2020 Cheyenne Mountain Guide
Profiles on the people of
Hailey Robe, seasonal interpreter/summer camp assistant at Bear Creek Nature Center PAGE 3
Renee Keele, Starsmore Visitor and Nature Center PAGE 3
Grace Vining, animal keeper, Cheyenne Mountain Zoo PAGE 4
the
Cheyenne Mountain area
Stan and Betsy VanderWerf, El Paso County Commissioner and community volunteer PAGE 5
Sandy Bray, retired Colorado Springs School Director of Theatre PAGE 5
Pat Kruse, 1947 Cheyenne Mountain grad PAGE 7
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CHEYENNE MOUNTAIN GUIDE • Wednesday, August 5, 2020
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Hailey Robe, Bear Creek Nature Center BY WILLIAM J. DAGENDESH
Courtesy of Hailey Robe Hailey Robe is a seasonal interpreter/summer camp assistant at Bear Creek Nature Center.
Hailey Robe’s cheerful, upbeat personality is a beacon of light for Bear Creek Nature Center staff and visitors seeking positive change from the seemingly endless COVID-19 pandemic. “I feel it is essential to be respectful and kind, and hope that makes an impact with people I meet,” said Robe whose professionalism is paramount in her job as a seasonal interpreter/summer camp assistant. Prior to joining the team, Robe served as a BCNC volunteer from March to June 2019 before leaving Colorado Springs to attend college. She planned to move back during the summer until COVID-19 inspired an early March return. “I completed my college courses online, applied for the seasonal position at BCNC and was offered the job,” Robe said. Robe’s job requires her to answer phone calls, register residents for programs, work on social media and advertising, and plan and/ or lead summer camp programs. “One of the most important things we can do
as people is to be kind to each other. I enjoy talking to people and getting to know them, and I have lots of opportunities to do that at BCNC.” Robe said. The Kansas City, Mo.born-and-raised Robe said she and her family fell in love with Colorado while visiting Manitou Springs in 2010. They relocated to Colorado Springs three months later with Robe graduating from Falcon High School in 2017. After earning an associate’s degree from Pikes Peak Community College, Robe in 2019 transferred to the University of Colorado at Boulder. She plans to return there this fall and graduate with an environmental studies degree in 2021. Robe also participated in a workstudy program with the Arikaree Environmental Lab, a part of the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research at CU Boulder. Although Robe enjoys many aspects of her job, she is especially proud of her interaction with the BCNC staff and community. “My coworkers and our volunteers are kind and
inspiring, and I’ve had the opportunity to work with a lot of wonderful kids during our summer nature camps,” Robe said. Such opportunities have produced numerous memories, including a near bear encounter. “My coworker and I were at the creek with 10 nature campers when a family upstream let us know a bear was headed our way. It was exciting because the bear rummaged through the campers’ backpacks and stole their snacks,” Robe said. BCNC Director Mary Jo Lewis praised Robe’s professionalism: “Hailey’s been a welcome addition to our team and we’re lucky to have her for the summer.” Robe lists hiking, camping, paddleboarding, hanging with family and friends and romping with her dogs as her favorite pastimes. She loves learning more than anything and she believes working at the BCNC is the perfect vehicle from which she can accomplish that. “I love that every day is different, and I have had some amazing experiences at BCNC,” Robe said.
Renee Keele, children’s program development coordinator, Starsmore Visitor and Nature Center BY WILLIAM J. DAGENDESH
When it comes to career choices, working with children and nature make an unbeatable combination for Cheyenne Mountain resident Renee Keele. “I really like working with children and find so much joy taking children out in nature in the park,” Keele said of her job as a children’s program development coordinator at the Starsmore Visitor and Nature Center. “I do many tasks, but this is the job I have done for years,” Keele said of her work. Keele learned about the SVNC while completing a seasonal job with El Paso County at Fountain Creek Nature Center and during a family visit to Cheyenne
Cañon Park. The SVNC serves as an introduction to the park and its array of waterfalls, rock formations, wildflowers and wildlife. Keele found she was in her element here. “I started to volunteer with leading school programs at Starsmore and volunteered at Helen Hunt Falls Visitor Center,” said Keele, who later accepted a paid position with the facility. Years later Keele found herself coordinating SVNC school programs and developing children’s programs. “I think that children instantly find that connection through the natural world and it is so therapeutic and calming. It’s everyone’s therapy during these hard times,”
Keele said. Like the children with whom she interacts, Keele also finds the natural world therapeutic. Finding an American Dipper in North Cheyenne Creek near the SVNC is her most memorable experience, she said. “This unique bird is North America’s only aquatic song bird you will find diving under the cold mountain creeks searching for food. It’s even more fun spotting them with children and getting them to do the ‘Dipper Dance.’ These birds will bob on a rock waiting to dive again to feed on water insects,” Keele said. For a time, Keele studied at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. She
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completed her last year of college at the University of Maine-Presque Isle where she graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Studies in 1987. The following year she got her start as a program coordinator at the Francis Malcolm Science Center in Easton, Maine. After five years she relocated to Colorado Springs with her husband, then serving in the U.S. Air Force. Keele wasted no time in planting roots in her new home state and immersed herself in several outdoor recreational pursuits. “My favorite pastimes are hiking, biking, gardening and sitting down at a local coffee shop reading about history or archaeology,” Keele said.
