Indy - Oct. 4, 2023 Vol 31. No. 39

There’s help for active-duty military and veterans who see suicide as a solution, but some slip through the cracks

BY PAM ZUBECK

Our mission is to deliver the truth, build community and engage citizens.

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Fran Zankowski

COVER DESIGN BY Zk Bradley

EDITORIAL

EXECUTIVE EDITOR Bryan Grossman

MANAGING EDITOR Helen Lewis

COPY EDITOR Mary Jo Meade

SENIOR REPORTER Pam Zubeck

CULTURE REPORTER Nick Raven

CONTRIBUTORS

Rob Brezsny, Bill Forman, Jim Hightower, Clay Jones, Mike Littwin, Matthew Schniper, Tom Tomorrow, Andrew “Shaggy” Warren

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Nick Raven

Matthew Schniper

Courtesy Jennifer Eltringham

On Sept. 26, Som (rhymes with roam), a 3-year-old female Matschie’s treekangaroo, emerged from her travel crate to join the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo family. Only about 2,500 such creatures remain in the wild in their only known habitat on the Huon Peninsula of northeastern Papua New Guinea. The species is considered endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and comes to the zoo from another organization accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. Som will be housed in the Australia Walkabout exhibit. She’s a first for the zoo.

NEIGHBORS SUE NOTES LIVE

Northside Neighbors Association and its president Michael Kuhn filed a lawsuit on Sept. 26 against Notes Live Inc. and Notes Live Real Estate and Development LLC, seeking to abate and prevent “unlawful noise pollution” from the outdoor concert venue called Sunset Amphitheater.

Though the city’s noise ordinance allows for “hardship permits,” those permits are prohibited by Colorado law, the lawsuit alleges.

The lawsuit seeks “declaratory and injunctive relief against Notes Live to abate, prevent, and perpetually enjoin the Venue’s construction and operation, unless Notes Live can demonstrate compliance with Colorado’s law against noise pollution.” The plaintiffs also ask the court to declare the city’s

TECH ANNOUNCEMENTS

noise ordinance’s hardship permits to be illegal and bar the city from issuing such permits.

The amphitheater is due to open next year, according to the venue’s website. The Gazette was first to report on the lawsuit.

Construction began earlier this year on the venue, which has been described as a $55 million outdoor music coliseum that will present at least 40 concerts a year and seat 8,000 people. The open-air amphitheater in the Polaris Pointe development will feature VIP luxury firepit sites and other amenities. The lawsuit, which seeks no monetary damages, alleges the noise will affect people’s health and diminish property values.

The city declined to comment, citing pending litigation. Notes Live officials didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Infinity Labs, a defense contractor, has chosen Colorado Springs for expansion, the state of Colorado said in a release.

The firm will create 61 jobs with an average pay of $130,253, the release said, which is 216 percent of the average annual wage in El Paso County.

The Office of Economic Development and International Trade provided incentives totaling $691,288, and the city of Colorado Springs added $131,713. Both are reliant on new job creation.

The announcement follows other revelations this year that eight companies chose Colorado Springs for expansion, OEDIT Executive Director Eve Lieberman said in the release.

Meantime, Catalyst Campus for Technology and Innovation announced the addition of seven new companies to its location on Colorado and Pikes Peak avenues.

“These companies will join the growing number of partners that actively engage in the Catalyst Campus ecosystem to accelerate innovation in support of national security,” Catalyst said in a release.

The firms are: Hypergiant, a Texas-based AI software company; Chickasaw Nation Industries, based in Norman, Oklahoma, which offers innovative approaches and customer-centered services; Two Six Technologies, which does projects for the federal government; 413 LLC, which does monitoring and analytics and more for government clients; American Systems, a government contractor; Veterans Business Outreach Center; and Raft, which builds digital solutions.

KING SOOPERS TO REOPEN

King Soopers announced Sept. 26 that it would reopen the store at 2910 S. Academy Blvd. on Nov. 1. It’s been closed since June 20 when the grocery giant learned of a need to mitigate asbestos.

Since then, King Soopers has provided grocery delivery for customers in the area.

“The company previously committed to keeping the store closed until it was fully confident that all necessary steps and precautions had been taken to address the unexpected discovery of low levels of asbestos at this location,” King Soopers said in a release.

“In alignment with this commitment and the company’s commitment to safety, they have been working closely with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE), a certified asbestos consulting firm and a general abatement contractor to execute a comprehensive cleanup plan that was previously approved and permitted by the CDPHE.”

Matter of Record

Parole Officer Christine Guerin Sandoval was killed when a man wanted on a felony warrant fled in his vehicle and struck her and another officer on Sept. 28 at Bijou and Spruce streets. Justin Andrew Kula, 41, was later located and arrested and faces charges, including manslaughter.

El Paso County Commissioner Stan VanderWerf announced Sept. 27 that he’ll seek the State Senate District 12 seat in the 2024 election now held by Republican Bob Gardner, who’s term limited. In his second term, VanderWerf will leave the commission in January 2025. State Rep. Marc Snyder, a Democrat and former Manitou Springs mayor, also is running for the Senate seat.

The U.S. Senate Banking Committee passed the SAFER Banking Act last week. Gov. Jared Polis noted the bill provides more certainty to small businesses and the marijuana industry. To become law, the bill must pass the Senate and House and be signed by President Joe Biden.

Abortion rights groups are seeking to get two measures on the November 2024 statewide ballot that would protect abortion rights in the state’s constitution, The Colorado Sun reported. The initiatives also would set aside the state’s longstanding constitutional ban on state dollars being used to fund abortions. Meantime, anti-choice groups are seeking to place measures on the 2024 ballot that would restrict abortions.

Courtesy Cheyenne Mountain Zoo

BY PAM ZUBECK | zubeck@csindy.com

CHERYL REPPERT DOESN’T remember why she was awake at 1 a.m. on that August night when she received a final text message from her son, a soldier posted to Fort Carson.

She frantically tried to call Thomas, but there was no answer. She then called her son’s friend, asking him to verify that Thomas was OK.

“I kept calling his phone back, and finally one of his friends answered it,” Reppert tells the Indy by phone. “They said they were not allowed to tell me anything. One finally told me he [Thomas] was not OK, and there was nothing we could do.”

Her son, at the age of 21, had taken his own life at a friend’s house in Fountain, saying in his last text message to his mom that his Army leadership played a role in his decision.

He was harassed for seeking mental health treatment, he’d told his mother earlier, and harassed again when he chose not to attend Ranger School.

Thomas Ciulla was far from the only active-duty service member or military veteran to complete suicide this year in El Paso County. He wasn’t even the only one to do so in August. Three ended their lives that month, all in Fountain.

Their deaths and others’ underscore the growing toll that suicides take locally among military members and veterans.

El Paso County is home to five military installations that employ roughly 38,000 active-duty personnel. Another 94,000 veterans live here as well, according to the National Center for Veterans Analysis and Statistics’ fiscal year 2021 report. Those significant populations have caused local suicide prevention agencies to train the spotlight on helping armed forces members.

Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks said on Sept. 6 during National Suicide Prevention and Awareness Month that the Defense Department “remains relentlessly committed to the health and welfare of the total force.” And she praised those who have worked to “spread hope, address stigma and other barriers to care, and drive a healthier culture.”

But military members and veterans represent one of the most difficult population segments to reach to prevent suicide and equip with the tools they need to avoid that irreversible decision, agencies say.

“There’s a lot of very big conversations, effort and money put toward suicide prevention [in the military], and then there’s what happens every day on the ground,” Cassandra Walton, executive director of the Pikes Peak Suicide Prevention, says in an interview. “It will take some time for old ways of thinking

to work their way out. There seems to be a lack of accountability for the culture.”

NATIONALLY, THE MILITARY HAS seen suicides drop from 383 active-duty members in 2020 to 332 in 2022, though that’s significantly higher than the 280 suicides reported in 2016, the Defense Department reports. In the first quarter of 2023, the most recent data available, 94 service members took their own lives — more than in any first quarter going back to at least 2017, data show. Those numbers don’t include the reserve forces.

The Army, which has the most personnel in the armed forces, reports the most active-duty suicides — 1,065, or 45 percent of the 2,376 active-duty suicides across all branches — since 2016 through the first quarter of 2023. The Navy and Air Force each account for about 20 percent, while the Marine Corps (with about half the total force as the Navy and Air Force) represents about 15 percent.

The Army’s suicide rate is also the highest among the branches: one in 453 Army active-duty troops died by suicide from 2016 through the first quarter of this year. Also, while the other branches’ numbers have remained relatively stable as a percentage of the total, the Army’s share has grown from 40 percent in 2017 to 52 percent in the first quarter of 2023. It peaked in 2021 with 53.5 percent of active-duty suicides involving Army soldiers.

In El Paso County all suicide deaths have inched upward, from 164 in 2017 to a record high of 194 last year.

The El Paso County Coroner’s Office started tracking military-related suicides in 2019, but local installations are not duty bound to report on-base or on-post suicide numbers to the coroner. Thus, the numbers might be understated.

Here’s the breakdown of military suicides:

• In 2019, 13 active duty, 21 veterans, total 34.

• In 2020, 17 active duty, 19 vets, total 36.

• In 2021, 13 active duty, 40 vets, total 53.

• In 2022, 11 active duty, 36 vets, total 47.

• Through mid-September 2023, 12 active duty, 24 vets, total 36.

Military members’ vulnerability to suicide in some ways comes with the territory, El Paso County Coroner Dr. Leon Kelly says in an interview.

The military, he notes, “demands more of those people than any employer in the world, and so to my mind, they [military leadership] have even a greater responsibility to provide those tools and skills to the people that are sacrificing so much for all of us but also for that organization.”

While Kelly acknowledges “great strides” have been taken, “There’s obviously, for all of us, still work that needs

There’s help for active-duty military and veterans who see suicide as a solution, but some slip through the cracks

Photo illustration assets from stock.adobe.com

to be done, and the way we do that is by examining the ways in which we failed and being honest about why we’ve failed and then addressing those.”

IT’S IMPOSSIBLE

TO

KNOW when Thomas Ciulla’s pathway to taking his life began, but Reppert says in June 2022 he witnessed a female friend die in a motorcycle accident, an event he somehow felt responsible for. After he sought mental health treatment last winter, though, “He was harassed for that,” Reppert says her son told her. “He was demoted from his squad leader position for going for help.”

He sought help on base and was referred for therapy. But, Reppert says, “Going for help started a whole new battle for Tommy that none of us had seen coming. In the military you are now allowed to go for mental health help, and it cannot be used against you in any way. It didn’t take long to find out that this is not how things were handled for Tommy.”

She’s referring to the Brandon Act, a measure adopted by Congress in 2021 that is intended to protect service members who experience mental health emergencies and reduce the stigma around seeking help, according to thebrandonact.org. This law allows service members to seek mental health treatment and requires a mental health evaluation as soon as a service member self-reports, the website says. It’s also designed to allow service members to seek help confidentially and, if necessary, outside the chain of command.

The measure also requires the Defense Department to conduct annual training on how to recognize when members may need a mental health evaluation.

The act is named for Navy Aviation Electrician’s Mate 3rd Class Brandon Caserta, who died by suicide in 2018, after what his parents said was a history of chronic bullying unchecked by his Navy command.

Ciulla, at the urging of his superiors, attended Ranger School this past summer but withdrew after three days when he realized it wasn’t what he wanted, his mother says.

That’s when the harassment intensified, with a superior calling him “a quitter” and telling him “he would never accomplish anything in life,” Reppert says.

He then sought a different position within his unit, but this commander refused, telling him, according to his

mom, “I’m not going to put a quitter in this job. If it was up to me, you would have no place in this company.”

In addition, his “higher-ups” gave out his personal information to other soldiers, she says. “Tommy felt more isolated than ever because of that,” she says. “He was being punished.”

Reppert says she spoke to her son every day on FaceTime when he went to Dutch Bros for coffee. “He wanted to go for help, but he was scared,” she says.

When that final message came on Aug. 13 — she didn’t release it to the Indy citing the pending Army Criminal Investigation Division probe — the last part “let them [his supervisors] know they were the reason that he did it.”

“I am destroyed,” she says. “That somebody could tell him he’s not worth anything and cause him to do this just breaks my heart. These were supposed to be fellow brothers, no matter what their rank is.

They’re supposed to look out for one another, protect each other, not lead someone to kill themselves.”

After Tommy took his life, the Army leapt into action. On the day of his death, two Army troops came to Reppert’s door in Alburtis, Pennsylvania, to give her the news she already knew.

“They took time to speak and pray with us,” she reports via email. They also walked her and her husband, Peter, through what would happen next. A casualty officer helped them with the paperwork and communi-

cated on Fort Carson’s behalf. A Carson commander called to convey his “deepest sympathy” and told her that the Ciulla family “will always be part of the Army family,” she says.

The Army escorted their son’s body from Colorado to the funeral home in Pennsylvania, and then the Army arranged to fly the family to the post for his Aug. 24 memorial service. Hundreds of soldiers attended. “We were introduced to numerous leadership from his unit that all wanted to let us know how sorry they were for our loss,” she says.

Soldiers also shuttled the family around Colorado Springs and back to the airport, and provided “full military honors” at his Sept. 2 funeral service in Pennsylvania.

In short, the Army was “amazing” in how it supported her family, she says.

THAT DOESN’T COME AS A SURprise to Walton, with Pikes Peak Suicide Prevention, because those tasks “are easy to be good at,” she says. “They know they’re under a watchful eye at that point.”

She also wasn’t surprised to hear about Ciulla’s conflict between wanting to seek help but being afraid to do so because of his expectation of blowback.

Her agency, she says, fields lots of calls from military personnel expressing those fears.

Troops who live on a post or base must access services from military providers, she says, but despite that, Pikes Peak Suicide Prevention does serve some soldiers with individual therapy and other services.

“There’s a huge issue of suicide death that happens on Carson,” she says. “We don’t get to see those numbers. I just know we consistently get calls and requests for support from soldiers living on Carson.

“I think most of these soldiers don’t feel comfortable accessing help. If they’re coming to us, they’re really hard up, scared or worried about someone,” she says. “Many are worried about someone else. What I keep hearing is, we need to take care of each

continued on p. 6 ➔

“We feel like the military has FAILED our son.”

