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A piece of Americana, a first-aid kit from ca. 1950’s. Kathryn Marmon - CC -
The Mother Road Route 66 Passport. Kathryn Marmon - CC
Grants-Cibola County Chamber of Commerce welcomed their new Executive Director, Donald Jaramillo, four months ago.
Jaramillo was recommended for the position by the outgoing executive director, Brenda Curtright, who had been in the position through the COVID19 pandemic, and now decided to retire her place.
Jaramillo was formerly City Manager for one-and-half years before being terminated without cause. He admits that this change of positions was a blessing in disguise. Jaramillo said he devoted 70 to 80 hours each week to the city, and still found time to care for a disabled brother. Now he has more time to spend with his sibling, and other family members visit frequently, sharing meals and quality time. Jaramillo is one of eight siblings.
Jaramillo said his focus for the chamber is to increase membership to the non-profit organization, which is funded by local governments. He plans to attract new members by adding value to the membership. The available resources are a free quarterly luncheon, a newsletter, and updated website links to other websites for networking. Those are just a few ways he wants to help small businesses. The new executive also wants to address marketing, updating billboards, and the chamber’s presence on Facebook and TikTok. In addition, he will add a new staff member to maintain the website and membership, update the community calendar, and administer the newsletter.
A popular and important feature at the Chamber of Commerce building is the New Mexico Mining Museum, a state owned, built, and maintained entity. A recent addition to the museum’s antiquities, and donated by retired miner, Art Gebeau, is a first aid kit dated ca. 1950, approximately 70 years ago. The kit is hardly what you might expect, being only about the size of a package of cigarettes. A few of the kit’s contents are band-aids, gauze, and an antiseptic.
Just released: National Geographic has published its top 20 destinations in the world. New Mexico, embracing part of the Route 66 Mother Road, has been named number seven between a river cruise in Colombia and ancient art in Algeria. The featured destination in New Mexico is our International Balloon Fiesta held in October, but if you should arrive in the spring, you will be accompanied by motorcycle clubs enjoying the open air, ambitious hikers, and various adventurists on the Mother Road that takes one from Chicago, Illinois to California. The Passport is an attractive bonus. Many people come to the chamber for the stamp in their Passport on New Mexico’s page, and officially marking their journey to the 20 top destinations in the world. Often a chamber employee will get a latenight phone call for them to meet the traveler at a local spot just to stamp their passport. It’s that important to travelers.
The new director said that he loves working in his hometown and loves his staff. Born nearby, in San Rafael, his family moved to Grants in 1973. He had never been to Grants before and thought of it as the big city and that they were really moving up in the world.
Jaramillo claims to be a private person, but you would never know that from his life-long history of community involvement. He was the managing editor of the Cibola County Beacon for about twenty years, 2002-2017. “I loved deadline day, it was like a buzz,” he laughed. Jaramillo next served as city manager for one-and-a-half years. Currently, as the chamber’s executive director, Jaramillo reveals that it will be his final chapter. His position is a challenge, he is not an events person and doesn’t relish making speeches. Still, he wants to stay until he retires.
When he has all that free time, Jaramillo will probably spend more time with his secret passion, music. He is a drummer in a small blues, classic-rock group, and he’s pretty good, he admits modestly. The group, which includes a teacher and a retired teacher, only plays a gig twice a year, but they get together to jam about every 2 weeks in one of the member’s homes where there is a studio and a bar. He said that frequently people will hear the music from outside and come into their studio and just hang out at the bar into all hours.
Jaramillo said his life is made up of different chapters that have all been a good fit. Jaramillo said he is grateful to the boards of the chamber and the New Mexico Mining Museum for their support.