Fort Lupton Press 122222

For Brighton dairy farm, reindeer are part of the family

BY BELEN WARD

David and Kayla McIntosh call them pets – sisters Juniper and Cranberry and big old Kristoph.

e family and their three reindeer

Denver mayor issues emergency declaration

BY TATIANA FLOWERS AND DELANEY NELSON THE COLORADO SUN

Denver Mayor Michael Hancock on Dec. 15 issued an emergency declaration, hoping to head o a “local humanitarian crisis” as hundreds of migrants, mostly from Central and South America, have converged downtown in recent months, straining the city’s ability to care for them and reunify them with loved ones.

e announcement comes as 247 more migrants have arrived in Denver since Dec. 14, overwhelming an emergency shelter at a city recreational center and causing the city to open another.

“Let me be frank: is in ux of migrants, the unanticipated nature of their arrival, and our current space and sta ng challenges have put an immense strain on city resources, to the level where they’re on the verge of reaching a breaking point at this time,” Hancock said.

“What I don’t want to see is a local humanitarian crisis of unsheltered migrants on our hands because of a lack of resources,” he said.

Many of the migrants had gathered in communities along the Mexico border, mainly in El Paso, Texas, the mayor said, adding that nongovernmental organizations at the border are encouraging migrants to go elsewhere, including to Denver.

e mayor spoke ursday afternoon at the Emergency Operations Center, in the basement of the City and County Building, at 1437 Bannock St.

City employees and other local agencies are working around the clock

Juniper, who happens to be pregnant, stops for a scratch from owners Kayla and David McIntosh.

Photos by Belen Ward

Cranberry and Juniper’s eating time.

Small herd is a labor of love for the McIntosh family

‘Local humanitarian crisis’ cited as more migrants arrive

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Airport hosting holiday menorah

STAFF REPORT

Broom eld’s Rocky Mountain Municipal Airport will host the Chabad of Northwest Metro Denver’s holiday menorah for Hanukkah this year. e nine-foot-tall electric menorah is displayed on the upper level of the terminal building. e electric menorah will be lit with the correct lights each night of Hanukkah, which begins Dec. 18. e airport will host a fth night lighting and part on Dec. 22.

Rabbi Benjy Brackman of Chabad of NW Metro Denver said he’s excited to be hosting a menorah at a Colorado airport.

“It’s very gracious of the Rocky Mountain Metro Airport to display the menorah, already community members who use the airport have talked about the sense of inclusiveness they feel with the menorah standing next to the holiday tree,” Brackman said. “Especially in the current environment of heightened antisemitism, this gesture is even more meaningful.”

It’s part of a series of Hanukkah celebrations hosted by Chabad of Northwest Metro Denver. It includes a rst night lighting party Dec. 18 at Orchard Town Center, the second night lighting Dec. 19 at the Medusa Collective art gallery at 140 Hooker St. in Westminster and the third night lighting Dec. 20 at the Village at Larkridge Shopping Center, 16542 Washington St., in ornton. Olde Town Arvada hosts the fourth night

lighting Dec. 21.

e airport menorah lighting and Hanukkah party is scheduled at the airport at 4:30 p.m. Dec. 22, the fth night of Hanukkah. e menorah’s electric bulbs will be replaced with large candles for the community menorah lighting.

e Hanukkah party will take place in the terminal’s large meeting space, overlooking the runway and the mountains at sunset. e event will include live Hanukkah music, a magic show and a light supper including Hanukkah treats of donuts and latkahs.

e event is sponsored by air carrier JSX, which operates daily ights from the airport. e event is free. RSVP are required.

For more info and to RSVP please visit www.COJewish.com/airport online.

Council draws up economic development wishlist

BY STEVE SMITH SSMITH@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

A place to buy Levi’s or a washing machine.

How about a steakhouse? Or a chicken restaurant?

“We are a farming community, but there is no place to buy barbecued chicken,” Mayor Zo Hubbard said during a Dec. 13 Fort Lupton City Council town hall. “ at doesn’t seem right.”

ose were some of the ideas tossed around during a discussion on economic development. Hubbard wondered about a couple of area enterprises. One was a mushroom farm owned by former NFL quarterback Jake Plummer. Another was the wild animal sanctuary in Keenesburg.

Councilman Carlos Barron had a word of caution.

“We know how volatile the oil eld business is,” he said. “I don’t want to hang all our eggs there.”

Hubbard noted there were a couple of weapon manufacturing businesses that would be good ts for the city.

“We could incentivize those businesses,” Barron said. “With the government, we have now, they wouldn’t allow it. We shouldn’t put a lot of e ort into it until there’s a change.”

Michelle Magelssen, the city’s economic development director,

said the city had to show some restraint.

“You can’t poach a business in another town,” she said. “You can say, ‘Would you like to open a new business in our community?’ But you can’t actively recruit a business out of one community into ours.”

Magelssen guided the council through the basics of how she and the city can attract business. Some of the available tools include opportunities for expansion, grants for startups and word of mouth. e city can also promote its library resources for future research, educational partnerships, safety resources and community involvement.

“We want businesses to tell their stories,” she told councilors. “It’s a huge component of economic development, them telling the stories of all the great things going on here.”

Sign of the times

Changes to real-estate advertising signs within city property right of way may be on the way.

“We’re going to bring you more form ideas about structure and location,” planning Director Todd Hodges told the council. “ e intent is to put the information for new homes so we don’t end up with what happened when someone put a massive sign next to Dale’s Pharmacy without permits.”

Hodges said the changes would come with prosecution.

The Chabad of NW Denver his hosting its Hanukkah menorah at Rocky Mountain Municipal Airport through Dec. 26, with a Hanukka party Dec. 22.

COURTESY PHOTO

A lifetime of service for the community

Age no barrier for Ann Pepmeyer

BY BELEN WARD BWARD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Turning 90 hasn’t stopped Ann Pepmeyer from volunteering in the community she moved to in 1961.

“She is an integral part of what we do here in the museum. She has the knowledge, the love of the time, and has the love of the people of that the time. I don’t know what I’d do without her. She’s just a lovely lady and just marvelous,” said Maggie Bidmead, Fort Lupton Museum Coordinator.

Pepmeyer grew up in Southern Iowa. She worked and went to nursing school in Omaha for a year.

“My friend went to school at the University of Colorado-Boulder and they had a good three-year nursing school, so I started school in 1954, it was towards the end of the Korean War. I graduated in 1957 with a Bachelor of Science degree,” Pepmeyer said.

Pepmeyer said a lot of nurses attending the school with her had military experience. She had a Navy Commander classmate and another one, an Army captain.

Meeting her husband

Pepmeyer’s husband Ed was born in Fort Lupton. He entered the Army stationed at Fort Lewis in Washington State as military police.

“When Ed got out of the military, they had a veteran’s group, and we went to a Christmas program at the University and it’s where we hooked up. It was a blind date,” Pepmeyer said.

Pepmeyer and Ed stayed in Boul-

der. She graduated rst, and he had another year. While living there, she worked in surgery at Boulder Community Hospital.

Pepmeyer was interested in nursing because she thought it would be something special.

“I remember growing up back in Iowa, and our family doctor allowed me to observe a tonsillectomy when I was in high school. It was quite interesting to me, and it’s what I did in my nursing career working in the operating room, “ she said.

After Ed graduated from school, he got a job in Scottsblu , Nebraska and Pepmeyer taught operating room nursing skills to nursing students in Scottsblu . en moved back to Ed’s hometown of Fort Lupton in the summer of 1961.

