An Evening with John Fielder
By Jack Farrar
The Park Hill Community Bookstore presents “An Evening with John Fielder” on Friday, June 21, at the Montview Presbyterian Church, 1980 Dahlia. A silent auction and a wine/refreshments reception will be held from 5:30 to 7 p.m., followed by commentary by Fielder and a slide show with music, “Celebrating 20 Years of Lottery-Funded Lands.” The show will review how Great Outdoors Colorado has enhanced parks, recreation and open space projects throughout the state.
The silent auction will include a wide range of items, including antiquarian books, gift certificates and art. A large selection of books by Fielder will also be sold, with part of the proceeds going to the bookstore.
A renowned nature photographer, author, speaker and environmentalist, Fielder founded Westcliffe Publishers in 1981, one of the largest publishers of books and calendars about nature and wildlife. He has published 40 exhibit format books, guidebooks and children’s books and has won numerous awards for his photography and work on environmental issues including the Sierra Club’s Ansel Adams Award and the first Aldo Leopold Foundation Achievement Award given to an individual. Fielder lives in Summit County and operates a fine art gallery in Denver’s Art District on Santa Fe.
He was appointed by Governor Roy Romer to the Great Outdoors Colorado Board in 1993, and served two four-year terms. In 2010, he asked the Board to celebrate GOCO’s 20th Anniversary in 2012 with the publication of a guide book Guide to Colorado’s Great Outdoors: Lottery-Funded Parks, Trails, Wildlife Areas & Open Spaces and a picture book Colorado’s Great Outdoors: Celebrating 20 Years of Lottery-Funded Lands. The Board partnered with him to photograph hundreds of county and city-owned places, a project during which he traveled 35,000 miles in less than two years.
In July of this year, Fielder will publish Denver Mountain Parks: 100 Years of the Magnificent Dream, which will cover the city’s 46 mountain parks and conservation areas, totaling more than 14,000 acres, including Red Rocks, Genesee and Summit Lake.
The Park Hill Community Bookstore is the oldest non-profit, member-operated bookstore in the region, with more than 800 members. Located at 23rd and Dexter, the store not only offers a wide range of used and new books, it donates thousands of books every year to a variety of nonprofits, including schools, churches, shelters and correctional institutions. As is the case with many independent bookstores, the bookstore struggles to keep its doors open and fund-raisers such as the Fielder event play a huge role in supplementing the store’s income from book sales.
Event: Celebrating 20 Years of Colorado’s Lottery-Funded Lands, Slide Show & Book Signing to benefit the Park Hill Community Bookstore
Where: Montview Presbyterian Church, 1980 Dahlia
When: Friday, June 21, 5:30 p.m.
Tickets: $20 each for adults, $35 for couples and $10 for children under 12
Info: Call the Park Hill Community Bookstore at 303-355-8508