As many of you read last week, my mom, Dorothy Akal, died Sept. 8. I know that many of her dedicated readers will be saddened by this news, and she will be greatly missed by all of us. Our family is having a memorial service for her at 2 p.m. Friday, Sept. 28, at the Archdiocese of Denver Mortuary Chapel at Mount Olivet Cemetery, 12801 West 44th Ave. in Wheat Ridge. We would love to see any of her friends and readers who would like to attend.

Mom requested that in lieu of flowers, a donation be made in her name to the Foothills Animal Shelter, 580 McIntyre St. Golden, CO 80401 or online at www.foothillsanimalshelter.org. As most of you know, she loved her doggies and was always looking out for the area shelters.

So what better way to start this week’s column than to mention a terrific upcoming fundraising event for the Foothills Animal Shelter? It’s the third annual Raise the Woof Gala, on Saturday, Sept. 22, in the Green Center on the Colorado School of Mines campus.

There will be food and drinks from some of the area’s top restaurants; fun entertainment, including magician Shawn Preston, the “Magic Dude,” amazing you with roving close-up magic; silent and live auctions; and a party photo booth to capture memories of the evening.

The highlight of the night will be visiting with some adorable and adoptable pets coming from the shelter for a night out. It’s going to be running 5:30-10 p.m., with individual tickets at $150 or “Young Professional” tickets at $115.

I’m not quite sure when you stop being “young” and move onto being over the hill, but for more information on that and other things just visit the shelter’s website at www.foothillsanimalshelter.org or contact Megan Peters at mpeters@fas4pets.org or 720-407-5227.

Oh, and while on the website, check out the free game that lets you play with real cute little kittens and cats in real time. It’s called iPetCompanion and lets you make the toys in the room jump around. Make sure you try this at work when your boss walks into the room. I’m sure it will be a big hit.

What goes up must come down

We’ve all heard that expression before, but here in Golden, it can mean something a little different. That’s because we live right at the base of some of the most spectacular mountains in the world. In our case, it means going up to the tops of some of those peaks. Once in a while it can also mean that we need to be rescued to get down.

The Bradford Washburn Mountaineering Museum, located in the American Mountaineering Center, on the corner of 10th Street and Washington Avenue, is hosting a pretty cool mountain-rescue exhibit called “Risk and Reward” through Dec. 8.

The exhbit spans the time from the mid-1900s until the present and highlights the people, culture, gear and techniques used to get people safely down from some pretty lofty and intimidating heights.

In this day and age of organized search-and-rescue operations, it’s easy to forget that in days gone by, if you got stuck on a mountain, you had to wait for someone to organize a search-and-rescue party for you. If you were lucky, someone you knew had a pretty good dog.

Go check out this exhibit and see how things have evolved over the years. Admission is only $5 for adults and $1 for children under 12.

For mor information, go online to the museum’s website, www.mountaineeringmuseum.org/events.

Do you have a CORSAR card?

As long as we are talking about search-and-rescue operations, it might be a good idea to become familiar with the Colorado CORSAR card. By purchasing one of those, you are contributing to the funding of rescue operations and helping pay for the costs of your own rescue should anything happen to you out in the wilderness.

It’s not exactly insurance, and it doesn’t pay for medical transport by ambulance or helicopter, but it does cover the costs for a rescue team to come fetch you off the mountainside.

These things are cheap, $3 for one year or $12 for five years, and you can get one from more than 300 retailers in Colorado or directly from the Colorado State Department of Local Affairs at www.colorado.gov. Just do a quick search for Colorado CORSAR, and you can get a link directly to it. It’s a little peace of mind to carry in your pocket when you are in the

high country.

Fall is in the air, so take a day or two to get outside and enjoy the season. Keep your eyes to the west and take in the beautiful, changing colors coming our way.

John Akal is a well-known jazz artist/drummer and leader of the 20-piece Ultraphonic Jazz Orchestra. He also is president of John Akal Imaging, professional commercial photography and multi-media production.