CALENDAR

Thu 9/15

Featured

Be a BCR Biologist! Homeschool Program @ 9am / Free

Bird Conservancy's Environmental

Learning Center, 14500 Lark

Bunting Lane, Brighton. 303-6594348 ext. 49 09/15/22 - Dave Halchak - The Golden Mill

@ 5:30pm The Golden Mill, 1012 Ford St, Golden

Featured

Face Vocal Band @ 7:30pm

Northglenn Arts, Parsons Theatre,

Northglenn Fri 9/16

Breakfast Burrito Bingo 9/16

@ 3pm Bison Ridge Recreation Center, 13905 E. 112th Avenue, Commerce City. 303-2893760

Once Upon A Mattress 9/16 7:00

@ 7pm / $10-$15 The LoCol Theatre, 800 South Hover Road, Longmont

Featured

Sat 9/17

Family Fun Friday- Jewelry Making

@ 12am Sep 17th - Sep 16th Bison Ridge Recreation Center, 13905 E. 112th Avenue, Commerce City. 303-2893760

Mercury Alumni Classic & Citizen Race

@ 7am / $25 9755 Henderson Rd, Brighton

Polka Folka: Todd Creek Golf Club

@ 7am Heritage Todd Creek Golf Club, 8455 Her‐itage Dr, Thornton

Blacklight Slide - Denver- 9-172022

@ 7am Sep 17th - Sep 18th Dick's Sporting Goods Park, 6000 Victory Way, Commerce City

Featured

All-Out Fallfest 5K, 10K, Half and Full Marathon- 2022 @ 7:30am

Church Ranch Of�ce Park, 10170

Church Ranch Wy, Westminster. events@alloutmultipro.com FIRSTHAND MAKERS MARKET | SEPT 17 | 10 am – 5 pm | THE ORCHARD TOWN CENTER | MACY’S PARKING LOT

@ 10am The Orchard Town Center, 14697 Delaware Street, Westminster. meghan@meghan dougherty.com, 720-460-1978

Featured

The Lull Band is at the Kokopelli @ 12pm

Kokopelli Beer Company, 8931 N

Harlan St, Westminster Farmers' Market Series: City Park Farmers' Market 9/17

@ 2:30pm Bison Ridge Recreation Center, 13905 E. 112th Avenue, Commerce City. 303-2893760 Family Fishing Frenzy

@ 4:30pm Offsite, 6060 E Parkway Drive, Commerce City. 303-289-3760

Polka Folka: Bierstadt Lagerhaus

@ 8pm Bierstadt Lagerhaus, 2875 Blake St, Den‐ver

Sun 9/18

Featured

Jog in the Bog 5k @ 9am / $30 9300 W 104th Ave, Westminster

Featured

Denver Broncos vs. Houston Texans @ 2:25pm / $123-$540

Empower Field At Mile High, 1701

Bryant St., Denver Mon 9/19

Featured

Colorado Rockies vs. San Francisco Giants @ 6:40pm / $6-$285

Coors Field, 2001 Blake St., Den‐ver Tue 9/20

Colorado Rockies vs. San Francisco Giants

@ 6:40pm / $6-$285 Coors Field, 2001 Blake St., Denver

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Featured

Kevin Smith @ 7pm

Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St,

Boulder Turkey Trot Training

@ 11:30pm Sep 20th - Nov 10th Bison Ridge Recreation Center, 13905 E. 112th Avenue, Commerce City. 303-2893760

Wed 9/21

Colorado Rockies vs. San Francisco Giants

@ 6:40pm / $6-$285 Coors Field, 2001 Blake St., Denver

Tal Cohen / John Daversa - 'the Art Of Duo'

@ 7pm Dazzle Jazz, 930 Lincoln St, Denver

Mountain�lm on Tour - Boulder

@ 7:30pm / $20 Chautauqua Auditorium, 900 Baseline Road, Boulder. Boxof�ce@Chau tauqua.com, 303-440-7666

Thu 9/22

Colorado Rockies vs. San Francisco Giants

@ 1:10pm / $6-$285 Coors Field, 2001 Blake St., Denver

Carousel of Happiness

@ 3:30pm Fort Lupton Recreation & Parks De‐partment, 203 S Harrison, Fort Lupton. 303-857-4200

Featured

Carlos Barata at Aloft Hotel Westminster @ 6pm

Aloft Denver North Westminster, 14780 Delaware Street, Westmin‐ster. carlosbaratamail@gmail.com, 484-788-3877 Erin Stereo: Rosetta Hall

Death doulas help clients at end of life

BY TAYLER SHAW TSHAW@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Although she’s healthy, Vanessa Johnston already has a plan for how she’d like to die.

She’ll be close to the outdoors, able to see the trees she loves. The smell of Nag Champa incense will fi ll the air, and a Spotify playlist she’s created will be playing. Her friends and family will visit, writing down funny stories or memories to share.