“Our oldest girl was born in Boulder, and I would always come back to Boulder to have my babies. I knew the doctors over there,” Pepmeyer said.

In Fort Lupton, she raised her three girls, two of whom are mirror twins. She also went back to school for a nurse refresher course until Ed had open heart surgery.

“When the girls were 12 and 14, I continued the refresher course and went to work for Salud Clinic in Fort Lupton as a nurse for the next eight years,” Pepmeyer said. “Then I took a summer job working for the state licensing agency for nursing homes and went into home health care.”

Volunteer years

As Pepmeyer’s girls were growing up, they were in Girl Scouts, so she volunteered with the girl scouting while also working in their homerooms and serving as the cookie chairman for the Weld County group for a few years. After retirement, she

volunteered with her church.

She got involved with the Fort Lupton Historical society rebuilding the historic Fort Lancaster. She was part of the group that founded Fort Lupton Historical Society, Pepmeyer said.

Her volunteering didn’t stop there. She also helped at the Fort Lupton Food Bank and now volunteers at the Fort Lupton museum archiving history. Also, she works for the Colorado Visiting Nurses Association once a month.

“ e group helps seniors trim ngernails and toenails. I process the paperwork. We do quilting at the church, I don’t do a lot of quilting, I just tie them together,” Pepmeyer said.

Fort Lupton: Insurance provider survey o ers positive feedback for changes

BY STEVE SMITH SSMITH@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

A recent survey of 40 city employees in Fort Lupton indicates support for a new city health insurance provider.

e city OK’d a four-month trial run for a new employee insurance plan, Amaze Health, this summer. e cost was $4,650.

Human resources coordinator Amanda Rice said a bit more than half of those surveyed used the insurance during the trial run. e others “didn’t have a need,” she told Fort Lupton City Council during a Dec. 13 town hall.

e cost to employees was $15 per employee per month.

“We had very positive feedback,” she told council. “One said it was the greatest bene t that had ever been o ered.”

Ninety people signed up, and 15 opted out.

“If we were to o er it to those 15, it would add an additional $2,700 to the cost,” Rice said. “ e cost is $16,200 now.”

Rice said she had to use the insurance the morning of the town hall

after scratching her cornea.

“I’m for it 100 percent,” said Councilman David Crespin. is summer, Human Resources Director Laura Howe told council the city was “in a challenging position of having to provide health care by buying a really crappy product.”

Amaze Health provides telemedicine, concierge services and a digital health gateway, according to its website. During this summer’s discussions, Howe said employees at Amaze Health are not tied in to particular doctors, pharmacies or hospitals.

Pepmeyer said she loves working a the museum because, in high school, history was her favorite subject.

“When I came to Boulder, I had a professor teach history, and he was something else, Pepemeyer said.

“I fell into it and love reading and researching it. Genealogy is another hobby of mine.”

Pepmeyer said she loves volunteering because it gives her something to do.

Passing assets through a trust: What to know

You invest for years to accumulate assets, and you’ll certainly need some of them to support your retirement. But what about the rest? What’s the best way to pass them on to your loved ones?

You might consider establishing a trust. You’ll need to work with an estate-planning attorney to discuss the issues involved, but here are three key questions you’ll have to address:

First, who will serve as trustee? You could pick a trusted loved one or a corporate fiduciary, such as a bank or trust company.

Next, when will distributions from the trust be made? As the grantor, or creator, of the trust, you can direct it to pay out assets to beneficiaries when they reach certain ages.

Finally, for what purpose will the trust’s assets be used? You can direct the trust to make distributions to pay for a beneficiary’s health, education, maintenance and support, or you can provide incentives, such as having the trust pay beneficiaries when they reach milestones, such as earning a degree or buying a first home.

A trust can be a powerful estate-planning tool. Give it some thought.

Closing at 3 pm on 12/24 • Closed on Christmas Day

Closing at 3 pm on 12/31 • Closed on New Years Day

Ann Pepmeyer with her family photos of her daughters Lisa, Erin, Meg, her husband Ed, and a portrait of her great, great grandfather Jacob Finger.

PHOTO BY SAMATHA MARKEY PHOTOGRAPHY

How to heat building with sewage

No. It does not smell

BY MICHAEL BOOTH THE COLORADO SUN

As long as humans are around, there’s vast renewable energy to be had from the results of their daily living.

The National Western Center and Colorado State University’s growing Denver Spur campus are now heated every day by energy that experts in renewables were tired of seeing literally flushed down the drain. In a squeakyclean building in the shadow of Interstate 70, energy is pulled from one of Denver’s main sewage lines and transferred to clean water pipes shooting out to buildings on the National Western Center campus next door.

It’s the largest sewage heat recovery system in North America, online since April, and an offshoot of the 72-inch sewage main provides 90% of the energy needed to heat and cool local buildings. In winter, the 65- to 70-degree sewage heats water in the exchanger. In summer, the sewage flow cools the exchange water well below ambient air temperature on a 95-degree downtown day.

Sewage-loaded institutions from Canadian cities to Las Vegas hotels are studying the project for lessons as the budding renewable technology takes hold among carbon-conscious customers.

The attraction for CSU was clear, Spur campus Associate Vice Chancellor Jocelyn Hittle said, as the university builds up a complex researching everything from clean water sources, to veterinary medicine, to vertical horticulture.

“It’s in our ethos to think about sustainability, to think about the long term, and we know that a low-carbon option here was important,” Hittle said. Overall, the building energy costs are a few percent higher than simply connecting to the existing grid, Hittle said, but CSU “is going to be here for a long time. So the benefits accrue, when you think about sustainability and climate over that period.”

Making the sewage-to-heat system even more obvious was the fact it was basically an in-house project. Jim McQuarrie was the director of technology and innovation for Metro Water Recovery, the region’s largest sewer utility, when he pitched the idea to one of his former graduate school engineering advisers at CSU.

Metro Water Recovery wants to off-load heat from sewage before it gets to the treatment plants along the South Platte River, and is then discharged into the stream. Warmer water hurts fish and other wildlife.

Denver has billion-dollar redevelopment plans for the National Western site, traditional home

to the January stock show and other events. The area’s sewer main was above ground on the site, which helped Metro Water Recovery lose heat but blocked ideal site development.

The planning coalition that developed around the idea agreed to put the big sewage pipes underground, and run an offshoot pipe to the new exchange building. The gleaming pipes throughout are labeled “sewer” or “ambient water.” Incoming sewage is first screened for large objects, then ground inside the pipes to a slurry that will maintain its flow.

As in all cities, wastewater temperatures are boosted by hot shower or kitchen drains over 100 degrees and dishwashers that hit 140 degrees.

In the exchange chamber, the sewage pipes flow next to clean water pipes, which are then pumped to circulate through CSU’s Spur buildings a block away, and the growing complex of National Western Center renovations. Heat pumps in each building add or subtract a few degrees from the piped clean water to create the right indoor temperatures. Then the clean water circles back to the exchange building for another run.

And the sewage keeps on coming. After leaving the exchange, the sewage flows back into the mains headed over to Metro Water Recovery, having lost energy but gained a purpose.

Every two hours, the sewage flow in the pipes is reversed to clean out silt and sand deposits, said Bryan Scott, chief operator on site for CenTrio, which financed, built and manages the exchange complex for Denver and National Western Center. The exchange equipment is built by SHARC, a British Columbia energy firm.

