At age 18, Devin Urioste was struggling. He was behind on school credits and had experienced a run-in with the law for spray-painting. In order to catch up on credits that he needed to graduate, Urioste enrolled in Denver’s Respect Academy, a public school dedicated to a blended and flexible learning environment to help motivate students to earn a high school diploma. It was there that Urioste was introduced to Youth on Record, a Denver-based youth outreach program using music to empower students.

Libraries serve as your go-to source for information on the topics that impact your life. Love it or hate it, Colorado made history on Jan. 1, 2014, when it became the first state in the country to legally sell marijuana to the public for recreational use. As the state charters this new territory, residents are trying to navigate the facts. 

“Why is Trixie here?” I asked my mom.

“I don’t know,” she said, shaking her head. “I thought maybe she’d be able to smell you and, you know, rescue you.”

It was June 14, 1997. My feet were slightly frostbitten, and I was hungry. Moments earlier I had been helped off of a helicopter near Salida, Colo. I had spent an evening hypothermic and scared, yet here was my lazy beagle, wagging her tail. Trixie wasn’t trained to do much more than shake her paw, and she certainly didn’t fit the image of a St. Bernard delivering canteens to skiers in the Alps.