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Contents 7 BACK TO THE SOURCE Joey’s Fly Fishing Foundation teaches kids hand-on life skills one lure at a time.
10 SCREEN TIME
How much is too much for your kids?
13 GUTTER BIN
Sheridan’s innovation to protect Goose Creek from pollution expands to Denver.
Brave
New
WORLD
I
’ve officially become that old person who talks about how different things were when I was a kid. But they were. When I was a kid, we rode in the back of pickups, drank from the water hose, and if we wanted to communicate with a friend who had moved, we wrote them a letter. Our photos ended up in albums – shared or not shared – with friends at home. We could blame bad behavior on rumors, none of which was filmed by 30 of our closest friends, and wouldn’t have dreamed of taking a photo of ourselves, let alone share it with a bunch of strangers. It’s a different world, with different issues, but the one thing that hasn’t changed is the importance of good parents and quality family time. And though the challenges parents are facing are no doubt more complex than in recent decades, so too are the solutions and the various ways that parents have evolved to tackle the problems and help to inspire the next generation of educators, entrepreneurs and leaders.
Out here, we’re blessed with a lot of open space and outdoor recreation right in our backyard. We’re equally blessed with a community that takes care of one’s own with great schools and lots of community groups and leaders – like Joey Puettman of Joey’s Fly Fishing Foundation – whose story you can read on page 7. We also have quality young adult and child psychologists who help set the tone on keeping our kids healthy and safe, with good advice on things like screen time. Then there’s the inventive dads like Sheridannative Brian Deurloo, whose Gutter Bin prototype was inspired by his daughter Viviana to clean up the streets – including Sheridan – out of love and protection and leaving the world cleaner. Enjoy the stories, and as always, we invite your thoughts and comments. By: Jen C. Kocher
Editorial CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Erika C. Christensen MARKETING DIRECTOR Stephanie L. Scarcliff CHIEF OF STAFF Lisa A. Shrefler SALES Jessica L. Pierce Jason N. Kasperik CONTRIBUTORS Jennifer C. Kocher ART DIRECTOR Richard W. Massman DESIGNER Candice E. Schlautmann PHOTOGRAPHER Adam D. Ritterbush
Inquiries & Customer Service Outliers Creative, LLC P.O. Box 3825 • Gillette, WY 307.461.4319 • 82801@mcllc.net 82801 is a publication of Outliers Creative, LLC © 2019, all rights reserved. Reproduction in any form, in whole or part, without written permission is prohibited. This magazine accepts freelance contributions. 82801 is not responsible for loss, damage, or any other injury to unsolicited manuscript, unsolicited artwork (including but not limited to drawings, photographs, or transparencies) or any other unsolicited materials. Outliers Creative, LLC is a wholly-owned subsidiary of The MC Family of Companies, LLC.
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Joey’s Fly fishing Foundation:
Getting Back
TO T H E S O U R C E
I
n 2007, after two years of mentoring youth via fly fishing in what he calls pilot runs, Joey Puettman was convinced he was onto something and founded Joey’s Fly Fishing Foundation. Puettman had been a program director at Northern Wyoming Mental Health Center, where development of social recreation activities led to his exploration of fishing as a vehicle for mentorship. “I’ll never forget,” Puettman said, “seeing that these kids were happy, open and they were processing. It was like, ‘I’m just taking them fishing.’”