Developers in Boulder are working on a small system for an apartment complex, as is a slopeside condo at Snowmass Village, among others, CenTrio noted. The U.S. Department of Energy has estimated the energy from all the nation’s sewage could heat 30 million homes if recaptured.

“Anyone looking to utilize the free energy just going down the drain,” Scott said.

Besides getting a reliable and low-carbon form of energy, CSU wants its energy and engineering students to continue involvement in the project as part of their education, Hittle said.

“That’s another opportunity for us from a project of this scale,” Hittle said. “We’re learning as we go.”

This story is from The Colorado Sun, a journalist-owned news outlet based in Denver and covering the state. For more, and to support The Colorado Sun, visit coloradosun.com. The Colorado Sun is a partner in the Colorado News Conservancy, owner of Colorado Community Media.

Expansion coming to St. Anthony North

BY LUKE ZARZECKI LZARZECKI@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

A $115 million expansion will be coming to St. Anthony North Hospital with plans to break ground on Dec. 16.

“In the area, it doesn’t matter what direction you look, everybody’s moving in,” said CEO Constance Schmidt,  addressing rapid growth in the northern metro area of Denver.

Plans to expand the hospital started in 2017. By 2018, the hospital began to reach 80% capacity at midnight, meaning 80% of the beds had patients in them.

Admission numbers continued to climb as well. Between 2021 and 2022, they grew by 7% and between 2022 and 2023, they grew by 6.5%.

That’s parallel to surgeries, both inpatient and outpatient. From 2021 to 2022, they grew by 16% and between 2022 and 2023, they grew by 15.5%.

Six years ago, the hospital moved up to 144th and Interstate 25 from its original campus location at 84th and Federal, which now serves only an emergency room. Schmidt said that Centura planned to expand that emergency department in partnership with Uplands community developers but isn’t there yet.

Five floors

Now, a 133,000-square-foot structure with five different floors

will start going up at the 144th Avenue location.

The first floor will be a cancer center with all the services needed for oncology and will open in the winter of 2024, she said.

Schmidt said it’s important to have cancer centers be a one-stop shop since patients already have enough to worry about, without needing to drive to multiple different places for their treatments. An estimated 1,800 patients are diagnosed with cancer each year in St. Anthony North’s service area, she said.

“This is going to be a game changer for those patients and families,” Schmidt said.

The second floor will be a 26-bed intensive care unit and the third floor will be a 30-bed surgical unit with an opening date planned for August 2024.

The fourth and fifth floors will be for inpatient treatment, with an opening date to be determined.

COVID and the future

With COVID fresh on the minds of healthcare workers, Schmidt said the expansion is being influenced by how healthcare looks now and how it could change in the future.

She said that when she was in college, many of the experts said healthcare would move from acute care to more critical care.  Instead of hospitals that are large centers of healthcare, different services

would spread out across the community.

COVID-19 showed the opposite of that and was a perfect example of why acute care is very important to offer in one space, she said.

Additionally, COVID-19 taught hospitals how to partner with other organizations and adapt to different situations. For example, Schmidt said that during the high points of the pandemic, various units – such as the Post Anesthesia Care Units – were transformed into a space to care for COVID-19 patients.

Front line designs

As well, those who were on the front lines of the pandemic helped

design the expansion. The hospitals held focus groups with nurses, nursing assistants, patients and others to hear their ideas. Their ideas, which included designs for hallways and what rooms would look like, were taken into consideration.

She said designers set up mock rooms for employees to work in and see how best the room could be set up. Everything from how to set up the computer to where paper towels should be placed was considered.

“Those are the kinds of decisions and input that our staff gave, which is priceless,” Schmidt said. “Yes, I’m a nurse, but I haven’t been at the bedside for 12 years.”

Saturday, December 24, 7-8pm Scriptures & Songs

Sunday, December 25, 11am-noon

“King of Kings & Lord of Lords”

102 South 5th Avenue, Brighton

To learn more about us, visit www.redeemerbible.faith

Join us Christmas Eve

We will sing carols at 6:30 p.m. followed by worship with Holy Eucharist at 7:00 p.m.

Everyone is welcome in the Episcopal Church. Anyone who is baptized may partake of the communion bread and wine.

St. Elizabeth’s Episcopal Church 76 South 3rd Avenue | Downtown Brighton at 3rd and Bush 720-263-6394 | www.stelizabethsco.org | SaintElizabethsCO@gmail.com

Reverend Steve Hagerman presiding & featuring pianist David Churchill

for a beautiful candlelight service in the historic St. Elizabeth’s Episcopal Church.

An exterior view of St. Anthony’s North Health Campus at Interstate 25 and 144th Ave. in Westminster. Centura Health was scheduled to host a groundbreaking of a hospital expansion Dec. 16. COURTESY PHOTO

Practice good skin health even in winter

GUES COLUMN

Dr. Adam Vaudreuil

November is Healthy Skin Month, so this is a great time of year to emphasize the importance of good skin care and share some advice on maintaining healthy skin. Here are some tips that can help Coloradans adopt healthy skin habits to care for our skin year-round. As the weather gets cooler, we turn on our furnaces and prepare for the cold, dry winter months. is drier weather and lack of humidity can wreak havoc on our skin. ose with eczema or other dry skin conditions may notice that their skin worsens, and even those without a predilection to dry skin may notice the occasional dry crack or painful ssure.

e best way to combat the dry weather is with good gentle skin

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Spaghetti dinner a big success e city of Fort Lupton held its annual spaghetti dinner at the start of the school year to help raise money for school supplies for Weld Re-8 School District. About 300 people enjoyed a complete spaghetti dinner, courtesy of Wholly Stromboli, and bid on items ranging from $20 to $200. e dinner raised $4,886.

We want to thank the donors and sponsors who made this possible: Aims Community College - Fort Lupton campus, OZY Zero In, Basalite, Bank of Colorado, United Power, Whipsaw Liquor, Collision Brewing, the Lincoln Family, North Range Behavioral Health, Platte Valley Medical Center, Little Caesars Pizza, Wholly Stromboli, and a special thank you to the community who showed up to the event.

e supplies have been purchased and distributed to all schools of Weld Re-8 School District, and students received the donation with a smile on their faces.

is truly could not have been possible without the support of the community. Our most sincere appreciation to everyone.

Gaby Rivera, Weld Re-8 School District

care. Showers and bathing should be kept short and use lukewarm water, as either too hot or too cold can dry out the skin. I recommend using a gentle hydrating cleanser that is free of harsh soap that can strip the skin of its natural oils and moisture.

e most important step is to moisturize every day, sometimes multiple times daily if necessary. Choose a thicker cream or ointment-based moisturizer over a lotion, as these will be more hydrating. Apply immediately after a bath or shower while your skin is still damp to lock in the moisture. You may even want to consider running a humidi er in your bedroom at night, as this can also help to improve skin hydration. Applying petroleum jelly to ngertips and cuticles can also be helpful for those who struggle with brittle nails or ngertip splitting.

Although most Coloradans may not be thinking about their sun exposure as much during the winter months, it is a great time to remind ourselves of the risks of skin cancer as we prepare to hit the slopes.

It’s important to remember that Colorado’s higher elevation and our love of outdoor activities means Coloradans are exposed to a higher UV incidence than the rest of the country.

