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Show Presorted Standard U.S. Postage PAID Permit No. 11 Gunnison, UT ECRWSS Volume 5 • Number 28 Thursday, July 9, 2009 The valley was entertained Friday evening by professional freestyle motocross rider Sean Nielson of Axtell and two other riders Kris Kassabian and Justin Johansen. The trio put on a great show filled with highflying tricks and stunts. One of the crowd’s favorites was Nielson’s heal clicker back flip. Mark Henline/Gunnison Valley Gazette This year’s 4th of July Sesquicentennial celebration was a huge success. Festivities included a patriotic fireside, a freestyle motocross show, a concert by Merrill Osmond, and a fly-over by four F-16’s from Hill Air Force Base. There were also all the festivities that make each Fourth of July something to look forward to: a dinner, an auction, a fantastic parade and all the activities in the park. For more photos see page 8. Because of the high demand for the “Outlaw Nielson” t-shirts, they ran out the night of the 3rd. More have been ordered and they will be available at Freedom RV this Friday for $10. Top: Merrill Osmond greets concert-goers Kjerstine Spencer and Jacki Andrew on the night of the 3rd. Right: Auctioneer Bruce King auctions off a quilt with the help of Kim Pickett and Miss Gunnison Royalty, BreeAunna Davis and Hannah Christenson. Anita Lyons/Gunnison Valley Gazette Students at the Inouye Creative Arts camp told stories of Gunnison people through song, poetry and dance in a performance last Friday, July 3. The camp is in its third year and had the largest student body (95) and faculty (29) yet. This year the Inouyes and their work at the camp were featured on NPR. See article to find the internet address to hear the radio article. Inouye Creative Arts Camp makes national news by ANITA LYONS What began as a glint in the eye of some cousins who love to spend time together has now completed a successful third year as the Inouye Creative Arts camp in Gunnison. Grandchildren of Charles and Bessie Inouye who spent happy childhood hours playing together at family reunions organized a summer camp that brings them back to Gunnison as teachers. Gunnison residents are happy to have them. Says Olene Yeager, “They brought us something that we wouldn’t otherwise be able to participate in.” She continued, “Art isn’t in school like it used to be, and it’s hard to get a taste of what’s out there like you could in a bigger town.” This year the camp focused on the Gunnison Valley Sesquicentennial. As children prepared songs, poetry and dances for an end-of-the-week performance, they also made clay pots, kachina corn-husk dolls, designed and embroidered blocks for a future quilt, and even made a large relief map of Gunnison using different types of media, such as play dough hay fields and a matchbox prison. The performance at the end of the week had children acting out a pioneer’s experience meeting a bear, reading letters they wrote to their own ancestors--or poems describing their life in Gunnison, and singing and dancing a canon (round) about how the pioneers dealt with snakes. One of the best things about the Inouye camp is the environment. Student Megan Yeager described her teachers as “really nice. They are complimentary and help you.” Parent Heather Hill is glad that the teachers encourage the kids to speak up, “It’s you and it’s creative.” She said, “All the Inouyes are like that. They are just o.k. with themselves and they teach the kids that it’s o.k. to be unique, be different.” At the camp, the students are divided into groups and Copy Price • 75 cents rotate through classes in art, writing, music, and drama. “A wide variety of subjects gives every child a way to feel successful,” said Mika, the camp director, “We can give them a chance to try a new thing they’ve never thought of before.” Olene agrees, “You don’t know what doors this opens, what one of these little things might do for somebody,” she said, “It might be a career or talent that they do for the rest of their lives.” This year the camp attracted the attention of National Public Radio. On Wednesday morning, the camp faculty were interviewed by Dan Bammes from KUER, Salt Lake City’s NPR station and the largest radio station in Utah. The episode aired on Thursday morning and can be heard over the internet on this address : http:// www.publicbroadcasting.net/ kuer/news/news.newsmain/article/1/0/1525048/KUER.Local.News/A.Unique.Family. Reunion.in.Gunnison Mark Henline/Gunnison Valley Gazette Travis Leatherwood (left), representing the youth committee and Jesse Burrell (far right), representing the Jaycees, with DSA recipients Brian Granda, Jessica Nelson, Monica Jensen and Jason Hansen. Sixty-three years ago, the Gunnison Valley Jaycees began a tradition of recognizing a member of the community for the service they render. This tradition has been carried on every year since 1946. The first DSA recipient in our valley was Woodrow Beck. In 1968, the Jaycees began to recognize an outstanding Youth in the community. That first year Ardella Taylor received that honor. Then in 1983, the Jaycees once again added to the awards, the Outstanding Young Women’s award was given that first year to Jeanette Andersen. This year the DSA awards were presented on the night of July 3rd after the annual dinner. The youth recipients for this year were Brian Granda and Jessica Nelson, both of Centerfield. Brian is the son of Manuel Ramos and Dina Estala. Jessica is the daughter of Kirk Nelson and Sandra Nelson. Both of these youth were very deserving of this award. The award for Outstanding Young Woman went to Monica Jensen. Monica lives in Centerfield with her husband Rohn and their four children, Teigan, Xavier, Jantz and Kennedy. The Distinguished Service Award went to Jason Hansen of Mayfield. Jason and his wife Jamie are the parents of three children, Trevon, Carson and Chloe. Congratulations to all of this year’s recipients. •••A BIG THANK YOU••• On behalf of the Mayor and City Council of Gunnison, we personally thank those people who served in any capacity in the events and activities for the July 4th Sesquicentennial celebration including the evening of July 3rd. A special thanks goes to Kelly and Kathy Frandsen for chairing this year’s celebration. Many thanks go out to the people who served on the July 4th celebration committee as well as the other committees - Sesquicentennial, parade, food, local LDS Wards, concessions, Arts Council, Lions Club, Jaycees, EMT’s, Fire Department, law enforcement, and others. We greatly appreciate anyone directly responsible for the events that transpired the night of July 3rd and the day of July 4th. It was a great celebration! |