Puettman is passionate about fishing. “I was a fly fishing guide in my early 20s. I’ve been very fortunate,” he explained. “I’ve been able to fish the world. You name it, I’ve been there. It’s been pretty cool. I take one big trip a year because I have to reset.” Yet, according to Puettman, the foundation is not based exclusively on fishing. It’s about mentorship. “If I never caught another fish in my life, I would be okay with that,” he said. Puettman argued that, no matter how adept someone is at a particular skill, if they
can’t break it down and show somebody, then it’s kind of useless. Its value is increased when the skill is shared. “We’re all very passionate about our fly fishing, but that’s not what it’s about,” he stated. “It’s not about self-serving. It’s about mentoring and giving back, and that’s what we try to do with these kids.” Puettman noted that whatever issues he’s dealing with throughout the day, it all melts away while fishing, and he wants to give that to other people. Not only do kids learn about patience, respect and other virtues from the foundation’s JULY / AUGUST 2019
7
mentors, but they also learn about the “leave no trace” principle. “Every time we get a kid into fly fishing, we’re creating a conser vationist,”
Puettman said. Before students even get to go fly fishing, they have to give a certain number of hours of community service to the foundation. Fishing with Joey means cleaning the streams, testing water quality, and learning about fish habitat, anatomy and biology. “The kids are learning respect for that creature and the river systems,” Puettman said. The foundation partners with Steady Stream Hydrology, the Wyoming Game
and Fish Department, the DEQ and other conservation groups. “They come in with their employees and they teach and model for these kids,” he said. “It allows me to introduce these kids to other cool and exciting careers dealing with fishing and science, biology, mathematics. It’s all applied through this little thing called fly fishing.” The foundation runs a baker’s dozen of four-day fly fishing camps for the kids in the community. They also have numerous afterschool programs through the Sheridan County school districts. The beauty of Joey’s is that it emphasizes quality over quantity. The foundation only works with about 120 kids each summer. About 80 of those kids, some of whom have never been fishing before, will build their own custom fly fishing rod. Puettman said the physical task is much more than simply building a custom rod. “In my opinion, it's a lost art. It really is. And it is an art,” he explained. “And there are so many skills that go along with it. There’s so much attention to detail… It’s a whole mindset. It’s a whole program built around this. They are uniquely designing this—from their thread
The beauty of Joey’s is that it emphasizes quality over quantity 8
JULY / AUGUST 2019
wraps, picking out their handles, their guides, their real seats, and then the biggest thing is the math that’s incorporated with it.” The foundation tries to incorporate as many hands-on skills as possible. “They’re learning so many skills that are associated with this and they don’t even know that they’re doing it,” he said. After committing many hours to the program, attending a camp, and building their own rods, students have a chance to attempt the Wyoming Cutt Slam, a challenge created and sponsored by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. The point of the Cutt Slam is to catch all four of Wyoming’s cutthroat trout subspecies. The foundation has created a program called Focused Family Fishing that takes students on the Cutt Slam challenge, getting them to fish some of the most incredible waters around the state. Parents are encouraged to come along for the four-day whirlwind trip across Wyoming. “It’s really cool,” Puettman said, “It’s geared around support, too. All the kids are supporting each other. Our volunteers, our staff. It’s an emotional trip. “There will be times when you’re fighting a 20-inch brown and it’s just… it’s not the
The foundation tries to incorporate as many hands-on skills as possible
right fish,” Puettman explained. “You can only experience it when you’re with us. You tell them, ‘you just caught a 20-inch brown,’ and they’re all disappointed because they’re looking for their Colorado cutthroat.” After students go on their Cutt Slam adventure, they are celebrated at the Fall Fly,
which brings together 12 former students and fishing guides from all over the region to fish with them. Longtime corporate partners sponsor one student each for a day of fishing at a private ranch. The biggest fish wins. The event culminates with the presentation of the Cutt Slam certificates for those who earned them.
“My first group of kids are in their 20s now. I want to do a reunion. It would be great to get that first group of kids to come and mentor my kids now,” Puettman said. “It’s not about the Cutt Slam. It’s not about camping. It’s about getting back to the source. These kids aren’t kids anymore. They’re married, or they’re in the Marines, they’re living life, you know. And a lot of them are still a part of our organization because it did something for them. And they’re my friends.” The foundation has been working on acquiring land for a facility of their own for close to eight months, but it’s been on Puetmann’s radar for 12 years. For the last decade, the foundation has occupied a building on Main Street, but they’re looking to scale up to be able to work with more students from around the region and the state. “What we’re doing isn’t about me, and I mean that,” Puettman emphasized. “It’s about our wonderful staff and our board of directors. They are really passionate. We’re working with these youth and turning them into mentors.And it’s really neat seeing these generational gaps being broken down.” By: Kevin M. Knapp JULY / AUGUST 2019
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Connect with Us on
How Much is Too Much for Your Kids?