Although it may not seem as sunny, it is still just as important to use our sunscreen when skiing and enjoying other outdoor winter activities. Choose a sunscreen that is SPF 30 or higher and make sure to reapply every two hours while hitting the slopes, and don’t forget to use a lip balm with SPF in it as well.

After getting home from a fun day in the snow, it may also be a good time to get into the habit of using a

nightly retinoid. Retinoids are helpful in reducing wrinkles and ne lines, as well as improving overall skin tone, preventing pores from clogging, and helping to combat some of the skin aging e ects from chronic sun exposure. Side e ects of retinoids can be redness, irritation, and sun sensitivity, so it’s always a good idea to start with the lowest strength initially and work your way up. Starting slowly (only a few nights per week) and using a good moisturizer can help to mitigate these side e ects. And don’t forget to continue to use your sun protection during the day.

While November reminds us of the importance of healthy skin, let’s make skin care a year-round habit.

Dr. Adam Vaudreuil is dermatologist at Vanguard Skin Specialists, with eight locations in Colorado, including Castle Rock and Parker.

The spirit and reality of Santa Claus

WINNING

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Last week I happened to catch an article about our Generation Z population regarding Santa Claus. e Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary de nes Generation Z as “ e generation of people born in the late 1990s and early 2000s.” e message was based on interviews with a few people from that generation and their belief in Christmas, or primarily their belief or disbelief in Santa

help defend jolly old Saint Nick, Kris Kringle, Santa Claus against those who wish to see his name and the tradition disappear.

belief

e few people that were interviewed expressed their opinion that they would not raise their children to believe in some chubby Christmas elf called Santa Claus. ey were not willing to lie to their children about some mystery man who went to each home delivering presents, and they were certainly not going to sign the label on the gift “From: Santa Claus.” e questions that popped into my head were about how they may have been raised. Did they enjoy the mystery of Santa Claus? Were their gifts signed, “From: Santa Claus?” And if so, where, and how did they become disillusioned?

is isn’t the rst time someone, or a group, has tried to cancel Santa Claus. For some reason they just feel like sharing the mystery of Santa Claus is a lie that shouldn’t be perpetuated. So now I feel it’s time to

LINDA SHAPLEY Publisher

lshapley@coloradocommunitymedia.com

MICHAEL DE YOANNA Editor-in-Chief michael@coloradocommunitymedia.com

SCOTT TAYLOR Metro North Editor staylor@coloradocommunitymedia.com

BELEN WARD Community Editor bward@coloradocommunitymedia.com

e origin of Santa Claus stems from a monk who was from what is now modern-day Turkey known as Saint Nicholas in A.D. 280. Saint Nicholas was known as the saint who watched over children. It is also said that he gave away his wealth and helped the poor and sick. So indeed, there was a real Saint Nicholas. And over all these hundreds of years, the spirit of Saint Nicholas has continued to grow the tradition of giving, helping, and giving hope to one another. e season between anksgiving and Christmas is the greatest time for giving, during this time we see the spirit of abundance everywhere.

I have such great admiration for all those volunteers who represent the Salvation Army, ringing their bell as they help drive donations to an amazing organization. Do we want to cancel those volunteer Santa Clauses too? at would be an absolute shame. And a huge shout out to all of you who take your shifts being Santa and ringing in the Christmas spirit of giving, and doing it regardless of the weather, you are all awesome.

My guess is no one wants to intentionally lie to their children about a mysterious and magical Santa Claus. As I think back to how I raised my own children, we emphasized Santa Claus, we had them meet Santa Claus and get their pictures taken, they

STEVE SMITH Sports Editor ssmith@coloradocommunitymedia.com

LINDSAY NICOLETTI Operations/ Circulation Manager lnicoletti@coloradocommunitymedia.com

TERESA ALEXIS Marketing Consultant Classified Sales talexis@coloradocommunitymedia.com

AUDREY BROOKS Business Manager abrooks@coloradocommunitymedia.com

Columnists

wrote letters to Santa, and yes, we even left cookies and eggnog for jolly old Saint Nick. But we also spoke to the spirit of the season and what we could do for others. Maybe it was paying some utility bills for someone, donating money or time to the rescue mission, helping a neighbor who was in a di cult spot and couldn’t a ord gifts that year.

e real reason for the season is obviously the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. May we never forget this, no matter the numerous attempts that try and commercialize the season or the day. And going back to our original Saint Nicholas in A.D. 280, may we remember where the spirit of Santa Claus began, and may we do what we can to ensure that the spirit of Saint Nick lives on and in us all.

How about you and your family? Is it all about the gifts and only the gifts? Or does the spirit of Santa Claus help you to embrace the season and the day with abundance, giving, helping, and providing hope to our family, friends, and those who need a hand up? I would love to hear your Santa Claus story at gotonorton@gmail. com, and when we can stop trying to cancel the spirit of Santa Claus, it really will be a better than good life.

Michael Norton is an author, a personal and professional coach, consultant, trainer, encourager and motivator of individuals and businesses, working with organizations and associations across multiple industries.

& Guest Commentaries

Columnist opinions are not necessarily those of the Press. We welcome letters to the editor. Please include your full name, address and the best number to reach you by telephone.

Email letters to staylor@coloradocommunitymedia.com

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to support migrants and asylum seekers, Hancock said. Denver Health is providing mobile medical services to migrants who need it, local churches are o ering beds space and volunteers to help provide shelter and nonpro ts are collecting donations for migrant families. Hundreds of Denver residents are donating clothing and other supplies, the mayor said.

e emergency declaration will allow the city to free up and secure resources, and streamline certain processes, including funding and sheltering options, to help support migrants while they’re in Denver, as o cials work to reunify them with friends and family and get them to their nal destinations.

e city has spent more than $800,000 since it started the emergency operations center to accommodate new arrivals. at cost includes payment to people working long hours at local shelters and other centers, and costs for food, clothing, security,

Our Family Helping Your Family

sheltering and transportation to reunication, Hancock said.

e city is using money from its general fund and it is seeking federal reimbursement to help cover the costs, o cials have said.

Approximately 600 migrants have arrived in Denver over the past several months, including nearly 400 who came within the past couple of weeks, prompting the opening of the two emergency shelters.

In addition to the second emergency shelter, Denver has designated a third recreation center to serve as a reception center for newly arriving migrants, where they can access emergency shelter and/or receive reuni cation assistance.

As of Dec. 14, 271 migrants were being housed at the city’s emergency shelters, 48 had been relocated to a church-run shelter and 52 new arrivals spent the night at local homeless shelters. Another 35 people left the city’s emergency shelter with plans to reunite with loved ones, the city said Wednesday in a news release.

e city opened its rst emergency shelter for migrants at a recreation center on Dec. 6.

Denver is a so-called sanctuary city and county, meaning it doesn’t cooperate with federal immigration o cials in attempts to deport residents living in the city without legal documentation.

Denver leaders said they did not know why the city suddenly became a draw for migrants. But Hancock on ursday said political and economic struggles in countries like Venezuela are driving the current waves of migration.

ere had been speculation that the migrants had been sent to Denver by another state’s governor, similar to recent moves by governors in Texas, Florida and Arizona to transport migrants to Democrat-led states, on the claim they should share in the expense of managing the costs of immigration. But Denver leaders said last week they had found no evidence that happened here.