— Cheryl Reppert

Thomas Ciulla

Ciulla with his dog Daisy

Courtesy Tommy Ciulla family

Courtesy Tommy Ciulla family

other because no one else is going to do it. They’re very invested in one another. Every single time they experience a death, they’re even more traumatized. They’re scared that someone else is going to make a similar decision.

WHEN YOU’RE SERIOUS ABOUT REAL ESTATE

“They’re asking, ‘Please train us so we know how to talk to one another, and provide emotional support when we lose someone to suicide.’”

The task is especially daunting because soldiers need to be hardened “to function under conditions of war,” she says. “But when you’re on base, it

shouldn’t feel like that.”

Local suicide prevention providers like Walton have been eager to interface with the military installations and personnel, she says, to help them get past the planning stages for help and instruction.

“Before they’re going to see real change,” she says, “it has to happen beyond what’s on paper, but rather what’s happening in real time.”

Fort Carson declined to discuss Ciulla’s or any soldier’s death, referring questions to Army CID.

In an email, a Fort Carson spokesperson said, “We are saddened anytime there is a loss of life for our Soldiers and Army veterans who are part of our Soldier for Life family.

“The welfare of our Soldiers is paramount. At Fort Carson, we’re committed to providing our Soldiers the best possible care, including access to behavior health professionals, chaplains, and other non-clinical counselors.”

This past June, the spokesperson said, the post launched a pilot program endorsed by the Defense Health Agency called, “Targeted Care Initiative,” which aims to increase access to care by aligning personnel with the appropriate level of care to meet

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their individual needs.

“It’s important for our Soldiers to know that if they or someone they know needs help, 24/7 support is available,” the spokesperson said, noting these ways to access help: dial 988 and press 1; text 838255, or visit veteranscrisisline.net.

The post didn’t outline training provided to commanders or rank-and-file soldiers on suicide prevention.

THE AIR FORCE ACADEMY AND Peterson Space Force Base describe robust programs to help service members understand suicide and help those at risk and themselves as well.

The Academy provides annual “refresher” training to reinforce the Air Force’s commitment to preventing suicide, the Academy said in an email.

“This training is designed to empower Airmen, Guardians, DAF Civilians, cadets, staff and faculty at all levels to serve as catalysts for attitude and behavior change resulting in [an] environment characterized by connectedness, caring and trust,” the Academy said in an email.

The training is in line with that of all Air Force installations as dictated by the Air Force, the Academy said.

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Ciulla’s family at his memorial service at Fort Carson

Courtesy Tommy Ciulla family

FIND HELP

Here’s a short list of military-specific resources compiled by the local chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness:

• Veterans Crisis Line

1-800-273-8255 | veteranscrisisline.net | Or dial 988 for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, then press Option 1; or text 838255

• Next Chapter Community Wellness Collaborative

530 Communication Circle | 1-888-719-8387 | nextchapterco.org

• Home Front Military Network

1120 N. Circle Drive, #230 | 719-577-7417 | homefrontmilitarynetwork.org

• Mt. Carmel Veterans Service Center

530 Communication Circle | 719-772-7000 | veteranscenter.org

• Joining Community Forces (Eastern Slope Liaison)

6848 S. Revere Parkway, Centennial | 720-250-1186 | coloradojcf.org

• Find Your Anchor

Suicide-prevention resources for military members, findyouranchor.us

Resources provided by Pikes Peak Suicide Prevention:

• Colorado Crisis Line, 844-493-8255, Text “Talk” to 38255

• spcollab.org

• research.ppld.org/toughtopics

• pikespeaksuicideprevention.org

ed since 2021, as has the Academy’s “prevention-focused staff to support more robust programming and strong advocacy for help-seeking behaviors.”

In addition, the Academy superintendent’s “Let’s Be Clear” campaign targeted these efforts with additional staff and resources for cadets and personnel.

The Academy hasn’t been immune from suicides. A senior cadet killed himself in March 2020 after all but seniors were sent home amid the COVID pandemic.

(A second apparent suicide death days later was ruled accidental by an Academy investigation.)

There also have been two apparent cadet suicides this year, though the Academy’s investigations are pending, an Academy spokesperson says. One happened April 30 when a cadet apparently poisoned himself with carbon monoxide, leading the El Paso County coroner to rule the cause of death as “intentional and self-inflicted.” The other took place March 6 in Park County, with an El Paso County coroner ruling the gunshot death a suicide.

Maj. Timothy Pagano, 21st Medical Group Mental Health Flight Com-

mander at Peterson Space Force Base, praised the leadership for pressing the issue of training, from commanders down the chain of command.

“All of our commanders, when they arrive on station, have a mandatory in-person training with mental health ... and how to support their members,” he says in a phone interview.

“We have the required trainings that all members of the installation receive, but when they [service members] can hear it from their actual commanders, their actual leadership, that’s where we really see some of the destigmatization of mental health take hold — when they hear people that are in charge of them, that are leaders, saying ‘Go get the help you need,’ you know, folks who might be struggling with thoughts of harming themselves or just mental health in general,” he says.

He describes the approach to improving mental health as “systemic.” All personnel are trained; commanders advocate for mental health consultation and resources are available.

continued on p. 8 ➔

“There’s obviously, for all of us, still work that needs to be done....”

— Dr. Leon Kelly

At Peterson, for example, members can seek help at the mental health clinic by simply making a phone call, or a member’s primary care doctor can refer them, or they can book an appointment with Military Family life counselors, or with Military OneSource, staffed by local licensed providers, or seek help from the Chaplain Corps. All of these are free.

In addition, fellow service members can make a difference. “Your wingman, your supervisors, the people that you work with day in and day out,” Pagano says, “those relationships are, you know, a great resource for folks to get support with mental health concerns or to be encouraged to come see us at Mental Health.”

Asked about fears of repercussions to an airman’s or guardian’s career, Pagano says, “I’ve never had a commander or leadership team not be fully supportive of their service member getting help seeking services. I’ve just seen so much support from direct supervisors all the way up to our installation leadership with regards to suicide [prevention] and mental health in general.”

SPEAKING GENERALLY, AND not specifically about military mem-

bers, Walton says one of the biggest barriers to prevention is seeking and connecting with mental health services.

“People who are having their hardest day aren’t able to navigate those services themselves,” she says. “We can connect someone to crisis services.”

Leon Kelly, who serves on the local National Alliance on Mental Illness board, couldn’t agree more.

“My biggest frustration with American behavioral health care is that you’re taking someone with a disease that the very definition of the disease is that they’re incapable of navigating, mentally, the world around them. That’s what it is when somebody has severe mental illness. That’s how it manifests,” he says.

“They’re incapable of dealing with life. Their brain is not capable of that. And so we know that’s the disease they have. And then we ask them, ‘Why don’t you navigate the most complicated ridiculous system in the world? Good luck to you, getting your help.’ And that’s one of the key reasons we fail in this country in how we address mental health and mental illness. The way that we’ve dealt with it for a while, at least since the 1960s, was crisis hot lines, and then we hope you pick up the phone and give us a call.”

Licensed Clinical Social Worker Katie Blickenderfer, with Diversus

Health, says via email that military members and veterans also face unique problems that other people don’t. Family, friends and others who could contribute to connection and reasons for living can frequently change with duty assignments.

“Military members also experience physical and emotional trauma that may lead to feelings of hopelessness or chronic pain and put them at greater risk,” she says. “Reducing the stigma around accessing treatment for mental health and substance use issues is important for our military members and veterans.”

The Pikes Peak Suicide Prevention and other cooperating agencies can lay groundwork for individual therapy and suicide grief therapy, peer support training and education, in addition to care for those impacted by a loss, Walton says.

“We want to help folks get what they need,” she says. “We train hundreds of people each month in suicide prevention.”

The highest risk factor for suicide, she says, is not being willing to seek help. “When you look at the demographic most affected, it’s the working age male who lacks mental health literacy. They don’t even have a good idea of when they should seek help.”

So they struggle, because they’ve

never been taught how to work through their emotions. Thus, when they’re confronted with a situational crisis, it pushes them over the edge, she says.

“Financial stress, relationship issues, legal issues. People get confused,” she says.

The common belief that someone in need of mental health services is someone in a straitjacket undermines the effort to come to an understanding that mental health issues can affect anyone at any age, she says.

“When you have symptoms impacting your ability to function [in] your normal routine, then you have to go somewhere to get help, so you can get back to your normal level of functioning,” she says.

Complicating matters is lack of funding in some cases, notably those not relying on military support; not all health insurance policies, for example, cover mental health services, Walton says.

BESIDES

ACTIVE-DUTY

MEM

bers, veterans have become a key focus in suicide prevention.

In 2020, suicide was the 13th leading cause of death among veterans overall, and it was the second leading cause of death among veterans under age 45, according to a 2022 Veterans Administration report.

“The [military] culture has been YOU HAVE TO TAKE CARE OF YOUR PEOPLE....”

— Retired Lt. Col. Damian McCabe

Army Sgt. Matthew Marsilia

In 2020, there were 6,146 veteran suicide deaths, or 31.7 per 100,000, roughly the same rate as for active-duty Army troops. An annual DOD report released in September shows rates for active-duty service members alone went from 20.3 suicides per 100,000 members in 2015 to 28.7 in 2020, with increases across all branches. That compares with a national suicide rate of 13.5 in 2020.

As Col. Bob McLaughlin (Ret.), executive director of the Mt. Carmel Veterans Service Center, reported in the Indy ’s sister publication, the Colorado Springs Business Journal, veterans face trouble paying bills, securing housing, employment and medical treatment, and struggle to find a new purpose after leaving the service.

Next Chapter is a local program specifically for veterans, overseen by UCHealth, Mt. Carmel and the Colorado Behavioral Health Administration.

Unlike the complicated maze cited by Kelly, Next Chapter offers help with almost anything via one phone call.

Kelly explains: “You call. You navigate nothing other than saying, ‘Hello.’ And they say, ‘What do you need? What’s going on?’ and they take it from there. Whether it’s a crisis, or someone that’s a veteran just says, ‘I need to talk to somebody about my rent, or my neighbor’s a grouch, or my daughter keeps haranguing me that I’m supposed to see a counselor. I don’t want to see a counselor, but I told her I’d give you guys a call and shut her up.’ And

that’s how they connect you and then they navigate you from there. It’s not asking someone to figure out all this on their own. To me, it really is a model of what all behavioral health should be.”

Damian McCabe, a retired Army lieutenant colonel, serves as a UCHealth behavioral health clinician, specializing in veteran patients with post-traumatic stress disorder and substance use disorders. He’s also director of behavioral health for military affairs and director of behavioral health for UCHealth’s southern region.

McCabe, who serves as the secretary of the board at the Colorado Springs affiliate of NAMI, heads up Next Chapter, which launched in June 2022.

Program officials hoped to reach 700 during its three-year span, and as of late August, just 15 months into the program, 503 had signed up for care at no cost to them. “That should give people a sense of scope of need,” McCabe says in a phone interview. The program recently reached out to the concentration of vets who live in Pueblo, he says.

The reasons to focus on vets are many, he says, noting the transience of military life that can carry over after retirement, veterans’ familiarity with firearms as “a tool of the trade,” and some vets’ turning to suicide as an “impulsive” reaction to life stressors.

All of those factors combine to make veterans reluctant to seek help.

“We’re indoctrinated to help others but not ask for help,” McCabe says.

Next Chapter connects the dots of

HOW TO HELP

existing programs, rather than creating new ones, but program sponsors have discovered gaps exist in the program network. That’s why Next Chapter meets quarterly with a coalition of care providers that includes the military bases, he says.

Regarding active-duty personnel, McCabe hailed the Army, and Fort Carson specifically, for elevating suicide prevention in the last decade.

“In the main, the culture has been you have to take care of your people if you want to take care of your mission, and behavioral health is part of your mission,” he says.

“Every reported suicide attempt and suicide is reported to command team, which then goes to the garrison command team,” he says. “From there, that is reported to Army, and they look at each individual suicide to learn lessons about what they can do better next time.

But the reality is that “most mental illnesses are disqualifying” for military service, he says, leading some active-duty members to be reluctant to seek help. That said, he adds, he’s treated pilots, intelligence officers, generals and others, and “Never once did it impact their careers.”

Asked about reports that commanders bully their subordinates who seek help, McCabe says, “I can probably find you 10 or 20 individuals who have received treatment in uniform who were supported by their commands as much as ones who were bullied. Poking the military in the eye and giving

Licensed Clinical Social Worker Katie Blickenderfer, with Diversus Health — which provides mental health services in El Paso, Teller and Park counties — provided these suicide warning signs and steps people can take to save lives.

The most obvious warning signs, she says, include changes in typical behavior or mood. This may include withdrawing socially, exhibiting risky behavior, increasing drug or alcohol use, and/or a change in eating or sleeping habits. Other red flags include talk of being a burden to others, a focus on guilt or shame, and displaying deep emotional or physical pain, she says.

Blickenderfer offers this advice:

How do you start conversations about mental health with your loved ones?

It is really important to ask if someone is OK, and make sure you listen. Follow up with questions about changes you may be noticing or concerns you may have regarding things the person may be saying, doing, or not doing. It’s a myth that talking with someone about suicide will put the idea in their head. They may already be thinking about it and having someone to talk to about their troubling thoughts may save a life.

people a sense they’re involved in people taking their lives isn’t fair.”

AS FOR THOMAS CIULLA’S FAMily, they’re grieving.

“Our Tommy was such an amazing man, son, brother, Uncle, nephew, grandson, friend and doggy dad, so full of life, love and joy,” his mother posted on Facebook. “Tommy had the most amazing smile! He was always there to put a smile on your face with his jokes and shenanigans. Always there to give a helping hand with anything he could. So smart and talented. Strong and courageous.”

Reppert tells the Indy she’s waiting to see if anyone will be held accountable.

“We know our son did this because of issues he was having with the Army. He left a message to leadership in the suicide text telling them what pushed him to this,” she says.

The Army told her every death is investigated to the fullest, “because they said they want justice for their soldiers, if there’s justice to be served.”

So she’s hopeful the investigation will somehow serve justice, or at least spare another family the heartache she now lives with every day.

“He took his own life because of issues he was having on base,” she says.

