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Autos and wine festival show love in Snowmass Village this weekend

Erica Robbie
Snowmass Sun
Wine poured at the Snowmass Wine Festival last year.
Anna Stonehouse/Snowmass Sun

ROAD CLOSURES AND TRANSPORTATION INFORMATION SUNDAY AND MONDAY

The roads along the 1.3-mile race loop on Upper Brush Creek Road and Carriage Way will close to traffic during the Rocky Mountain Vintage Car Race. After each race, the road will open as a one-way for approximately 20 minutes. See below for more transportation details Sunday and Monday.

· 6 a.m.: Snowmass Mall Bus Depot closes. RFTA and Village Shuttle buses will operate out of Base Village Transit Center. Transit details are available at http://www.snowmasstransit.com

· 6 a.m.: Sky Cab Gondola (Skittles) opens. Skittles will open early for additional operations to help spectators and commuters connect from the Snowmass Mall to Base Village.

· 7 a.m.: Additional park and ride service begins. The Village Shuttle will offer 10-minute park and ride shuttle service from Town Park Station.

· 7 a.m.: Race course set-up begins. Upper Brush Creek Road, Upper Carriage Way and Wood Road Bridge will be one-way only.

· 9 a.m.: Races begin. Roads will be closed for 20-30 minute race intervals. They will be opened, one-way only, for 10 to 15 minutes between races.

· 9:20 a.m.: Upper Brush Creek Road Village Shuttle service begins. The Village Shuttle will begin offering special service to Creekside, the Divide, the Mall, and Stonebridge once the closures begin. Pickup and staging will be in the Snowmass Center near the Conoco gas station.

· 5 p.m. – Races conclude and roads open. The final races will be concluded, and staff will begin opening roads and clearing the course.

School bus pick-up and drop-off locations on Monday will remain the same. The morning school bus will run on time. The afternoon school bus may be slightly delayed in the Upper Brush Creek neighborhoods.

For more information and spectator locations, visit http://www.tosv.com/RMVR.

Alison and Matt Bourquin are learning that cancer is a journey of many extremes.

Since discovering last summer their one-year-old baby, Asher, had a tumor, the New Castle residents have experienced “darkness and sadness” they never knew before, Alison said.

“But at the same time,” she said, “I have never seen such an outpouring of kindness, love and light from complete strangers.”



While unknown to the family a year ago, the Morgan Adams Foundation — a Denver-based nonprofit that funds cancer research for children — is now a place of hope for the Bourquins.

“They are funding research in which cells from Asher’s actual tumor are being analyzed to help determine less risky therapies,” Alison explained, “with less risk of severe long-term side effects for our children.”




A high-octane fundraiser for the foundation will take place in the form of the Motoring Classic in Snowmass Friday to Monday.

It is one of two events in the village this weekend that exist to do good and benefit causes from childrens’ cancer to polio.

An auto show will kick off the classic Saturday from 12:30 to 4 p.m., followed by a “Casino Royale” night. The show is free to attend but the casino event requires a paid ticket, with net proceeds benefitting the Morgan Adams Foundation.

On Sunday and Monday, the Rocky Mountain Vintage Racing of Denver will host the Aspen Snowmass Vintage Car Race.

More than 120 vintage cars dating back to the 1960s-70s will race along a 1.3-mile loop on Upper Brush Creek Road and Carriage Way. (See sidebar for road closures and traffic impacts).

A paddock party, which also requires a ticket, will take place Sunday night.

Auto-themed events are some of the Morgan Adams Foundations’ most successful fundraisers, partnership manager Carrie Thomas said.

The foundation is currently working with four children suffering cancer from the Roaring Fork Valley alone, Thomas said.

Rounding out another eventful fall weekend in the village is the Snowmass Wine Festival, which last year raised a record $95,000 for local to international nonprofits.

This year, the Rotary Club of Snowmass hopes to break the six-figure threshold.

A village tradition that started on the mall in 2002 and more recently “blossomed” to Town Park, Rotary Club chairman Randy Woods said, the wine festival has served as the club’s biggest fundraiser since its inception.

The Rotary Club of Snowmass’ goal is to raise $105,000 to $110,000 this weekend, Woods said.

Of this amount, about 40 percent benefits community organizations — think Bridging Bionics, Challenge Aspen and the Little Red School House — while a quarter goes to international nonprofits and another 25 percent to vocational programs, Woods said.

Woods, noting the amounts do not total 100, pointed to the Rotary Club’s endowment fund and other areas where the remaining 10 percent goes.

Benefitting children and education, clean water and curing polio also are specific areas in which the Rotary Club of Snowmass and Rotary International focus.

The Snowmass Wine Festival seems to grow and raise more money each year, Woods said. Ticket sales to the grand tasting as of Sept. 6 were 30 percent ahead of last year, while the dinner had already sold out.

The festivities will commence Friday with the sold-out pairing dinner at the Viceroy Snowmass. The grand tasting will take place from 1:30 to 5 p.m. Saturday at Town Park.

For tickets and more information on the 2018 fall festival, visit http://www.snowmasswinefestival.com.

erobbie@aspentimes.com