Sculpture, arts mark Evergreen’s annual Day of the Arts

BY DEB HURLEY BROBST DBROBST@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

June 3 truly was an arts day — from sculpture installations around Evergreen to Center for the Arts Evergreen’s fourth annual Day of the Arts.

Eleven sculptures were added to Evergreen’s rotating sculpture walk, plus others were placed in Bergen Park. Day of the Arts, an outdoor festival to celebrate many types of art, was a hit with attendees.

Sculpture Walk matter when you were part of the department, you are still family.

Evergreen Fire/Rescue celebrated its diamond jubilee with a barbecue for re ghters past and present over Memorial Day weekend, with veteran volunteers greeting friends old

Each year, according to Sara Miller with Center for the Arts Evergreen, the sculptures coming to Evergreen get better and better.

“ is year the sculptures are out of this world,” she said, noting that some of the new pieces are from veteran artists to the Sculpture Walk while some are new to the and new, and telling stories about their time as rst responders serving the community.

For current Fire Chief Mike Weege, who went through re ghter training in 2001 and has been with EFR his entire re ghting career, the barbecue was a chance to reconnect with retired re ghters. He said getting involved with EFR in the early 2000s allowed him to get to know some of the founding members and subsequent generations of volunteers.

Evergreen Fire/Rescue is writing a book on the 75 years of history that will be available for purchase later this year.

A strong start

Forty-six men signed the charter to create the Evergreen Volunteer Fire Department. ey chipped in money to buy equipment, and they got together to build the rst re station in downtown Evergreen.

e names are a who’s who of Evergreen old-timers: Alderfer, Ault, Anderson, Griebling, Olde, Rouse, Teske, Snowbarger, Renshaw and more. More about that history can be found on the Evergreen Fire/Rescue website.

In the rst page of the handwritten minutes of the Evergreen Volunteer Fire Department dated Oct. 4, 1948,

Jack Rouse wrote: “Between these covers are written the words and deeds of a few, the glory of fewer and the fame of none. In no other organization can these few do so much for so many. May God give them the courage and fortitude to meet this challenge, their heritage.”

The 1960s For Lloyd See and his wife Carrol Crosson See, Evergreen Fire/Rescue was a way of life. Carrol called herself a “ re ghter brat” since her dad, Melvin “Swede” Crosson, was with the department for a long time. After Lloyd and Carrol married, Swede knocked on their door one night. Lloyd thought he and Swede were going to a bar; instead, they were going to Station 1 so Lloyd could join EFR.

“My dad always said if you live in Evergreen, you have to be a re ghter,” Carrol said.

Marilyn Sandifer, whose husband Bill was a re ghter from 1965 to 1985, attended the barbecue. She said the rst time she was alone with Bill –not a date, she noted – Bill stopped at the re station, and he let her sit in a retruck. “It was a stepping stone” to their long marriage, she said.

The 1970s e retirees talked about the hose cart races in the 1970s, and how Evergreen was the state champion three years in a row, beating other volunteer re departments. A trophy and photos of the team in action are on display in a cabinet in the entry way to the Administration Building. e best part, he added, was working with really good people and doing a good job, noting that “there’s nothing more exciting that running into a burning building.”

Pete Anderson, who served on the department from 1977 to 2007 and is writing the EFR history book, said no calls stand out as he looks back on his 30 years. He explained that some calls were heartbreaking since rst responders tend to see people on their worst day.

Anderson’s father and uncle were charter members of the department. Rhoda Schleicher, who was among the rst women in the department, joined in 1979, and while some of the older re ghters gave her grief for joining, they realized she was the perfect size to get into attics and crawl spaces, places others couldn’t get into.

“I refused to make co ee,” she said.

She noted that the teamwork among the re ghters was the department’s greatest asset.

“ e fact that we came from all over the place, and we worked together to put out a re made it special,” she said. “Training was fun, and I made friends. It was a challenge, but the challenge was fun.”

The 1980s

Joe Stein, who served from 1985 to 2006, said innovation was necessary in those days, noting that the reghters worked hard but had a good time, too. One of his favorite memories was training to be on the rappelling team for helicopter responses, saying he still had the harness he wore for those missions.

Stein recently rejoined the department as part of the retired reserve as a tender truck driver. He said the rst time he came to grab a truck, other, younger re ghters wondered who he was, and they welcomed him like a brother once they learned his new role with the department.

George Merchant, who served from 1979 to 1999, said he remembered going from just boots and a jacket to full re ghting bunker gear during his tenure with the department.

Dick Merkel, who served from 1972 to 1982, recalled the huge amount of work to combine the re department with the separate ambulance service. He said re ghters responded to calls and waited for the emergency medical personnel to arrive. It made sense, he said, to combine the two services.

