Our spirited Louisville home and entire Cornerstone neighborhood was ravaged by the Marshall wildfire on December 30th, 2021. In this time of grief, we recount countless memories in our home including baptisms, CU Boulder graduations, baby showers, fourth of July parties and Bronco Sunday's with our beloved friends and family. My parents, Gary and Ime Salazar met at CU Boulder in 1981, fell madly in love and raised four daughters in Boulder county. My mom is from Taos Pueblo and Santa Ana Pueblo.

 

My parents moved to Louisville when their youngest daughter, Masani was born in 2002. Gary serves his community as an electrician and owns Salazar Electric and is a golfing champion at Coal Creek Men's League. Ime works in public relations at the Department of Interior (Flatwater Inc.) My mom is an active community member in Boulder's Native American and multicultural society. She has served Native American youth for 20 years, spearheading the American Indian Youth Leadership Institute (AIYLI) and she’s worked for a number of Native organizations over the years that serve Indian Country including Echo-Hawk Consulting, Native American Rights Fund, American Indian Science Engineering Society, and the American Indian College Fund. Masani, our baby sister is 19 years old and pursuing Environmental Design major with emphasis in architecture at CU Boulder. She finished this fall semester with straight A's and is a budding designer.

A home is valued in our hearts and it is part of our cultural lifeways to open our home to all walks of life and make sure their belly's are full before they left us. This brought spirit and joy to our Salazar family. We are devastated by the loss of our beautiful home, but we are so grateful to be alive and together. My parents are staying in Broomfield with my sister Tachara and I while we navigate permanent solutions and aide. Donations will go towards helping my parents into housing, buying clothes, toiletries, furniture, appliances and supporting our little sister to continue college.

On behalf of my family, any help you can provide to my parents, our little sister and family is deeply appreciated. Prayers for all the other families impacted by the Marshall Fire.