R
aising kids can be a struggle. Figuring out how to handle screen time can too. There’s a lot of conflicting information about how much screen time is too much, and, according to local professionals, finding a balance can be difficult for parents. Did you know American children spend a whopping seven hours a day in front of electronic media? Statistics from the US Department of Health and Human Services also report kids as young as two regularly play games on Ipads or other toys with touch screens. Though there are advantages to screen time, including educational and social benefits, research
shows there are significant developmental risks, too, from stunting of the frontal lobe impacting a child’s ability to decode and comprehend social interactions, to the way in which a child’s brain interprets stimuli and instant gratification, to eye problems to name a few. For this reason, in 2016, the American Academy of Pediatrics released suggested guidelines for screen time, recommending children younger than 18 months avoid the use of screen media, while kids between 2 and 5 limit use to one hour per day. For kids 6 and older, parents are encouraged to place consistent limits on types of media as well as monitor their digital media use. JULY / AUGUST 2019
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Time spent using media Children and adolescents’ use of media has greatly increased in the past 5 – 10 years, which has been documented in numerous Kaiser Family Foundation Studies. The most recent 2010 report regarding behavior of 2,000 8 – 18-yearolds showed the average child spent: • 7.5 hours each day using media, but due to multi-tasking crammed 10.75 hours into that timeframe • 4.39 hours viewing television • 2.31 hours listening to music • 1.29 hours using computers • 1.13 hours playing video games • 40 hours each week accessing the internet from their home computers. ____________________________________
Various forms of media In 2011, the American Academy of Pediatrics reported: • 75 percent of adolescents owned a cell phone • 25 percent use the phone for accessing social media • 22 percent of adolescents log on to social media more than 10 times a day. • Adolescents use their cell phones more for texting rather than for live conversation and sent 3364 texts per month, with one-third of adolescents stating they sent more than 100 texts per day. ____________________________________
Parental rules regarding media Most children and adolescents live in homes where there are no parental rules regarding screen time. In one study, less than 30 percent of children and adolescents 8 – 18 years of age stated there were household rules regarding time spent viewing television. Parents were more likely to have rules regarding programs viewed—but even so, only 46 percent of these children and adolescents stated there were such rules in their home. In this same study, 64 percent of those surveyed stated the television in their homes was left on during meals, and 45 percent stated the television was left on most of the time. Source: American College of Pediatricians
Dr. Barry Wohl, pediatrician at Northeast Wyoming Pediatric Associates, has an appreciation for the benefits that screen time can offer, but he recommends that families be aware of their screen use and how it can affect other aspects of family life. Dr. Wohl recommends parent education available at healthychildren.org from the American Academy of Pediatrics. The site has an interactive family media planning tool that makes it easy to set up a family schedule, including screen time. “If you want to be a family,” Dr. Wohl said, “You have to make time to be a family. Make a list of activities you do together, like reading, walking and bicycling.” Rather than prescribe a certain limit on device use, he said families should plan the quality time they want to have together first and then see where screen time fits in. “Don’t ever think screen time can be the bulk of what you do,” said Dr. Wohl. Other professionals who work with kids in the area agree with Wohl on keeping the emphasis on other parts of life. According to Rebecca Atterbury, a counselor at Sheridan Jr. High School, innovation is stymied by boredom. Without play and exploration, she said, creativity is stifled. Sarah Mentock, Executive Director of Science
Kids, said that she sees a lot more kids on screens this year than she did just a few years ago. Once rare, she said, more 12-year-olds now have phones than those who don’t. She says she has also seen a rise in inappropriate search content. “Prior to two years ago, we had no problems,” Mentock said. Dr. Wohl agreed. “It’s a big topic to cope with,” he said. “You would like to say no screens, but that’s not practical.” That said, along with the dangers of too much screen time, it is important not to gloss over the benefits that screen time can provide, Dr. Wohl pointed out. “The access to information that people have in our world today is unparalleled,” he said, noting the distinction between positive and negative uses. As with many things in life, he added, balance is important. Screens are not completely good or completely bad. They can have beneficial uses, and they can get in the way. The important thing is not that each family follow strictly prescribed screentime schedules, but that each family find a balance that works for them. By: Kevin M. Knapp
