Tulsa World Magazine: Tulsans of the Year 2022

TULSA WORLD MAGAZINE

OF YEAR TULSANS

Gary Brooks intervened in an Aug. 13 attack on a Tulsa Transit driver. MIKE SIMONS

COVER: Design by

TIM CHAMBERLIN, TULSA WORLD MAGAZINE

.

Rising above tragedy

First responders, essential workers, victims of Saint Francis tragedy headline Tulsans of the Year

When considering the nominees for our Tulsans of the Year, our staff takes the opportunity to reflect on the year.

Tulsa World Magazine is a specialty publication of the Tulsa World, 315 S. Boulder Ave., Tulsa, OK 74103. This magazine is published with the December 4, 2022, edition of the World. All content copyright Tulsa World 2022. The contents may not be reproduced without permission.

NICOLE MARSHALL MIDDLETON Editor

Middleton

World Magazine Editor

We consider the biggest news events and most popular stories. Then we mine our memories for the people who rose above in times of adversity, those who carried our community forward and those who achieved greatness through perseverance and strength of will.

What we don’t do is limit the number of nominees. We set a workable target, but the final number can range from year to year. And we’re fine with that.

This year, Tulsa was thrust into the national spotlight for the June mass shooting on the campus of Saint Francis Health System, clearly the biggest event to happen here by press time of this edition.

Four bright lights of our community were extinguished by a rampaging gunman. Pain and anguish for their loss ripples throughout the Saint Francis campus and our city.

We were moved by the words of our mayor, G.T. Bynum, who at a press conference the day after the attack praised the first responders for their heroism and quick action. And he revered the Saint Francis hospital workers for their fortitude, battling the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact for two years and then facing death on a new front in a hail of bullets.

“And yet you are still here, ready to save more lives today,” Bynum observed.

Here, many people rose above this unthinkable adversity, helped carry our community forward and persevered through strength of will.

We honor them all.

And we honor 13 other individuals and families who contribute to make Tulsa better in a variety of ways.

They are all our Tulsans of the Year.

nicole.marshall@tulsaworld.com

STACEY DICKENS Assistant Editor stacey.dickens@tulsaworld.com

TOM GILBERT Photo Editor

JOHN WALBLAY Page Editor

Additional copies of Tulsa World Magazine can be found at the Tulsa World or at local retailers. Annual magazine subscriptions are $29.70 for six issues. To subscribe or have single issues mailed for $4.95, go to tulsaworldmagazine.com or call 918-581-0921.

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Nicole Marshall

Tulsa

Magazine

Finding the perfect personalized gift at Christmas can be a chore.

And no one has time for more chores during the holidays.

But here’s an idea: Make a custom Christmas candle for your friend or loved one.

And even better, there’s a way to skip the annoying cleanup and buying all the messy supplies by making candles at Magnolia Soap and Bath Co.

Earlier this year, owner Scottie Lawrence was inspired to o er candlemaking at Magnolia after she and her daughter took a trip to Phoenix, where they visited a candle-making bar.

Guests can come in by themselves and pour a candle on the spot or book a group session for a fun gathering with friends.

Customers can either bring their own vessel to pour their candle in or choose from the variety of sizes available at Magnolia (from 4 ounces up to 40 ounces). Candle prices start at $10 and go up to $90, depending on the size.

Christmas scents include Chestnuts Roasting, Sweet Tater Pie, Christmas at the Farm, Sugar Plum Fairy, Pumpkin Spice Latte, Candy Cane and Balsam Fir.

But regular scents, which are also phthalate- and paraben-free, range from fun fragrances such as cotton candy and birthday party to relaxing scents like sandalwood and patchouli.

Customers can even invent their own scent by combining 1-4 scents

Nicole Marshall Middleton // Tulsa World

If

to create a one-of-a-kind candle, Lawrence said.

If candles don’t fit the person you are buying for, you can also create bath bombs, shower steamers and soap.

On Dec. 12, Magnolia is celebrating its second year on Cherry Street. To celebrate, purchases on that day at the store will be 20 percent off. For more information, visit magnoliasoapandbath.com

STEPHEN PINGRY PHOTOS, TULSA WORLD MAGAZINE

Owner Scottie Lawrence was inspired to offer candle-making at Magnolia after visiting a candle-making bar in Phoenix.

Magnolia Soap and Bath Co. has a variety of scents to choose from.

Finished candles make great centerpieces for a holiday celebration.

candles aren’t your thing, you can also create bath bombs, shower steamers and soap.

It may be hard to get in to Roosevelt’s, 1551 E. 15th St., during the

decorations, but if you can find a time to pop in for a cocktail and a nosh, it will get you in the

FRIENDS NIGHT OUT

CHRISTMAS CRAWL

Plan a candle-making party with your friends and make it your get-together for the holidays.

How’s that for multitasking?

Since you are already on Cherry Street at Magnolia Soap and Bath Co., why not make a night of it? Here are some ideas for places to go and what to get while you are there.

No

IAN MAULE, TULSA WORLD MAGAZINE

holidays due to the fabulous

spirit.

COURTESY, VALERIE WEI-HAAS

Who doesn’t love the house-made fettuccine tossed in a Parmigiano Reggiano wheel with brandy and butter at Prossimo Ristorante, 1550 E. 15th St.?

COURTESY, MI COCINA Mambo Taxi, the signature drink at Mi Cocina, 1342 E. 15th St., features a frozen margarita with a swirl of house-made sangria. Your friends will love this drink!

COURTESY, MODERN COTTAGE Modern Cottage, 1325 E. 15th St., has a great selection of gifts. Treat yourself while you are there!

TULSA WORLD MAGAZINE FILE

Cherry Street crawl is complete without a stop at Pinkitzel, 1345 E. 15th St., for cupcakes.

TULSA WORLD MAGAZINE FILE Gelato at STG Gelateria, 1601 E. 15th St., is a perfect sweet treat for you and your friends.

Carrie homecomes

Country superstar shares holiday memories

Oklahoma country music superstar Carrie Underwood returned to her home state for a Halloween concert at BOK Center earlier this fall.

She knew she was on familiar turf when, between songs, she said “howdy” and got the expected response.

“There are some places where I say ‘howdy’ and everybody just looks at me, but you say it back,” Underwood said.

In an email interview prior to the show, Underwood was asked if she had a favorite Halloween costume from her childhood. “I think I was actually the Easter Bunny for one Halloween,” she said. “I couldn’t tell you where that came from — maybe we already had the costume?”

Let’s skip from Halloween — and Easter — to another holiday. We asked Underwood for her favorite Christmas memory of growing up in Checotah. Here’s what she told us: “Singing the inspirational Christmas songs I love so much is still one of my favorite holiday memories. Those times singing in church were the heart of my Christmas album ‘My Gift’ and my album of gospel hymns, ‘My Savior.’”

Looking for some holiday tunes? “My Gift” is Carrie

COURTESY, AILIE BIRCHFIELD

Underwood’s first Christmas album.