Courtesy of Renee Keele Renee Keele is a children’s program development coordinator for the Starsmore Visitor and Nature Center.
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CHEYENNE MOUNTAIN GUIDE • Wednesday, August 5, 2020
Grace Vining, animal keeper, Cheyenne Mountain Zoo BY CHHUN SUN chhun.sun@ pikespeaknewspapers.com
Grace Vining is in her happy place when she’s surrounded by warthogs, rhinos, guinea pigs, guineafowls and lemurs. The 26-year-old is an animal keeper at the Water’s Edge: Africa exhibit within Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. She didn’t expect to land in this position but it doesn’t come as a complete surprise to Vining that she did, as she’s been around animals all her life. Vining grew up on a farm in Mt. Vernon, Ohio. Her
Chhun Sun/Cheyenne Edition Grace Vining is an animal keeper at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. Here she poses with Penelope, one of the zoo’s common warthogs. family tended horses, donkeys, sheep and parrots. In
college, she studied environmental field biology
and wildlife management. Later, she took a job helping to rehabilitate sick and injured animals with the Ohio wildlife department. “It was fun and it was an interesting job,” she said. It was also challenging. Soon after, she started looking for something else to do and a friend who worked at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium in Powell, Ohio, suggested that she seek a position on the staff. Years later, Vining has relocated to Colorado Springs and has worked her way up to animal keeper at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. And she loves it.
The zoo reopened to the public in June after a nearly three-month closure because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Vining and other employees are still adjusting to a new way of life (and work) but she enjoys every moment around the animals and visitors. “We do a lot of interacting with guests,” she said. “Even with all the social distancing, we’re still able to do a lot of cool, defining moments — giving guests a really unique experience and bringing them up close to animals and giving them something that maybe they
never had before.” Colleagues like public relations and social media manager Rachel Wright appreciate Vining’s dedication. “One thing that makes the keepers in Cheyenne Mountain Zoo so special is that they prioritize connecting animals with guests,” Wright said. “They look for opportunities for guests to make a connection with animals, and Grace is phenomenal at it. She’s super outgoing, really smart, really knowledgeable and just does a great job at making that connection with people.”
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Betsy and Stan VanderWerf, power couple BY LIBBY KINDER
Broadmoor Bluffs residents El Paso County Commissioner Stan VanderWerf, and his wife, Betsy, are a “power couple” in Colorado Springs. Their combined talents, enthusiasm and expertise contribute in exceptional ways to the good of the community. As Stan puts it: “It’s about giving and caring.” Together the VanderWerfs are very supportive of a wide variety of nonprofit charities including the arts, the Colorado Springs Chamber & EDC, and outreach charities benefiting those in need and at risk. Their support and involvement runs the gamut from financial contributions to volunteerism and fundraising. They are also very active at Chapel of Our Saviour Episcopal Church in the Broadmoor neighborhood. Their faith
component, Stan explains, “is a piece of what makes a community healthy.” Betsy, who has lived in the Broadmoor community since age 12, can be described as a volunteer extraordinaire. Along with supporting her family and church, Betsy’s long list of achievements includes being a board member of the Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region, steering committee member for the Feast Of St. Arnold beer festival benefiting the nonprofit WestSide CARES, longtime troop leader and new leader trainer for the Girl Scouts of Colorado, and Debutante Ball Committee Member. And this is just her short list! Stan retired from the United States Air Force in 2011 after a career serving in Korea, Iraq, Germany, and at NORAD —
Northern Command. He was an awardee of both a Bronze Star and Legion of Merit for his military service. Aside from being an elected member of the Board of El Paso County Commissioners, Stan supports the community in a multitude of ways. He is a member or liaison of 17 boards. Of particular interest to him during the pandemic has been piloting his 6-seater Piper Lance aircraft for Angel Flight to deliver emergency medical supplies in Colorado and Arizona. As the chairman of Pikes Peak Workforce Center, Stan has been instrumental in assisting unemployed workers with training and job placement. As a county commissioner, Stan is one of five elected commissioners who serve as administrators and policy makers for
Libby Kinder/ Cheyenne Edition
Libby Kinder/Cheyenne Edition Cheyenne Mountain power couple, Stan and Betsy VanderWerf, with their shelter pup, Lilly. county jurisdictions that are not municipalities. Examples of issues handled
by the commissioners include land use, licensure and ordinance reviews,
and most recently business variances resulting from the pandemic.
