Bond Election · Elección de Bonos — Nov. 3, 2026

Three City General Obligation Bond questions, totaling up to $8.25 million, are on your ballot: parks & trails, public safety, and roads, water & wastewater.

Tres preguntas sobre Bonos de Obligación General de la Ciudad, por un total de hasta $8.25 millones, aparecen en su boleta: parques y senderos, seguridad pública, y calles, agua y aguas residuales.

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Digital Inclusion Story Time

Follow the Light

Riverside Elementary Students Take a Fiber Optic Adventure

Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026 · Riverside Elementary School · Sunland Park, N.M.

Read the Story

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Mayor Javier Perea holds up the book Follow the Light as its cover appears on classroom monitors at Riverside Elementary School.

5Community Readers

2Languages

8Partners Thanked

1Fiber Optic Adventure

The Story

A Bilingual Story Time About How the Internet Reaches Us

Riverside Elementary School students got a front-row seat to a fiber optic adventure on Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026, as community leaders took turns reading Follow the Light: A Fiber Optic Adventure by Alli Bone out loud in English and Spanish to help students learn how the internet reaches our homes and schools.

The community activity was facilitated by Maria Chaparro, director of Mamacítas Cibernéticas of Southern Doña Ana County, and brought together Mamacítas Cibernéticas, Riverside Elementary School (GISD), the City of Sunland Park and Santa Teresa High School Warrior Media (GISD).

Each page of the picture book appeared on the classroom's big screens so every student could follow along. The story follows a community working to bring fiber optic internet to town, from neighbors speaking up at a town council meeting to crews checking that the signal is strong.

Five readers passed the story from one voice to the next: Sunland Park Mayor Javier Perea, Mamacítas Cibernéticas team member Ana Cristina Juarez, Riverside Elementary Principal Adriana Flavian, Melanie Goodman of U.S. Senator Ben Ray Luján's office, and Senior Planet learner Natalia Castillo.

Digital inclusion means everyone in our community has a reliable internet connection, a device that works for them, and the skills and support to use it with confidence.

Behind the camera, students from Santa Teresa High School Warrior Media recorded the reading and interviewed the readers for video coverage of the activity.

Keep scrolling to send a message through a fiber optic cable, test your fiber facts, and find conversation starters to keep the story going at home.

Pass the Light

Meet the Readers

Five community readers passed the story from voice to voice in English and Spanish. Press play to watch the light travel down the line, or tap a reader to learn more.

Mayor Javier Perea

City of Sunland Park

Mayor Perea opened the story in English and got the light moving.

English → Español → English → English → Español

Try It

Send a Message at the Speed of Light

Pick a message and watch it travel through a fiber optic cable from the school to a home.

How does it work?

Inside a fiber optic cable are strands of glass about as thin as a human hair. Information travels through them as flashes of light that bounce off the inside walls of the glass, so the signal can follow the cable around curves.

Pick a message to send.

Quick Quiz

Fiber Fact or Fiction?

Test what you learned. Tap your answer to see if you're right.

Fiber optic cables send information using light.

The glass strands inside a fiber optic cable are as thick as a pencil.

Light can't go around curves, so fiber optic cables have to be perfectly straight.

Digital inclusion is only about having internet at home.

Keep It Going at Home

Family Conversation Starters

Tap a card for an idea to keep the conversation going.

Photo Gallery

Snapshots From Story Time

Tap any photo to see it full size.

Readers and guests gather as Riverside Elementary students take their seats for story time.

A welcome slide kicks off the community reading activity.

The five community readers take their seats beside the “Our Readers” slide.

Mayor Javier Perea holds up the book as its cover appears on the classroom monitors.

Each page of the book appears on the big screens so every student can follow along.

A full room of Riverside Elementary students listens as the story is read in English and Spanish.

Mayor Perea shares a page of the book with students.

Readers hold up their copies as the fiber optic adventure continues.

Students raise their hands as the activity wraps up with a thank-you to partners.

Santa Teresa High School Warrior Media students interview Mayor Perea after the reading.

Warrior Media students run the camera during reader interviews.

A Warrior Media student interviews one of the readers on camera.

Warrior Media students capture reader interviews after story time.

Readers and partners line up for a group interview with Warrior Media.

A Warrior Media reporter interviews members of the partner team.

Thank You

Thank You for Lighting the Way

These partners were recognized at the event for helping make the activity possible.

Riverside Elementary School Santa Teresa High School Warrior Media City of Sunland Park Office of U.S. Senator Ben Ray Luján Incite Network Borderplex Connect Mamacítas Cibernéticas of Southern Doña Ana County New Mexico Office of Broadband Access and Expansion