Jimmie Tramel Tulsa World Magazine

COURTESY, JEFF JOHNSON

Carrie Underwood performs Oct. 31 at the BOK Center as part of the Denim & Rhinestones Tour. “I feel like I’m very blessed to be from Oklahoma,” she said during the show.

DANIEL SHULAR PHOTOS, TULSA WORLD MAGAZINE

Start the year off right with an upscale staycation

Whether you want to celebrate a New Year’s Eve to remember, have a special occasion coming up or are just wanting to treat yourself, Tulsa hotels have the perfect getaway options for you. • These rooms and top suites at Hotel Indigo, The Mayo Hotel, Ambassador Hotel, River Spirit Casino Resort, Osage Casino, the Hard Rock Hotel and Tulsa Club Hotel are certainly worth the splurge.

AMBASSADOR

HOTEL

The iconic Ambassador Hotel’s Ambassador Suite is one of the most luxurious stays in Tulsa. This suite spans 600 square feet and features a separate living area and bedroom with a king bed and a 42-inch flat-screen TV. You can also enjoy this room’s large sofa and easy chair, spacious dressing area and vanity and large walk-in shower.

MIKE SIMONS PHOTOS, TULSA WORLD MAGAZINE

Grace Wood // Tulsa World Magazine

HOTEL INDIGO

Located in downtown Tulsa’s Blue Dome District, Hotel Indigo’s King Suite is a spacious stay that features its own living room with a balcony, two TVs, its own bathroom and a mini fridge. The attached king bedroom has its own bathroom and refrigerator.

PHOTOS COURTESY, HOTEL INDIGO

THE MAYO HOTEL

The luxurious Signature Suite at The Mayo Hotel has everything you’ll need for a lavish stay. This 800-square-foot space features a living room, king bedroom, desk space and a butler’s kitchen with a microwave, sink and refrigerator. As an added bonus, you can relax in the oversized soaking bathtub as you end your day.

STEPHEN PINGRY PHOTOS, TULSA WORLD MAGAZINE

TULSA CLUB HOTEL

The Petite Lounge Suite at the Tulsa Club Hotel offers classic charm with modern amenities. You’ll enjoy this 730-square-foot suite’s hardwood floors, 1927 original mosaic fireplace, wet bar and spacious living area, along with a king-sized bed and large bathroom. From your window, you’ll get an unparalleled view of the eastern Tulsa skyline.

HARD ROCK HOTEL

Live like a rock star while you stay in a king suite at the Hard Rock Hotel. These high-end rooms feature sophisticated decor, a sitting area and a massive walk-in shower to help you unwind after your day.

OSAGE CASINO

The Grotto Room at Osage Casino is a perfect place to host a gathering with friends or coworkers. This large suite has a spacious living area with a wet bar as well as multiple TVs, card tables and plenty of seating.

PHOTOS COURTESY, HARD ROCK HOTEL

PHOTOS COURTESY, OSAGE CASINO

RIVER SPIRIT CASINO RESORT

Followingcriticallyacclaimed, sold-outengagementsintheUK,Celebrity Attractionswillpresentthereimagined 50th Anniversarytourof JESUSCHRIST SUPERSTAR attheTulsaPACfrom January24th –January29th.The2017Olivier awarding-winningproductionfromRegent’s ParkOpenAirTheatregoesonsaletothe generalpubliconDecember2nd at10:30am. Ticketsstartat$35andwillbeavailable onlineatCelebrityAttractions.com,byphone at(918)596-7111andinpersonattheTulsa PACBoxOfficeMonday–Friday, 10:30am–5:30pm.

JackHopewell starsasJesus,joinedby ElvieEllis asJudasand FaithJones asMary. Thetouralsowelcomes IsaacRyckeghem as Caiphas, NicholasHambruch asPilate,and KodiakThompson asAnnas.

Theensembleincludes EthanHardy Benson, JoshuaBess, JordanWesleyBrown, JahlilM.Burke,CooperClack,KaleiCotecson, LydiaEku,SavannahFisher,DomanickAnton Hubbard,HaleyHuelsman,JeremyMakana Hurr,BrettHennesseyJones,LenaMatthews, HoseaMundi,CarolinePerry,L’OréalRoaché, ColinRobertson,DarrenJamesRobinson,Erich W.Schleck and LaurenSoto.

FeaturinglyricsandmusicbyEmmy, GRAMMY,OscarandTonywinners

TimRice and AndrewLloydWebber,theNorth Americantourofthisiconicmusicalishelmed byacclaimeddirector TimothySheader and cutting-edgechoreographer DrewMcOnie Roundingoutthecreativeteamiscostume designby2016TonyAwardnominee Tom Scutt,withasetbasedonoriginaldesigns by TomScutt, lightingdesignby LeeCurran, sounddesignby KeithCaggiano,withmusic supervisionby DavidHolcenberg andmusic directionby MarkBinns

JESUSCHRISTSUPERSTAR isset againstthebackdropofanextraordinary seriesofeventsduringthefinalweeksinthe lifeofJesusChrist,asseenthroughtheeyes ofJudas.Reflectingtherockrootsthatdefined ageneration,thelegendaryscoreincludes‘I Don’tKnowHowtoLoveHim’,‘Gethsemane’ and‘Superstar.’

JESUSCHRISTSUPERSTAR isa provenmusicalphenomenonwithaworldwidefanbase.AsdemonstratedbyNBC’s JesusChristSuperstarLiveinConcert,thisepic workattractedover9.6millionviewers,earned thehighestratingsinitstimeperiod,and receivedthehighestcriticalrankingofanylive musicaleventonnetworkTV.OnSeptember 17th,2021avarietyofspecialedition Jesus ChristSuperstar albums,remasteredatAbbey Road,werereleased.Thesespecialanniversary editionsareacelebrationoftheoriginal1970 doubleconceptalbumandit’scontinued successspanninganincredible50years.

Regent’sParkOpenAirTheatre productionof JESUSCHRISTSUPERSTAR wonthe2017OlivierAwardforBest MusicalRevival,sellingouttwoconsecutive

engagementsin2016and2017.The productionplayedaWestEndengagement attheBarbicanin2019beforereturningto Regent’sParkOpenAirTheatreinconcert versionduringthesummerof2020.

TheNorthAmericantourof JESUS CHRISTSUPERSTAR isproducedby StephenGabrielandWorkLightProductions, andwillhavetraveledtomorethan50 citiesduringitsthree-yearrun.Theoriginal productionwasproducedbyLondon’s Regent’sParkOpenAirTheatre.