Dish Strainers for the
Street
How
FORMER
Smoker's Gutter Bin
Cleans up Water JULY / AUGUST 2019
13
It began with a hatred of CIGARETTE BUTTS
S
eeing the stained ends squashed on streets and in gutters has bothered Brian Deurloo for pretty much as long as he can remember. He recalls being on a backpacking trip in Australia 20 years ago and thinking about it even back then. A former smoker himself, he wondered why people couldn’t just throw their butts away rather than using the ground as a waste can. “They’re killing our water,” he said, ticking off a laundry list of the toxic chemicals found in cigarette butts, including arsenic, nicotine and various heavy metals and polycyclic hydrocarbons, all of which Deurloo said are released into the environment, eventually finding their way into rivers and municipal water supplies. Don’t get him started on the impact that pollutants like these have on streams and rivers and marine ecology in general. Originally from Sheridan, Duerloo worked for years as an engineer in the oil and gas industry in Casper, where the cigarette butt problem has exasperated him for years. “Casper has highest rate of smokers in the nation,” he said. “They’re everywhere, outside front doors and bars.” During that time, he’d been playing around with ideas and various inventions for cleaning up the streets, cigarettes in particular. Finally, in 2005, during an industry downturn when he was convinced he’d soon be facing a layoff, he quit his
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job and decided to do what he’d been talking about doing for years, start his own company and finally come up with a product to clean up the streets. It would take years, lots of bad ideas, missteps and running down rabbit holes until he finally came up with a solution so easy that it was genius. He remembers it clearly. It was his daughter’s eighth birthday, when he came up with the idea for a prototype in the early morning. By 4 a.m., he was shopping for parts at Walmart. It was an inspiring moment, which in his mind was the best gift he could have ever given her. The Gutter Bin, which is like a big sink strainer for gutters and manholes, filters out cigar butts and other pollutants from rain water and city streets, and catches them inside of a large mesh bag attached underneath. He calls this the Mundus Bag (Latin for “clean world”) that separates out the gunk while allowing water to easily pass through. It stops trash like plastics from running off the streets and into the storm drains that then go into rivers and lakes. There are also different kinds of Mundus Bags, for trash and vegetative waste to plastic, sediment, hydrocarbons and heavy metals, which make it easy to customize per location and season. Costing anywhere, depending on size, from $500-900 per unit with a 25-year lifespan, the Gutter Bin is a popular choice for eco-conscious cities like Sheridan and Denver, who have already installed
THERE ARE
dozens. Deurloo has also created accompanying GIS software that allows municipalities to easily measure and geocode debris to help them figure out where pollutants are coming from. The "I wish I'd thought of that" refrain is something he hears often of his simple-concept product. "I was blessed to have a good idea,” Deurloo said. “And we keep simplifying it to make it better and cheaper.” The first Gutter Bin was installed in Sheridan in 2016 to protect the Goose Creek watershed. Since then, local companies and sponsors have purchased about a dozen others for use in Sheridan. Other Wyoming cities have installed them, too, as well as other states including California and Colorado, with Denver being one of Gutter Bins’ biggest customers. In the Mile High City, according to Deurloo, a dozen or so Gutter Bins have reportedly removed close to 2,500 pounds of pollution that would have eventually drained into the South Platte
River, before flowing into the Gulf of Mexico. The startup plans to grow its market in the West before expanding into other regions and eventually marketing globally. The company has designed the unit with room to display a sponsoring company’s name on the face plate as a means of allowing groups to take ownership over their efforts to clean up the streets and city. “The focus is on flowing water in confined spaces,” he said. “We’re looking for opportunities to help clean up the water.” There are approximately 40 million catch basins in the United States and the vast majority are unprotected, Deurloo noted, which puts the approximate pollution capture potential for the U.S. at 41 million tons per year. “We need to start cleaning up our water on our streets,” he said. “If we can clean up the water, the air will follow.”
