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In the NoCo

‘Mountain Dreamers’ gives immigrants a voice in Summit County

Miriam Garcia
Peter Bakkin
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Courtesy of Peter Bakken & Mountain Dreamers
Miriam Garcia and the shuttle that transports people from the Swan Meadows neighborhood to the nearest Summit Stage bus stop. Garcia works with Mountain Dreamers, an advocacy group in Summit County that pushed for the shuttle so residents would no longer have to make the often treacherous mile-plus walk along a rural road to get to a transportation hub.

Immigrants are the backbone of a lot of mountain communities in Colorado. That’s because many work in service industry jobs that keep these towns thriving. But for immigrants in these places, certain disparities are more pronounced, like access to transportation. In one part of Summit County, this particular issue had become dangerous in the snowy winter months.

“We need to walk on the roads where cars are running all the time,” said Miriam Garcia, an immigrant and employee of an advocacy organization called Mountain Dreamers. “And then there was an issue with one of my neighbors, she was hit by a car. And the driver didn't stop.”

Garcia led an effort through Mountain Dreamers to get shuttle service to people in her neighborhood who were navigating a mile of snow and ice to catch a bus.

Host Erin O’Toole sat down with Garcia and founder Peter Bakken, to discuss this work and learn more about how - and why - they’re advocating for immigrants in Summit County.

KUNC's In The NoCo is a daily slice of stories, news, people and issues. It's a window to the communities along the Colorado Rocky Mountains. The show brings context and insight to the stories of the day, often elevating unheard voices in the process. And because life in Northern Colorado is a balance of work and play, we celebrate the lighter side of things here, too.
I wear many hats in KUNC's newsroom as an executive producer, editor and reporter. My work focuses on inequality, the systems of power that entrench it, and the people who are disproportionately affected. I help reporters in my newsroom to also uncover these angles and elevate unheard voices in the process.
Ariel Lavery grew up in Louisville, Colorado and has returned to the Front Range after spending over 25 years moving around the country. She co-created the podcast Middle of Everywhere for WKMS, Murray State University’s NPR member station, and won Public Media Journalism awards in every season she produced for Middle of Everywhere. Her most recent series project is "The Burn Scar", published with The Modern West podcast. In it, she chronicles two years of her family’s financial and emotional struggle following the loss of her childhood home in the Marshall Fire.