TICKETINFORMATION

Individualticketsfor JESUSCHRIST SUPERSTAR willgoonsaleFriday, December2nd at10:30amandrangeinprice from$35-$85.Individualticketswillbe availablebyphoneat(918)596-7111orby visitingCelebrityAttractions.com.Ticketsare availablenowforgroupsof10ormoreby callingAllysonDavisat918-796-0220 orby emailingallyson@celebrityattractons.com. AboutCelebrityAttractions

CelebrityAttractionsisaTulsabased companythathasbecomeanationally recognizedleaderintheBroadwayindustryby presentingfiveBroadwaySeasonsinafourstateregion,servinginkeyrolesinBroadway tradeorganizations,andassociateproducing 30BroadwayShows.CelebrityAttractionshas builtoneofthenation’smosthighlysuccessful BroadwaySeasonsinTulsaandisproudto haveanaverageannualimpactonthelocal economyofmorethan$40million.

Ticketbuyersareremindedthatfor CelebrityAttractions’productions,theTulsa PACTicketOfficeandCelebrityAttractionsare theonlyofficialretailticketoutletsandtheonly waytoguaranteethatyouarepayingfacevalue forlegitimateticketsforallperformancesatthe TulsaPerformingArtsCenter.Ticketbuyers whopurchaseticketsfromaticketbrokerorany thirdpartyshouldalsobeawarethattheTulsa PACTicketOfficeandCelebrityAttractions areunabletoreprintorreplacelostorstolen

ticketsandareunabletocontactpatronswith informationregardingtimechangesorother pertinentupdatesregardingtheperformance.

GetsocialwithCelebrityAttractions bybecomingafanonFacebook.com/ BwayTULSA.FollowatTwitter.com/ BwayTULSAandInstagram.com/ BwayTULSA.Joinintheconversationbyusing #BwayTULSA.

The50th Anniversaryof JESUSCHRIST SUPERSTAR continues CelebrityAttractions’ 2022-2023BroadwaySeason followedby HAMILTON, AIN’TTOOPROUD,and Disney’sTHELIONKING.

CelebrityAttractionsisproudtohave KOTV-Newson6andTulsaWorldassponsors forthisamazingseason.

Formoreinformation,pleasevisit www.CelebrityAttractions.comand ustour.JesusChristSuperstar.com

JesusChristSuperstarwillplayTulsaPAC

fromJanuary24-January29

TULSANS OF THE YEAR

In

Every year we honor people who exhibit strength, compassion, leadership and community pride.

a year marked with great tragedy, we need them more than ever.

The sun rises over

the

Saint Francis Hospital campus in Tulsa in June.

MIKE SIMONS, TULSA WORLD MAGAZINE

TULSANS OF THE YEAR

Stanley // Tulsa World Magazine

Tim

Some of the questions left swirling in the aftermath would take more time to answer.

Like, who was the shooter? And why did he do it?

But one question — how would Tulsa respond? — was put quickly and definitively to rest.

Following the June 1 mass shooting that claimed four lives on the Saint Francis Hospital campus — Dr. Preston Phillips, 59; Dr. Stephanie Husen, 48; Amanda Glenn, 40; and William Love, 73 — many of the Tulsans who’d stepped forward in response would be singled out by community leaders.

Mayor G.T. Bynum set the tone, speaking for a grateful community in remarks he made at a news conference at the hospital.

Starting with praise for emergency responders, he said: “Everywhere I looked, to my left, to my right, there were officers running toward that building, jumping over bushes, getting around anything in their way, between them and that threat, so that they could save people. That is the law enforcement community that we have here in Tulsa.”

The mayor then shifted focus to Saint Francis’ own staff members and employees, for whom the horror came on top of two trying years of COVID-19 response.

Speaking to them directly, he said: “I want to thank all of you for coming to work today. Every day for years, including through the worst public health crisis we have ever faced as a city, you have put yourselves at risk to save the lives of people in this city. I hope you know how much it is appreciated. How grateful this community is for you and your work and the risks that you take and never even appreciating that you had to deal with this kind of risk and this kind of premeditated violence. And yet

“Everywhere I looked, to my left, to my right, there were officers running toward that building, jumping over bushes, getting around anything in their way, between them and that threat, so that they could save people,” Mayor GT Bynum said.

At the same time, it provided a window into the heart of his new community.

- DR. CLIFF ROBERTSON, SAINT FRANCIS PRESIDENT AND CEO

you are still here, ready to save more lives today.”

Later, in October, Bynum recognized Saint Francis employees further, presenting them collectively with the key to the city.

Dr. Cliff Robertson, Saint Francis president and CEO, said the mayor’s words and gesture were much appreciated.

“It goes a long way to just reaffirming for our caregivers that they’ve made the right choice as a career — that what they do is somewhat special, somewhat unique and is valued by the community.”

Coinciding with the end of Robertson’s first year in Tulsa and with Saint Francis, the tragedy was “unbelievably devastating,” he said.

“The response from Tulsa was almost overwhelming,” Robertson said. “And it was such an important part of the organizational healing that we’ve had to go through. Strength has come out of it for us as an organization, and I really attribute that to the community.”

No one deserves more of the organization’s gratitude, Robertson said, than the city’s first responders.

In fact, he and a group of Saint Francis leaders told them so personally later, when they set up a meeting with members of the Tulsa Police Department’s special operations unit.

Sometimes, an in-person “thank you” is the only kind that will do, Robertson said.

“As physicians, we all recognize that we’re signing up to serve,” he said. “But what they do — they literally sign up to potentially put themselves in harm’s way to serve others, which I think is probably the highest calling.”

TULSA WORLD MAGAZINE FILE

Strength has come out of it for us as an organization, and I really attribute that to the community.”

Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum speaks during a June 2 news conference about the mass shooting on the campus of Saint Francis Health System.

MIKE SIMONS, TULSA WORLD MAGAZINE

TULSANS OF THE YEAR

Isaiah Jarvis

sportsmanship at

John

It’s been several months since Isaiah Jarvis of the Tulsa Nationals Little League team went viral for his remarkable moment of sportsmanship. Although a lot of unrelated things have changed in his life since, his appreciation of that experience hasn’t diminished.

After getting hit in the head with a pitch during the Little League World

Series Southwest Regional final on Aug. 9, Jarvis eventually made his way to first base and noticed that the pitcher, Kaiden Shelton of Pearland, Texas, was visibly upset and crying because he thought he’d hurt Jarvis.

The two had become friends at the hotel during the weeklong tournament, and when Jarvis saw how upset his friend was, he walked over to the pitcher’s mound and

ROD AYDELOTTE, WACO TRIBUNE-HERALD Tulsa Nationals’ Isaiah Jarvis (right) consoles Pearland pitcher Kaiden Shelton after getting hit in the helmet by a pitch during the first inning of the Southwest Regional Little League baseball championship game in Waco, Texas.

Act of

Little League game admired around the world

Tranchina Tulsa World Magazine

hugged Shelton, letting him know that he was OK.

Although Tulsa eventually lost that game, and the chance to play in the prestigious Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, that one moment was the one everyone remembered.

In the days afterward, as the video of the incident went viral, Jarvis received an onslaught of publicity, being interviewed numerous times by various print reporters and on local and national TV.

