Chamber director wants fall activities

By Bill Donovan
Staff writer

A strand of Chili Ristas from Espanola Valley hangs in front of the Holiday Nursery in Gallup on Wednesday. The chili season runs from August to September, with the red colored chilis grown by leaving them to grow longer before harversting in the second half of the season. [Photo by Jeff Jones/Independent]

GALLUP — Fall, which begins Sunday, is not Becky Apel’s favorite season right now.

“Where are the events in October and November that will be attracting tourists?” said Apel, who is now in her first year as director of the Gallup-McKinley County Chamber of Commerce.

Looking at her calendar of events schedule, she notes that there really are not a whole lot of things for locals to do as well.

There’s the Festival of Cultures on Oct. 6, a blues and jazz festival in the middle of the month, homecoming, and a few other small events.

In November, there is ... nothing.

“We don’t have anything like the Ceremonial, the Red Rock Balloon Rally or the Tour of Nations to entice tourists during October and November,” she said.

This is a shame, she added, because Gallup is beautiful in the fall as the cottonwood leaves turn gold and the weather begins to turn cooler.

She said the city needs someone or some organization to step up to the plate and organize something that will appeal not only to locals but to tourists as well.

Normally that would be the function of the chamber of commerce, but Apel said the city of Gallup recently cut back on the funding that enabled the chamber to hire an events coordinator, which has restricted what the chamber can do in that regard.

Of course, for those who may be outdoors-challenged, this fall promises to hold a wide range of pleasant surprises.
This includes new programming on television, return of a few favorites — will “Heros” be good this year.

And there are the usual influx of movies that will be getting some Oscar buzz and if Gallupians are lucky, maybe one or two will show up at local theaters before they go on DVD.

But Apel said she wants to be able to provide people in this area something to do, so they won’t have to rely on their televisions and the local movie theaters to keep them entertained.

Just give her some time.

“Next fall, we’ll have something,” she said.