Assembling this plan, which Johnston calls vigil planning, is part of her job as a death doula, a versatile and evolving role.

“There are a lot of different names for what I do,” Johnston said, explaining other names include end-of-life doula, death midwife, exit coach and death companion. “The simplest way I can say it is that I provide emotional, spiritual and informational support for people at the end of life, and for their loved ones around them.”

Talking about death is hard, she said, but knowledge is power. When she works with clients, she aims to help them prepare for what’s to come and design an ending that best fi ts with the rest of their life, rather than experiencing a “default panic mode” about death.

“Part of the problem of not being willing and able to talk about something scary, like death, is it just promotes more fear and anxiety. And I really wanted to dismantle that, if I could,” she said.

“I tell my clients, I can’t take away the sorrow and the sadness, but maybe with more knowledge, we can focus less on fear and anxiety and more on love and meaning,” she continued.

As a death doula, Johnston typically works with people who are in hospice, and she’s usually contacted by the child of the person dying, she said.

She offers a variety of services including offering information about the dying process, addressing worries and issues, providing emotional support and planning and helping implement the atmosphere the client would like to have as they are dying.

“My ultimate goal is to help people have an empowered ending … to have a peaceful ending, whatever that looks like for them,” she said.

In the fi ve years since starting her business, Denver EOL Doula, with EOL standing for “end of life,” she has had about 15 private clients and serves people all throughout the metro Denver area.

One of her recent clients was Michelle Smith, a 52-year-old veterinary technician and beloved friend who passed away on June 4.

A warm and welcome friend

Rose Barr, a 45-year-old veterinarian at Tender Touch Animal Hospital, met Smith in 2010 through work, and the two became close friends and eventually like family to one another.

“She was very warm and welcoming. She valued having meaningful relationships with people,” Barr said, her voice fi lled with emotion. “She had this beautiful laugh, beautiful eyes.”

A veterinary technician of about 20 years, Smith was great at her job — especially when it came to dealing with naughty cats, Barr said.

“She was the one that you could turn to every single time, and she’d be able to do what we needed to do,” Barr continued.

About 10 years ago, Smith was diagnosed with breast cancer, Barr said. She got a mastectomy and understood that the surgery was curative for her at the time, and she was put on oral medications to try and control hormones.

Smith found out the cancer was back in about 2016, and around 2019, it had worsened and was in her spine. By November 2021, it started to change drastically and her doctor told her she needed to start injectable chemotherapy treatment.

“She started to feel better with some of the symptoms, and then in February, it just didn’t seem like it was responding anymore. And that’s when her doctor was like, you know, I think that you should go into hospice,” Barr said.

Smith had a tense relationship with a lot of her family members, and her parents are elderly and didn’t really understand what was happening, Barr said. Smith relied on her friend network, including Barr.

Around this time, Barr was reading a fi ctional book, “The Book of Two Ways,” and through reading, she learned about the concept of death doulas. Her curiosity piqued, and she began Googling death doulas in Colorado to potentially help Smith come to terms with what was happening, as Smith initially was hesitant to acknowledge or accept she was dying, Barr explained.

“What I was hoping to get out of it was just somebody who had experience with death that could help us in a way that wasn’t just, ‘Get your affairs in order,’” Barr said. “Somebody that could just listen to her, talk to her in her own home.”

Originally, around February, Smith began working with a different death doula, but after that person had a family emergency, Smith was referred to Johnston in April.

Although Smith was told to go into hospice around February, afterward, Smith’s doctor said chemotherapy might actually be working, and Smith continued getting treatment. However, on May 24, Smith collapsed in a parking lot as she was headed to an appointment.

At that point, Smith stopped getting chemotherapy and she began hospice, which was done at Barr’s home.

“And hospice, I kind of always thought they would just be there all the time, and that’s not how it works,” Barr said, explaining the nurse came over about three times and the chaplain and social worker each checked in once. “And so just having another support system was huge.”

Barr said it was valuable to have Johnston around, who had been through the process before and would often reassure everyone that they were doing a great job. She said Johnston offered emotional support to people, often explaining what was happening to visitors and helping remove some fear about the situation.

Having a death doula helped get Smith to a point where she could talk about her death and share her wishes with others, Barr said. Johnston also helped Smith’s family and friends navigate the fi nal days, encouraging people to talk about what was happening and to share happy memories of Smith.

Johnston also helped get a lawyer and a notary to visit Smith and Barr to complete Smith’s will, something Barr said they were panicked about beforehand.

Early in the morning on June 4, Smith passed away in Barr’s home. Upon her passing, Barr asked Johnston to check in with Smith’s parents, as she didn’t have the emotional bandwidth to do so. Johnston also came to Smith’s celebration of life, held at Hudson Gardens.

