Chamber welcomes new director

CREEDE— After spending a 20-day vacation in her senior year of college with her future partner, Erin Yurkinas knew where she planned to spend the rest of her life. So, without waiting for graduation to come and go, Yurkinas turned in her last paper, packed her bags and moved to Creede to start a business which she and her husband ran for three years.

“We opened the year the Lone Ranger movie was filming so we did pretty good. We were just a tiny restaurant though and didn’t last long,” said Yurkinas.

After three years and lots of hard work, the restaurant had to close, but that didn’t stop the two from staying where they wanted to be. Yurkinas wanted to be more involved with the community, so she turned in her application and was recently hired as the new Creede/Mineral County Chamber of Commerce director.

“I am just starting to learn all of the ins and outs, but I have some plans for the future,” she continued.

Yurkinas started at the chamber about a month ago, right in the midst of the busy season in Creede. She has spent her days learning what she can about the coming events that will take place in the next few weeks beginning with the Labor Day festivities.

“We have Labor Day, Gravity Derby, Salsa Festival and Mountain Run coming up and I am just trying to get a handle on those first before I bring anything else to the table, like new events or improvements to the chamber,” finished Yurkinas.

Yurkinas comes to the chamber with a bachelor’s degree in business and an eagerness to be in the center of the community.

“I have been looking for a way to have a bigger part in the community and this was a nice way to do that,” said Yurkinas.

For now, she plans on focusing on the tasks at hand but hopes to expand and bring new events to the table in the near future.

This has been a busy year for Creede, with many changes and additions to the already-packed schedule of events in the area. New events included celebrations for their 125th anniversary and the second year for the Headwaters Music Festival in August.

One goal Yurkinas mentioned was possibly looking into bringing some kind of mushroom event back to the area in the future and some modifications to current events for the coming summer.