Instead, the city leaders said, some of the 120 migrants who arrived in Denver earlier this month used social media to plan the trip themselves.  Most are from Central and South America. e group includes young adults in their 20s and 30s and a few children. As many as 90 arrived on a

bus, and city o cials are still trying to determine where it originated.

e city is arranging transportation for migrants who had planned to stop in Denver but did not intend to make it their nal destination, said Mimi Scheuermann, CEO of Denver Human Services. She said ursday that bad weather has complicated some of those trips.

City leaders have established a drop-o location for donated items at Iglesia Ciudad de Dios located at 5255 W. Warren Ave. in Denver. e church will accept donations on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.  Hats, gloves, scarves, boots, coats (men’s small and medium and women’s medium), pants (waist 30 to 33), socks, underwear and children’s clothing for kids age 10 and younger are urgently needed.

is story is from e Colorado Sun, a journalist-owned news outlet based in Denver and covering the state. For more, and to support e Colorado Sun, visit coloradosun.com. e Colorado Sun is a partner in the Colorado News Conservancy, owner of Colorado Community Media.

24-Hour Phone Lines 303-654-0112 • 303-857-2290

Brighton: 75 S. 13th Avenue

Obituaries, Arrangements and Resources Online at taborfuneralhome.com

Graveside services for Randy Dunning will be held at the Holly Cemetery in Holly, Colorado on ursday, December 15, 2022, at 11:00 a.m. with Pastor Paul Floyd o ciating. Visitation will be held prior to the service from 9:30 a.m. until 10:30 a.m. at Valley Memorial Funeral Chapel in Holly.

Randolph Scott Dunning, known a ectionately as Randy, was born on September 30, 1946, in Denver, Colorado. On Saturday, December 10, 2022, our muchbeloved husband, father, brother, grandfather, and friend to many passed away at 76 years of age after ghting a courageous battle with Parkinson’s. Randy was surrounded by love, prayers, and family.

Randy was the son of Guy O. and Doris (Pinkerton) Dunning and grew up on a farm north of Commerce City, CO. He was a 10-year member of 4-H in Adams County where he was a member of the County Livestock Judging Team for four years. Randy graduated from Adams City High School in 1965 and attended Lamar Jr. College (participating in the Livestock Judging Team under James “Red” Heath), Oklahoma Panhandle State University, and Sul Ross University.

Randy married Delaine Seufer November 26, 1970. ey lived in Idaho Springs, CO where Randy worked for Harrison Western Mining Company then moved to Holly to farm and ranch. In 1985, Randy worked as an appraiser for Prowers County Assessor’s O ce and in 1987, Randy became a contractor for the State of Colorado to audit County Assessor O ces in 18 eastern Colorado counties and continued this until 2005. He then worked at Colorado Beef until his retirement.

Randy was a dedicated citizen participating in several community organizations including Lamar Community College Council, Vice-Chair 1985-87; Prowers County RE-3 (Holly) School Board 1979-87; Colorado

State Council for Vocational Education 1984-87 and Committee Chair of Education and Annual Report Committee 1985-87; Colorado Commission for Higher Education Task Force Committee 1985; State Board of Community College and Occupational Education; Vocational Agriculture Industry Advisory Committee; Colorado State Board of Education Joint Task Force, Colorado Young Farmers Education Association, President 1982, Secretary 1981, SE Vice President 1980; National Young Farmers Education Association, 1979 Life Charter Member; Colorado Cattlemen Association, member; and served on the Prowers County Planning Commission 2007-15.

His grandkids were the light of his world and Randy loved watching all the sporting activities they excel in. Randy will always be remembered for his quick wit, numerically savvy math skills, and great laughter.

Randy is survived by his wife, Delaine; son, Brian; daughter-in-law, Rachel; grandchildren, Sydney and Jacob; sisters, Debra Young and elma Auternrieth; and brothers, Guy O. Dunning II and Charles Dunning; as well as many nieces and nephews.

Randy is preceded in death by his parents, Guy O. and Doris Dunning, and nephew Guy O. Dunning III.

Our family would like to thank Lamar Area Hospice for their tremendous kindness and assistance.

In lieu of owers, donations can be made in Randy’s memory to Lamar Area Hospice, P.O. Box 843, Lamar, Colorado 81052 or Parkinson’s Association of the Rockies, 1325 S. Colorado Blvd, Suite #2048, Denver, Colorado 80222, in care of Valley Memorial Funeral Chapel, P.O. Box 950, Lamar, Colorado 81052. To leave online condolences, please visit www. valleymemorialfc.com.

DUNNING

Randolph (Randy) Scott Dunning September 30, 1946 - December 10, 2022

– with another on the way; Juniper is pregnant – live on the McIntosh’s dairy farm in Brighton.

And although you will never see them on a rooftop, you might have seen them out in public this holiday season, behind a fence at a shopping mall or at a holiday event with an educational display about the mysterious and magical species.

“When showing the reindeer, adults and kids ask questions about them, and we tell them fun and interesting facts about reindeer,” David McIntosh said.

“ ere is nothing like the excitement about reindeer and the lore of reindeer. ey feel very mythical when you see kids come to these events to see the reindeer. We get to partake in giving a piece of Christmas excitement, joy and magic to the people around us,” Kayla McIntosh said.

Reindeer are, in fact, a real species.

In North America, they are known as caribou. Caribou and reindeer are the same species, but reindeer hail from Europe and have been domesticated for some 6,000 years. North American caribou have never been domesticated and tend to be a bit bigger.

And while they don’t y, McIntosh has a perfectly good explanation, cribbed from a friend and fellow breeder Chris Jessen of Loveland.

“My Reindeer are the ‘B’ team so when Santa’s Reindeer get tired they are dropped o here. We take care of them for a while and Santa uses my reindeer for a little bit,” he said.

Reindeer, a labor of love e trio of reindeer lives alongside McIntosh’s other hooved animals. A fth-generation dairy farmer, he owns the McIntosh Dairy in Brighton, which has been in operation since 1906, providing milk from their 600 cows for much of the metro area.

While cows are their livelihood, the McIntosh family always been interested in raising other farm animals.

“We have been agriculture all our lives. My family has been into caring for all kinds of animals and doing the best they can for them. My grandpa liked llamas, and he raised llamas in his pen,” McIntosh said.

When his grandpa passed away, McIntosh’s dad took over the pen and raised elk. When his dad moved to another property, McIntosh took over his elk pen.

David had been curious about reindeer since he was a little boy but began researching them earnestly about eight years ago.

“I researched if you could actually have reindeer in the lower 48 and also to see some people with reindeer,” he said. “For the most part, they were so few and far between, I didn’t really think they actually raised reindeer down here.”

David said he wanted to know if it was feasible and e ective to raise them and to ensure a good quality of life, to keep them happy on his farm.

“I got in contact with lots of people in other states. ere is a whole reindeer community throughout the U.S.,” he said. “I learned how to best take care of some health problems and to watch out for other health problems to raise them at their happiest and healthiest they can be.”

e Macintosh’s reindeer halfsisters Juniper and Cranberry came from the Jessen ranch in Loveland. And Khristoph comes from a South Jordan ranch in Utah.

“ e European species, the reindeer have been domesticated – depending on which article you read – for about 6,000 years and have been domesticated longer than horses and canines,” David said. “ ey have found cave paintings they have been domesticated for that long, pulling sleighs and helping the northern Europeans.”

Reindeer come from Lapland, in the extreme northern part of Finland bordering Norway, Sweden, Russia and the Baltic Sea. Only the Laplandnative Sami people kept the animals domesticated, with herds of thousands moving between Scandinavian pastures.