“It was very new, I had never been in that spot, I had a lot of interviews,” Jarvis recalled. “There were people that came to my house to interview me in my area of town; it was a lot. I liked it, but sometimes

it could wear me out. I’m still getting noticed out in public, but that’s pretty much it.”

Even though his dad has since moved from Tulsa and Jarvis has had to transfer to a new school, in the town of Wister just outside Poteau, Jarvis has made new friends and is adjusting pretty well. He’s still playing baseball, now with a team based in nearby Arkansas. He still thinks back fondly on the whole experience at the Little League World Series Regional tournament.

“I just think, ‘That really happened?’ I would have never thought that happened, that I would have that opportunity,” said Jarvis, who

recently turned 13. “I’m playing right now with an Arkansas team because it’s pretty close to Poteau. It’s going really good; I’m hitting really well.”

As for the fact that so many people around the nation were inspired by his remarkable display of sportsmanship, Jarvis feels proud of what he did and how his moment of compassion overshadowed the results on the scoreboard.

“I think it’s really cool that they’re using me as an example,” Jarvis said. “I think that’s really neat that I’m a good representation of what kindness and sportsmanship should look like.”

Little Leaguer Isaiah Jarvis went viral for a remarkable moment of sportsmanship.

TOM FIRME, FOR TULSA WORLD MAGAZINE

Isaiah Jarvis has moved away from Tulsa since his viral moment, but he is still playing baseball.

I think that’s really neat that I’m a good representation of what kindness and sportsmanship should look like.”

- ISAIAH JARVIS, LITTLE LEAGUER

TULSANS OF THE YEAR

Rebecka Peterson

Teacher of the year takes sabbatical to advocate

for public education

Lenzy Krehbiel-Burton

On a visit to Union High School one September morning, Rebecka Peterson could barely get past the front foyer without getting inundated by hugs from former students.

The 2022-23 State Teacher of the Year, Peterson is taking a paid sabbatical from teaching pre-calculus and Advanced Placement calculus at Union this school year to travel around the state as an advocate for

teachers and public education.

“It’s so inspiring to be in other grades or other parts of the state and see that good and important work that educators are doing every day and get to highlight that by being one of their voices,” Peterson said. “It is an honor of a lifetime.”

Although she is enjoying the opportunity to meet colleagues throughout Oklahoma, that the student hugs are now fewer and farther between is a downside to the time away from her south Tulsa classroom, she said.

Tulsa World Magazine

“That’s the part I miss, the student interactions and building those relationships,” she said. “I love spending my day with high schoolers. They’re so fun and funny and inspiring. They give me so much hope for the future.”

“That’s the part I miss — hearing ‘Hi, Mrs. Peterson’ every morning. But knowing that it’s just for a year helps me enjoy this year so much.”

Drawing from her writing experience with the teachers’ blog “One Good Thing,” Peterson is using her yearlong sabbatical not only to meet with educators across Oklahoma but also to put a spotlight on them through a social media campaign modeled after “Humans of New York.”

Calling it a “respect and appreciation tour,” her goal is to hit all 77 counties before her term ends on June 30. Within the first two months of the school year, Peterson

visited classrooms and teachers in more than 20 counties.

Although salary concerns have come up in some of her conversations with other teachers, Peterson said more of her colleagues have listed public respect as a more pressing concern when discussing how to improve the profession in light of an ongoing teacher shortage.

“We (Oklahoma public school teachers) are 44,000 strong,” she said. “Teachers, I believe, hold our democracy. We believe so viscerally in the mission of public education that every child is in, every child belongs and everyone has a seat at the table. Every voice has equal representation, and to me, that’s the heartbeat of our democracy. Every day, teachers are safeguarding that. Now more than ever, it’s so important that we elevate their work and respect their work.”

- REBECKA PETERSON

Teachers, I believe, hold our democracy. We believe so viscerally in the mission of public education that every child is in, every child belongs and everyone has a seat at the table. Every voice has equal representation, and to me, that’s the heartbeat of our democracy. Every day, teachers are safeguarding that.”

Rebecka Peterson, seen embracing a former student, says she misses the student interactions and building relationships while she is on sabbatical.

STEPHEN PINGRY PHOTOS, TULSA WORLD MAGAZINE

TULSANS OF THE YEAR

Evan Dougoud

Founder of outreach listens to homeless people’s needs

Overall Tulsa World Magazine

Evan Dougoud’s parents got divorced while he was a teenager growing up in Virginia.

“And life got really, really hard,” he says.

Some of his favorite school teachers took it upon themselves to check on him, ask how he was doing and, sometimes, simply listen.

that helps homeless young people. Clients related to him, Dougoud says, because he was still in his early 20s, not much older than most of them, and he had gotten a taste of homelessness while couch-surfing during the darkest phase of his parents’ breakup.

One day, some homeless teenagers under a bridge asked for his help.

“We want to share our stories,” they said.

Evan

founded the BeHeard Movement to serve Tulsa’s homeless community. The nonprofit set up its first mobile shower in July 2021.

“They kept me alive,” Dougoud says. “They really did. And so I wanted to kind of do that for somebody else.

“I wanted to help people — I just wasn’t sure how.”

His father moved to Tulsa after the divorce, and Dougoud followed in 2016, when he began working for Youth Services of Tulsa, a nonprofit

“Well,” Dougoud replied, “I have this kind of broken camera that I could record you with.”

Making short videos for social media, Dougoud called the series “Bridge Talk” at first. But as the effort expanded and he began recording videos away from the bridge, it evolved into “BeHeard.”

Dougoud

STEPHEN PINGRY, TULSA WORLD MAGAZINE

Michael

MIKE SIMONS, TULSA WORLD MAGAZINE

Evan Dougoud (right) bows his head as Pastor Tony Hill with Boots to the Ground Ministries leads a prayer during a BeHeard Movement Outreach mobile shower trailer stop.

The point was to listen to homeless Tulsans and, instead of telling them what to do, asking what they needed.

At one homeless camp north of downtown Tulsa in 2018, the answer surprised Dougoud.

“A shower would be nice,” a man told him.

It took three years to raise funds and organize a new nonprofit, but the BeHeard Movement set up its first mobile shower in July 2021. Mounted to a trailer, the shower facility could be towed to different areas of Tulsa on different days, serving a much wider homeless community than a permanent location.

This year, BeHeard added several new services to its roaming caravan, including a full-service barbershop, laundry machines and phone-charging stations. Most im-

portantly, Dougoud says, BeHeard connects people to a variety of social services that can help them find jobs, health care and housing.

“I don’t want to be providing showers to somebody for the next five years,” he says. “The main thing is to help them get off the streets.”

Next year, Dougoud hopes to

establish a permanent home base where the trailers can be stored and where BeHeard can offer the showers seven days a week.

“It’s more than just a shower,” he says. “It’s more than a haircut. It’s encouragement and empowerment. We’re trying to give people the tools to change their situation.”

