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Sierra Sun editorial: Community grows strong in Tahoe City

EDITOR’S NOTE: Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the Sierra Sun editorial staff.

TAHOE CITY, Calif. — Sometimes, it takes the most unfortunate of situations to occur for a community’s true colors to shine.

This week, we at the Sierra Sun, like many residents and businesses in Tahoe City and across the North Shore, were devastated to hear the news of Kevin Murnane’s passing.

He and Valli had become such a fixture in the community, and their work at Tahoe XC to bring cross-country skiing and outdoor recreation in Tahoe City to the forefront of the discussion when it comes to the best locations in the world has been nothing short of legendary.



As a business partner in this community that’s worked for years to help promote events and fundraisers at Tahoe XC by way of editorial space and at-times free advertising, we’re shell-shocked.

As an editorial team that last spoke with Kevin on Christmas morning to talk of the coming snow forecast, and that covered his training for Ironman only a handful of months ago, this week’s news was incredibly tough to report.



As a sales and publishing staff that has deep ties with the Tahoe City Downtown Association and several other agencies, organizations and groups that for years have called Kevin, Valli and Tahoe XC their business partner and neighbor, we’re stunned.

But we also understand the importance of community, and it’s with that as a backdrop that we take space this week to applaud several Tahoe City and North Shore people and organizations who’ve interrupted their lives to give back.

The Winter Wildlands Alliance Backcountry Film Festival was supposed to happen Thursday night at Tahoe Art Haus & Cinema, a feature event of the Alpenglow Mountain Festival, with proceeds going to benefit Sierra Watershed Education Partnerships.

But Brendan Madigan, owner of Alpenglow Sports, and Missy Mohler, of SWEP, had different ideas, and, as Madigan shared with the community, they wanted to “provide a solid outlet for the profound grief and sadness our community is experiencing.”

“We’ve attempted to balance the key offering of our Mountain Festival with the overriding (and more important) needs of this wonderful community,” he said.

So they worked together to reschedule the event to take place at 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 27, at Granlibakken Tahoe, but not without a ton of help, including Granlibakken’s Ron Parson, “who graciously donated his venue, and their main ballroom will allow us to get over 500 people in seats,” Madigan explained.

Madigan also gave sincere thanks to Steve Siig, co-owner of Tahoe Art Haus, who has “graciously given us his blessing to pull the event from his establishment. Although this will represent him losing business in an abysmal season, he totally gets the big picture and I commend him for it.”

There are countless others who’ve chipped in to help as well, and to Ron, Steve, Brendan, Missy — and everyone else, we at the Sierra Sun say thanks.

Thank you for being good humans, good business partners — and most importantly, for reminding us all of the power of community.


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