“In 1890 the U.S. government imported the rst domestic reindeer from Europe to the Inuit tribes of Alaska to trade for land,” McIntosh said. “ e caribou herds there bred with the reindeer. “

His small herd is a mix of the two, and there are di erences beyond size, he said.

“ e North American reindeer is mostly reindeer with a few caribou genes. My bull has caribou, with his larger body and longer face,” McIntosh said.

“ ere is a big di erence between reindeer and caribou. A herd of caribou will stick together, and are very diligent to their hierarchy, and staying in big herds,” McIntosh said. “ e reindeer will grow in small groups, but those small groups will change if a couple of caribou get into a reindeer herd.”

e Sami people kept the herd size under control by eating them, McIntosh said. at’s not the case with his herd.

“In the United States we don’t eat them, they are my family,” he said.

“We bring them to events for children to see them and learn about how amazing the reindeer are.”

He notes that, although they are not magical creatures, they do have some peculiar adaptations that other animals do not.

“ ey are the only mammal that can see in ultraviolet light,” McIntosh said.

Wild herds rare

And while there are wild caribou in Canada and beyond north, they don’t exist in the continental U.S.

Kayla McIntosh said there are no wild herds of reindeer caribou in the lower 48. e native Kalispel tribe in Washington state has been trying to reintroduce them, however.

Reindeer grows the largest, heaviest antlers of any species of deer, she said. Both males and females have antlers and yearlings usually grow their rst set of small two-prong antlers three months after birth.

“Khristoph, when he was a year old, grew his rst set of antlers,” she said. “And after a year, the antlers dropped and he grew another set of even

larger antlers, with up to 50 points.”

Bulls lose their antlers every year, growing a new pair with a velvet nish, McIntosh said. at’s why they rub their antlers on trees or fences, scraping o the velvet and leaving the hard antler underneath,” she said.

Having antlers does determine their rank in the herd, she said.

Khristoph, with his huge antlers, is dominant now. But once they drop, Juniper and Cranberry will be back in charge.

“It’s natural in the wild that the female becomes dominant in the winter when food is scarce and hard to nd,” he said. “ ey must defend their food from the bull, because they are growing a baby.

“ e bull does not need that much food but can starve nding their own food,”

he said. “ e female will also take whatever food the bull has to feed the baby in their bellies, and they can be feisty.”

David McIntosh with his Reindeer at Denver Premium Outlets a few weekends ago.

PHOTOS BY BELEN WARD

The mighty Kristoph with the giant antlers. His magnificent antlers currently make him the leader of his small herd. He’ll lose them soon, and will be less dominant until they grow back.

World champion athlete redefines ‘trailblazer’

Arvada duathlete Carol Whipple claims gold in Romania

BY STEVE SMITH SSMITH@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

By day, Arvada’s Carol Whipple is a project manager for the National Park Service.

When she’s not handling those responsibilities, she’s a pretty good duathlete, a sport that combines two segments of running sandwiched around bicycling. She’s done that for 25 years and recently won an international title. She’s nished in the top 10 at world championships.

In 2021, she won a bronze medal in the spring duathlon and a gold medal in cross duathlon.

If you add it all up, Whipple has competed in more than 20 world championships in 13 countries.

Trailblazer #1

Whipple said she’s been athletic, starting o in elementary school.

“We had eld day competitions and the president’s tness test,” she said. “I would usually be among the fastest and most t in my class.”

Title IX was in its beginning phases when Whipple got into high school. Cross-country for girls wasn’t an option then.

“Since I loved to run, I gathered up my courage along with several other girls and approached the boys’ cross

country coach about having a girls’ team,” she said. “He wasn’t too thrilled but agreed, requiring us to do the same workouts as the boys. Finding comparable girls cross country meets were few and far between as there were only a handful of girls’ high-school teams around the state.”

Her girls team entered the boys junior varsity meets. Whipple said the girls squad nished in the top half of the eld. At the end of the season, she participated in her rst “pioneer role” experience; her team won the rst-ever state girls cross country title and, she said, “won the coach over. He was really proud.”

at fall, two members of that team entered the Seattle Marathon. ere were four women in the eld.

“Marathoning was just beginning to become popular, but women running them was rare. It had just been a couple years, at that point, that there were actually ‘o cial’ women’s divisions,” Whipple said. “Nationally, there were approximately only 50 or less of us that competed in a marathon.”

It wasn’t her “favorite distance,” but Whipple quali ed for the rst women’s Olympic marathon trials in 1984. She started duathlon competitions in the late 1990s. She won the rst Colorado State Games duathlon and quali ed for her rst USA Triathlon and competed with the national team at the world championships.

Training regimen

Whipple and her coach developed a training plan several months in advance of the world championships.

O season work is slower and longer running sessions and miles on the bike for endurance. In the spring, she adds “speed intervals” and starts racing two or so times a month. It totals about 10 to 15 hours a week.

“As I’m still racing the sprint duathlon distance, I vary up my cycling workouts between the road and mountain bikes,” she said. “While Colorado is ideal for cross-duathlon training, with so many nearby trails, I do mix it up and train out of state to get experience with different types of terrain.”

Her strength in cross duathlon comes from a running background.

“I have really taken to the ‘cross country’ o -road trail running, the courses that feature steep descending and climbing in addition to log and stream obstacles. ese are the most fun,” she said. “On the mountain bike sections, I enjoy the mental focus of reading the trails and riding over di erent types of terrain. In racing, however, one of my strengths has always been to have a very e cient and fast transition from run to bike and from bike to run. is is where a race can be won or lost. Precious seconds can mean the di erence.”

Whipple said it’s important to build skill levels on all types of terrain. For her preparations for the world championships and other races, she said it’s important to get out and either run or ride the course as many times as possible before the actual race.

“ at way you have the equipment (shoes, tires) for the conditions, you know where the most challenging sections are (roots, rocks, drop-o s,

Carol Whipple COURTESY PHOTO

switchbacks, etc) and how you’re going to ride it,” Whipple said. “Visualization is key, including keeping mentally focused in the race. It takes the most e ort.”

Trailblazer .. a few years later

“Duathlon race distances range from the shorter 5K run/30K bike/5K run format to the standard Olympic distance of 10k run, 40K bike, 5K run and longer distances equal to that of a half-Ironman (13.1K run, 70K bike, 10K run),” she said. “I’ve competed at all distances for Team USA.”

To qualify for the national team, athletes have to nish in the top six of their age groups at the national championships.

Whipple won the world championship in cross duathlon race earlier this year in Romania. She quali ed for the world sprint duathlon in that country when she received an invitation to compete in cross duathlon at the World Multisport Championships

“I was intrigued by the challenge of learning new skills, training and preparing for this inaugural race,” she

Arvada school closure to impact Bluedevils football

BY STEVE SMITH AND RYLEE DUNN SSMITH@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA AND RDUNN@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA

e recent announcement that Faith Christian Academy will close at the end of this school year may cause some athletic scheduling issues for its opponents, including Fort Lupton High School.

FCA is closing because of mounting debt, according to school Superintendent Andrew Hasz and the Rev. Jason King. ey announced the news in a video message to families.

Grace Church of Arvada acquired the school for $12 million and plans to open the school for the 2023 school year under a new name, according to the Rev, Rick Long with Grace Church. ere will be a new leadership team too.

e Bluedevils and FCA were in the same football conference this season. e two teams played in the last game of the season.