MIKE SIMONS PHOTOS, TULSA WORLD MAGAZINE Evan Dougoud speaks to volunteers during a BeHeard Movement Outreach mobile shower trailer stop.

Evan Dougoud, shown with Mental Health Association Oklahoma’s homeless outreach at an encampment in 2020, founded the BeHeard Movement to serve Tulsa’s homeless community.

TULSANS OF THE YEAR

Carrie Moss

Physical therapist in Ukraine pivots to helping refugees

Tim Stanley Tulsa World Magazine

Carrie Moss, in happier times before the war, enjoys an outing with one of her patients from Agape Rehabilitation Center in Ukraine.

COURTESY

Carrie Moss has dedicated her life to helping people with disabilities.

It’s the reason she went to Ukraine in the first place. It’s what’s kept her there for the past eight years.

But after the Russians invaded in February, the Tulsan’s skills as a physical therapist were no longer what her patients needed most from her.

With millions of Ukrainians forced to flee the country, Moss and her colleagues temporarily switched gears, converting their clinic in Lutsk into a checkpoint, providing refugees with food, shelter and supplies.

Serving refugees wasn’t something they were prepared for, said Moss, who works with patients with spinal injuries.

But “we learned fast,” Moss said.

The refugees were “just overflowing,” she said. “People just keep coming, keep coming, keep coming.”

It included many refugees with disabilities, whom the clinic helped evacuate to Poland.

Moss and her colleagues at the clinic, Agape Rehabilitation Center, were later able to resume rehab work, as the numbers of people seeking evacuation declined.

But concerns about refugees are returning with the coming of winter. Moss said several refugees with disabilities will be staying at Agape through the winter.

“We also have a plan in place to accept refugees with disabilities on a temporary basis as they seek alterna-

tive living arrangements,” Moss said.

Moss, a Hale High School graduate, started visiting Ukraine several years ago through an organization that provides wheelchairs to those in need. She eventually made it a full-time commitment with Agape, supported by Texas-based Christian Health Service Corps.

Months into a war with no end in sight, Moss has found the best approach is to stay focused on the work.

“You want to do what you can do, and you don’t really have time to ponder what could happen,” she said.

Sadly, she added, her patients have grown to include wounded soldiers, many of whom sustained spinal cord injuries in the fighting.

If Moss ever lacks for inspiration, she doesn’t have to look far to find it. The people of Ukraine are setting a powerful example, she said.

“It’s been really amazing to watch how courageous and unified they are in this fight, whether they’re wearing army fatigues or not,” Moss said.

“Pretty much every Ukrainian is finding a way to fight. With whatever means they can.”

Carrie Moss

TULSANS OF THE YEAR

Bryan Crowe

BOK Center, Cox Center break records under new general manager

Jimmie Tramel Tulsa World Magazine

Who knew what live events might be like in a post-pandemic world?

Uncertainty gave way to prosperity.

BOK Center and Cox Business Convention Center came rocking and rolling out of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Under the leadership of General Manager Bryan Crowe, multiple venue records were broken and the community was the beneficiary of support beyond just economic impact.

Crowe is a newcomer to Tulsa after spending 17 years in El Paso. When told he was being honored as a Tulsan of the Year, he expressed appreciation for his “team.”

“I’m honored and humbled,” he said. “Tulsa has been so welcoming and generous, but this recognition should go to our entire ASM Tulsa team, from front line through leadership. Our successes are a tribute to the efforts of so many who believed and continue to believe in the power of live experiences and that Tulsa is the premier destina-

IAN MAULE PHOTOS, TULSA WORLD MAGAZINE

Bryan Crowe is BOK Center’s general manager, but he also enjoys taking tickets during live events.

tion for music, comedy, sports, professional conferences and more. I’m grateful to be in Tulsa with this team.”

BOK Center’s first 87 events (from Oct. 21, 2021 through Sept. 27, 2022) with Crowe at the helm generated an economic impact figure of $84,791,880. In essentially the same time span, Cox Business Convention Center hosted 113 events, and the economic impact was $14,141,346. Both ASM Global-managed venues have signed an all-time high of multi-year contracts, including five-year deals with the FFA (Future Farmers of America Conference) and PBR (Professional Bull Riders).

Among records that fell:

BOK Center hosted 10 events in 13 days in what can be described as the busiest two weeks in venue history.

Cox Business Convention Center hosted five events in one day.

The Eagles’ May 16 performance at BOK Center was the highestgrossing concert in BOK Center history.

Community support initiatives included 2,000 donated tickets (worth $120,000) to 70-plus Tulsa organizations and 370 hours of culinary staff donated time to nonprofit and culinary organizations, plus community contributions and scholarships for Tulsa students.

Crowe is a supporter of staff diversity, equity and inclusion. Of 112 full-time employees (26 hired since his arrival) and 383 part-time employees (132 since his arrival), 52% are racially or ethnically diverse, 48% are female and 58% are over 40 years old.

Crowe, who serves on the Visit Tulsa board, supports the mission of increasing tourism in Tulsa. He and other ASM Tulsa employees worked with other local attractions (including the Tulsa Zoo and Philbrook Museum) to help live events across the city operate safely following the pandemic.

Our successes are a tribute to the efforts of so many who believed and continue to believe in the power of live experiences and that Tulsa is the premier destination for music, comedy, sports, professional conferences and more. I’m grateful to be in Tulsa with this team.”

- BRYAN CROWE

Bryan Crowe, raised in Chicago and in Michigan, spent 17 years in El Paso before becoming BOK Center’s new general manager.

TULSANS OF THE YEAR

Andy Scurto

The local sports scene got a big boost when Andy Scurto, an insurance and IT entrepreneur and sports investor originally from California, bought the Tulsa Oilers hockey team in September 2021, vowing to revitalize the fan experience.

John Tranchina Tulsa World Magazine

Since then, he has continued to have a major local impact.

Scurto helped improve the Oilers’ marketing efforts, contributing to Tulsa ranking fourth in the ECHL in attendance. An average of 5,834 fans watched the team play its home games at the BOK Center last season, the team’s most since 2017-18.

Scurto also brought in a showcase for elite-level women’s hockey in April, when the Premier Hockey Federation’s Minnesota Whitecaps and the Buffalo Beauts, both owned by Scurto, faced off at the BOK Center.

Scurto then purchased the Oilers Ice Center, the only full-size ice rink in Tulsa, bringing all the ice under one ownership and implementing impressive renovations to the facility.

After that, Scurto bought the former Macy’s building at the Promenade Mall. It is being converted into a rink facility with two ice sheets, which will be a boon for the local youth hockey, figure skating and curling scene once it is ready next year.

I love the city of Tulsa, I love the people of Tulsa, we have tremendous sports fans. Throughout the season last year, I was amazed at the support our fan base brings to the Tulsa Oilers, and I’m expecting that same support to be there for our football team as well.”