“I feel like Vanessa gave us a lot more support than hospice was able to, and even if it was just talking and checking on us and trying to help facilitate things with visitors,” Barr said. Barr describes death doulas as wonderful people who can guide others through the dying process, whether it be navigating the paperwork, the emotional part or the physical part. She said she’s considering hiring a death doula again to help her get her own affairs in order before this year is over. “I think that it’s a great thing to help you on that part of the journey, to have a death doula,” Barr said. “I think that it can help with all of the feelings and fears and emotions.”

Becoming a death doula

Before entering the death doula profession, Johnston worked as a high school English teacher.

In 2015, she was looking for a different career outside of teaching, and a friend asked if she would be interested in serving as an assistant to a man who had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, a progressive nervous system disease.

“And so I said, ‘I’m happy to do that. I have no medical experience whatsoever, but if he’s just looking for a companion, I can do that,’” Johnston said.

While caring for the man, she heard about a book called “Caring for the Dying: The Doula Approach to a Meaningful Death.” Through reading, she learned “death doula” was the term for a person who serves as a compassionate companion to someone at the end of life.

“And I thought, ‘Oh, that’s what I’ve been doing.’ So it kind of gave a name to the role that I had been kind of fulfi lling intuitively anyway, and really helped me understand what that role was,” she said.

Johnston decided to pursue training with the International End of Life Doula Association, which she completed in the summer of 2017. She began volunteering in hospice and applied her new skills towards helping care for the man, who passed in October 2017.

“And I felt like I had really helped him and his wife just go through that last milestone in a way that honored his story. And I thought, ‘Well gosh, I really want to continue to do this if I can,’” she said.

The following year, Johnston estab-

lished her business, which she said was a complicated process. Part of the diffi culty was convincing people that her services were valuable and something everyone would benefi t from. She began connecting with other doulas in the Denver area, and in 2020, they decided to form the Colorado End-of-Life Collaborative, a nonprofi t membership organization. She explained it helped create a support network for the doulas and get the word out about their profession. “We fi gured that our voices together would be louder than our voices separately, so that was the impetus for just, let’s get together and cultivate able to, and even a community,” she said. “We want to provide a community not just for the ing and checking on providers who are doing this work, but for people who need these services.”

A network of support

Originally, Johnston said the idea was to only have a directory of doulas in the nonprofi t, but then the members saw there was a need to also have a network of other providers, called paperwork, the emotional affi liate members, such as people working in funeral homes, grief counselors, notaries and so on. hiring a death doula again to help her get her own affairs in Now, there are more than 35 affi liate members across Colorado, and the number is growing, she said. “I think that it’s a great thing to One affi liate member is Crispin Sargent, a certifi ed grief yoga instructor who worked for 30 years as a geriatric care manager, offering services such as advance care planning and acting as power of attorney or conservator for some clients. “During that 30-year period of time, clients would come to us because of dysfunctional family, or because they had no family, or where the court made a determination that a disinterested third party was needed to serve in the role of conservator,” she said. She has since begun a new company, Chun Hwa LLC, which focuses on offering yoga and grief counsel-“And so I said, ‘I’m happy to do that. ing, she said. However, as an affi liate member of the nonprofi t, she still offers services related to advance care planning and the “business of death,” as she calls it. While caring for the man, she heard “It’s that community that says, nobody can do this work alone,” Sargent said about the nonprofi t, explaining members of the collaborative can call on one another for assistance. “All of the members of that group have a specialty, have a passion.” “And I thought, ‘Oh, that’s what I’ve Death is a life experience, she said, and she knows from personal experience the value of planning and preparing for death before a person is close to it or is in crisis. “You want to do all of your planning at a time where there can be stories that are told,” she said, explaining planning ahead of time allows for more consideration of options and for a person’s loved ones to understand the plan as well. “If you try and do all of that at the deathbed, your brain isn’t functioning, nothing is functioning, nothing is in place, and you don’t have that opportunity,” she said. Although Sargent had previously done the legal parts of planning and preparing for her death, she said she hadn’t thought about the actual time of death and the type of environment she would like.

Earlier this year, she began working with her friend, Karen Keeran, who recently became a death doula. Together, they began discussing Sargent’s wishes, such as having a calm and quiet environment when she is close to passing.

“I have a very signifi cant level of gratitude to her because she knows that I can be a different kind of challenge because I know too much,” Sargent said, explaining she looks at situations from every angle. “She keeps me on track.”

Prioritizing education

Choosing to become a death doula was a spiritual type of decision for Keeran.

In 2020, a year before she retired from her career in business, Keeran was meditating and asked the universe what she should do next. She said she woke up the next morning and it was like a light switch had been turned on — she should become a death doula.

She had learned about death doulas a few years ago from a friend, she said. Following her retirement in 2021, she began her six-month training with the Conscious Dying Institute, as well as began training to become a certifi ed nurse aide. In February 2022, she also completed training through the Conscious Dying Institute as a conscious dying educator.

