Community Report 10 2014

LOOK INSIDE:

PAGE 2

Writers

PAGE 5

Hop

PAGE 9

Cattle

the

Sun

Sopris Carbondale’s community

supported, weekly newspaper

Volume 6, Number 38 | October 23, 2014

The Sopris Sun asked you, the community, what kind of newspaper you’d like to open up and read every week. You responded during an open house. We’ve compiled the results on pages 2, 3 and 23. Please give those pages a look and let us know what you think at feedback@soprissun.com. Graphics by Terri Ritchie, photo by Jane Bachrach

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S SPECIAL PECIAL ITEMS! ITEMS!

When You Speak ... We Listen connection, and providing a platform for local non-profits, individuals and businesses. Any “profit� we generate goes right back into improving and expanding our services as a non-profit charitable organization.

This past summer we decided to focus some energy into hearing more from YOU, our readers, about how we could better serve this mission ... and you. We asked you, “What is it you love about The Sun, and what more can we do?� We organized a

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Community Open House, conducted an online survey, and reached out to many of you through informal conversations in order to hear and gather your ideas and thoughts.

In this issue we highlight some of the main themes we heard regarding the content we publish in the print edition of The Sun and online at www.soprissun.com. In future issues we’ll share ideas we received regarding the financial health and well-being of this organization and how you

think we can keep it strong.

Please keep the ideas coming!

We’re always open to your feedback.

If you think of more suggestions as you read through this issue, please e-mail us at feedback@soprissun.com.

The Sopris Sun Board & Staff: Bob Albright Jane Bachrach Denise Barkhurst Debbie Bruell Lynn Burton

Barbara Dills Craig Fulmer Sue Gray Colin Laird Terri Ritchie Frank Zlogar

What our

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about The Sopris Sun...

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grassroots

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Most newspapers focus on two things: putting out news and turning a profit through advertising while doing so. At The Sopris Sun, we have a different mission; we aren’t just about publishing news as a vehicle for selling ads. Our purpose is to serve this community in all its facets -- the wider community of Carbondale and those who care about it. We do this by writing about and photographing things that matter, sharing what’s going on in Carbondale, fostering

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2 • THE SOPRIS SUN • www.SoprisSun.com • OCTOBER 23, 2014

It tells stories that matter to Carbondale. r i" GBNJMJBS IPNF HSPXO QBQFS u r iIZQFS MPDBMu r i.FBOJOHGVM MPDBM OFXTu r i*U T HSBTTSPPUT u r i*U T DPNQMFUFMZ MPDBM 4PNFUIJOH ZPV EPO U Ă OE BOZNPSF u

Sun Facts: Did you know...?

Turn to p. 23 to find out what readers would like to see MORE of in The Sun...

photos!

local It helps us know our neighbors.

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r The Sopris Sun is distributed from Aspen to Glenwood Springs.

r In the past two years, The Sun has received generous grant support from The Anschutz Family Foundation, Carbondale Rotary, the R.H. Crossland Foundation, and The Thrift Shop of Aspen.

r Since our founding in r The Sopris Sun relies on the 2009 weโ ve never missed a gracious assistance of volunteer single week of publication.

Lee Beck to proof read the paper every week.

It celebrates our community.

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r The Sopris Sun distributes 4,500 papers each week.

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THE SOPRIS SUN, Carbondaleโ s community supported newspaper โ ข OCTOBER 23, 2014 โ ข 3

The Sopris Sun

suggestion box More content by children.

This summer we got some great suggestions from YOU, our readers, about what you’d like to see more of in The Sopris Sun. Below are some of those ideas, along with steps we’ve taken in response to many of those suggestions.

More features on individual community members. r 8F SF HPJOH UP TUBSU B SFHVMBS GFBUVSF IJHI MJHIUJOH B DPNNVOJUZ WPMVOUFFS FWFSZ NPOUI PS TP 4UBZ UVOFE GPS OPUJDFT JO UIF QBQFS BOE POMJOF BCPVU TFOEJOH VT ZPVS OPNJOBUJPOT BOE BO FYQMBOBUJPO PG XIZ ZPV UIJOL UIBU QFSTPO EFTFSWFT UP CF SFDPHOJ[FE

