Mountain Parent is the Roaring Fork Valley’s only parenting magazine dedicated to supplying families with the best and most current information available for raising healthy, active, self-confident children.

The free, bi-monthly publication is distributed at more than 250 locations—such as doctors’ offices, supermarkets, resort chambers and recreation centers—from Aspen to New Castle.

In every issue you’ll find:

• Articles on child rearing (by local and national parenting experts), child development and health & safety (including columns by local physicians).
• A jam-packed calendar of events of family-friendly activities ad kids’ programs.
• Humor columns from local moms and dads.
• Suggestions for spending family time together, such as cooking, arts & crafts and outdoor activities
• What’s new in the valley, including local businesses, services and products for busy families
• And much, much more!

Mike & Sarah Shook of Carbondale, parents of two children, founded the magazine in April 2004. Mother of two Kara Williams of Missouri Heights is Mountain Parent’s editor.

Awards:

The Parenting Publications of America recognized Mountain Parent for editorial excellence in its first showing at the organization’s Annual Editorial and Designs Awards Competition in March, 2006. PPA’s award competition recognizes excellence in journalism, photography and design achieved by publishers, editors, writers and designers at member publications. Judges poured over 1,048 entries and gave out about 375 awards. Mountain Parent competed in the smallest circulation category: 30,000 and under. Awards were for content published in 2005.

Mountain Parent’s four editorial awards were:

Gold: “Rookie of the Year.” Judges said: “It would be difficult for anyone to know this is a new publication – the editorial and design elements have a confident, but fun, personality. Thorough research and writing in stories such as family travel are made even stronger through good editing. Especially like the fact that every page is easy to read, and that's done through a good use of art elements and white space.”

Gold: “Column: Family Fun” for Karin Teague of Basalt’s “Hut Trips with Kids” and “Springtime Hikes with Kids” articles.

Silver: “Column: Humor” for Craig Willis of Glenwood Springs’ funny “Dad’s Eye View” essays on disciplining kids and a first-hand look at vasectomies.

Bronze: “Special Section within a Publication” for the “Family Travel” section in the May/June 2005 issue, which included articles written by Kara Williams of Missouri Heights, Charla Belinski of Snowmass Village, Allison Johnson of Carbondale and Alison Osius of Carbondale.

Writer’s Guidelines
Mountain Parent is always looking for interesting story ideas and talented freelance writers. We strongly prefer local authors, but we do consider articles and reprints from national freelance writers. One way to contribute to the magazine is through our Mom Moments and Dad’s Eye View columns. These are 800-word essays that typically take a look at a humorous aspect of parenting, although writers have covered serious subjects, too. Again, we prefer Roaring Fork Valley writers for these columns. Email your queries or manuscripts to Sarah Shook at sarah@mountainparent.com.