- ANDY SCURTO

started signing players, with a big local tryout session in late October.

“Now, more than ever, I’m convinced that Tulsa is an amazing city,” Scurto said when announcing the new indoor football team. “I love the city of Tulsa, I love the people of Tulsa, we have tremendous sports fans. Throughout the season last year, I was amazed at the support our fan base brings to the Tulsa Oilers, and I’m expecting that same support to be there for our football team as well.

“My goal remains the same: family entertainment, fill the BOK with people having a great time. Everything we do is marching towards that goal.”

DANIEL SHULAR, TULSA WORLD MAGAZINE

Finally, in July, Scurto announced he had bought an expansion franchise in the Indoor Football League, to begin play at the BOK Center in March 2023. There was a name-theteam contest, resulting in the name Oilers for the football team, and since then, the Tulsa Oilers football team has hired a coach (Marvin Jones) and

Scurto vows that he’s got more plans in the mix, eventually hoping to bring a women’s hockey team to Tulsa but noting that is still probably a couple of years away.

“I’m excited to bring more sports here,” Scurto said. “And believe me, that doesn’t stop there. My vision continues. I’m a man driven, as you can probably recognize, and I will continue. We got a lot on our plate.”

Investor who bought Oilers looks to bring more sports to Tulsa

Andy Scurto purchased the Tulsa Oilers hockey team last year.

TULSANS OF THE YEAR

Brit Hensel

Cherokee filmmaker makes history at Sundance Film Festival

Jimmie Tramel Tulsa World Magazine

GILBERT, TULSA WORLD MAGAZINE

Brit Hensel makes films — and history.

In 2022, Hensel became the first female citizen of the Cherokee Nation to direct an official Sundance Film Festival selection. Because she brought positive attention to Tulsa and the Cherokee Nation, she has been selected among Tulsans of the Year. Keep reading to find out why animal lovers will endorse the honor.

A Tulsa resident since 2019, Hensel crafted a film, “ᎤᏕᏲᏅ (What They’ve Been Taught),” that was selected for Sundance’s short films program.

The film is about community and our responsibility to it as Cherokee people, said Hensel.

Asked about the importance of sharing Cherokee stories, Hensel said, “I am Cherokee, so the things I create are innately Cherokee. I believe I have a responsibility to work hard to uplift my community and the people around me. I believe I have a responsibility to keep learning and growing in the ways of my culture and language. One of the ways I do that is through creating and telling stories. As long as my work accomplishes that, I believe I’m moving in the right direction.”

Unfortunately, the in-person premiere of Hensel’s film at Sundance was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Selected films got an online premiere instead. Silver lining: “I got to show my film for the first time at Circle Cinema, which was very special for me because I could share it with people and community I really care about,” Hensel said.

Aside from storytelling, Hensel is most passionate about animals and

- BRIT HENSEL

animal welfare. She said the state and city have a great deal to improve on in regard to animal welfare.

“I’ve decided to do my part where I can,” she said. “Myself, my sister and many folks on the crew of ‘Reservation Dogs’ formed a collective of sorts, and we rescued 14 dogs/cats during the filming of season two of the show.”

Hensel said they collaborated with Tulsa to get the animals medical care and homes. They have since gone on to back a mobile clinic in the Okmulgee neighborhood where the television show “Reservation Dogs” is filmed. Offered were free spaying and neutering, heartworm tests, flea and tick preventative measures, grooming and food.

“There was an amazing turnout, and it was proof that if services and support are made accessible, people can be blessed,” she said. “We are hoping to raise money to build fences for some very deserving dogs and their families. The goal moving forward is to partner with the tribes in Tulsa and start making a larger impact for our people and their companion animals. I believe if we are taking care of our animals, we can better take care of those around us. We are all connected.”

Filmmaker Brit Hensel is the first female citizen of the Cherokee Nation to direct an official Sundance Film Festival selection.

TOM

I am Cherokee, so the things I create are innately Cherokee. I believe I have a responsibility to work hard to uplift my community and the people around me.”

TULSANS OF THE YEAR

Gary Brooks

Good Samaritan who intervened in attack on bus driver thanks God for strength

Kelsy Schlotthauer Tulsa World Magazine

He’s the man with the key to the city — but no, he hasn’t unlocked it yet. That’s just how Gary Brooks’ coworkers have joked with him since Tulsa’s mayor honored him with the golden award.

“Everywhere I go, people still shouting at me,” the native Jamaican said, sighing with a smile that revealed a missing tooth. “ ‘That’s a hero right there!’ and I’m like ‘Oh, my god.’”

The tooth fell out the day after the 52-year-old intervened in a Tulsa Transit passenger’s rage-filled attack on a bus driver in August. Officials say he likely saved the driver’s life, and Brooks wasn’t even riding the bus.

Nor did he report the loss of his pearly white, which cost him several

hundred dollars to replace.

“I don’t know what happened,” he said, unsure of when exactly the dental blow came in the melee. “It’s funny, though.

“When I was coming to see you today, my wife said, ‘Don’t smile too much.’”

The pair moved to Tulsa about 20 years ago to be closer to his wife’s family, he said, and Guillain-Barré syndrome has had her in a wheelchair the past few years. When he’s not working nights on the receiving dock of a furniture warehouse, he stays home to care for her.

Brooks actually spends most of his time helping others, including the Saturday afternoon he was at the flea market near where the bus crashed.

But on that day, Aug. 13, he’s convinced someone else was helping him.

MIKE SIMONS, TULSA WORLD MAGAZINE

Gary Brooks intervened in an Aug. 13 attack on a Tulsa Transit driver, likely saving the driver’s life.

“God is the power,” Brooks said. “I think (he) gave me the strength.”

Brooks was helping his father-inlaw at a resale booth along Admiral Place, as he does every Saturday and Sunday, when he saw a telephone pole shake about noon, he said. Tracing his eyes to its base, he saw the crashed bus.

Some men left the busy shopping center to run across the street, he said, but something stopped them in their tracks, and they just stared.

Moving closer, Brooks soon saw the assailant’s arms swinging inside the bus.

“Every time this guy punched (the driver), you see blood flash all over the window,” he said softly, shaking his head in disgust.

The visual brought him back to a fatal assault he witnessed years ago at a bus stop in Jamaica, he said, and he was determined to not let this one end the same way. He knocked hard on the locked door, hoping the assailant would either come after him or stop, “but he didn’t.”

“He say he gonna kill me,” Brooks said. “So I just say, ‘Oh Jesus, I’m just gonna go straight in.’”

Brooks said he knew it was “crazy” because he didn’t know whether the rampaging man was armed in any other way, but he still scrambled to find a way to get onto the bus. He found the front door locked and the windows wouldn’t budge, but the back door had two panels.

Wedging his finger in between, Brooks said he pried open the doors and climbed inside.

