Kate Peake
It’s obvious that words matter to Kate Peake. Words that become sentences, that become paragraphs, that become chapters, that become books fill her classroom shelves at Patagonia Middle School.
Words also become newspaper articles. And as a strong believer in what rural newspapers bring to a community, the English language arts teacher is joining the Patagonia Regional Times’ board of directors to serve a three-year term.
“Local news is everything,” Peake said. “In a climate where major news organizations are either closing or merging, and voices and perspectives are becoming narrower, the PRT is an incredible resource.”
A newspaper with much to love, she said. Cassina Farley’s column provides ongoing engagement in local life. Other volunteer writers share passion for plants, insects, birds and astronomy: “They touch on all the reasons people love it here.”
Peake and her husband, David, have two sons, Cameron and Rozier. She was introduced to Patagonia in 2016 when David, a geologist, was hired for local contract work. The family was living in Fredericksburg, Texas, but after two visits she realized what friends had told her was true: “It’s a magical place.” They moved.
“I love the natural beauty,” Peake said. “I can walk out the door and bike or hike forever.”
It’s the people, too. “The community here is so engaging,” she said. “People have strong opinions and they’re willing to speak them and live them. But they are also willing to talk to other people, work together, meet people in the middle.”
Peake’s job at Patagonia Middle School came about as she was pondering a return to education. Previously she had worked for Teach for America in inner city St. Louis. Teach for America looks to ensure all children have an education and focuses on low-income communities.
“I wasn’t ready to go back,” she said, citing the birth of her second child. But when told the application window was closing, “I was worried that someone else could get this job and stay forever and I wouldn’t get to do it again. I knew if I didn’t try, I would regret it.”
No regrets.
“Some of my favorite moments with the PRT have been when the students can see themselves in the paper,” Peake said. Expanding youth voices in those local pages is something she sees as a win for the community.
Mary Tolena
When Mary Tolena rolled into Patagonia in October 2020, Covid was sweeping the country with no end in sight.
A nomad who’d been living the van life for 3½ years, Tolena quickly realized she had stumbled upon someplace special. Those indicators: a museum, a senior center, a youth center, an arts center, a natural food store, a radio station and, of course, a newspaper.
“The PRT was high on my list of community assets,” said Tolena, one of two local residents to join the newspaper’s board in 2026 for a three-year term.
The next day, after camping overnight outside town, she found herself saying “yes” to buying a piece of land that would fulfill a dream and the needs of the community—TerraSol, a camping haven for hikers, cyclists, birders and travelers.
Since that time, Tolena has embedded herself into Patagonia with practiced mindfulness—observing, listening—with one question still not fully answered: How did this place get so special?
One thing she does believe is that a community paper is essential to that answer.
“A community is strengthened the more it knows about itself,” Tolena said. “The PRT is a vehicle for us to keep learning about ourselves, keep telling the stories that keep this community strong—what people do and have done, and how it interconnects.”
As far as the future of the PRT, Tolena knows from her business background that financial stability is at the top of the list. A volunteer citizen journalist herself, Tolena loves that so many resources are given freely to the PRT, the most precious of which being people’s time.
“We are in really challenging times in the world outside of our little bubble,” Tolena said. Helping people appreciate what’s important here, and why, is, as she sees it, an ongoing mission for the PRT.