“Knowledge and information, I’m a big believer in, reduces fear,” she said. “I want to be able to bring that planning to the fore and have that in place before we reach (the) end of life.”

A main focus for Keeran, she said, is targeting education efforts toward older generations, communicating the value of putting together an end-of-life plan and exploring topics of pain, caregiving and medical aid in dying. She also helps people learn about the variety of body disposition options available to people in Colorado, such as water cremation.

With this goal of educating and helping others, Keeran launched her business, Golden Heart Transition, this spring. She offers a range of services including grief support, doula services, end-of-life planning and coaching using the “best three months” model developed by the Conscious Dying Institute.

One of her fi rst clients was her friend, Maxine Wagoner, an owner of a yoga studio in Golden that Keeran is a member of. Wagoner said she had never heard of a death doula until Keeran approached her.

“When she introduced it to me, what she was doing, it was really interesting. I was kind of surprised, but yet, at the same time, I was like, wow, that’s a really unique business and a unique way to help people,” Wagoner said.

While Keeran was completing her training last year, she needed people to practice her skills with, Wagoner said. Wagoner volunteered, and they did the “best three months” course.

“You have to put yourself in a mindset of, you have three months left to live. And then, in that three-month time, what practically do you want to accomplish?” Wagoner said. “And it was good to be able to do it without actually being in that situation.”

As part of the experience, Keeran gave Wagoner a map to write down what Wagoner’s wishes were so her family would know, helping alleviate some of the stress her family would experience following her death.

“We don’t know when we’re going to pass unless we’ve been given that kind of diagnosis. So for me, it was really powerful and … made me feel strong about it,” Wagoner said. “It’s just a very comforting feeling, and empowering yourself to be able to express what you really want, because to family members sometimes, you can’t express that.”

The future of death doulas

As educators about death and dying, both Johnston and Keeran expressed the importance of changing how people discuss death and dying, such as not associating it with giving up or as a failure.

“We know it’s inevitable, so let’s work on our approach to this inevitable thing,” Johnston said. “A big part of what I do is to normalize this for people, which it seems strange to say that this thing that happens to 100% of us needs to be normalized, but it does because we don’t ever talk about it.”

There has been some progress, as Keeran said she remembers a time when death and grief were hardly ever talked about, especially in the 1970s.

“I have a deep background in death. My childhood was full of death and loss,” Keeran said, explaining she was basically on her own at 19 years old. “Who I want to be now, is that person that I didn’t have, and my family didn’t have when I was growing up.”

The death doula profession has also evolved over time, Johnston said, and as an emerging profession, discussions continue about how it may change in the future.

Although she said she wants to legitimize the profession, she’s hesitant about the idea of establishing a national certifi cation board for death doulas, as there currently is not one.

“The tricky thing is, is that people have done what I do for millennia,” Johnston said, explaining she doesn’t want to create further barriers to entering the profession.

Currently, death doulas are outside of the medical care system, and Johnston said she thinks it should stay that way.

“I’m very hesitant to get into any kind of a role in the medical care system,” she said, explaining she worries about over-regulation. “If I were to be, like, a Medicare benefi t, then I would have this obligation to follow these strict rules, which really hampers my ability to meet families where they are, to serve whatever their needs are.”

In her current role, Johnston has maximum independence and fl exibility, she said. However, being outside the medical care system can hinder people’s willingness to pay for the death doula services since it’s out-ofpocket, she said.

“It’s this tricky thing of establishing value while providing the service, but I really think that the future of death doulas remains outside the medical care system just because that independence and fl exibility, I think, is how we serve our clients the best,” Johnston said.

Keeran agreed, saying she has seen how hospice nurses and aides are limited in how much time they can serve clients. She said she sees death doulas as offering specialty services, also noting that limiting death doulas to hospice care could reduce the number of people the doulas can serve.

Karen Keeran, a death doula based in Golden, at her home o ce on Aug 24.

PHOTO BY TAYLER SHAW

Vanessa Johnston, a death doula of fi ve years, with her dog at her home in Highlands Ranch on Aug 25.

PHOTO BY TAYLER SHAW

Crispin Sargent, an a liate member of the Colorado End-of-Life Collaborative.

COURTESY OF CRISPIN SARGENT

Michelle Smith at Niagara Falls on her birthday, May 12, 2022. Going to Niagara Falls was on Smith’s bucket list, her

friend Rose Barr said. PHOTO BY TAYLER SHAW

Although working as a death doula can take a lot of emotional capacity, it’s a job Keeran and Johnston feel called to.

“This is me doing my heart’s work now, and it’s just super exciting,” Keeran said.

Despite what others may think, Johnston embraces life because of her job, she said.

“When somebody says, ‘That must be so depressing,’ I’m like, actually it’s the complete opposite,” Johnston said. “When you deal with death on a daily basis, it really makes you value life.”