APPROXIMATELY
40 MILLION CATCH BASINS IN THE UNITED STATES
“WE NEED TO START CLEANING UP OUR WATER ON OUR STREETS”
By: Jen C. Kocher
JULY / AUGUST 2019
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July / August
Community Calendar July 21 Sheridan High School Jazz Reunion
Featuring talented musicians who graduated from Sheridan High School in the late 60’s and 70’s who have pursued their jazz music. The concert starts at 3 p.m. at the Whitney Center for the Arts. Free admission! For more information please call (307) 763-0017.
July 23 Bunco For Benefits
July 26 Big Horn Polo Club:
Friday Night Lights Match Come watch polo at its finest on Friday from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Big Horn Equestrian Center. Concessions are available for food and drinks. For more information, call (760) 522-3388 or visit www.thebighornpoloclub.com.
All proceeds to benefit Sheridan Dog and Cat Shelter. Don’t know how to play? We’ll teach you! It’s easy! Join from 6 to 8:30 p.m. at The Tasting Library at 700 N. Main. $10 to play per person. Prizes for the winners and losers. For more information please call (307) 655-5056.
July 26-29 Dayton Days
July 24 Summer Evening at the Mansion
July 27 3rd Annual Tournament of Knights
From 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., Kendrick Mansion will be open to visitors at no charge during these hours. Staff and volunteers will be on hand to answer questions. Badminton and croquet will be set up on the lawn, where you can challenge your best buds to a friendly game or two. While cookies and lemonade will be available, everyone is encouraged to bring a picnic dinner and make an evening of it. For more information, contact Trail End at (307) 674-4589.
Fairgrounds with the show beginning at 7 p.m. Bounce house, games, face painting and activities for the kids. Kids 12 & under free
Join in four days of non-stop fun during the 43rd annual festival celebrating the community of Dayton. For more information, visit www.daytonwyoming.org or contact the Town Hall at (307) 655-2217.
Join us for the Third Annual Tournament of Knights featuring the Knights of Mayhem! The Knights of Mayhem have been featured on NatGeo, Nickelodeon, Netflix, and the History Channel. Captain Charlie Andrews is a multiple-time World Champion in full-contact jousting. Compete in our costume contest, enjoy a turkey leg and get your photos taken with the Knights. Gates open at 4 p.m. at the Sheridan County
with paid adult. For more information, email info@chapswyo.org. August 1-5 Sheridan County Fair
It’s fair time! Join in the annual familyfriendly fun and help celebrate the rich tradition of agriculture, with livestock shows, crafts, games, competitions and special events and much more. Free admission. For more information, call (307) 674-2980 or visit www.sherfair.com for a complete list of events.
August 2-3 Culture, Courage, Purpose Clinic
Join Coach Don Julian this summer for a transformation leadership clinic. Learn how to create the culture you desire, give life to your vision & lead with purpose. Julian will also teach you how to develop paths of encouragement that help you & your team retain confidence in the face of everyday obstacles. Designed for coaches, business leaders & anyone prepared for growth. For more information please email disakson@sheridan.edu.
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August 3 Canines on the Catwalk
Join the Sheridan Dog and Cat Shelter on Saturday for the “Canines on the Catwalk – A Main Street Rescue,” a fashion show benefit for the shelter. Watch adoptable shelter dogs and “Success Story Adoptions” walk the runway in fashion ensembles put together by Sheridan’s Main Street Retailers. Models will include local first responders and well-known personalities! Drinks and heavy appetizers from Frackleton’s with a silent auction from 5:30 – 7 p.m. Fashion show starts at 7 p.m. For more information, call (307) 674-7694 or email dogncat@fiberpipe.net.
More events
www.82801Life.com
August 10 Bike MS: Wyoming’s
Bighorn Country Classic Bike MS: Wyoming’s Bighorn Country Classic Two-day, 150-mile adventure bicycling ride
through Sheridan and Johnson Counties, with an optional ride in the Bighorn Mountains. Hundreds of participants expected, raising funds for the Colorado-Wyoming Chapter of National Multiple Sclerosis Association. For more information, visit www.bikemswyoming. org or call Molly Palmer at (307) 433-9559. Mansion photo courtesy of Wyoming Parks and Cultural Resources. Polo photo provided by Big Horn Polo Club. JULY / AUGUST 2019
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