s honor and personal notes included with the donation will be sent to Collins, according to the nonprofit.
“Rocky Mountain National Park is at the heart of my dreams and my memories,” Collins wrote in a letter supporting the conservancy. “A paradise, it is one of the most glorious places in the world, and a place where the wild and the beautiful live and stay.”
Before becoming a Grammy-award-winning folk musician, Collins grew up in Denver, hiking Rocky Mountain trails and exploring nature. When she was 18, she and her husband, Peter Taylor, were hired to run the Fern Lake Lodge in Larimer County, according to Collins’ letter.
Collins and Taylor stayed in the now-closed Rocky Mountain lodge for three months. Cut off from electricity and running water, she served pies and bread baked in a wood-burning stove to dozens of hungry hikers who camped in the area, Collins wrote.
Those memories of candlelight, featherbeds and songs by the campfire stuck with Collins.
“Do yourself a favor and visit Rocky Mountain National Park every time you get the chance,” Collins wrote in the letter. “You can dream as I do, and you will make memories as I have to treasure forever.”
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