She wonders whether her son would have sought help before he died if he hadn’t been punished for going for help the first time.

“We feel like the military has failed our son,” she says.

How vital is the role of early intervention models in suicide prevention?

There are resources and training programs that community members can access, including Mental Health First Aid; Question, Persuade, Respond; and Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training, to learn about tools to identify warning signs and how to have those difficult conversations with people you care about.

The earlier an individual seeks help if they recognize changes that may be symptoms of depression or anxiety, the better. Asking for help can be difficult, but early intervention and treatment can prevent symptoms of anxiety, depression, substance use or other mental health issues from becoming worse.

What are the current early childhood intervention programs available in El Paso County?

The Incredible Years Dinosaur School helps equip preschool and kindergarten-age children with social and emotional skills. Diversus Health provides these education groups in addition to prevention groups for elementary-age youths, parents, and counseling in some of our local schools for those who may need treatment.

Katie Blickenderfer

Courtesy Diversus Health

Appetizers

AMERICAN

TONY’S 326 N. TEJON ST. | 719-228-6566 | TONYSDOWNTOWNBAR.COM

Winners of 70+ Independent “Best of Awards” in 20 yrs. A great Midwestern Tavern with warm beer, lousy food & poor service!!! Pabst, Fried Cheese Curds, Leinenkugle’s, Walleye Fish-fry, cocktails, burgers and more. 11am-2am daily. HH 4-6. GO PACK GO!

FUJIYAMA

22 S. TEJON ST. | 719-630-1167

COFFEE LOVE

Beautiful, award-winning downtown restaurant with a full-service bar. Enjoy authentic sushi & creative rolls, teriyaki, tempura, udon & more! See our ad or call for great lunch, Happy Hour, & Ladies night specials! Fri. & Sat. 11am-2:30pm lunch & 5-10pm dinner. Sun. 5-9pm dinner.

SAIGON CAFÉ

20 E. COLORADO AVE. | 719-633-2888 | COLORADOSAIGONCAFE.COM

Open for Lunch and Dinner Mon-Sat. Welcome to the Saigon Café the award winning Vietnamese restaurant in Colorado Springs. Our cuisine is cooked with fresh vegetables, herbs and meats in authentic Vietnamese style. Try our renowned noodle bowl, a lunchtime favorite. M-Th 11AM–3PM; 4PM–8:30PM F-Sat 11AM–3PM; 4PM-9:30PM

BIRD DOG BBQ

ASIAN BBQ

3 LOCATIONS + CATERING | BIRDDOGBBQ.COM | 719-573-7671

Bird Dog now offers online ordering from the location of your choice! Order and pay online, then skip the line when you pick it up! Visit our website at www.BirdDogBBQ.com and click ORDER ONLINE to place your order. We also offer our award-winning catering services in individuallyboxed meals! Call 719-573-7671 for details.

CRAFT PUB

ODYSSEY GASTROPUB 311 N. TEJON ST. | 719-999-5127 | ODYSS EYGASTROPUB.COM

Voted Best New Restaurant 2015 by Indy readers. Specializing in an eclectic mix of craft food, craft beer, and craft cocktails. Odyssey Gastropub is a downtown gem with a warm, intimate atmosphere and awesome staff. Start your adventure with us! Mon.- Fri. 11am - 10pm, Sat. & Sun. 10am - 10pm

YOUR RESTAURANT HERE

Call your sales rep today to advertise your establishment.

TWO DOWNTOWN BARISTAS HAVE LAUNCHED THEIR OWN coffee cart, named Cinchona Coffee (cinchona.coffee). Their plan is to pop up at both public and private events, and they’re taking bookings now for winter coffee-catering gigs.

Shihong Zu and Andrew Shepherd Combs remain in a pre-official-launch, R&D phase with their rotating menus and cart service. I caught them one morning at a practice hosted by Chiba Bar. Combs will be a familiar face to anyone who’s frequented Frankly Coffee and Zu should be recognizable from his work at The Well’s Gift Horse Bar & Cafe. They’re both keeping those jobs as they launch Cinchona.

From the test menu, I order The Akira and an iced blueberry matcha latte. The latter is made with matcha, a milk of choice and blueberry cheong (Korean syrup). It drinks typically tannic, rich and fruity/sweet — I taste the blueberry skin in particular. The Akira is essentially a clarified, homemade soy milk punch made with pandan, longan, anise, ginger, pineapple, five-spice, green tea and lemon. Combs says it took a month to prep everything for it: “so much work.” That includes capping sodium bicarbonate and citric acid pills that are meant to be dropped in to tingle the tongue (a clever reference to the cult anime cyberpunk movie and capsules a character takes). The Akira sips light, floral and nuanced, given all the complexity of ingredients.

Unusual and creative concoctions

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Check their instagram for future pop-up dates.

STORY AND PHOTOS BY MATTHEW SCHNIPER

Cinchona Coffee baristas/owners Shihong Zu and Andrew Shepherd Combs

CREEKWALK CHAI

ALOCALLY OWNED JUST LOVE COF -

fee Cafe franchise opened at the beginning of this year at Creekwalk (facebook.com/ justlovecreekwalkcos). I hadn’t made it by until recently — needing coffee while running errands nearby.

Owner Michele Draper has appointed Maria Menendez manager; Maria’s son Victor also works some shifts alongside the other baristas and cooks (the place has a fairly wide food menu, made to-order). I recommended dropping by to speak to them about the coffee, as they’re fourth and fifth generation in the coffee industry, respectively. Maria’s father operates 10 farms around El Salvador and the family sells green beans to notable people internationally — as well as to spots like Switchback Coffee Roasters locally. She’s fascinating to talk shop with.

We enjoy a drip coffee and oat milk latte, but are also talked into trying the house chai, something Draper recommends when she stops in. Both in hot and cold form,

it’s excellent, big with the traditional spice aromas but well balanced with clove essence in particular popping. We get one dirty for some java influence. And we also get hungry and nab a waffle stuffed with sausage and egg with a side of gravy and a breakfast taco, also panini-pressed with full breakfast fillings and a side of salsa. Both are serviceable, but the standout bite for us is a Cuban sandwich (on panini-pressed sourdough that gives it a waffle appearance) with house-marinated/cooked mojo pork and a side of the zesty sauce for dipping.

DOUBLE PATTY

ANOTHER SPOT I FINALLY MADE IT to off my long list of newer places to dine: El Chapin Handmade Burgers & Shakes (elchapinfoodtruck.com). Set up just outside Side Dish sponsor Ranch Foods Direct’s Fillmore Street location, El Chapin’s 4-month-old burger truck parks directly beside its longstanding (locally loved) taco truck.

I run into owner Luis Guerra while shopping at the

market, and he talks me into his pineapple double cheeseburger (huge for $13.99, which includes tallow fries) as part of my to-go order. I also nab a burger ($8.99 with fries) that comes with standard fixings plus the signature Chapin sauce (chipotle mayo). I don’t notice until Guerra directs my attention to it, but he builds his burgers with the fixings on the bottom and the meat patties (with cheese slices) on the top, to spotlight his use of RFD’s Callicrate beef.

I’ve long been a fan of El Chapin’s taco truck, and have friends who’re regulars as well. I can now say I’m going to have a hard time choosing between it and the burgers, as Guerra’s team presents them beautifully (cooked to requested temp). It’s everything I want in a burger, especially one with a double patty of locally sourced, sustainably raised beef, for under $15. The pineapple adds predictable sweetness that delights, offset by the mildly spicy, tangy Chapin sauce. (If you can’t decide, try El Chapin’s taco burgers, which are patties broken into taco shells with toppings.)

continued on p. 12 ➔

Just Love Coffee Cafe brightens Creekwalk. Panini-pressed savory items at Just Love El Chapin’s pineapple double cheeseburger

ALOHA AND MAHALO

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GERMAN

EDELWEISS RESTAURANT

34 E. RAMONA AVE. | (SOUTH NEVADA & TEJON) | 719-633-2220

For 50 Years Edelweiss has brought Bavaria to Colorado Springs. Using fresh ingredients, the menu invites you to visit Germany. Support local business! We’re open and doing drive-thru and takeout with a limited menu that can be found on our website! www. edelweissrest.com.

SOUTHWESTERN/MEXICAN

JOSÉ MULDOON’S

222 N. TEJON ST. | 719-636-2311 | 5710 S. CAREFREE CR @ POWERS | 719-574-5673

Since 1974. Features authentic Tex-Mex & Mexican fare in contemporary Sante Fe-styled establishment. Across from Acacia Park, and west of Powers & Carefree. Josemuldoons.com. Support local restaurants! We are open for delivery, carry out, and dine-in at both locations! Please check our Facebook page for hours daily, as they are subject to change.

STEAKHOUSE

THE FAMOUS 31 N. TEJON ST. | DOWNTOWN | 719-227-7333

Colorado Springs’ finest upscale steak house and lounge located in the center of downtown. Dine in an elegant and classic steak house environment. Award winning prime steaks, fresh seafood, premium wines, craft brews and piano bar provide a provocative mix of atmosphere and entertainment. Reservations suggested.

MACKENZIE’S CHOP HOUSE

128 S. TEJON ST. HISTORIC ALAMO BUILDING | DOWNTOWN | 719-635-3536

Offering half off all bottles of wine under $100! Voted Best Power Lunch, Steakhouse and Martini! Downtown’s choice for quality meats and mixed drinks. Mackenzieschophouse.com. Open Mon.-Fri. 11:30am-3pm for lunch, and 5pm- close every day for dinner!

Call

FREE SUBSCRIBers may now read my full review of Roots Cafe, which recently opened in the former location of El Taco Rey (which closed its doors at the start of 2022 after 45 years in business). I wrote that “what the eatery does best [is] convey that sense of place — and taste.” That place is of course Hawaii. Check out the write-up at sidedishschnip. substack.com/p/ aloha-and-mahalo.

GET TOSSED (SALAD, THAT IS)

THE PHILANTHROPIC food hall The Well (wellinthesprings.com) has been hosting a Seasonal Supper Soirée dinner series to spotlight its current batch of vendors. Sept. 28 featured Sivar; Oct. 19 will be Formosa Bites’ turn; and Nov. 16 closes out with Shovel Ready.

I attended the Tossed (tossedfoodtruck.com) four-course dinner on Aug. 24 featuring Chef/Owner Morgan Bryson and her team. I appreciated the wide use of local ingredients, including a lamb dish that used products from Frost Livestock. Down to an amuse bouche course (a blue corn chip with goat cheese, honey, smoked trout, peach and tomato-jalapeño salsa, all from Colorado sources). Bryson’s mindful meal was farm fresh and colorful. It’s what you’d expect from a biz specializing in salads and wraps and generally healthier fare. And the Gift Horse Bar & Cafe pairings I tried (I went à la carte on drinks vs. the full pairing) were spot-on. Visit The Well’s website events page for more details on the upcoming dinners.

Matthew Schniper is the former Food & Drink editor and critic at the Indy. You can find expanded food and drink news and reviews at sid-

PAID ADVERTISEMENT • 719.577.4545

From left: Roots Cafe Chef/Owner “Mama D” Moore, GM Pamela Velasquez and Skyly Moore.

edishschnip. substack.com.

The Tossed team at The Well

One of Tossed’s satisfying salads

ZINES DOWN, FEST UP

Pikes Peak Zine Fest returns to The Hall

BY NICK RAVEN | nick@csindy.com

FOR ITS FIFTH YEAR, THE Pikes Peak Zine Fest invites zine enthusiasts and the creatively curious alike to The Hall at PPLD (formerly Pikes Peak Library District’s Knights of Columbus Hall) to see the works of more than 50 zine makers.

But… what are zines?

“Zine is short for magazine,” says Kels Choo, who organizes the Pikes Peak Zine Fest with fellow zine maker Jennifer Eltringham. “They’re self-published little books and they can be any format you want.”

Harkening back to a preinternet era before electronic mail, message boards and Discord servers, zines are short, long, photocopied or professionally published publications that tell stories or otherwise share infor-

ally limited quantities. Some zines feature hand-stitched bindings, others come with fancy covers; some zines are a page folded in half, others are lengthier narratives.

“They’re as old as printing,” says Eltringham, who daylights as a librarian. “A lot of them came out of scenes in the ‘60s. You could see them in the punk music scenes and sci-fi fandoms. Most original zines are Star Trek zines. It’s a way for people who maybe haven’t felt like they’ve had a voice in official publishing to get something on paper and share it with others.”

To see how stylistically different the format can be, you don’t have to look too much further than the work of the organizers themselves. Choo is a professional comic artist with a cheery, cartoon-ish style who produces several zines a year. For Eltringham it’s a hobby; she embraces the more collaged, analog

“I feel pretty inspired by the smaller form because it’s really quick and easy to get your ideas down,” Eltringham says.

“Sometimes I’ve used that to develop longer form zines as well.”

Getting to know each other at Denver zine events where Choo tabled her wares, they joined forces to give zines a Colorado Springs home when the organizers of a previous fest left town. They describe their Pikes Peak Zine Fest as a fun, folksy marketplace for artists to sell, talk about and otherwise give away

Open First Friday from 5 – 8 pm

OCTOBER FEATURED ARTISTS: Gayle Gross & Karen Standridge

Visit Gallery 113 for amazing, a ordable, beautiful art created by our 17 local artists.

Voted one of the top three galleries in the Springs!

their works. Venmo QR codes will be visible for easy purchases in a fair that sometimes asks for just a dollar or two for a publication.

The zine format also makes them ideal for activism, environmentalism or telling stories about pets.

“I have a couple that are about plants and animals from when I was in school,” says Choo. “I had done one recently that’s about issues that are going on in Hawaii — where I’m from originally — helping to spread the word about what’s going on there and why it’s a problem. [It’s] been really helpful to be able to pass it to somebody or leave it somewhere.”

But even if you’re still unsure what zines are about — much less have the time, resources or talent to produce your own — the Fest invites you to dive in anyway.

“One of the really great things about our event is even if you can’t purchase a zine [or] you’re not interested in taking

one home with you, there’s tons of really great artists that are happy to talk about their work and connect with others in the community,” says Eltringham.