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Musician’s eclectic sounds seek to entertain and transport

Scott Je ers and Traveler featured at Northglenn Pirate Festival

BY KATHLEEN DUNLAP SPECIAL TO COLORADO COMMUNITY MEDIA

Colorado native musician Scott Jeffers wants his music to take his audience on a journey around the world. His band, “Traveler” will be performing at the Northglenn Pirate Festival at noon Sept. 17.

Jeffers’ music is an eclectic style, molded both by his upbringing and his travels abroad. Born and raised in Boulder, Jeffers was infl uenced by the music of his parent’s choosing. The sounds of Simon and Garfunkel, Gordon Lightfoot and other American folk music fi lled their house. His mom, originally from Lebanon, was also a belly dancer and danced to traditional Lebanese music.

“Then my sister discovered rock,” Jeffers says with a laugh.

Soon, the sounds of Alice Cooper and Deep Purple resonated in his mind. At 16, he began performing at cafes and other small venues.

“I started to make my living from music,” he said.

From that point onward, he developed his own unique sound and formed his fi rst band.

“It was a calling,”, he said. The songs shaped themselves as he worked on them. His band started as an acoustic band but evolved into a blend of both acoustic and hard rock sounds.

Jeffers wanted to blend the varied sounds of music from around the world into his compositions, so he traveled extensively. He has visited Morocco, Egypt, Lebanon, Romania, Scotland, and Ireland.

“I was just exploring, performing, sitting down with musicians,” Jeffers said. “Traveling infl uenced the music, as well as the culture, the food, and the mannerism of people.”

These experiences laid the foundation for his latest compositions.

Strings star

The violin is Jeffers’ main instrument. He’s played it for 26 years.

It’s the cornerstone of everything I do.”

He spends regular days in practice — going through scales and various techniques. Out of the 25 instruments in total that he plays, only fi ve or six make appearances during live shows. While the violin remains the star of his show, Jeffers also enjoys playing the Arabic Oud, the Moroccan Loutr or the Indian wooden fl ute as these instruments add dramatic fl are and exotic sounds to his performances.

Jeffers considers himself a musical chameleon.

“The genre of world music is vast, so I’m not one to sound the same every time,” Jeffers said.

A recent performance at the Estes Park Scotfest featured Scottish and Irish pieces, while the Pirate Festival will also showcase more Mediterranean and Arabic sounds. And Jeffers said he’ll try to look the part. At Northglenn’s Pirate Festival, Jeffers will, naturally, be dressed as a Pirate.

“I kinda look like a Pirate day-today anyway,” he says.

He plans to utilize a double-octave pedal on his violin. This pedal allows him to play multiple notes simultaneously, which gives the single instrument the sound of a full orchestra. “You’re hearing the cello and a bass at the same time as the violin,” he says. “It’s very pirate-y! It’s a one-man, world-fusion, Viking metal orchestra!”

Jeffers and his band desire to entertain all who attend their shows and their response and enjoyment remain paramount to him.

“I want them to feel like they went on a journey through ancient lands,” he says. “You know that feeling you get when you see a movie? Like you were just there? Music is a memory of a place, so I want them to feel that. And I think they do because they tell me.”

Musician and multiple-instrument performer Scott Je ers is scheduled to take the stage at noon Sept. 17, one of the featured acts at Northglenn’s Pirate Festival at E.B. Rains Jr. Memorial Park.

NORTHGLENN PIRATE FESTIVAL 2022

Sept. 16 and 17 at the E.B. Rains Jr Memorial Park

11701 Community Dr., Northglenn

Pirate Night

6-10 p.m. Sept. 16 Entry to this adult-oriented event is free and food and drinks will be for sale on site. There will be music, sword fighting, treasure and crowning of 2022’s Pirate King

Pirate Fest

Noon-6 p.m. Sept. 17 Free entry to this family-friendly event. There will be food drinks, crafts, mermaids, pirate demonstrations and some fun character appearances. The annual Cardboard Boat Regatta sets sail on Webster Lake at 1 p.m.

STAFF REPORT

Corn mazes and other activities - haunted and otherwise - are set to reopen along Rivedale Road this month.

Palombo Farms Maize in the City is scheduled to open for the fall on Sept. 24 featuring a 20-acre corn maze and assorted other family attractions. The maze is located at 10451 McKay Road in Thornton.

“We love that Maize in the City is a place that brings families and friends together and builds community,” said Gina Palombo-Dinkel, Maize in the City co-owner. “We’re happy to see everyone exploring the corn mazes, picking out pumpkins and adventuring through the many attractions on our site while enjoying the fall season.”

Families lost in the cornfi eld can navigate their way through the Crazed Corn Field Maze with the help of the customizable smartphone trivia game. Little ones can take the lead through the Mini Maze - a maze cut into a shorter corn stalk fi eld.

The attraction also offers locally grown pumpkins, gourds, Indian corn and other fall décor for purchase. Kids can also swim through the free corn kernel box, take turns conquering the playground or venture through the hay bale maze.