The bus was filled with elderly passengers, two of whom the assailant had already laid flat when they tried to speak up or intervene, Brooks said. They told Brooks the assailant thought the driver was on the wrong route, but he was on the wrong bus.

Walking down the aisle and yell-

ing, Brooks said the man punched the driver once more before turning to punch at Brooks.

Drawing on his training as a former security guard, Brooks said he dipped under the man’s sloppy swing and came up face-to-face with him, restraining him in a front chokehold.

“He was still rustling and cussing and trying to fight,” Brooks remembered.

Holding the assailant firm until his heartbeat slowed, Brooks dragged him away from the driver and held him on the ground until police arrived.

The driver survived. He suffered brain injuries and remained in rehabilitation through September, but fortunately, his employer noted, he does not remember much of the assault.

Brooks, however, does. He might have healed from his physical sore-

ness, but flashbacks flood his mind any time he drives down Admiral or passes a bus, which is often.

“I think it’s going to stay with me,” he said. “Everywhere, there is a bus.”

But he knows who holds the key to his life, and he’s confident God will lead him each day.

“Everything I do, I do it God’s way,” Brooks said. “I don’t think I’m a hero, I just think I’m a good Samaritan. (The driver) couldn’t help himself. He couldn’t cry for help. So I was his voice, and I was his help. The world’s broken — really broken. But (God) is the answer to all of it.”

Editor’s note: The alleged assailant, who is Native American, faces federal charges in the assault. He is slated to undergo a competency determination based on a history of mental illness, psychiatric treatment and substance abuse before his court proceedings continue.

I want to extend my deepest appreciation to Mr. Brooks for his act of heroism. We are so grateful this good Samaritan was in the right place at the right time. His swift thinking and rapid response not only saved the life of our bus driver, but countless other innocent bystanders.

We are appreciative of the recognition Mayor Bynum has presented to Mr Brooks for his well deserved praise It is people like Mr Brooks that make us proud to be serving the Tulsa community

S c o t t M a r r G e n e r a l M a n a g e r T u l s a T r a n s i t

TULSANS OF THE YEAR

Rick Guild

Real estate agent oversees historic commercial property sale

Rhett Morgan Tulsa World Magazine

Over a career spanning roughly four decades, Rick Guild has completed more than $1 billion of personal leasing and sales of office and industrial properties in Tulsa.

You might not know commercial real estate agent Rick Guild, but it’s a safe bet he knows you.

And your alma mater, golf handicap and name of your pet dog.

Guild’s business is getting into yours in the most pleasant way possible.

“Relationships are an art form for him,” said Harry Birdwell, chief operating officer of Newmark Robinson Park, Guild’s employer. “It’s unbelievable.”

So is Guild’s résumé.

Over a career spanning roughly four decades, Guild has completed more than $1 billion of personal leasing and sales of office and industrial properties in Tulsa. Earlier this year,

he spearheaded the $101.17 million sale of the Warren Place office complex, the largest commercial real estate transaction ever recorded in the city, according to Newmark.

For his achievements, Tulsa World Magazine has selected Guild as one of its Tulsans of the Year.

“It’s about knowing the buildings, but it’s also about knowing the landlords and the tenants and understanding the market,” said Guild, senior vice president of Newmark Robinson Park in Tulsa. “It’s crazy how if you do it for 40 years how you get to know every building owner, every tenant. ...

“It’s my job to know the 60-year-old decision makers, the 50-year-olds, the 40-year-olds, the 30-year-olds.

STEPHEN PINGRY PHOTOS, TULSA WORLD MAGAZINE

You can’t just stay with the people your age or you’re going to age out. You have to continue establishing relationships.”

Raised in Oklahoma City, Guild attended Oklahoma State University before landing a job in Xerox, where he was groomed in salesmanship.

“They had a dedicated university in Leesburg, Virginia, where they sent you for two months,” he said. “Then, they trained you for over a year before they asked you to sell anything. Nobody does that anymore.

“At that time, it was the best sales training in the world.”

Guild began his real estate career with the Trammel Crow Company in 1983. He served a stint with Property Company of America before starting his own firm in 1997. He was recruited to work at Newmark Robinson Park two years ago.

I pick up everybody’s phone call.

I don’t have an assistant, junior broker, that I push things off on. I do all of it, no matter how small it is, how big it is. My clients expect that.”

- RICK GUILD

Guild’s people skills get him in almost every door, and his accessibility allows him to retain and expand his clientele.

“I pick up everybody’s phone call,” he said. “I don’t have an assistant, junior broker, that I push things off on. I do all of it, no matter how small it is, how big it is. My clients expect that.”

Rick Guild oversaw the $101.17 million sale of the Warren Place office complex, the largest commercial real estate transaction ever recorded in Tulsa.

TULSANS OF THE YEAR

Rodgers family

Caretakers of Cain’s Ballroom keep historic venue alive

Jimmie Tramel Tulsa World Magazine

Cain’s Ballroom is a unique-to-Tulsa treasure.

For the past 20 years, members of the Rodgers family have been caretakers of the historic music venue.

Job well done: The Rodgers family was selected by Tulsa World Magazine among Tulsans of the year.

“I think I was the only one of the family who had been inside Cain’s

Ballroom prior to us buying it, but I wasn’t familiar with the history and significance of the venue,” Chad Rodgers said.

“Our family owning the Cain’s Ballroom and with Hunter and I running it over the last 20 years, we’ve always felt a huge responsibility to continue the Cain’s Ballroom legacy by continuing to bring world-class performers to the city of Tulsa. We want everyone to be proud to have the Cain’s Ballroom

MIKE SIMONS, TULSA WORLD MAGAZINE

Cain’s Ballroom has been owned for 20 years by the Rodgers family: Alice, Hunter, Chad and Jim.

Cain’s Ballroom: Favorite moments

The Rodgers family has owned Cain’s Ballroom for 20 years. Among questions pitched to members of the family: Got a favorite live show or backstage moment during those 20 years?

Alice: “Too many to count. Jack White for three sold-out shows. A Brooks & Dunn video shoot. Loretta Lynn. Robert Plant. Todd Rundgren. Chris Stapleton. We book so many artists who are on the cusp or have just hit it.”

Jim: “Dylan, Killers, Kings of Leon, Robert Plant.”

Hunter: “There are too many moments to narrow down, but a few that stand out are the recent reunion of Turnpike Troubadours, The Strokes, meeting Buckethead, multiple Jack White shows, Green Day. ... The list goes on and on.”

Chad: “There are so many amazing moments that we’ve been a part of over the last 20 years. It’s hard to narrow it down. One that will always stick out to me, was when the L.A. Times named the Cain’s Ballroom in their top 12 places to see live music in America. It was amazing to know that people all over America and the world see what we feel everyday. There’s not a better place in the world to see live music than at the Cain’s Ballroom.”

here in Tulsa, Oklahoma.”

“It’s an honor to own and manage one of Tulsa’s iconic venues,” brother Hunter said. “We have a great day-to-day team that helps keep the music alive.”