“For me, making zines and comics is my way to connect with people,” says Choo. “I’m totally fine with having a great conversation with someone and they don’t necessarily buy something. I think sometimes it can be a little overwhelming for someone who hasn’t been to this type of event before, because I can’t believe how good our vendors always are. It’s really based around community.”

For me, making zines and comics is my way to connect with people.

— Kels Choo

The Hall at PPLD, 20 W. Pikes Peak Ave., Oct. 7, 1-5 p.m., free to attend, masks are mandatory with some available onsite. More info at pikespeakzinefest.tumblr.com

IF YOU GO:

Over 50 zine makers will be on-hand to show, sell and chat about their work.

Courtesy of Jennifer Eltringham

CourtesyKelsChoo

PLAYING AROUND

IN THE REALM OF POP MUSIC, THE WHOLE ISN’T always greater than the sum of its parts. Few would argue, for example, that Beyoncé was way better in her Destiny’s Child days, or that Justin Timberlake is nothing without the magic of NSYNC.

But the world would surely be a poorer place without the collective synergy of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and Spinal Tap, to name but a few. The same can be said for The Police, the iconic rock-of-the-’80s trio who were one of the few bands to play Shea Stadium after The Beatles. Frontman Sting, guitarist Andy Summers and drummer Stewart Copeland had a musical chemistry that was matched only by their personal animosity, which reached the point where Sting supposedly pulled a knife on Copeland, and Copeland definitely sent Sting to the emergency ward with a broken rib.

Gallagher brothers shenanigans notwithstanding, the group’s legacy remains undeniable and, for the musicians themselves,

WEDNESDAY 10/4

8th Street Alley, rock ; 6:30 p.m., Front Range Barbeque, frbbq.com/events.

Acoustic Hour, local musicians; 6 p.m., Buffalo Lodge, bicycleresort.com.

Madison Falkenstine, soprano; 2 p.m., The Arbours at MacKenzie Place, tinyurl.com/M-Falk.

Oktoberfest! Polka Folk; John Wise & Tribe, New Orleans R&B/blues/jazz/ island ; 6 p.m., Hillside Gardens, hillsidecolorado.com/upcoming-events.

THURSDAY 10/5

Ivano Ascari (trumpet) and Leonardo Carrieri (organ); 7 p.m., Shove Chapel/ CC, tinyurl.com/CC-Sheffer.

The Kaleidoscope Kid, hip-hop/rap ; 7 p.m.; Oskar Blues, coloradosprings. oskarbluesfooderies.com.

Moodlite, alternative electro-soul, with Daddi; 8 p.m., Lulu’s, lulusdownstairs. com.

unavoidable. Even Sting, who recently sold his songwriting catalog for an estimated $300 million, is playing an album’s worth of Police hits on his current “My Songs” tour.

Meanwhile, his former bandmates are doing full-on Police tribute shows. Summers is touring Latin America with two Brazilian musicians in a power trio named Call The Police, while Copeland has embarked on his “Police Deranged for Orchestra” tour, whose Denver date will find him manning the drumkit alongside three vocalists, a guitarist and the Colorado Symphony.

All of which means that, with a sufficient travel budget, the true Police fan could hear hits like “Every Breath You Take,” “Message in a Bottle,” “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic,” “King of Pain” and, of course, “Roxanne,” performed live by all three musicians, just not in the same venue. Granted, the sum of those parts may turn out to be less than the whole, but hey, it’s better than nothing. —

Bill Forman

Trigger, grindcore band from Germany, with 908, Upon a Field’s Whisper, Ulnar; 7:30 p.m., What’s Left Records, facebook.com/whatsleftrec/events.

FRIDAY 10/6

Kofi Baker’s Cream Faith, music of Cream; 7 p.m., Stargazers Theatre, stargazerstheatre.com.

Begley, Mock & Murphy, bluegrass ; 6 p.m., Buffalo Lodge, bicycleresort.com. Circumversor, “shoegaze-influenced indie rock,” with Interrobang, Gatehouse; 7 p.m., Oskar Blues, coloradosprings.oskarbluesfooderies.com.

Drowning Pool, rock , with Saliva, Adelitas Way, Any Given Sin; 6 p.m., Sunshine Studios Live, sunshinestudioslive.com.

The Emo Night Tour ; 8 p.m., The Black Sheep, blacksheeprocks.com.

Forever Man, Eric Clapton tribute; 7 p.m., Boot Barn Hall, bootbarnhallco.com.

Funky Fridays with Totem Colloquium, funk jam; 7 p.m., Summa, dizzycharlies.com.

Dzirae Gold, soul/jazz , with Heavy Diamond Ring; 7 p.m., Brues Alehouse, Pueblo, bruesalehouse.com.

Jazz Nite; 7 p.m., Fred’s Place/Colorado Springs Conservatory, tinyurl.com/ jazznite-CSC.

Jennifer Knapp, folk rock , with Jill Sobule; 8 p.m., Lulu’s, lulusdownstairs. com.

Marvel vs. DC , Colorado Springs Philharmonic — “the immortal struggle of one comics powerhouse against another”; 7:30 p.m., Pikes Peak Center, pikespeakcenter.com.

Swell, classic rock ; 7 p.m., Crystola Roadhouse, Woodland Park, crystolaroadhouse.bar.

Thantifaxath, black metal, with Sunless, Alone; 7 p.m., Vultures, vulturesrocks. com.

Stewart Copeland and the Colorado Symphony’s “Police Deranged for Orchestra,” Thursday, Oct. 5, 7:30 p.m., Boettcher Concert Hall, 1000 14th St., Denver, $15-$103, coloradosymphony.org

When you need The Police, one is better than none.

“POLICE DERANGED FOR ORCHESTRA”

@ Boettcher Concert Hall, Denver

PLAYING AROUND

tic guitar; 7 p.m., Abby’s Irish Pub, abbysirishpub.com/events/nick-davey.

Decades of Dance with Soul School; 7 p.m., Boot Barn Hall, bootbarnhallco. com.

Easy Honey, “shoegaze-influenced indie rock,” with Juno Rossa, The Morning After; 7 p.m., Oskar Blues, coloradosprings.oskarbluesfooderies.com.

Eric Golden, country ; 6 p.m., Whiskey Baron Dance Hall & Saloon, tinyurl. com/whisk-dh.

A Grand Night for Singing, ChoralSong (new local chamber choir); 7 p.m., First Christian Church, choralsong.org/ concerts.

Brandon Henderson, singer-songwriter ; 6 p.m., Palmer Lake Pub, palmerlakepub.net/events-1.

SATURDAY 10/7

Jeffrey Alan Band, Garth Brooks tribute; 7 p.m., Stargazers Theatre, stargazerstheatre.com.

The Chats, punk-rock , with Cosmic Psychos, The Schizophonics, Gymshorts; 7 p.m., The Black Sheep, blacksheeprocks.com.

CITRA, “guitar driven grit-rock,” with

Tensas, Stereo Ontario, Strung Short; 7 p.m., Vultures, vulturesrocks.com. Countywyde, bluegrass; 6 p.m., Mash Mechanix, mashmechanix.com/events.

Creed Fisher, outlaw country, with Tim Meegan Jr. & The 105s, Kyle Chatham & The Road Shots; 6 p.m., Sunshine Studios Live, sunshinestudioslive.com

Nick Davey, singer-songwriter/acous-

BIG GIGS

Upcoming music events

ver, Oct. 5

Goose, Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Morrison, Oct. 5-6

Emarosa, Meow Wolf, Denver, Oct. 6

Vince Gill, Ball Arena, Denver, Oct. 6

Jennifer Knapp, Lulu’s, Manitou, Oct. 6

Slowdive, Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom, Denver, Oct. 6

Marvel vs. DC /Colorado Springs

Symphony, Pikes Peak Center, Oct. 6-7

The 1975, Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre, Greenwood Village, Oct. 7

Jason Aldean, Ball Arena, Denver, Oct. 7

Apashe, Mission Ballroom, Denver, Oct. 7

The Chats, Black Sheep, Oct. 7

Will Hoge and William Elliott Whitmore, Lulu’s, Manitou, Oct. 7

Jessie Murph, Gothic Theatre, Englewood, Oct. 7

Chicago punks Sincere Engineer play Denver’s Lost Lake Lounge on Nov. 16.

Dessa, Ophelia’s Electric Soapbox, Denver, Oct. 4

Portugal. The Man, Boulder Theater, Boulder, Oct. 4

The Used, Mission Ballroom, Denver, Oct. 4

Stewart Copeland and the Colorado Symphony, Boettcher Concert Hall, Denver, Oct. 5

Eagles: The Long Goodbye, Ball Arena, Denver, Oct. 5

Maude Latour, Marquis Theater, Den-

Cheap Trick, Pikes Peak Center, Oct. 8

Carl Cox, Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Morrison, Oct. 8

The Mars Volta, Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Morrison, Oct. 9

The Darkness, Summit Music Hall, Denver, Oct. 10

Dope Lemon, Ogden Theatre, Denver,

Will Hoge, Americana, with William Elliott Whitmore; 8 p.m., Lulu’s, lulusdownstairs.com.

Joe Johnson, singer-songwriter; 6 p.m., Buffalo Lodge, bicycleresort.com.

Marvel vs. DC , Colorado Springs Philharmonic — “the immortal struggle of one comics powerhouse against another”; 7:30 p.m., Pikes Peak Center, pikespeakcenter.com.

Reid Poole & the Night Owls, New Orleans jazz; 6 p.m., Jives Coffee Lounge, tinyurl.com/ReidPoole-NOLA-Jazz.

Social Insanity, “hard rock with a splash of metal,” with Darkened Sun, Arcadian Downfall; 9 p.m., Legends Rock Bar, facebook.com/LegendsRocksCO.

SUNDAY 10/8

Cheap Trick, rock ; 7 p.m., Pikes Peak Center, pikespeakcenter.com.

Jeffrey Dallet , folk/rock ; 1-4 p.m., Armadillo Ranch, manitouarmadilloranch. com.

MONDAY 10/9

A Community Gathering of Song and Healing, singer/songwriter/musical activist Melanie DeMore; 6:30 p.m., Ent Center for the Arts, voicesofgriefcenter.org/events.

Ben Paille, trumpet; 5:30 p.m., Armadillo Ranch, manitouarmadilloranch.com.

WEDNESDAY 10/11

Dark Moon Hollow, honky tonk/bluegrass/rock ; 6:30 p.m., Front Range Barbeque, frbbq.com/events.

Dropkick Murphys, Celtic punk , with The Interrupters, Jesse Ahern; 7 p.m., World Arena, broadmoorworldarena. com/events/detail/dropkickmurphys. The Springstown Shakers, blues; 6:30 p.m., Front Range Barbeque, frbbq. com/events.

THURSDAY 10/12

Billy Bronsted, Americana , with Pony Hunt, John Hewitt; 8 p.m., Lulu’s, lulusdownstairs.com.

Tommy Castro & The Painkillers, Garth Brooks tribute, with Deanna Bogart; 7 p.m., Stargazers Theatre, stargazerstheatre.com.

Frog & Fiddle, Americana/jam; 7 p.m., Armadillo Ranch, manitouarmadilloranch.com.

Cory McDaniel Duo, Americana trio; 7:30 p.m., Millibo Art Theatre, themat.org.

New Vintage Jazz; 7:30 p.m., Summa, dizzycharlies.com.

David Rosales, Americana; 7 p.m., Vultures, vulturesrocks.com.

PAINTING AN OASIS

New Eastside murals prove local art deserts are blooming

PHOTOS AND STORY BY NICK RAVEN | nick@csindy.com

THE LOCAL ARTS COMMUnity is taking notice after a new permanent mural was unveiled this past week along the Powers Boulevard corridor.

“The east side of town is an art desert,” says Jennifer Farnes, owner of Revolution Jewelry Works, whose business now features a large, eye-grabbing piece of art placed among otherwise similarly styled brown buildings. “There are so many big, beautiful façades that just need a splash of paint and there are so many artists that are willing and capable of creating beautiful artwork. There is no reason for this side of town to look as generic as it does.”

Revolution’s wall-spanning mural is designed to catch attention with its vibrant colors and metallic paints, best viewed as the early afternoon sun strikes it. Symbolizing Farnes’ rock hounding days that inspired her to become a jeweler, it presents Pikes Peak as if it

who recently died, as well as a pair of monarch butterflies that Farnes’ mother would use as her artistic signature.

Pitched as a large, artistic gift to the city to celebrate the store’s 10th anniversary while reflecting the jeweler’s independence amid a sea of corporate jewelers, the mural was a collaboration between Farnes and Revolution artist and jeweler Liz Kenagy. It was painted over nearly a month of variably hot and wet summer weather by Michael Beenenga of Artistic Gold Creative Concepts.

“There were a few days where I was burning up,” Beenenga says. “I would keep my paint in the shade, but even then, you come back not even 20 minutes later and there’s a skin across it.”

Farnes sees the city’s hands-off approach to art on private property as a “beautiful thing,” something that’s come under fire recently as Knob Hill’s murals inspired Colorado Springs Councilor

you’re advertising, if you’re putting a logo on the side of a building... that’s where you’re limited on size and scope and things like that,” Farnes says. “But if you’re doing a painting and you own the building: Go big or go home.”

The Powers corridor is still considered “out there” geographically when it comes to art, packed to the gills with cookie-cutter corporateinformed design and architecture. A few miles south of Revolution, the First & Main Town Center shopping complex has been home to shiny retail stores and the city’s only IMAX movie theater for over two decades. As executive director of the Cultural Office of the Pikes Peak Region (COPPeR),

manages Flying Horse Ranch — regularly hold summer concert series to facilitate the performing arts, if not necessarily the visual arts, in eastern Colorado Springs.

But with a footprint that spans from Woodland Park to Calhan and beyond, permanent murals along Powers are newsworthy for COPPeR.

“Across the entire region, you’re always going to do better with some critical mass of districts that can build on what another’s doing,” Seals says. “As the community is evolving and growing, it’s natural for them to define what they want their community to be or what thrives in their spots.”

But this summer, First & Main

There is no reason for this side of town to look as generic as it does.

— Jennifer Farnes

Revolution Jewelry Works’ new mural stands alone amongst a sea of standardized architecture along the Powers corridor.

the wall of Ai Sushi & Grill: Jeresneyka Rose’s “Local Love” mural. With a Southwest Airlines logo hovering in the corner, the project was originally pitched as a celebration of the airline’s March 2021 arrival at the Colorado Springs Airport, as well as a tribute to the Southeast community, where the airport resides.