Maize in the City is open select dates from Sept 24 through Oct. 31. Visit maizeinthecity.com for exact dates and times and attraction and site details.

Admission to the Maize in the City site is free with attraction prices varying from free to $20.

Field of Screams

The maze’s scary addition is set to open Sept. 30. The Haunted Field of Screams, Colorado’s largest haunted attraction, is built into a 40-acre corn fi eld to offer a daunting indoor/ outdoor haunt experience.

“Each year we challenge ourselves to make the haunted attraction a more thrilling, memorable experience for our visitors,” said Mark Villano, coowner of the Haunted Field of Screams. “We purposefully play on the natural elements of our site - the corn fi eld, the woods, the moonlight - and use these elements to create a more realistic, daunting and bone-chilling scare.”

The Haunted Field of Screams is open Sept. 30 through Oct. 31, Friday through Sunday nights as well as select other dates. Visit hauntedfi eldofscreams.com for the full schedule.

Tickets are $29.99 - $39.99 with VIP Fast Pass available. Tickets are now available for purchase at hauntedfi eldofscreams. com. A limited number of onsite tickets will also be available for purchase.

“This year, we’ve had the unique opportunity to

otherwise - are set to reopen along Rivedale Road this month. open for the fall on Sept. 24 featuring a 20-acre corn maze and assorted other family attractions. The maze is located at 10451 McKay Road in Thornton. that brings families and friends together and builds community,” said Gina Palombo-Dinkel, Maize in the City co-owner. “We’re happy to see everyone exploring the corn mazes, picking out pumpkins and adventuring through the many attractions on our completely reinvent the haunted attraction on the west side of McKay Road,” Villano said. “With new thrilling natural elements incorporated into the haunt, we expect to give visitors the longest and most daunting scare experience they’ve had to date.”

Mark Villano, Gina Palombo-Dinkel and Joe Palombo started the Haunted Field of Screams in 2001 as a corn maze before turning it into a haunt. FILE PHOTO

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Placental twins shared more than their parents love

BY BELEN WARD BWARD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Taylor and Bryan Rieder were expecting their fi rst baby but were thrilled to discover they were expecting their fi rst two — twins.

It was no surprise for husband Bryan, an identical twin himself. But the news darkened a bit at 20 weeks when they discovered their twins shared more than most twins. Both were growing in the same placenta and sharing the same blood supply, a potentially dangerous condition called “Mo/di” for Monochorionic diamniotic pregnancy.

“Mo/di twins are very rare and only 1% of pregnancies carry Mo/di twins. They share a placenta and blood supply which can be fatally dangerous,” said Dr. Henry Galan, a fetal surgeon and maternal-fetal medicine specialist at Children’s Hospital Colorado.

It’s been a rough year, but the twins are fi ne. Now, a little older than nine months, they’re thriving.

“It’s been awesome to be able to come home from work and be able to take care of the girls. I put a lot into perspective because I’m also an identical twin. So knowing what my parents had to go through, you know, now being able to experience that puts it into perspective for us,” Bryan said.

A discovery of twins

When Taylor was eight weeks pregnant, she went to her appointment at Platte Valley Medical Center in Brighton and discovered the babies were twins.

“During my ultrasound, they said you have Di/di twins, which means Dichorionic diamniotic twins,” Taylor said. It’s how most twins grow, in their own amniotic sacs and placentas.

It was a surprise name that meant that there was nothing unsuspected. Even though Bryan was a twin himself, they had no idea what Di/di meant. And further tests and ultrasound appointments didn’t change.

It wasn’t until the Reiders went in for a more powerful scan at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Denver to determine their babies’ genders at 20 weeks before they learned about the amniotic sac.

“The gal instantly looked kind of silent and the whole ultrasound was kind of uneasy for Bryan and I,” Taylor Reider said. “She told us, ‘These are not Di/di twins!’ I did not have much to say- I had a pit in my stomach and was lost for words.”

They were referred to Children’s Hospital Colorado and followed up with them the next day. That brought them to Dr. Henry Galan, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist and fetal surgeon for about 27 years.

Dr. Galan said one twin would likely be growth restricted because they share the same placenta with abnormal umbilical blood fl ow. It was a higher-risk pregnancy and would have to be closely monitored, he said.

The science of twins

Mo/di twins are “... roughly about under 1% of all pregnancies. Twins are about 3% of all pregnancies, and 1/3 of these pregnancies are identical twins,” Dr. Galan said.

Both babies had their own umbilical cords, they were simply connected to the same placenta.

“Those vessels and the umbilical cords branch out like the roots of the tree across the placenta for each baby. And on the surface of the placenta, which is universally connected vessels from one side of the placenta to the other, they share a circulation,” he said.

Dr. Galan said identical twins result from a fertilized egg that splits. The timing of the split dictates what type of twins you end up carrying.

