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In nonprofit nitty gritty we are checking in with Springs nonprofit organizations in advance of Giving Tuesday and Colorado Gives Day.

In a year of financial and social strain, Colorado nonprofit organizations have been pushed to their limits—and the crisis is not over yet.

Accountability is a powerful deterrent. It tells police officers their actions will be monitored. “Defund the police” is essentially a call for accountability but it unfairly targets and blames law enforcement entirely for its actions. It is politicians and government bureaucrats who work to create more laws and actions for the police to engage.

In 2007, the New York Times published an article labeling Manitou Springs a “hippie Mayberry,” in reference to the classic television series, “The Andy Griffith Show.” For those not in the know, its opening sequence contains an earworm-forming whistling tune and revolves around a kind, gentle local sheriff and his family as he handles policing issues within his community in fictional Mayberry, North Carolina.

“One of the favorite medals for me is this medal, because from Queen Elizabeth’s time, it celebrates the victory over the Spanish armada,” says Money Museum curator Douglas Mudd, proudly surveying a large, stylized coin dated 1588.

“[They were] crushing their previous visitation numbers.” That’s how Jeanette Lara, Southeast Region Volunteer Coordinator for Colorado Parks and Wildlife, refers to the number of visitors this summer to Lake Pueblo State Park.

“Since no one’s taking vacations, they’re taking that money and utilizing it on home remodel,” says Bob Mock, owner of A Finished Touch, LLC, a general contractor specializing in home improvement.

With many apprehensive of public places, Coloradans are changing the way they work out.

“It’s a constant parade all day,” says Nic Ponsor, owner of Criterium Bicycles in Colorado Springs, describing the traffic on the Santa Fe Regional Trail by his shop.

“Moral certainty is always a sign of cultural inferiority. The more uncivilized the man, the surer he is that he knows precisely what is right and what is wrong. All human progress, even in morals, has been the work of men who have doubted the current moral values, not of men who have whooped them up and tried to enforce them. The truly civilized man is always skeptical and tolerant, in this field as in all others. His culture is based on ‘I am not too sure.’” H. L. Mencken

In mid-July, Colorado Governor Jared Polis imposed a mask mandate onto all businesses. The mandate forced businesses to require window shoppers and consumers to wear masks inside their private premises. This came after he claimed mask mandates were unenforceable, and that he also preferred to let local, smaller communities decide on mask mandates.

Continued: part two of our series on back-to-school during the COVID-19 crisis.

“It’s just going to be a team sport, as far as cleaning and disinfecting goes,” says Jeff Yocum, Operations Director for The Vanguard School, an award-winning charter school in Colorado Springs.