The YAK is a beloved Leadville and Lake County tradition, revived through the One Community Project to celebrate the stories, voices, and creative spirit that shape our community. The storytelling contest and community event, hosted April 25th, 2025, invited community members to share personal stories, poems, photography, art, and reflections that paint a rich and authentic portrait of who we are. Together, these stories help ground the future vision for Leadville and Lake County in the real hopes, challenges, and connections that define our community today.
I’ve had moments of feeling rooted in this community, but as it stands, I don’t feel like I have much connection to it, apart from a few friends and family members being around. The moments where I’ve felt connected to this community is when I’ve had consistent groups of people to meet up with and just be myself with, whether it’s the old Magic: The Gathering group that me and my brother would join at the Silver Dollar a few years back, the smaller Dungeons and Dragons group made from the previous group, or the E-Sports team at Project Dream after school. These groups have largely fallen apart, however, as they were very reliant on the group leader to keep them together. Similarly, these moments are when I felt that Lake County was home, making me feel connected to the people in my community, as well as meeting new people by association, whether it’s one person passing by during a Magic: The Gathering night, or a new person stopping by Project Dream and showing a level of interest in what we were doing. Without having a group of people to be around in a non-school setting, however, I don’t really feel like Lake County is my home, despite living here for about 5 years now. While it’s possible for me to find another group to be with in the form of clubs at school, it’s far more difficult to find a group of like-minded people, especially when you don’t have any real interest in the clubs that are being hosted. What I’m looking for is a way to find more people in the Lake County area who are interested in similar things to me, in a way that feels safer than simply meeting strangers in a restaurant or on the sidewalk and asking if they want to chat or do some other activity. It’s definitely still difficult, though. With a few of my family members moving out of Leadville, I have less possible connections to finding a group of people to be around, with my sister initially getting me into the Magic: The Gathering group due to it being led by one of her close friends. It can be especially difficult when all of the other people around my age are usually busy, whether it’s with school, a part-time job, or something else. While they may be open to conversations at any given time, the issue is not knowing whether or not they’re actually open to that, especially since they may want to have some time to themselves after being busy all day. Overall, it just feels very difficult to get involved in the community without having someone or something to lead you to being with a group, whether it’s a family friend or a shared interest. There aren’t many consistent events to meet people in, and even then, it feels hard to want to communicate in a scenario where the event is the main focus. This connection to people is also largely related to interests, however, meaning that I may just be somewhat of an outsider, being more interested in things surrounding technology than something like skiing, where someone may make a new friend while skiing due to knowing that they share at least one interest.