If it splits within the fi rst three days, you will have Di/ di twins. If they split between three and eight days, you end up with Mo/di twins like Taylors.

If the split is after eight days, you end up Monoamniotic monochorionic (Mo/mo) twins, in which both babies are in the same amniotic sac sharing the same placenta.

“You lose about 50% of Mo/mo babies because of cord entanglements. Or you end up with congenital defects and most are lost with miscarriage. The later the single fertilized egg splits, the more complicated and high risk it becomes,” Dr. Galan said.

Taylor carried her twins for 35 weeks, with doctors monitoring them once a week because of several complications.

“The split wasn’t even on the placenta for each baby. So one baby got a smaller placental share compared to the other. It sets that baby up for complications, such as selective fetal growth restriction,” he said.

The baby could become very sick as blood fl ow worsens, he said but it was a threat for both babies. For example, one baby could pass away, and the other baby could also be lost because of bleeding through the connections on the other side of the placenta from the smaller fetus that passed away.

“Fortunately, the blood fl ows improved we could carry Riley all the way to 35 weeks gestation,” Dr. Galan said.

Riley and Jaci Rieder were born on Dec. 10, 2021, and placed in Children’s Hospital Colorado Newborn Intensive Care Unit.

Riley was born growthrestricted, weighing three pounds and three ounces but was only in the hospital for three weeks. The bigger and healthier Jaci was in the hospital for the next three months.

The journey for Jaci

Taylor said Riley was a rock star drinking her bottles and kept growing.

“It was kind of funny, we had to get a car seat that was rated small enough, and when she hit the four-pound mark, she was in the car seat. The next morning, we left the hospital with Riley -- it was surreal,” she said.

The Reiders drove back and forth every day, leaving the house at 6:30 a.m. with Riley to see Jaci at the hospital until 4 p.m. Jaci had developed some unknown health problems and needed as many as eight blood transfusions during her stay.

“We got a call in the middle of the night, it was pretty scary. They said she had bloody diapers and they needed to consent for a blood transfusion. We panicked and went to the hospital and got her transfusions,” Taylor said.

Taylor said they fi rst thought it was a milk protein allergy causing the bleeding. They switched her formula, the bleeding stopped and a month later, they brought Jaci home.

But she did not get better.

“Then for two weeks, she really bad bloody diapers again and we went back to the hospital and did two more blood transfusions,” Taylor said.

The Reiders sought many different doctors and had several specialty tests.

Finally, their last straw was an exploratory surgery that found that Jaci had Infantile Hemangioma, a tumor in her small intestine — the cause of her bleeding the entire time.

Jaci tumor should shrink and disappear in the next few years and she has appointments fi ve times a month at Children’s Colorado to monitor the tumors.

Both Riley and Jaci are growing, a little over nine months old and are doing great.

“The girls being healthy is all I can really ask for — and obviously for them to get along,” Bryan said.

“The team at Children’s Colorado is incredible. Dr. Galan really cares about us and our girls. We are not just another number to him but rather, real people,” Taylor said. “We wouldn’t have our girls and defi nitely don’t know where we would be now with Jaci without the experts at Children’s Colorado. They are the reason we are family of four.”

Taylor and Brian Rieder with their identical twin girls. COURTESY OF THE RIEDERS

“I think the Paulson family had a big reunion every 10 or 15 years, and they would all bring their family albums, and they tried to update them. It’s all paper, it must have been a monumental chore to put this together.”

Johnson said that genealogy books were really popular in the Midwest in the 70s and 80s. He has up to four generations of family that had similar books.

“I think there was a company that was selling them with basic instructions on how to do them,” Johnson said.

Johnson said these books he received belonged to Helen Jean Paulson from Brighton. She passed away in 2008. He has not been able to track down anyone yet but thinks Helen’s daughter, who lived in Denver after Helen died, was getting everything out of her house and mistakenly included those albums with books.

“It’d be a pretty bad mistake. The Paulson family tree book, we have a few copies within the family and a family person would treasure the other two. That Miller, Paulson photo album, those are photos from the early 1900s,” Johnson said.

Norway

The Miller, Paulson book has numerous original pictures of Johnson’s grandmother from Norway.

“The Miller, Paulson book probably has some real value. The blue book is Helen Jean Paulson’s photo album from the 1970s to the 1990s with descriptions of who was in the photos. She has photos of her horses, dogs and her two brothers Alan and Gordon Paulson,” Johnson said.

Johnson said Gordon lived in Aurora for a while, so he thinks that is how Helen moved to Colorado from South Dakota.

“Alan was an admiral in the Navy and passed away in 1988 and Gordon, was a bird colonel in the Air Force and passed away in 1998. There’s an older brother Russell who died in 1979,” said Johnson.

In the genealogy book, their ancestors Martin and Kjersti Paulson migrated from Norway to Minnesota, and after they were married moved to South Dakota in 1876.