Sandy Bray, retired Colorado Springs School Director of Theatre
Sandy Bray is retiring this summer from her position as Director of Theatre for the Colorado Springs School. She is pictured her from the last play she directed, “Fiddler on the Roof.”
BY LIBBY KINDER
Sandy Bray, director of theatre at the esteemed Colorado Springs School, located in the Broadmoor neighborhood, has spent more than two decades dedicated to inspiring budding thespians to move out of their
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Pat Kruse, 1947 Cheyenne Mountain grad BY BREEANNA JENT breeanna.jent@ pikespeaknewspapers.com
Pat Kruse Pat Kruse took this selfie recently. The 91-yearold is a 1947 graduate of Cheyenne Mountain High School and raised 10 children who also attended Cheyenne Mountain schools.
When Pat Kruse recalls her formative years growing up in Colorado Springs in the 1930s and ‘40s, she does so fondly. “It was great,” said the 91-year-old Kruse. Born in Colorado Springs at what is now Penrose Hospital just five months ahead of the Great Depression, Kruse started school in Wisconsin while her father sought work. Eventually the family settled back in Colorado Springs, and Kruse began second grade in the Cheyenne Mountain School District, graduating with her class of 29 students from Cheyenne Mountain High School in 1947. But despite the economic hardships of those years, Kruse and her three sib-
lings grew up happily. “We didn’t know we were poor,” Kruse said. “It was a constant fun time mostly.” She remembers playing football at the park with her younger brother, walking from the 900 block of Cheyenne Boulevard where her family lived to Manitou Springs, picking up sweets at the penny candy shops, and going to parties, dances, puppet shows and singalongs. In high school, Kruse spent three years on the square dance team. Kruse attended Western State College of Colorado (now Western Colorado University) in Gunnison on a full-ride scholarship and met her husband, Dick Kruse, a sailor, at a Sadie Hawkins dance. She asked him to dance, he said yes, and as the saying goes, the rest is history. The Krus-
es were married nearly 70 years before Dick’s death in March 2017. The couple raised 10 children in Colorado, all of whom attended District 12 schools (as would their children). Pat worked for nine years in the school cafeterias. Dick worked for many years with the Free Press, which in the 1970s was sold three times and renamed the Colorado Springs Sun. But the family was left with “nothing,” Kruse said, when the Sun was sold for $30 million in 1986 to Freedom Newspapers and ran its last edition on Feb. 27, 1986. Looking for work and at the encouragement of one of their children living there, Dick and Pat moved to the Oregon coast and found jobs as keepers for a lighthouse keeper’s home.
BRAY recipient of the Mary Wicks Award at CSS, given by Upper School students (grades 9-12) to the faculty member who does the most for the student body. Unfortunately the 2020 school year did not end as planned due to the pandemic and resulting school closures. The spring production of “Fiddler on the Roof” at CSS was canceled, but this did not deter Bray from making arrangements as “the show must go on!” The com-
They spent 29 years in coastal Oregon. Pat Kruse moved back to southwestern Colorado Springs two years ago, after Dick’s passing. In her free time, she walks and does yoga and archery. “I spent my 90th birthday shooting balloons,” Kruse laughed. She offers this bit of life advice: “The biggest thing you can do (in life) is try. Even though it’s tough — most people don’t know how hard it is to grow up in the Great Depression, or to have had a father who was shot down over France in World War I — try to keep a positive attitude. “The world is different today, but that doesn’t mean ‘bad’ different. However, listen to elderly people. They know what actually went on.”
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5
plete musical play — with live orchestra, full sets including lighting, costumes, singing and dancing — was performed on July 31 and Aug. 1. The performances took place for students’ family and friends on the outdoor terrace of the former estate house, Claremont, that is now a part of CSS. It was certainly a fitting tribute to Bray’s influential years at CSS. Bray grew up in Abilene, Kan.; and headed to Colorado Springs
in 1978 after graduating from Emporia State University. She spent the next 15 years freelancing as a “theatre artist,” coming to CSS in 1993. “This school is unique in that we have a creative dramatics program as part of our curriculum,” Bray said. She made a brief detour to the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, where she was also the Director of Theatre. While there she proudly spearheaded a $1.8
million renovation of the FAC auditorium. By 2007, Bray was drawn back to CSS working with students from kindergarten through 12th grade. It delights her to see children she worked with in kindergarten being part of her productions now as seniors. “I hope they know how to have fun … working hard. I hope that’s what they have learned from me … that they can’t wait for something to come to them.
They have to bring something to the table and take that leap of faith and make it happen!” Graduating senior Estin Novak, who starred in the leading role of Tevya in “Fiddler on the Roof,” notes the following about this dedicated and gifted educator: “Ms. Sandy Bray has helped me really grow as a person and helped me figure out who I am, ironically enough, by showing me how to be someone else.”
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