Emblazoned with the word “Love” and the names of Southeast neighborhoods painted out in a swirl of bright, inviting white and other optimistic colors, the mural debuted to much fanfare in an extremely visible location. Rose’s work serves as a conversation starter, spurring developers, business owners and artists alike to align in transforming Colorado Springs’ art deserts into oases of expression.

“I think art is everything,” says Rose, a local artist who works at COPPeR to develop K-12 programs that support local creatives. “I think [public art] is something that we’re a little bit behind the times on in Colorado Springs, honestly. In Denver and other thriving and growing cities — whether they’re metropolitan areas or not — public art is a part of the language of everything that’s done in the city.”

But being first on the scene can carry an innovation cost. While Revolution’s mural (on private property) came out of a series of unilateral decisions, Rose’s design was chosen from a number of competitors, the result of a complicated, multi-organization effort that took most of a year to manifest. Carrying a complex set of requirements from the partner entities, the mural wound up being painted miles away from the neighbor-

hoods it was designed to pay tribute to.

“There was not a location that was was safe from traffic where people could actually walk and stand... that everyone was satisfied with that had enough visibility and foot traffic and was on a route to the airport,” says Rose.

For muralists like Beenenga, our art deserts suddenly look like vast seas of unpainted opportunities that simply need investment. Having worked with the coarse texturing on Revolution’s building that can be found on so many other structures in the area, he can offer plenty of advice for future installation painters.

“The Powers corridor needs some more art,” Beenenga says. “I’ve got some ideas in my head I’d love to pitch to some different people up there.”

For the time being, absent an artistic authority like the Knob Hill Urban Arts District or Downtown Ventures, visual art will continue to materialize around places like the Southeast and the Powers corridor on an ad hoc basis.

“I think people forget that art is architecture, it’s clothing, it’s music, it’s what we watch on TV, it’s visual artists, kinesthetic artists, everything,” says Rose. “It’s only right to pay homage to the people that are dedicating their lives and their craft to making the world a more beautiful place. I think that throughout the process of figuring out what Colorado Springs is doing when it comes to public art as a whole, there are going to be multiple opportunities for more public art not only in the Southeast, but in other neighborhoods that are art deserts.”

Jeresneyka Rose’s mural is a conversation starter and a tribute to the Southeast.

Your guide to events in the Pikes Peak region CALENDAR

ings. Open through Oct. 30; reception Friday, Oct. 20, 4-7 p.m.

Anita Marie Fine Art, 109 S. Corona St., 719-493-5623, anitamariefineart.com. Storied Places, oil paintings that share the intimate emotional relationship between artist and place. Artists include Chuck Mardosz, Richard Dahlquist and Joanne Lavender. Opening reception Friday, Oct. 6, 5-8 p.m., with paintings on display refreshed regularly through Nov. 9.

Bosky Studio, 17B E. Bijou St., boskystudio.com. The Jane Doe Project: Studies and Sketches by Lindsay Hand, whose “deeply researched work — focused on power structures and the human spiritual experience — is frequently presented in partnership with institutes and entities outside of the traditional gallery experience.” Opening Reception, Friday, Oct. 6, 5-10 p.m.; through Nov. 17.

ART EXHIBIT

Home by Valerie Lloyd, who paints with acrylics and oils on canvas and wood panel — “Home is a visual record of both the intentional and unintentional beauty found in simple settings. A half-empty mug, a curated shelf, a carefully arranged vase of flowers, a forgotten pile of laundry, an unmade bed: all of these small moments are markers of the people who last interacted with them.” Opening reception Friday, Oct. 6, 5-9 p.m.; Kreuser Gallery, 125 E. Boulder St.; through Oct. 27.

ART EVENTS

October is Arts Month, when we’re all invited to gorge ourselves on this year’s 31-day buffet of cultural events in the Pikes Peak region. Go to artsoctober. com/events and start marking your calendar (and be sure to enter this year’s sweepstakes to win the “ultimate Arts prize package,” tinyurl.com/Artssweep).

CLASSPORT, have you wanted to take an art class, but don’t know where to begin? This is a great time to meet Cottonwood instructors, check out materials and techniques, and see what students have made in their classes. Friday, Oct. 6, 5-8 p.m.; Cottonwood Center for the Arts, 427 E. Colorado Ave.; cottonwoodcenterforthearts. com/classport.

FIRST FRIDAY/ART

45º Gallery, 2528 W. Colorado Ave., Suite B, 719-434-1214, 45degreegallery.com. Acrylic paintings by Carlos Salazar Arenas and hand-blown glass by Danielle Park.

Academy Art & Frame Company, 7560 N. Academy Blvd., 719-265-6694, academyframesco.com. East and West: Classic and New Perspectives, works by faculty and students at Sheppard Arts Institute. Includes Asian art on rice paper with sumi ink, watercolors, charcoal drawings, pastels, acrylic and oil paint-

The Bridge Gallery, 218 W. Colorado Ave., #104, 719-629-7055, thebridgeartgallery.com. Liz McCombs’ Desert Dreams “highlights the remarkable resilience and tenacity of life in arid landscapes .” Opening reception Friday, Oct. 6, 5-8 pm.; through Oct. 28.

Buffalo Lodge Bicycle Resort, 2 El Paso Blvd., 719-634-2851, bicycleresort.com. Works by Chris Reiss, including originals, prints, cards and stickers. Through October.

Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College, 30 W. Dale St., 719-6345581, fac.coloradocollege.edu. First Friday Art Party, with free museum admission, Adana Dysart’s art in the Deco Lounge, and music by multi-instrumentalist folk musician and songwriter Jeremiah Walter. Oct. 6, 5-8 p.m. From Source to Mouth: A Creative Survey of Monument Creek, Erin Elder’s “community-centered creative research project that engages elements of geology, hydrology, ecology, land use, and history, as well as personal memory and sensory awareness to explore the multiple, overlapping, and sometimes contradictory perspectives about Monument Creek.” Through Nov. 9. Mi Gente: Manifestations of Community in the Southwest, with works from the FAC collection; through Feb. 3. FAC museum free days: Oct. 14 and 20.

Commonwheel Artists Co-op, 102 Cañon Ave., Manitou Springs, 719-685-1008, commonwheel.com. From Earth to the Sky, with three artists — Jean Pierre DeBernay (paintings), Hedy DuCharme (paintings) and Steve Shugart (photography) — sharing their personal interpretations of Colorado. Opening reception, Friday, Oct. 6, 5-8 p.m.; through Oct. 30.

Cottonwood Center for the Arts, 427 E. Colorado Ave., 719-520-1899, cottonwoodcenterforthearts.com. Ghosts (And Other Manifestations of Grief), a solo exhibition by Aaron Graves — “...Ghosts are an absence and a void that isn’t easy to fill, or even come to terms with. But recognition of them can be key in understanding how humans grieve and how we can begin to go through that process….” Opening reception, Friday, Oct. 6, 5-8 p.m.; through Oct. 28.

Courage, works by Filipino American artist Elaine Antonio Bordeaux — paintings, bronze sculpture, ceramics and prints — in celebration of Filipino American History Month. Friday, Oct. 6, 5:30-8 p.m.; The Asian Heritage Center, 1819 W. Cheyenne Road; goldenlotusfoundation.org.

Disruptor Gallery, 2217 E. Platte Ave., shutterandstrum.org. The new gallery’s first show: Not One or the Other by painter and tattoo artist Maria Fetterhoff, who works mostly in acrylics and whose work is filtered through her Mexican heritage (Frida Kahlo’s work is one of her main influences).

Opening reception Friday, Oct. 6, 5-9 p.m. Disruptor is tucked inside Shutter and Strum, which will offer “creative programs for at-risk and underserved youth in Colorado Springs, including film/darkroom photography, art gallery curation and management, songwriting, music performance and therapy, and studio recording.”

Grand opening celebration Saturday, Oct. 14, 4-8 p.m.

G44 Gallery, 121 E. Boulder St., 720-9510573, g44gallery.com. Lori DiPasquale’s You Are The Sky — “Just as weather conditions come and go, so do the circumstances and events in our lives. Our experiences, emotions, and external situations are like passing weather patterns. They may bring turbulence or tranquility, joy or sorrow, uncertainty and challenges. The storm clouds may build and blow us around, but they do not define who we truly are.” Plus Marisa S White’s Above/ Below (see image on next page). Opening reception Friday, Oct. 6, 5-9 p.m.

Gallery 113, 125½ N. Tejon St., 719-6345299, gallery113cos.com. Paintings by Gayle Gross and Karen Standridge inspired by the changing seasons and the shifting mountain light of October. Opening reception Friday, Oct. 6, 5-8 p.m.

GOCA (Galleries of Contemporary Art, UCCS), Marie Walsh Sharpe Gallery, Ent Center for the Arts, 5225 N. Nevada Ave., gocadigital.org. Martha Russo’s Caesura “her sculptural investigations appear at once fragile and potentially dangerous, cautioning one away while hypnotically drawing one in — ever closer — for intimate examination.” Through Dec. 2.

Hunter-Wolff Gallery, 2510 W. Colorado Ave., 719-520-9494, hunterwolffgallery. com. October’s featured artist: Ed McKay, who works in oils and acrylics — landscape, wildlife, still life. Opening reception (and the gallery’s 18th anniversary celebration), Friday, Oct. 6, 5-8 p.m.

Kreuser Gallery, 125 E. Boulder St., 719464-5880, kreusergallery.com. Photographer Matt Chmielarczyk’s PAIROSCOPES

— During COVID, he says, “Like so many others, I found myself walking the good dirt and looking for the familiarity of exploration that comes with a stroll in the woods. I was looking for a peace to help calm the anxiety that comes with any unknown. Pairoscopes are the things we often overlook. Things that exist in our world to amaze those who make the time to observe and absorb.” Also by Chmielarczyk — Dia de Muertos, “A visual journey through Oaxaca’s sacred conversation with death.”

Plus Home by Valerie Lloyd (see image, left). Opening reception Friday, Oct. 6, 5-9 p.m.; through Oct. 27. Artist talks Oct. 18, 5:30 p.m.

LightSpeed Curations, 306 S. 25th St., 719-308-8389, lightspeedart.art. Welcome to Your Nightmares — “a gallery showing of the dark arts” — with works by Nat Feather, Boogiavelli, Sherri Gibson, Lawson Barney, Daphna Wilker, Cat Everington, Jay Newskool, Sean Harvey, Noah Segura, Senor Trash and Valerie Bradley. Opening reception Friday, Oct. 6, 6-10 p.m.

The Look Up Gallery, 11 E. Bijou St. (inside Yobel), thelookupgallery.com. An October Arts Month Collaboraton with works — one large-scale, abstract or impressionistic piece each — by artists from the gallery’s first year of solo shows: Leila Davis, Jes Moran, Isaac “Focus” Cisneros, Rachel Espenlaub, Becca Day, Shannon Mello, Jon Francis, Nathan Travis, Nichole Montanez, Clay Ross, Rachel Dinda and Brian Tryon. Opening reception Friday, Oct. 6, 5-9 p.m. Manitou Art Center, 513/515 Manitou Ave., Manitou Springs, 719-685-1861, manitouartcenter.org. Manitou: The Art of the Great Spirit, “art celebrating artists who work, create and Live in Manitou Springs.” Opening reception Friday, Oct. 6, 5-8 p.m., with the Moonlight Market and a new show of works by local and regional artists in the First Amendment Gallery. Bidding begins Oct. 6 for the Big Loud Silent Auction, the MAC’s annual fundraiser.

Pikes Peak State College Faculty Exhibition, reception Friday, Oct. 6, 5-8 p.m. (show will be up through Oct. 20). PPSC’s Gallery at Studio West, 22 N. Sierra Madre St.; see tinyurl.com/PPSC-fac for gallery hours.

ART EXHIBIT

The Bridge Gallery, 218 W. Colorado Ave., #104, 719-629-7055, thebridgeartgallery.com. Liz McCombs’ Desert Dreams “highlights the remarkable resilience and tenacity of life in arid landscapes.” Opening reception Friday, Oct. 6, 5-8 pm.; through Oct. 28.

“Horns” by Liz McCombs

“August” by Valerie Lloyd

Platte Collections, 2331 E. Platte Place, 719-980-2715, plattecollections.myshopify.com. Featured artist Elizabeth Morisette “brings upcycled art with texture, imagination and a touch of nostalgia.” Resident artist Susan Tormoen will be live painting landscapes with a palette knife. Cocktail celebration Friday, Oct. 6, 4-6 p.m.

Surface Gallery, 2752 W. Colorado Ave., 719-359-6966, surfacegallerycos.com. The Space Between, a curated photography group exhibit. “Ten art photographers captured their own interpretations of this phrase. Subject matter and technique approaches vary greatly and capture the attention of the viewer with dynamic subject matter in the style of each artist.” Includes work by Nate Cuccaro, Allison Daniel, Robert Gray, Abigail Kreuser, Heather Oelklaus, Karen Scheffe, Richard Seldomridge, Denny Welker, Nancy Welker and Marisa White. Opening reception Friday, Oct. 6, 5-9; through Oct. 27; artist talk Tuesday, Oct. 17, 5:30 p.m.

True North Art Gallery, 31 E. Bijou St., 719471-3809, truenorthartgallery.com. True North After Dark: “fresh art from 20 local creatives, sip spooky season-themed drinks and chat with local creatives.” Friday, Oct. 6, 5-11 p.m.

UCCS Downtown, 102 S. Tejon St. #105-a. An art show collaboration between UCCS Downtown, Pikes Peak Arts Council and District 11.

Just Art — works by 10 artists including Amanda Janusz, Daniel Logan, Kerre Milman and Ania Milo. Universal Education Foundation, 301 E. Platte Ave., universaleducationfoundation.org; reception Friday, Oct. 6, 5-8 p.m.

ZoneFIVE, 1902 E. Boulder St., zonefivecs. com. Daydreams and Night Lights, a juried photography exhibition presented by a Radiant Aberration and ZoneFIVE that “explores the creative imagination. What oddity or mirage do you picture during the day? Have you captured apparitions or things that go bump in the night?” Opening reception, Friday, Oct. 6, 5-8 p.m.