“We went from providing rst aid to an EMT program,” he said. “It was memorable to get the rescue unit going.”

His wife, Judy, was especially grateful for the combined department because Dick was hit by a drunken driver in 1989, and “they saved his life because of the program he started.”

Dispatching Schleicher, who left re ghting and became a dispatcher with Rose Smith in the late 1970s and 1980s, said it was vastly di erent than the current Je com high-tech dispatch center. Five women worked from their homes, and since most had young children, they helped each other, making sure that someone was available to take calls and dispatch rst responders 24/7. e dispatchers helped each other out when one needed to leave the house to take out the trash, do something with the children or take time to vacuum the carpets.

Schleicher says she still has nightmares that the phones are unattended when calls come in.

In those days, GPS didn’t exist, so the dispatchers had maps available to gure out where the emergency was and provide directions to responders.

The 2000s to present day e early 2000s, Weege noted, were a time of huge growth for the department, which went from four re stations to its current eight, plus the construction of the Administration Building on Bergen Parkway.

“We doubled the size of the apparatus and the buildings,” he said. “ at was a big change.”

He is proud that Evergreen Fire/ Rescue grew along with Evergreen.

“We’re proud of our history, those who came before us and had the foresight to start the department, recognize the growth of Evergreen and the need to expand,” Weege said. “ ey had a willingness to change over the years. e department’s forefathers recognized the growth and need to provide a level of service this community expects.” While the volunteers are the core of re operations in the department, Weege said, the department has expanded into re prevention and most recently the wildland group.

Mike Gregory, who served with EFR from 2002 to 2014, then was elected to the re department’s board of directors, said joining the department was the best thing he ever did.

“I had 80 immediate friends when I joined, and I still have those friends,” he said.

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Evergreen sculpture scene.

She explained that the partnership between Sculpture Evergreen and Center for the Arts Evergreen has worked well. is year, Sculpture Evergreen moved under the center’s umbrella.

“With the partnership, we have had a greater level of sculpture,” she said.

Couple the Sculpture Walk with the latest exhibition in the gallery called “Sculpted,” and Evergreen has had a lot of sculptors visiting from around the country.

“It’s been really fun to have this group of artists here,” Miller said. “ ey speak their own language.”

Simpson sculpture

Artist Ann Simpson, who taught art to Evergreen Middle School students for years before retiring and working on her own art, has a sculpture called “Upon Re ection” in the permanent Sculpture Walk in Bergen Park.

She said the woman with negative spaces throughout the sculpture shows how people give away their thoughts, ideas, knowledge, spirit and love to others.

“All of that leaves you, but you’re still a whole, intact person,” she explained. “ is sculpture shows all the energy I gave to my students.”

What is special about having Simpson’s sculpture in the Sculpture Walk, Miller said, is how much she has given to students and the arts community for many years.

“For people who come back to Evergreen who had (Simpson) as their art teacher, now they can see her artistic work,” Miller said. “Rarely do students get to see their teacher’s work.”

Simpson is not the only Evergreen artist to be in the Sculpture Walk. Also in the walk are Tom Ware, Maureen Scott, Laura Mehmert, Nancy Golden and Harold Linke, who recently moved from Evergreen.

Other sculptors

“Isolation” by James Payne now sits on Meadow

Drive near Church of the Cross. e massive wood sculpture took several hours to install. Payne is based in Vermont, and he has focused recently on large-scale swirl structures constructed from heavy wood beams, showing dynamic movement.

“Cold Moon” by Colorado Springs sculptor Sandy Friedman sits at the Lakepoint Center, along with another of his sculptures now at Buchanan Park.

Friedman said on Dec. 25, 2015, he watched the Cold Moon rising while he was visiting New Mexico. He called the view ethereal as the clouds kept rising along with the moon. is is Friedman’s fth year participating in the Evergreen Sculpture Walk.

Day of the Arts

June 3 was a convergence of the arts in many of its forms. Day of the Arts combined visual and performing arts in a fun- lled day for kids and adults alike.

Attendees were treated to battle of the bands, and dance and choir performances, plus vendors and artisans had booths to browse.

Sonya Saba, who was a Rocky Mountain Academy of Evergreen teacher, has become addicted to glass blowing. She received a gift of glass-blowing classes about two years ago and never looked back.

“I’m just fascinated by glass,” the Evergreen resident said.

Kaylie Hall of Golden works with watercolors, primarily animals and landscapes.

“I always wanted to be an artist,” she explained. “ e eyes are everything,” she said of her animal subjects. “Once I have the eyes (painted), then I name them. It’s essential to capture the eyes.”