“I have seen that, too,” said FLHS Athletic Director Richard Jacoby. “I also read they are being bought out and will reopen under a di erent name in 2022-2023. Hopefully, they will have a team. If not, we will discuss, as a league this spring, on the appropriate approach.”

e 2022-23 school year is the second year of a two-year league alignment cycle for high-school sports

teams. Schools schedule home-home games during a given cycle, both with out-of-conference opponents and those within the same athletic conference.

Football teams often play in di erent conferences from other sports.

e Colorado High School Activities Association allows a separate enrollment count – with lower enrollment gures than, say, basketball or baseball – for the schools that play football.

Financial woes

Faith Christian Academy celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2021 but mounting nancial woes had been plaguing the church over the past two decades, according to King’s comments in the video message to families, posted to YouTube on Nov. 18.

e ministry’s K-8 school started in Denver in 1971, with the high school opening the following year.

In an interview with the Arvada Press last year, Hasz said the school’s total K-12 enrollment was “a little under 850,” a gure he said was up 100 from the previous school year. Hasz said his father, Martin, founded the school with the goal “to have a school where the focus on God could be central and students would be encouraged to have a personal relationship with Jesus.”

Faith also has been embroiled in

a number of high-pro le lawsuits, including a racial discrimination suit led by former teacher Gregg Tucker and a suit led by FCA against the Je erson County Public Health Department over the department’s COVID-19 protocols.

e discrimination suit is ongoing after the 10th Circuit Court declined to review it en banc, while JCPH was granted an injunction in the COVID lawsuit.

Long said that he was a parent at Faith Christian when Tucker was red and that he was aware of FCA’s lawsuits, stating that Grace Church’s legal team would be “investigating every single detail” of the events that begat the legal proceedings.

“When we launch, with whoever we launch with, we’ll be sure it’s exactly the standards and ideals of Grace Church,” Long said. “We pull no punches with how we operate as a ministry.”

Balloon payment

In the video, King said that between 1991 and 2000, FCA took out a $6.8 million loan to purchase its Carr Street campus. In 2002, Faith took out an additional $14.2 million to nance the building of its worship center.

In 2014, the ministry converted the interest-only load to a conventional load, and by 2017, the ministry had only paid o about $1.4 million, leav-

ing Faith with a debt of $19 million. At that point, the ministry began working to cut its overhead, with King stating that they were “led of the Lord.”

“ e Board of Elders felt that the Lord was leading us to make some decisions that were di cult, but we truly believe they were led of the Lord,” King — who became Faith’s pastor in 2017 — said. “From day one decided, we’re going to live between our means, we’re going to trim the fat, we’re going to restructure, we’re going to run lean and run hard.”

King said that Faith has paid down $4 million of the $19 million-dollar debt. Nevertheless, with a looming $7 million balloon payment due in June, the ministry’s Board of Elders unanimously decided to sell the Carr Street property to Grace Church, which is led by the Rev. Rick Long. King called the move a “Kingdom Transaction” that would improve Faith’s K-8.

“In a chain of events that can only be attributed to the leading of God, Faith Church and Grace Church became the answer to each other’s prayers,” King said. “Please know, this decision was not made lightly. With this Kingdom Transaction, it will signi cantly reduce our debt and allow us to come closer to fully walking out God’s call and purpose for us as a ministry.”

Thu 12/22

A Winter's Eve with Megan Burtt and Sturtz at eTown @ 6pm eTown Hall, 1535 Spruce St, Boulder

Elf: The Musical

@ 7pm / $10-$25

The LoCol Theatre, 800 South Hover Road, Longmont

Fri 12/23

Christkindlmarket Countdown @ 11am

Denver Christkindlmarket, 101 West 14th Avenue, Denver. events@gacc-co.org, 720-6298708

Denver Nuggets vs. Portland Trail Blazers

@ 7pm / $22-$3970

Ball Arena, 1000 Chopper Circle, Denver

Beauty And The Beast @ 7:30pm

Arvada Center, 6901 Wadsworth Blvd., Ar‐vada

Sat 12/24

Mean Girls @ 2pm

Buell Theatre, 1031 13th St., Denver

Sun 12/25

Christmas Jingle Run 5K/10K/13.1

VR Denver @ 5am / $6-$40

Dec 25th - Jan 1st Anywhere USA, Denver

Drop in Tech Help

@ 5:30pm

College Hill Library, 3705 West 112th Avenue, Westminster. wpl-in touch@cityofwestminster.us, 303658-2303

Wed 12/28

Volleyball camp

@ 12:30am

Eagle Pointe Recreation Center, 6060 E. Parkway Dr., Commerce City. 303-2893760

DJI Robomaster: An Introduction @ 4pm

Anythink Wright Farms, 5877 East 120th Avenue, Thornton. mhibben @anythinklibraries.org, 303-4053200

Fireside Serenade With Vio

The Violinist

@ 2:30pm

Anythink Commerce City Library, 7185 Monaco Street, Commerce City. rcardenas@anythinkli braries.org, 303-287-0063

Jay_Martin

@ 6pm

The Bluegrass - Candelas, 18068 W 92nd Ln #400, Arvada

Phat Daddy

@ 7pm

Nissi's Entertainment Venue & Event Cen‐ter, 1455 Coal Creek Dr unit t, Lafayette

Denver Nuggets vs. Phoenix Suns

@ 8:30pm / $42-$6705

Ball Arena, 1000 Chopper Circle, Denver

Mon 12/26

The Immersive NutcrackerDenver @ 1:30pm

Lighthouse Denver, 3900 Elati Street, Den‐ver Denver @ 6pm

Verse, 500 16th St Mall, Denver

Tue 12/27

Basketball "Warm Up" Camp - BR @ 3:30pm

Dec 27th - Dec 28th

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

Tuesday Movie Matinee 12/27

@ 8pm

Eagle Pointe Recreation Center, 6060 E. Parkway Dr., Commerce City. 303-2893760

Birds of Winter Camp @ 9am / $138

Dec 28th - Dec 30th

Bird Conservancy's Environmental Learning Center, 14500 Lark Bunting Lane, Brighton. 303-6594348 ext. 53

Holiday Snowshoe @ 4pm

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

Wii Bowling 12/28 @ 5pm

Eagle Pointe Recreation Center, 6060 E. Parkway Dr., Commerce City. 303-2893760

Lost World of Genghis Khan (12/28) @ 5pm

Eagle Pointe Recreation Center, 6060 E. Parkway Dr., Commerce City. 303-2893760

Ryan Hutchens at ALOFT

Broom�eld @ 6pm

Aloft Broom�eld Denver, 8300 Arista Pl, Broom�eld

Thu 12/29

Basketball "Warm Up" Camp - EP @ 3:30pm

Dec 29th - Dec 30th

Eagle Pointe Recreation Center, 6060 East Parkway Dr., Commerce City. 303-2893760

Dave Abear & Friends Grateful Thursday's Wibby Indoor event space. @ 6pm

Wibby Brewing, 209 Emery St, Longmont

KGNU Presents: WhiteWater Ramble @ Nissi's @ 6:30pm

Nissi's Entertainment Venue & Event Center, 1455 Coal Creek Dr unit t, Lafayette

Colorado Avalanche vs. Los Angeles Kings @ 7pm / $84-$999

Ball Arena, 1000 Chopper Circle, Denver

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TRIVIA

ANIMAL KINGDOM: What do bees collect from flowers and use to make honey?