FILM

Colorado Short Circuit 2023, Indie Spirit Film Festival event with award-winning shorts from Colorado independent filmmakers — “comedy, drama, documentary, Women in Film, animation, music videos, experimental, horror/sci-fi, and more.” Friday-Saturday, Oct. 6-7; Ivywild School, 1604 S. Cascade Ave.; indiespiritfilmfestival.org/csc.

Six Feet Under Horror Fest: Movies from the Morgue, the quarterly gathering, with trivia, prizes, raffles and voting for the best short. Sunday, Oct. 8, 1-7 p.m.; RoadHouse Cinemas, 3030 N. Nevada Ave.; tinyurl. com/sixfeet-oct.

KIDS & FAMILY

Venetucci Farm’s Pumpkin Fest, includes the pumpkin patch, hay rides, games and pick-your-own flowers. Friday-Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. through October 29, with a craft fair and farm ani-

mal visits Saturdays and Sundays.

Creek Week Cleanup at Bear Creek Nature Center, Saturday, Oct. 7, 9 a.m to noon, 245 Bear Creek Road, tinyurl.com/ epco-fun for info.

The City Dog and the Prairie Dog, part of Creede Repertory Theatre’s Young Audience Outreach Tour. Saturday, Oct. 7, 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.; Millibo Art Theatre, 1626 S. Tejon St; themat.org.

Concrete Coyote Grand Opening, celebrating of the park officially being open to the public and more than four years of programs, projects and activities. With performances, fun activities, food and drink. Saturday, Oct. 7, 1-7 p.m.; 1100 S. Royer St.; concretecouch.org/events.html.

POETRY & PROSE

Poetry 719 Festival, through October:

First Wednesday Open Mic, all acts welcome. Haiku battle (if there are enough people) and a baby slam, but... “It’s not about the points, it’s about the poetry and the people.” Oct. 4, 7:30 p.m.; Bottles and Taps, 4763 Flintridge Drive; tinyurl.com/ Poetry719-openmic. Erotic Open Mic & Pole Showcase, Saturday, Oct. 7, doors open at 7 p.m.; Pole Revolution, 1861 N. Circle Drive, tinyurl.com/p719-erotic. Keep Colorado Springs Queer, queer open mic featuring Irina Amouzou; Wednesday, Oct. 11, doors open 6:30 p.m.; ICONS, 3 E. Bijou St.; tinyurl.com/p719-Amouzou. See full events list at tinyurl.com/p719-festival23.

All Pikes Peak Reads — This year’s selection, The Girls Who Stepped Out of Line — Untold Stories of the Women Who Changed the Course of WWII — Retired Army Gen. Mari K. Eder’s biography “takes you inside the lives and experiences of 15 unknown women heroes from the Greatest Generation.” Author visit with Mari Eder: Keynote address, Q&A and book signing, Saturday, Oct. 7, 3 p.m.; Library 21c, 1175 Chapel Hills Drive; ppld.org/appr.

SPECIAL EVENTS

NAMIWalks Colorado Springs and Mental Health & Wellness Fest, the National Alliance on Mental Illness’ annual fundraising walk, with family-friendly entertainment — a pumpkin-carving throwdown between El Paso County Coroner Dr. Leon Kelly and celebrity chef Brother Luck, yoga, food trucks, DJ and a kids’ tent. Saturday, Oct. 7, 9 a.m. to noon; Panorama Park, 4540 Fenton Road; tinyurl.com/NAMIWalks23.

Indigenous Peoples’ Weekend, with storytelling, art show, Ute dancers, a community potluck, and the ceremonial planting of the peace tree. Friday-Sunday, Oct. 6-8, see tinyurl.com/Indigenous-MAN23 for events schedule; various locations in Manitou Springs.

THEATER & STAGE

Midge and the Butcher, by Springs En semble Theatre’s Quinn Smola, is “equal parts humor and horror” — “Midge, a recently out trans teen, has been hav ing some troubles with a former-friendturned-bully. With school about to start

and no clear allies, Midge does the only thing she can think of to make sure she has protection: she summons a demon from Hell.” Through Oct. 15; The Fifty-Niner, 2409 W. Colorado Ave.; facebook.com/ springsensembletheatre.

Steel Magnolias, You’re invited “into the intimate world of a Black beauty shop in small-town Louisiana and the lives of the women who keep both the shop and the county running.” Through Oct. 15; Dusty Loo Bon Vivant Theater, Ent Center for the Arts, 5225 N. Nevada Ave.; entcenterforthearts.org.

Jerry Seinfeld, tickets go on sale Friday, Oct. 6, at 10 a.m. for his Feb. 17 Pikes Peak Center show; pikespeakcenter.com.

Romance at the Chautauqua, a melodrama based on the 1891 disappearance of Palmer Lake founder Dr. William Finley Thompson and his daughter’s search for him. By Springs-based playwright Richard Sebastian-Coleman, presented by Palmer Lake Arts Council. Oct. 6 and 8; Palmer Lake Town Hall; plartscouncil.org.

ART EXHIBIT

G44 Gallery, 121 E. Boulder St., 720-951-0573, g44gallery.com. Marisa S White’s Above/Below — “Every living thing has a purpose that contributes to the greater whole. Each organism, no matter how small or insignificant, plays a vital role in maintaining the balance of ecosystems. ... I explore these patterns and connections in an attempt to gain a deeper understanding of the world around us and our place within it.” Opening reception Friday, Oct. 6, 5-9 p.m.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, presented by Funky Little Theater Co., tells Washington Irving’s classic tale of superstitious and moneyhungry schoolmaster Ichabod Crane and his encounter with the Headless Horseman. Oct. 13 and 14 at Palmer Lake Town Hall, 42 Valley Crescent St., Palmer Lake, and Oct. 21 at Westside Community Cen-

ter, 1628 W. Bijou St.; tickets at tinyurl.com/ Funky-Ichabod.

Ghost Stories of Old Manitou, walking tours by THEATREdART “tell the stories of real people from Manitou Springs’ history.” Oct. 6-27; tickets and more info at tinyurl. com/Ghosts-Manitou.

“Above/Below ” by Marisa S White

FAIR AND UNBALANCED

GOP PRESIDENTIAL FIELD:

By Mike Littwin Courtesy The Colorado Sun

RUNNING BY NOT RUNNING

explained that support while insisting he has no regrets.

I DOUBT IF ANY OF THESE CANDIdates could beat Trump under any circumstances. There was a time when DeSantis seemed, on paper at least, to possibly be a saner, smarter, more acceptable version of whatever the Republican Party has become during the Trump years. But as many Floridians had predicted, the more people saw of DeSantis, the less they’d like him.

And so it has been. And so it will be. If you can get past the paywall, you might want to read Carl Hiaasen’s devastating takedown of the Florida governor in Vanity Fair. In any case, the DeSantis crashand-burn campaign will be studied for years by historians, if, in coming years, historians are still a thing.

To have any chance to beat Trump, a candidate would have to call him out for the damage he has done to America and the further, barely imaginable, damage he would do if he were somehow given entry to the White House again. It’s more than possible he’ll get that chance. The polls, after all, show him running even with Joe Biden, and one top-level poll — an admitted outlier that The Washington Post should never have run — had Trump 10 points ahead.

IDIDN’T HAVE TO WATCH THE GOP presidential debate to know that I would be rendered somewhere between disgusted and nauseated if I dared tune in.

But I watched it anyway — it’s my job; thanks for asking — and I was even more disgusted and truly nauseated than I could have guessed. That’s despite the fact I had taken the precaution of recording the event, meaning I could hit the fast-forward button any time Vivek Ramaswamy forced his way into the conversation.

The problem, for me anyway, was not about policy — as a liberal, I didn’t expect to agree with all that much of what was said — or about the earsplitting cross-talk or Mike Pence’s lame greatgranddad jokes or Tim Scott’s actual suggestion that it was tougher for Black people to survive Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society than it was to survive slav-

ery or Chris Christie’s journey into Donald Duckery or Nikki Haley’s misguided plan to send special ops into Mexico to take out the cartels or even Ron DeSantis’ bid to replace Ted Cruz as the least likable person in American politics.

If you missed the debate — and I’m guessing you did — here’s a video mashup (tinyurl.com/debate-in-3minutes) of some of the highlights, if you want to call them that.

What most bothered me about the debate is that Donald Trump — not just a racist, demagogic carnival barker any more, but clearly representing the greatest threat to American democracy since the Civil War — is running away with the Republican primary non-contest, and none of the seven people on the stage did a single thing to change that.

As far as I could tell, most of the candidates — other than Christie — didn’t even try. There’s no mystery here. These

would-be presidents are afraid of the Trump wing of the Republican Party, meaning they can’t even acknowledge Trump’s cult-leader-like hold on them.

Yes, these people are apparently running against Trump — who happily skips each debate, thumbing his nose at his rivals, at the party and, OK, at GOP voters in the process — but that doesn’t make them any different from all the other Republican politicians who have enabled Trump for eight years now on his path to becoming the Full Trump.

Most of the people on the stage have been enablers themselves, even including Christie, who seems to be running only in order to try to stop Trump. Christie did, in fact, call out Trump during the debate, and has said Trump doesn’t “give a damn about the American people.”

But it’s hard to forget that while Christie has apologized for once supporting Trump, he has never sufficiently

The candidates need to tell the truth about the former Liar in Chief and about the 91 counts he’s facing. They need to talk about how Trump has no respect for the rule of anyone else’s law. They need to talk about a president who is facing charges that are just this side of sedition. They need to talk about how Trump was the one trying to rig elections to illegally keep power and about how Trump’s run for the presidency is as much about keeping himself out of prison as anything else.

They need to talk about how one jury has found him liable for sexual assault and how a judge has ruled that he was officially a fraudster, who, for his lies, could lose control even of Trump Tower.

INSTEAD, DURING THE DEBATE, they went after Trump for not showing up, as if that were the worst of his sins. They went after him for adding trillions to the debt, not that I heard any of them

Gov. Ron DeSantis... Remember when they said he stood a chance?

Gage Skidmore

criticizing Trump while he was doing it. They went after him for not being tough enough on the Chinese or on the Mexicans or on someone.

Did they go after Trump for encouraging House Republicans to shut down the government? Reuters reported the former president said Sunday that “Republicans got very little” out of the deal and that those representing the party needed to “get tougher.”

Have they called the phony Biden impeachment inquiry part of Trump’s retribution tour?

How many have criticized him for his very public attempts at intimidating judges, prosecutors and even witnesses in the many trials against him?

Have any of them said they were appalled by Trump’s suggestion that Gen. Mark Milley had committed treason and would have, in the past, faced “DEATH” for his attempts to rein in Trump in his final days? (By my count — three. Pence, Christie and Asa Hutchin-

son, who sit at a combined 7 percent in the polls.) Axios compiled a list of 24 times Trump has accused someone or some entity of treason.

Did they say that Trump’s known role in the violent Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol disqualifies him from the job, whether or not he is ever convicted? How about when he said we should “terminate” the Constitution? Maybe the GOP field doesn’t spend enough time reading the Never Trumpers from Bulwark. They write every day about the many ways that a conservative Republican should be opposing Trump. It’s a long, long list. And yet, even the few remaining Republican anti-Trumpers seem ready to throw in the towel.

It’s a sad, sad story. But the truth is that Trump’s rivals are running against Trump, despite his huge lead in every GOP primary poll, by basically not running against him.

The hope, I guess, is that if one can-

didate can pull away, that person could then focus on Trump. But nobody is pulling away other than Trump, whose lead seems to grow with each indictment.

As strategies go, it’s closer to strategery. As game plans go, not even the Broncos would pick this one.

And as this primary race — which is hardly a race at all — continues to

go, it doesn’t bring us one step closer to the end of the ever-more-alarming Trump era.

Mike Littwin’s column was produced for The Colorado Sun, a reader-supported news organization committed to covering the people, places and policies of Colorado. Learn more at coloradosun.com.

To have any chance to beat Trump, a candidate would have to call him out for the damage he has done to America...

LOWDOWN

By Jim Hightower jimhightower.com

THE (SCARY) SCHEMES

of the billionaire class

WHEN

MEGALOMAN -

ic, multibillionaire barons of industry suddenly announce that they are boundless geniuses who must remake society, government and nature — perk up and pay attention! Their grand schemes of social engineering almost always go badly for us non-billionaires.

Having spent their careers in the topdown, self-aggrandizing, exploitative, corporate culture, they invariably turn to techno-solutions and AI computer models, ignoring such bothersome factors as human dynamics.

So look out, for here comes a gaggle of high-tech gabillionaires from Silicon Valley, planning to “fix” America’s cities by building an urban utopia from scratch. They’ve chosen Solano County, northeast of San Francisco, for their startup city, promoting it as a hybrid of technotopia and European urbanity, free from the gritty realities of — you know — real cities.

Their plan, however, did not include informing the people currently living there about their scheme. Instead, they dispatched secret armies of lawyers and developers to snap up the area’s rich farmland, preparing to surprise the

The Problem with Blind Faith

By Ken Burrows

When people operate on blind faith, sometimes that can end up being . . . too blind. Especially when it does not consider countervailing evidence. Case in point is an assertion made by a noted Christian author at a recent Colorado Springs suicide prevention event. While both professional and lay people suggest varied solutions to rising suicide rates in the state, this author held that people thinking of ending their life need to turn to the church “because it’s the only place the answers are going to come from.”

But in fact the church is not the “only” place with answers. For many it is not an effective answer at all. Because the relationship between suicide, religious belief, and church attendance is highly nuanced, as

locals by converting their land, community and culture into the gabillionaires’ experiment in new urbanism. One of the moneyed schemers declared that: “The idea is simple: Found new cities, free from old bureaucratic and legal structures, and explore bold new visions of how government should work.”

But that’s not simple… it’s simplistic. Also, wholly anti-democratic and unAmerican. But it’s in keeping with the egomaniacal ejaculations of such other self-indulgent richies as Peter Thiel, who wants cities to float on oceans; Jeff Bezos, who proposes that cities orbit in space; and Elon Musk, who wants cities built on Mars.

