Students take part in Earth Day WORK EVENT

Roaming neighborhoods in squads to pick up trash, hundreds of students braved the wind April 21-22 to take part in Keep Gallup Clean and Beautiful’s Earth Day Clean-up.

The event began with a challenge within Gallup-McKinley County Schools to see which team could pick up the most trash.

All students at Catherine A. Miller, Lincoln, David Skeet and Turpen elementary schools, plus 100 from Thoreau and 175 from Stagecoach Elementary got into the act. Among middle schools, Crownpoint (199), Kennedy (600+), Tohatchi (100) and Thoreau joined in. Miyamura High School had 83 participants, including 15 teachers and assistants, eight...

Ever since childhood, Gallup native Lou Sandoval knew that God had a purpose for him.

Flash forward to Sandoval as an adult who has just walked out of “The Passion of the Christ,” a movie about the last 12 hours of Jesus’s life, his crucifixion, and his resurrection. Twenty-four hours later, an idea lights up his mind: a sculpture depicting Jesus as a “warrior champion.”

“We’ve never really seen a trophy statue of the greatest victory in the history of our species,” Sandoval said in an interview with the Sun.

With this idea in his head, Sandoval drove back home to Gallup to begin sculpting in his father’s workshop. Four months later, he emerged with a finished...

Each month, Camille’s Sidewalk Café recognizes one local teacher within the Gallup area for his or her determination to help students go above and beyond. Prospective teachers are nominated by students who feel they deserve to be recognized.

This month, Jo Nell Becenti, who has worked for the Gallup-McKinley County Schools district for 25 years, is the recipient of the Teacher of the Month.

Becenti has spent her entire teaching career at GMCS, first at Gallup Middle School and then at Chief Manuelito Middle School. She’s taught social studies for the past 25 years, but now the 2021-2022 school year will be her final year before she retires.

When asked what she would be doing...

In a few weeks, the intersection of Coal Avenue and Second Street may look a bit like a bomb went off. The explanation is more mundane, and the end result should be a big downtown improvement.

The big ditch is part of the Coal Avenue Commons project, and will make Coal Avenue between First and Second streets look like it does between Second and Third streets, with ADA-compliant sidewalks, new benches, landscaping and lighting and a new signal at the intersection of Coal Avenue and Second street.

The first phase of the project was finished last July. The new phase will give the area a unified, more inviting look.

“We’re trying to make it like an attraction for downtown that...