GEOGRAPHY: Where is the Republic of Maldives located?

LITERATURE: What is the subject of Walt Whitman’s poem “O Captain! My Captain!”?

LANGUAGE: What is the third letter of the Greek alphabet?

HISTORY: When was the last time the Liberty Bell rang in Philadelphia?

MOVIES: What was Henry Fonda’s jury number in “12 Angry Men”?

MATH: What is a heptahedron?

BUSINESS: In what year did McDonald’s introduce the Big Mac to all of its customers?

U.S. PRESIDENTS: Which president tried to ban Christmas trees from the White House?

London, England.

Indian Ocean.

The death of President Abraham Lincoln. 4. Gamma.

1846.

Juror No. 8.

A polyhedron with seven faces.

Roosevelt.

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Empower Field to get a facelift

BY TONY GORMAN COLORADO PUBLIC RADIO

After a disappointing season, the Denver Broncos are due for a makeover. Except this time, it isn’t coming in the form of a new shiny coach or quarterback, but a Mile High upgrade.

eir home, Empower Field at Mile High, is getting a renovation, and the NFL is lending a big hand in making the remodel come true.

e team announced Wednesday that it received more than $100 million through the league’s G-4 nancing program. It’s the largest capital project investment in the stadium’s 22-year history.

“ is signi cant investment in Empower Field at Mile High —- the largest in the stadium’s history —demonstrates the deep commitment by the WaltonPenner Family OwnershipGroup to immediately and continually provide the best possible experience for our fans,” President Damani Leech said in a statement. “As we look toward the future with the long-term plans for our stadium, we are equally focused on the present to ensure Empower Field at Mile High remains a premier sports and entertainment venue.”

e NFL G-4 program allows NFL teams to receive assistance for stadium projects. e funding from the program is considered a loan and is repaid

from the visiting team’s share of certain seating. A team applying for the loan is required to put up matching dollars.

e most recent example is the Bu alo Bill’s recent approval of $200 million toward a new stadium. With the loan and owners Ted and Kim Pegula matching the funds, the Bills have $400 million for the $1.354 billion project. Local taxpayers are expected to foot the rest of the bill.

For the Broncos, the G-4 loan will cover most of the costs. e Metropolitan Football Stadium District, which levies and collects sales taxes in nancing the stadium’s projects, have already earmarked $12 million toward the upgrades.

e project is slated to begin after this season and complete before the start of the 2023 season. It will upgrade video boards, premium hospitality areas, technology, concessions, the Broncos Team Store and elevators.

e Broncos say the video board enhancements are the most enticing of all the anticipated projects. e south-end scoreboard will expand by 70 percent.

e new 72-feet-tall by 225-feet-wide scoreboard would be the fourth-largest scoreboard in the league.

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

said. “Most athletes my age (she is in her mid-60s) have long hung up the mountain bike wheels. And for women my age to learn the skills in order to be competitive is pretty rare.”

After she accepted the invitation, she had six months to get ready.

“I found the training to be fun, riding di erent terrain – kind of like being a kid again – on my bike, riding and jumping on the o -road trails,” Whipple said. “I took several lessons and trained with more experienced MTB riders so I learned the skills correctly from the start.”

Before leaving for the world championships, Whipple and her teammates researched the terrain and a potential race pro le. It included a YouTube video of a ride through the course.

“But you don’t get the true sense of how hilly and technical it is until you see it rsthand,” she said. “ e setting on Cornesti Plateau in Targu Mures, Romania was beautiful. e Black Forest is fairly open but has extremely steep hills and switchbacks, logs and rock drop-o s. e mountain bike course was very technical. We arrived several days in advance to become familiar with the course and get our equipment ready.”

Race prep, race day

Twelve members of team USA entered this rst-ever cross duathlon, about half of the eld; Whipple was the oldest. Her age group competitors were from Turkey and Austria. e temperature was in the mid-70s.

e challenge was a late-in-the-day starting time.

“Most of us are used to racing in the morning hours,” Whipple said. “Our race would go o at 3:30 p.m. so managing timing on nutrition and rest was a challenge in itself. e men would start approximately 30 minutes before us. is would prove to be problematic on the mountain bike course later on.”

e four-mile cross-country run featured a winding trail through an open forest and trails lined with ferns. Runners had to jump over logs and several streams. e trail went back up the hill in time for a repeat loop of the same course.

en it was time to transition onto the bikes.

“We launched onto the downhill single-track trail with very tight switchbacks,” Whipple said. “ e course wound its way along the hillside with several short steep climbs before descending further into the deepest part of the valley before dropping into the valley ravine. ere were several challenging tall rock drop-o s as well.

“Sections were so steep that even the most experienced elites were having to walk their bikes up short distances,” Whipple added. “ e men had been nishing up their last laps when the women began the bike segment. is was problematic in that there were very few passing zones, and the men were ying down the trail and running over anyone in their way. I had to bail several times but was not injured.”

e ride also included several bear sightings.

After the 15-mile bike ride ended, Whipple and the others ran one more

loop.

“As a seasoned competitor, one of my favorite sayings is, ‘It’s not over until it’s over,’” she said. “In multisport, you might think you’ve won, but there may have been a time penalty or a competitor slipping by that you might have missed. I had a sense from our Team USA leader (Tim Yount) that I had a slight lead over my competitors after the rst run but it would be an all-out race on the mountain bike to stay ahead. My European competition was more experienced on the MTB. is would prove correct. After over three hours on the bike, literally only four seconds separated me from my competition.”

‘On the edge’

Whipple rode the bike course “on the edge.”

“ e faster you ride, the more technical it becomes,” she said. “While it can be inherently dangerous, there is a real sense of accomplishment, and I didn’t want to feel like I had left anything out once the race was over. It was over four hours of adrenaline rush.”

She also ran into another program: A race curfew.

“ e race time cuto was fast approaching. I knew that if I won, it would be tears of joy in the win. But also, it could be tears if I didn’t make the time cuto ,” she said. “I felt strong and determined heading out for the last run. I began to sense that I might actually win. is is where one has to dig deep to stay focused, will the body on and believe that you are going to nish.”

She climbed up one last hill, saw the nish line 120 yards ahead and a

large timing clock.

“I had an exhilarating feeling of pride being a Team USA athlete,” she said. “As I crossed the nish line 20 minutes ahead of my competitor, my teammates were all cheering. e best part was that all of them had made a podium nish too. It was a formidable group of women – having been the very rst to compete in this inaugural cross-duathlon. Over four hours of epic racing had bonded us all.”

Competing overseas

Whipple said there wasn’t anything unusual about competing in a foreign country, aside from COVID travel restrictions and staying healthy.

“ e European countries embrace the sport of duathlon, and it’s common to have thousands of people cheering at the race,” Whipple said. “Quite often they crowd the streets and plazas, and you ride through a sea of people, similar to the Tour de France. Children will ask for autographs and photos. Later, they will sometimes run alongside as you’re racing and chant, ‘USA USA.’ Each course has been uniquely di erent, from medieval towns with cobblestone streets to racing high in the Alps.”

Twelve of the members of the USA team competed alongside. She called the cross-duathlon event “the most epic racing experience” as a “pioneer” cross-duathlon competitor.

“ e setting of the Black Forest was awe-inspiring, as was the challenge of the race course,” Whipple said. “It all came down to being physically trained, mentally prepared, having perfect weather and having an inner condence that this was going to be my day.”