This is Jim Hightower saying… They should all be sent to those places now! Meanwhile, what if more of our billionaires invested their money and political influence in funding real solutions to real problems in the real cities America already has?

BUT WHAT IF YOU’RE JUST A multimillionaire?

Oklahoma troubadour Woodie Guthrie wrote a song about outlaws that was right on target: “As through this world I’ve traveled / I’ve seen lots of funny men / Some’ll rob you with a six gun / Some

shown by an exhaustive review of 10 years of literature on the subject by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

“Although religion is reported to be protective against suicide, the empirical evidence is inconsistent,” the NIH discovered. “We found that religious affiliation does not necessarily protect against suicidal ideation, but does protect against suicide attempts.” However, the agency also noted that even this latter protection is variable among diverse faiths. It may depend on cultural aspects of religious affiliation — such as how well accepted a particular religion is in society and how much the social aspects of churchgoing, rather than religious belief per se, provide that protection. “After adjusting for social support measures,” NIH said, “religious service attendance is not especially protective against suicidal ideation.”

The NIH said the reviewed studies also suggest a potential negative effect of re-

with a fountain pen.”

That could apply today to Clayton Bennett, a multimillionaire Oklahoma City banker who has regularly wielded his fountain pen to loot public funds for his private gain. Bennett is a Hall of Infamy player in the elite club of big league owners of pro-basketball teams, specializing in picking taxpayers’ pockets to finance his operations. In 2006, he and a few highrolling partners bought the Seattle SuperSonics team, promptly demanding that locals pony up $500 million to build a new arena for them.

No, said Seattle. So Bennett & Gang scampered off to Oklahoma City with the team (renaming it the Thunder), using their fountain pens to filch a $100 million subsidy from taxpayers there. Soon, Bennett and the Gang struck again, demanding that local officials hand over another $115 million subsidy.

Gratitude? Robbers don’t say thank you. They refill their fountain pens. As

ligion on suicide, such as when people in certain crises find religion making them feel guilty, distant from God, or abandoned. “Before assuming religious affiliation is protective, one must consider the culture-specific implications of affiliating with a particular religion,” the NIH observed. “In some places the affiliation might connect the person with community resources, while elsewhere the affiliation could isolate the person.”

There is also the fact that suicide rates among LGBTQ persons are disturbingly high, which is believed to be related to these populations being regularly demeaned and ostracized. That form of isolation and denigration often comes at the hands of conservative churches. If such maligned persons happen to be religious themselves, they can feel all the more abandoned and potentially suicidal.

The NIH went on to also note that causality cannot be inferred between churchgoing and suicide potential. Rather than assum-

Judd Legum reports in his excellent Substack report Popular Information, Bennett is now demanding $850 million from OKC taxpayers to build a glittery new basketball palace for him. Legum notes that this is about “$3,200 for every Oklahoma City household,” and that Bennett’s take will deplete the budget of about a dozen essential community projects. He also has an inside accomplice: The mayor. Having taken Bennett’s cash to get elected, OKC Mayor David Holt is now warning taxpayers to hand over millions to his rich banker buddy — or the Thunder will leave town.

So go! The thieving won’t stop until the people stop the thieves. Ship the whole herd of them out of town, including Bennett and that pusillanimous mayor.

ing church attendance is what is helping a particular person to cope, it could be that a person who is already coping and functioning well is better able to maintain a social routine like church attendance. Here the cause-effect dynamic is essentially reversed. Why does all this matter? Because if one makes a blind faith assumption that “only” the church has the answer to rising suicide numbers, then a person in crisis may seek help only there while other effective answers get overlooked. Answers like professional mental health interventions such a person might actually need. Or even practical answers like promoting community cohesion, encouraging simple acts of kindness, showing compassion and generosity, and especially taking care to look out for others. None of these require church affiliation. Instead of being limited by blind faith, they broaden the range of potential answers to stemming the suicide tide.

They dispatched secret armies of lawyers and developers to snap up the area’s rich farmland...

All words to be constructed pertain to the topic to the right. To your advantage one word has already been traced. You must trace the three remaining words, using only the letters designated by the darkened circles. Words may begin and end from either column but each letter can only be used once.

Each puzzle has a difficulty rating (right). Four stars signify the highest degree of difficulty.

Given to the right are the point values for each word. Your words must correctly match these point values.

CROSSWORD PUZZLE

Edited by Jared Goudsmit | Themeless Sunday 54 by John Ewbank

MINI SUDOKU X

SUDOKU X

14 Gracious guy

21 "Yellow" vehicle ... or slang for a red wine

22 Getty Images offerings

23 "Dang it!"

25 Ham ___ (pork knuckle)

26 Condition for some vets 27 "This is terrible!" 28 Itty-bitty oinkers 29 "Carmen" composer 31 Big rig fuel 33 Part of a cellphone plan 34 Footnote abbr. 36 One of six on Kosovo's flag

37 Bitter brews, for short

42 "___ Fleurs du mal" (Baudelaire book)

43 Instruments in string quartets

44 Country with traditional pe'a and malu tattoos 45 Underground lava 46 Admits (to) 48 "But wait, there's ___!"

49 London hub for the LGBTQ+ community 50 "The Candy House" author Jennifer 51 Cow : bull calf :: horse :

53 Something to mind in a Tube station 54 Before, in poems

Find the answers on p. 25

Hear Gene talk about his pathway to success as a business leader who is driven by dedication to his community, his family and his faith.

Oct. 11

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Free Will ASTROLOGY BY

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Take a few deep, slow breaths. Let your mind be a blue sky where a few high clouds float. Hum your favorite melody. Relax as if you have all the time in the world to be whoever you want to be. Fantasize that you have slipped into a phase of your cycle when you are free to act as calm and unhurried as you like. Imagine you have access to resources in your secret core that will make you stable and solid and secure. Now read this Mary Oliver poem aloud: “You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.”

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): An Oklahoma woman named Mary Clamswer used a wheelchair from age 19 to 42 because multiple sclerosis made it hard to use her legs. Then a miracle happened. During a thunderstorm, she was hit by lightning. The blast not only didn’t kill her; it cured the multiple sclerosis. Over the subsequent months, she recovered her ability to walk. Now I’m not saying I hope you will be hit by a literal bolt of healing lightning, Scorpio, nor do I predict any such thing. But I suspect a comparable event or situation that may initially seem unsettling could ultimately bring you blessings.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): What are your favorite mind-altering substances? Coffee, tea, chocolate, sugar or tobacco? Alcohol, pot, cocaine or opioids? Psilocybin, ayahuasca, LSD or MDMA? Others? All the above? Whatever they are, the coming weeks will be a favorable time to reevaluate your relationship with them. Consider whether they are sometimes more hurtful than helpful, or vice versa; and whether the original reasons that led you to them are still true; and how your connection with them affects your close relationships. Ask other questions, too! PS: I don’t know what the answers are. My goal is simply to inspire you to take an inventory.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): In his book Meditations for Miserable People Who Want to Stay That Way, Dan Goodman says, “It’s not that I have nothing to give, but rather that no one wants what I have.” If you have ever been tempted to entertain dour fantasies like that, I predict you will be purged of them in the coming weeks and months. Maybe more than ever before, your influence will be sought by others. Your viewpoints will be asked for. Your gifts will be desired, and your input will be invited. I trust you won’t feel overwhelmed!

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): William James (1842-1910) was a paragon of reason and logic. So influential were his books about philosophy and psychology that he is regarded as a leading thinker of the 19th and 20th centuries. On the other hand, he was eager to explore the possibilities of supernatural phenomena like telepathy. He even consulted a trance medium named Leonora Piper. James said, “If you wish to upset the law that all crows are black, it is enough if you prove that one crow is white. My white crow is Mrs. Piper.” I bring this to your attention, Aquarius, because I suspect you will soon discover a white crow of your own. As a result, long-standing beliefs may come into question; a certainty could become ambiguous; an incontrovertible truth may be shaken. This is a good thing!

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): If we hope to cure our wounds, we must cultivate a focused desire to be healed. A second essential is to be ingenious in gathering the resources we need to get healed. Here’s the third requirement: We must be bold and brave enough to scramble up out of our sense of defeat as we claim our right to be vigorous and whole again. I wish all these powers for you in the coming weeks.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): I’ve been doing interviews in support of my new book Astrology Is Real: Revelations from My Life as an Oracle Now and then, I’m asked this question: “Do you actually believe all that mystical woo-woo you

write about?” I respond diplomatically, though inwardly I’m screaming, “How profoundly hypocritical I would be if I did not believe in the ‘mystical woo-woo’ I have spent my adult studying and teaching!” But here’s my polite answer: I love and revere the venerable spiritual philosophies that some demean as “mystical woo-woo.” I see it as my job to translate those subtle ideas into well-grounded, practical suggestions that my readers can use to enhance their lives. Everything I just said is the prelude for your assignment, Aries: Work with extra focus to actuate your high ideals and deep values in the ordinary events of your daily life. As the American idioms advise: Walk your talk and practice what you preach.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): I’m happy to see the expanding use of service animals. Initially, there were guide dogs to assist humans with imperfect vision. Later, there came mobility animals for those who need aid in moving around and hearing animals for those who can’t detect ringing doorbells. In recent years, emotional support animals have provided comfort for people who benefit from mental health assistance. I foresee a future in which all of us feel free and eager to call on the nurturing of companion animals. You may already have such friends, Taurus. If so, I urge you to express extra appreciation for them in the coming weeks. Ripen your relationship. And if not, now is an excellent time to explore the boost you can get from loving animals.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Gemini author Chuck Klosterman jokes, “I eat sugared cereal almost exclusively. This is because I’m the opposite of a ‘no-nonsense’ guy. I’m an ‘all-nonsense’ guy.” The coming weeks will be a constructive and liberating time for you to experiment with being an all-nonsense person, dear Gemini. How? Start by temporarily suspending any deep attachment you have to being a serious, hyper-rational adult doing staid, weighty adult things. Be mischievously committed to playing a lot and having maximum fun. Dancing sex! Ice cream uproars! Renegade fantasies! Laughter orgies! Joke romps! Giddy brainstorms and euphoric heartstorms!

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Cancerian comedian Gilda Radner said, “I base most of my fashion taste on what doesn’t itch.” Let’s use that as a prime metaphor for you in the coming weeks. According to my reading of the astrological omens, you will be wise to opt for what feels good over what merely looks good. You will make the right choices if you are committed to loving yourself more than trying to figure out how to get others to love you. Celebrate highly functional beauty, dear Cancerian. Exult in the clear intuitions that arise as you circumvent self-consciousness and revel in festive self-love.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): The amazingly creative Leo singer-songwriter Tori Amos gives this testimony: “All creators go through a period where they’re dry and don’t know how to get back to the creative source. Where is that waterfall? At a certain point, you say, ‘I’ll take a rivulet.’” Her testimony is true for all of us in our quest to find what we want and need. Of course, we would prefer to have permanent, unwavering access to the waterfall. But that’s not realistic. Besides, sometimes the rivulet is sufficient. And if we follow the rivulet, it may eventually lead to the waterfall.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Do you perform experiments on yourself? I do on myself. I formulate hypotheses about what might be healthy for me, then carry out tests to gather evidence about whether they are. A recent one was: Do I feel my best if I eat five small meals per day or three bigger ones? Another: Is my sleep most rejuvenating if I go to bed at 10 p.m. and wake up at 7 a.m. or if I sleep from midnight to 9 a.m.? I recommend you engage in such experiments in the coming weeks. Your body has many clues and revelations it wants to offer you.

ROB BREZSNY

Gene Sanchez

President and CEO of Zehcnas

BY THE EDITORS AT ANDREWS MCMEEL

The easily offended

A resident of Trail in British Columbia called police on Sept. 8 to complain of a man wearing camouflage pants, which he believed to be a violation of some rule, the Toronto Sun reported. The caller, 27, said he was “offended on behalf of the military” and requested that an officer find the man and remove his pants. When the officer said he could not do that, the caller said he would remove the man’s pants himself “under order of [the] king of England.” The local Royal Canadian Mounted Police did look for the camouflage wearer, presumably to warn him about the caller, but — surprise! — couldn’t find him.

‘Little Rascals’-style?

After the long-awaited capture of escaped fugitive Danelo Cavalcante on Sept. 13, Pennsylvania State Police Lt. Col. George Bivens held a press conference to share the details of the arrest, Huff Post reported. One attendant, a podcaster named Michael Rainey, gets the prize for the most bizarre question posed to Bivens: “Was there any concern he [Cavalcante] would team up with another small man to step inside of a trench coat, ‘Little Rascals’-style?” What? On X, Rainey said he “knew no one else would ask the questions that needed to be asked. Also, they were very polite in asking me to leave.” Bivens shot a curt “No” back to Rainey’s question before the podcaster was encouraged to hit the exit.

Cry for help

If there was ever a place where it would be better to let a dropped Apple Watch go, a Michigan woman found it. ABC News reported that on Sept. 19, passersby called police when they heard a woman yelling for help from within an outhouse. The unidentified woman had lowered herself into the outhouse toilet to retrieve her Apple Watch, which had fallen into the unmentionable muck below. Unable to climb back out, the woman resorted to yelling for assistance, and she was eventually lifted out via strap by first responders. State police issued a statement with a warning to any fumble-fingers who might follow the woman’s poor example: “If you lose an item in an outhouse toilet, do not attempt to venture inside the containment area. Serious injury may occur.”

Awesome!

Pedro Carvalho, CEO of Destilaria Levira, a wine distillery in Levira, Portugal, assured citizens that the 600,000 gallons of red wine that spilled from the facility on Sept. 10 and covered the city’s streets would not leave a lingering smell because it was “good quality wine.” The New York Times reported that one tank collapsed because of a “structural failure,” knocking over another tank. The distillery promised to “take full responsibility for the costs associated with damage cleanup and repair,” which included one basement that was flooded. Firefighters collected some of the wine and removed it to a wastewater treatment plant.

cages with the number in the top-left corner. ®KenKen

GROCERY SHOPPERS IN SOME BILLA SUPERMARKETS IN Europe are finding themselves face to face with the latest innovation in food technology, fresh ... off the printer. Austrian-based food-tech startup Revo Foods has developed a 3D-printed vegan fish filet “inspired by salmon,” which Popular Science reported “relies on mycoprotein made from nutritionheavy filamentous fungi” that “naturally offers a meat-like texture.” The company has announced that The Filet will be available on its webstore on Oct. 1, but sorry, U.S.based wannabe print-pescatarians: Revo ships to the EU only. The company expects to reach the U.S. market by 2025.