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More teen involvement. r 8F QMBO UP DPOUJOVF PVS OFX IJHI TDIPPM JOUFSOTIJQ QSPHSBN CZ TFFLJOH DPOUJOVFE GVOEJOH UP TVQQPSU JU r 8F SF BMTP XPSLJOH XJUI 5IF 3BNQBHF UP IBWF TPNF TUVEFOU KPVSOBMJTUT GSPN 3PBSJOH 'PSL )JHI 4DIPPM XSJUF PDDBTJPOBM BSUJDMFT GPS 5IF 4VO

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Greater coverage of the arts. r 7PMVOUFFS ,BSFO (MFOO BOE GSFFMBODFS /JDPMFUUF 5PVTTBJOU IBWF TUFQQFE VQ UP XSJUF SFHVMBS BSUJDMFT BCPVU MPDBM BSU HBMMFSJFT BOE TIPXT BOE PUIFS DVMUVSBM FWFOUT r 4UBSUJOH TPPO XF MM CF JODMVEJOH SFHVMBS VQEBUFT PO PVS DPNNVOJUZ T EFWFMPQNFOU BT B $SFBUJWF %JTUSJDU

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More about biking. r 5IF 4PQSJT 4VO GPVOEFS BOE QSJPS FEJUPS 5SJOB 0SUFHB IBT WPMVOUFFSFE UP XSJUF B SFHVMBS DPMVNO PO CJLJOH

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Here are some other ideas we heard from you: r .PSF XBDLZ TUVGG (a Surreal Estate column, News of the Weird, a snarky advice column...) r .PSF PO MPDBM CVTJOFTTFT 8F EP B MPU BMSFBEZ CVU XF DBO BMXBZT EP NPSF r .PSF JO EFQUI OFXT TUPSJFT DPOOFDUFE UP $BSCPOEBMF r (SFBUFS DPWFSBHF PG UIF 4QBOJTI TQFBLJOH DPNNVOJUZ r .PSF TUPSJFT BCPVU $BSCPOEBMF IJTUPSZ r *ODSFBTFE DPWFSBHF PG MPDBM DSJNF

What other ideas do you have? Please share them with us!

Send your suggestions to feedback@soprissun.com Sopris Sun THE

VOLUME 1, NUMBER 23 • JULY 16, 2009

Bull’s-eye -eye

By Kayla Henley Sopris Sun Intern

T

he metal corrals clank loudly as massive bulls at the Carbondale Wild West Rodeo pace frantically in their pens. These bulls are known for maliciously throwing riders from their backs, into the hard, dusty ground and sometimes charging at the fallen mount with lowerd horns while the rider scrambles for safety. They are creatures of aweinspiring beauty and spine-tingling terror, with black eyes rolling wildly from the commotion around them and hooves roughly pawing the earth below, turning sand to dust.

The bulls are led to a chute where humans are placed on their backs and then released into the open arena. Furious at having a gangly creature trying to ride him, a bull will buck and charge, hurling 2,000 pounds of raging flesh into the air, attempting anything to get the rider off his back.

But this story isn’t about the menacing beasts that dazzle us with such ferocious movement. It is about the courageous men who are associated with these bulls.

What is it like to be the person who comes between a bull and fallen rider?

And what is it like to be the rider, gripping such an animal with your knees, one hand clutched fast to the bull and the other flailing wildly as you try to hold on? Your clutch on the rope around the bull slowly slackens, you slip off entirely, every sound muted as you descend to the solid dirt of the arena. When you look up, the bull is towering over you, and you clumsily rush out of the arena to safety.

We see these brave people at the Carbondale rodeo every Thursday, whether coming in between a bull and rider as the bull fighter or competing in the bull riding event.

Bull riders make their sport look easy, as they try to stay on through those incredibly slow eight seconds. It’s hard to imagine what goes through the mind of a bull rider as he spends mere seconds clinging to the animal. Though it varies with each rider, most of them agree there’s no time to think critically when you’re in such a situation. “If you get to thinkin’ about it, you get in trouble,� stated Johnny Rebel, a cowboy who’s been bull riding for 14 years, five of them in the Carbondale rodeo. Rebel first began bull riding when a friend dared him that he wouldn’t get on a bull. He now trains by riding nine bulls a week.

For 22-year-old Cody Tesch, it’s a little

COWBOYS page 12

A glimpse into the bullriding life

Marcelo Cruz and his “mount� seem to eye each other during the first round of bull riding last Thursday at the Carbondale rodeo.

It looks as if Cruz wants to tell his bull not to buck him off and it looks as if the bull wants to tell Cruz to get off his back.

Photo by Jane Bachrach

THE SOPRIS SUN, Carbondale’s community supported newspaper • OCTOBER 23, 2014 • 23