Johnson said the Paulson family migrated to Moody County, South Dakota, right by Sioux Falls north of there.

“It was very Scandinavian. Norwegian immigrants ended up in Minnesota, South Dakota and North Dakota. There are very few left or any, I’m not aware of any Paulson or any of my relatives that are left in Moody County. They spread out,” Johnson said.

The fi rst generation were farmers, and the next generations went to college and moved on, he said. Johnson said his family has always been believers in education.

Johnson is working on fi nding some other relatives and will continue working on the books, hoping to update them up to this century.

“To fi nd these books was a coincidence and it’s kind of impossible,” Johnson said.

Librarian Cindy Lyons found the three Paulson Miller genealogy books and mailed them to a relative in Minnesota. FILE PHOTO

Heritage Day

Saturday, Sept. 24

Adams County Museum 9601 Henderson Road Brighton, CO 80601

Car show from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Registration 9 a.m. Dash claques for the fi rst 50 registered cars. Awards presented at approximately 12:30 11 a.m. in the Hoffman Hall:

Presentation on Bob Sakata for his agricultural

Archies Hot Dogs on site and civic contributions to the community. for food purchase! ► Free admission into the buildings from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., plus blacksmith demonstrations.

Josh Phillips, a resident of Highlands Ranch, came to the site for his shot, his fi fth, since he’d already had the original series, plus two previous boosters.

“It is just, you know, trying to protect myself and my family as much as possible,” he said, noting he was fl ying to Pennsylvania soon. “I’m actually traveling next week. So I think it’s important, especially in a congested place, like the airport, to be as protected as possible. And the rest of my family will be doing this as well, as soon as we can.”

“I just thought it would be a good idea, you know, considering that we’re about to enter fl u season and all,” said Fred Bernal, a Denver resident who also got his omicron booster shot. He said he did catch the coronavirus last November, right before he got a booster. “It probably would’ve been a lot more serious had I not received my vaccine,” he said.

Bernal brought his in-laws to get their shots. That included his mother-in-law, Anita Easton, who was in town from Oregon and needed no encouragement to get her booster.

“I’m absolutely convinced, but I’m a biologist, so I know why it’s good for you and why you should do it,” she said.

What’s the difference between the original booster and the updated booster?

Diana Herrero, deputy director of the Division of Disease Control and Public Health Response for CDPHE, said the updated COVID boosters contain a spike protein that offers specifi c protection to the omicron strain that caused a huge wave in cases at the beginning of 2022.

They also offer protection against the omicron subvariants that are currently the dominant strains in Colorado and the U.S.

The booster shots millions of Coloradans received since last fall were not specifi cally formulated to protect against omicron, she added.

“Much like viruses evolve over time, our vaccines really need to do the same thing to keep up with the strains that are circulating,” Herrero said. “We think these will be really effective at preventing the worst outcomes of severe disease, hospitalization and death.”

Who is eligible for the updated booster?

In order to get an updated booster you must: • Be at least 12 years old to get the updated Pfi zer-BioNTech booster or 18 years or older for the updated Moderna booster • Have completed the primary series of Pfi zer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson or Novavax • And be at least two months out from the last dose you received.

What about kids younger than 12?

The CDC said in a press release last week that it “expects to recommend updated COVID-19 boosters for other pediatric groups” in the coming weeks.

We will update this article as more updates become available.

Where can I get an appointment to get the updated booster?

CDPHE’s website lists several links to view availability of the updated booster at providers around the state. You can fi nd those links by clicking here.

Those offering the shots include many primary care offi ces, community health centers, pharmacies, and community vaccination sites.

A Moderna COVID-19 vaccine vial is held by Lincoln Community Hospital registered nurse Deanne Kahler of Hugo as she prepares to administer COVID-19 vaccinations to patients at the hospital in Hugo on Wednesday, Feb. 24 2021. PHOTO BY ANDY COLWELL/SPECIAL TO THE COLORADO SUN

This story is from CPR News, a nonprofi t news source. Used by permission. For more, and to support Colorado Public Radio, visit cpr.org.

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PHOTOS BY STEVE SMITH

Fort Lupton High School students, teachers and alums celebrated their 2022 homecoming with a parade and a football game Sept. 9, beating Weld Central.

Lenny Bachicha prepares a batch of hamburgers for the Fort Lupton High School Booster Club’s barbecue supper/ ra e ahead of the Bluedevils’ homecoming football game Sept. 9. Members of Fort Lupton High School’s Folklorico ride down the homecoming parade route Sept. 9.

PHOTOS BY STEVE SMITH

Mary Ellen LeBlanc helps Fort Lupton football player Jovonni Carleton sign in for the Fort Lupton High School Booster Club’s barbecue supper and ra e before the Bluedevils’ homecoming game Sept. 9.

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SENIORS & MILITARY! Fort Lupton High School’s band makes its way down the parade route during the school’s homecoming parade Sept. 9.