Focus Startups & Entrepreneurs

Punching above our

On the heels of SOCO Startup Week, the Business Journal had a conversation with Vance Brown about the startup ecosystem in Colorado Springs — which he says is punching above its weight, and drawing attention nationwide. He should know. Brown is executive director at Exponential Impact, the high-tech accelerator he founded in the Springs after decades as a high-tech entrepreneur and CEO. He’s also well known as the former CEO of the National Cybersecurity Center, and cofounded Thrivers Leadership Institute.

What makes you passionate about moving startups forward in Colorado Springs?

I’ve started a lot of things, and I love entrepreneurship. I was co-founder of The Classical Academy and three different software companies [including Buildsoft and Cherwell Software, which in 2014 was ranked among the nation’s fastest growing companies in North America by Deloitte’s Fast 500]. I believe Cherwell was the largest commercial software company ever in the history of Colorado Springs, in terms of employees, that was headquartered here.

BY HELEN LEWIS | helen@csindy.com

I’ve reflected on what made it work — and honestly, a big part of that was the community. I’ll give you an example: As an entrepreneur, it’s just so hard to get that first customer, and this community gave us that — our first university customer was UCCS. UCCS believed in us. Pam Shockley-Zalabak was chancellor at the time, and she even gave an interview about how the university and the students were using our platform to develop applications, and I found that to be unbelievable … and we then became one of the top service management solutions in the world for univer-

sities. Another story was in the financial sector. We had help desk service management software, and we needed somebody to believe in us in the financial and banking world — and Ent Credit Union stepped up and they became an incredible customer. So when I’ve reflected on what helped make us work, it was this community. This community is amazing in its willingness to believe in you and come alongside you. But when I left Cherwell and I was trying to figure out how to pay it forward and get involved in the community, there weren’t a lot of epicenters in place here to really promote

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local entrepreneurship, especially in the commercial high-tech area. … I was surprised that there wasn’t an accelerator/ incubator for high-tech companies in the Springs. And I think we had a reputation, even a mindset among ourselves, that you can’t do commercial high tech here; that it’s just not a good environment for it. ... But that just wasn’t my experience of Colorado Springs. I just felt like we needed to build on this city’s ecosystem of willingness to help — and I think now there is more of that ecosystem in place.

So you looked to fill that high-tech accelerator gap by starting Exponential Impact in 2017. Tell us about how the startup world here is different now.

I think this community has always had a heart of helping, but we’re getting more organized in working together — industry, government and military, education working together — we’re seeing that. Right now, Exponential Impact is part of a nine-organization group going after NSF grants that ultimately would amount to $160 million over 10 years, and [the grantmakers] are looking for what they call innovation engines. [The group, called the Resilient Space Infrastructures, Systems, and Economy team — or RISE — includes UCCS, Catalyst Campus for Technology and Innovation, Exponential Impact, the Colorado Springs Chamber & EDC, National Cybersecurity Center, Pikes Peak State College, Space Foundation, Space ISAC, and the U.S. Air Force Academy. It aims to “ignite technological innovation and workforce development to foster technology commercialization and technology transfer in space systems, space infrastructure, and cybersecurity for the space economy.”] That’s a classic example of us working together intentionally — not just having the heart for it, but being intentional in really working together in an ecosystem like that. This year, we were the only group in Colorado to win what’s called a Type 1 [New Project] grant, which was $1 million. There were around 450 [nationwide] that applied for that Type 1 grant, and we’re only one of 44 that got it. Now we have two years to come up with our big grant proposal for a Type 2 grant, which should be $160 million.

Colorado Springs is getting more and more recognition, even against places like Austin and Atlanta and Chicago and other traditional places of entrepreneurship. … We have so much to offer. We’re getting the word out and truly being intentional, and now that entrepreneurs have a lot of choice to work basically anywhere, I think people are starting to talk about Colorado Springs even more. Yemi [Mobolade’s] election as mayor was an unusual thing for the Springs and got a lot of attention, so there seems to

be some chatter out there — even from Denver and other places in Colorado — that, man, Colorado Springs is starting to be a happening place.

The other cities you’re comparing us to are way bigger. Are we punching above our weight — or starting to? Absolutely yes — although you know what’s interesting is we see ourselves as a very small city, but when you’re talking about half a million people in the city and three-quarters of a million if you include El Paso County, we’re not all that small anymore. So I think we’ve got to keep that small-town caring attitude, but embrace the fact that we’re not small. We’re the 39th-largest city in the country — I mean, come on. ... I believe Colorado Springs is unique in that we have a working ecosystem; you have to have that larger, healthy ecosystem before a great entrepreneurship ecosystem forms.

Let’s talk more about being intentional. What specifically are we doing in the Springs for diversity in startups — including Black and Hispanic entrepreneurs, women, people who traditionally draw less venture capital funding and less support in new ventures.

You know all about our Survive & Thrive program and its incredible success in supporting local, small businesses — not just high tech, but any small business. [Exponential Impact’s Survive & Thrive Program was launched in 2020 out of an urgent need to support Colorado Springs businesses hurt by the COVID pandemic. It distributed $2.3 million in low-interest, non-recourse loans to 132 small businesses before any federal funding was disbursed.] That was the start of something special, because we didn’t start the accelerator with diversity in mind; it’s just that we needed to pivot during COVID to support our local community. And the first Survive & Thrive was such a success, when the city did a study it showed that $2.3 million had $156 million of economic impact to our community. The city followed up after that with somewhere in the neighborhood of $350,000 to give grants — not loans, but grants — to local businesses, and that was focused on diversity. Ninety-one percent of the businesses were women, minority or military. So we built rubrics around just what you’re saying: Can we target that diversity? I think we’ve struggled in our community about being diverse. I think that’s one of the biggest problems we’ve had, is demonstrating and showing that we are not only diverse, but we’re supportive of diversity. And I think that [reputation for lack of diversity] has hurt us in the past... But that is changing. Again, I’m still shocked about Mayor Yemi winning — I was all continued on p. 29 ➔

This community is amazing in its willingness to believe in you...

the way behind his campaign, but it truly was a mandate of ‘We want to embrace the new and we want to be seen differently.’ Everybody looked at this city as a very red bubble in a more purple/blue state, but oh my gosh, look what happened against all odds. It was a tough climb, but it ended with a mandate. I just remember when the first poll came out so quickly on election night that basically he’d won, I literally had tears coming down my face, and I couldn’t imagine our dream that this community is making a statement like that. And I think the statement had a lot to do with, ‘We want to love and embrace everyone. Everybody’s welcome here. Everybody’s included here.’

So now at Exponential Impact we have a Survive & Thrive revolving loan fund that has been supported by the U.S. Economic Development Administration, OEDIT, the city, the county — and bonus points are given to diversity in terms of the funding. You can get a $50,000, zero-percent interest for the first year; 3 percent interest the second year; and 4 percent the third year, but you can prepay, so you get basically a free loan for a year to help with growth and startup — and you don’t have to have collateral and you don’t have to have great credit. This is meeting a real need. You know The Thrive Network, we’d heard that entrepreneurs graduated from that all trained and ready to go — and they couldn’t get like a $5,000 loan [from a traditional institution]. How pathetic is that? So I think a silver lining of COVID was this Survive & Thrive program, where we saw the need for another type of funding. What was amazing about that first Survive & Thrive is we had to do these loans in two weeks — before PPP, before any of that — this was financial first responder stuff. And we told everybody, ‘We’re not going to sue you if you can’t pay it back. That’s not the heart of this. The heart is, you’re gonna be so engaged in the community that you’re gonna want to pay it back because it’s the right thing to do, and you’re gonna build relationships with all these other people.’ And that’s exactly what happened. We had told all the investors that we were hoping for 50 percent return on all those loans. And we’re at 80 percent, as of today. And people are still like, ‘We’re gonna still pay it back, we’re working on it.’ And over 95 percent of those 132 companies survived, and a lot are now thriving — and those companies represented a lot of diversity. Now we’re trying to build up a $5 million revolving fund, so that as soon as we get the money back, we push it back out. We’re well over halfway there with the last commitment — it’s now at about $2.7 million. You think of what $2.3 million did — gosh, what will $5 million do? ... Within that, there’s startup money, and then money

for [existing] small businesses that want to grow, want to scale. And we provide all the programming to support all of that. We build community.

What might banks and other lenders need to change in their mindset about who’s getting the money and the opportunities?

Banks traditionally, they’re very, very conservative, and if you don’t have the collateral, how do you get a loan? I find even SBA loans very harsh at times — like, ‘We’ve got to attach your house and collateralize that,’ you know? And then on the other hand, if you’re looking at angel money, you’re talking about a $100,000type investment — and for that you’ve got to be further along, typically. So there’s a gap. These Thrive businesses that are trying to start something, where in the world do they go? Where we’re talking about diversity and the underserved, they don’t have family that can just hand them $5,000. So I think again, a silver lining of COVID was us seeing the need for another type of funding that has a different narrative. I’m not saying the banks are wrong. I’m not judging the banks — they do amazing things for businesses. But talking about startups, especially diversity in startups, you have to have the ability to get a $5,000 loan or a $50,000 loan without all that [collateral]. And with our loans, all we’re asking you to do — because the special thing in all this is less about the money and more about the programming and mentoring — we’re just asking you to get involved. And if you get involved, I’m telling you, if you possibly can pay it back, you will. That’s just the good nature of people. Survive & Thrive proved that.

How do people join the effort to support Colorado Springs startups?

Get on exponentialimpact.com and get more information, and tell us how you might want to get involved. We’re still in the process of raising this revolving loan fund, but the special sauce of it all is the mentoring. And a lot of people think, ‘Well, how am I qualified to be a mentor?’ Well, can you show empathy and compassion and love to other people? That’s the criteria. This is important: Entrepreneurs have double the chance of suicide compared with the average population, and 72 percent of entrepreneurs versus about 40 percent of the average population say that they have mental and emotional challenges. It’s very lonely, very scary: ‘How do I go into this, not knowing if I’m gonna get paid?’ So coming alongside as an emotional support is critical. We have a lot of experts that we can add to that, that we can supplement — so you don’t have to know it all. No one does. n CSBJ

BBB OF SOUTHERN COLORADO PRESENTS THE 29th ANNUAL A NIGHT OF EXCELLENCE

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“Where

“Where

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Front The

5 tips for your veteran-owned small business

dream important? Why am I different?” It’s your dream. No one is going to work harder or understand your dream more than you.

Business ownership and entrepreneurship isn’t something people have to do on their own. There are resources available through the Colorado VBOC, the Small Business Development Center, APEX Accelerator, the Women’s Business Center, the Pikes Peak Workforce Center and the SBA District Office.

From business plans to financial advice, there are resources out there to assist veterans, regardless of what kind of business they want to open. But no one is going to be more passionate about the idea than you. Entrepreneurship can take everything you have — make sure it’s really what you want

Owning a small business is hard, and entrepreneurship can be just as daunting. Deciding where, when, and how to start, grow, rebuild, or expand a business can be the most challenging set of decisions you will make. Fortunately, there are several resources available to help. Here are four “W”s and one “H” for your Veteran-owned small business.

Who

Owning a business or starting one from the ground up could be the right path for service members leaving the military. They have learned discipline, character, honor, commitment, service, and courage. It’s those values that could ultimately make business ownership a reality.

Beginning this year, the Veteran Small Business Certification program transferred from the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs to the U.S. Small Business Administration. The process has been simplified and streamlined to make it easier to apply for government contracts, such as VetCert, HubZone, and women-owned small business. This comes with a reminder that service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses must create an SBA account and apply for certification by December 31, 2023. Since the VA does not recognize SDVOSB self-certification, all

federal set-asides must be registered on mysba.gov before the end of the year. We’re having a workshop on Nov. 2 at Mt. Carmel Veterans Service Center to explain the benefits, eligibility requirements and the recent changes.

What

It’s not easy to own, run or manage a business. It takes time, dedication, financial support, planning, perseverance, integrity. And fortunately for service men and women, they already learned these skills in the military.

From the first day of basic training or of an officer’s course, the training began. Service members learn the importance of mission, ethics and integrity. They learn to keep going, even when it’s hard. They understand perseverance. All branches benefit from leadership classes and training. Most importantly, they learn that every person is critical and impacts the success of the mission. They taught me, “If we fail, we fail forward.”

Why

This is up to the individual business owner — and that’s where the Veterans Business Outreach Center comes in. Whether someone has an amazing idea, is just getting started, is ready to rebuild, or is rapidly expanding, we are here to help them turn their dream into reality.

We turn their “why” into a “how.”

When it comes to why, potential business owners should ask themselves, “Why do I want to do this? Why is my

One resource that needs more attention: The Colorado Springs Chamber & EDC has an optimized market research tool on their website. Size Up COS is available for free. The Chamber & EDC also has permit partner software that guides small business owners through the entire process of licenses and fees. The “how” can be complicated, but business resources can make it simple.

When

The answer to this: When you feel that you are ready to live your dreams. Be sure you really enjoy your business or entrepreneurial journey. Start your business plan, past performance evaluation, feasibility study or market analysis. The Colorado VBOC can assist through business counseling, technical assistance and training. When you are ready, whether it’s for the money or the mission; the prestige or the passion, don’t forget — the Colorado Veterans Business Outreach Center at Mt. Carmel has got your six.

Kia Palmer is the director of the Colorado Veterans Business Outreach Center at Mt. Carmel — funded in part through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration. All opinions, conclusions and/or recommendations expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the SBA.

The Front is a collaboration between the Colorado Springs Business Journal , Mt. Carmel Veterans Service Center and its partners.

Potential business owners should ask themselves, ‘Why do I want to do this?’

Kia Palmer

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Now offering enhanced nationwide workers’ compensation insurance

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Pinnacol was born in Colorado, and we understand that many businesses rooted here expand and flourish across the country. We now offer enhanced nationwide workers’ comp coverage to meet the needs of Colorado’s businesses as they grow.