Alice Rodgers, going back to when the family acquired the property, said they happened upon a run-down building (“we walked in and it was like it had been deserted and was going to fall down”) that “used to be” a music venue. She said the boys turned “used to be” into “now and wow!”

“I am most proud of how Chad and Hunter, who were 25 and 21 with no experience, took on this project and resurrected and brought back to life this venerable music venue to world prominence,” Alice said of her sons.

“After seeing the venue for sale on a Sunday local newscast, walking through it on the following Tuesday and buying it on that Thursday, the whole purchase was a whirlwind,” Chad recalled.

“It was very daunting, as the first show we did, we lost like $25,000 as the show didn’t sell, and it really opened my eyes into how hard

this endeavor might be, and was. Promoting shows is not for the faint of heart. There’s a ton of risk with every show, and it’s a very hard business.”

Cain’s Ballroom closed for four months in 2003 for what the Tulsa World reported as a million dollar refurbishment that included upgraded restroom facilities, climate control and other improvements that helped extend the life of the iconic facility.

There were lots of surprises and unpredictable costs, said Jim Rodgers, father of Chad and Hunter. But he called it a labor of love to fix up Cain’s Ballroom and keep it polished. He said there was lots of on-the-job-learning — and the family tried to avoid repeating the same mistakes while keeping Cain’s rolling over the past 20 years.

Hunter said he had never been to Cain’s and knew little about it before his family bought the venue that has hosted music artists ranging from Bob Wills to the Sex Pistols.

“I was living in Florida at the time, and I remember my mom calling and saying ‘We bought

Cain’s.’ I came back for Christmas in 2002 and stepped foot in it for the first time. I was graduating in the summer of 2003 and, when I came home, I just basically started working with Chad. I just assumed this was what I was going to do for the next few years. I am shocked to think it’s been as long as it has. What a trip!”

Hunter said he is proud that Cain’s is still an independent venue and it makes him proud to hear music artists say it’s their favorite venue. In October, Marcus Mumford told a sold-out crowd that it is an honor to play Cain’s.

Members of the Rodgers family used words liked “shocked,” “humbled” and “proud” upon learning of the Tulsans of the Year honor.

“We know there are many amazing people and organizations that do so much for the Tulsa community,” Chad said. “It’s amazing to be included among them.”

Said Hunter: “We just provide people with a venue to create memories.”

TULSA WORLD MAGAZINE FILE Jack White’s performances at Cain’s Ballroom are among Rodgers family favorites.

TULSANS OF THE YEAR

Nick Sidorakis

Southern Hills general manager/CEO captains a huge golf week for Tulsa

Bill Haisten Tulsa World Magazine

Tulsans whose livelihoods center on the occupation of hotel rooms and the sale of food and drinks probably remember May 16-22 as having been their favorite week of 2022.

For the Tulsans who love important, well-played golf, May 16-22 undoubtedly was the best week of the year.

All of those people — the ones

whose finances needed another PGA Championship and the ones who couldn’t wait to spend big on tickets and merchandise — should regard Nick Sidorakis in the same way that this Tulsa World Magazine does: as a Tulsan of the Year type of figure.

Sidorakis’ relationships with PGA of America decision-makers were a significant factor in Southern Hills Country Club scoring an eighth professional major championship.

IAN MAULE, TULSA WORLD MAGAZINE

Since becoming Southern Hills Country Club’s general manager and CEO in 1995, Nick Sidorakis captained the club’s hosting of numerous major events.

Beyond the Southern Hills property, Sidorakis has been an advocate for desperately needed improvements on city of Tulsaowned courses at Mohawk Park and Page Belcher.

As the Southern Hills general manager/CEO since 1995, Sidorakis captained the club’s hosting of the 1995 and 1996 Tour Championship, 2001 U.S. Open, 2007 PGA Championship, 2009 U.S. Amateur, 2021 Senior PGA Championship and 2022 PGA Championship.

As Sidorakis intends to retire at the end of 2023, the 2022 PGA Championship stands as the final signature event in his current role. From a business standpoint, it was historic. The PGA Championship generated an impact estimated to have been $157.7 million on the Tulsa economy.

As the most lucrative event in the city’s history, how did the 2022 PGA Championship compare to previous Southern Hills tournaments? The 2001 U.S. Open had a local-economy impact of $65 million. The 2007 PGA Championship: $70 million.

Adjusted for inflation, $70 million in 2007 would be equal to $100 million. As so many restaurants and hotels had been critically injured by the pandemic shutdown, a $157.7 million golf major was perfectly timed.

“I put it up as the best championship I’ve ever worked,” Sidorakis said. “This was the best one.”

The PGA Championship easily surpassed the pre-tournament prediction of a $143 million impact and delivered as a dramatically competitive event with perfect weekend weather and a popular champion (Justin Thomas, who rallied from an eight-shot, final-round deficit to prevail over Will Zalatoris in a playoff).

As Sidorakis intends to retire at the end of 2023, the 2022 PGA Championship stands as the final signature event in his current role. From a business standpoint, it was historic. The PGA Championship generated an impact estimated to have been $157.7 million on the Tulsa economy.

STEPHEN PINGRY, TULSA WORLD MAGAZINE

Nick Sidorakis says he ranks the 2022 PGA Championship as the best championship he has ever worked.

TULSANS OF THE YEAR

Hau Suan Khai

For many newcomers to the United States of America, the country’s initials might easily stand for “U Start Again.” Hau Suan Khai smiles as he relates this witticism, but it is a sentiment he knows all too well.

“Everything here is different,” he said. “It is more than just the language barrier that many people have to deal with. The Western culture is so very different from the Zomi culture, that for some people

it is hard to navigate life in an American city.”

Khai is a member of Tulsa’s Zomi community, made up of some 10,000 members of a people native to Myanmar, the southeast Asian nation formerly known as Burma, as well as India and Bangladesh. While Zomi communities are located throughout the United States, Tulsa has what is believed to be the largest such community in the country.

Helping to guide his fellow Zomi to successful lives in a new country has

Zomi community leader oversees national conference, helps settle refugees

James D. Watts Jr. Tulsa World Magazine

IAN MAULE PHOTOS, TULSA WORLD MAGAZINE

been Khai’s mission for much of his life, beginning as a volunteer with the Malaysian Zomi community, where his work was honored by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

“It is important for me to try to help bring a sense of hope to my people,” he said. “When I see someone who has come to me for help, and some little thing I may have done has helped them succeed, it makes me happy in ways that are difficult to explain.”

Like many of his fellow Zomi, Khai fled Myanmar to escape the ruling military dictatorship, living for 10 years in India, where he earned degrees in theology, then in Malaysia. He was finally able to enter the United States in 2016 and came to Tulsa because his sister had been resettled here previously.

“Most of the Zomi who came first to Tulsa did so to study at Oral Roberts University,” he said, adding that almost all Zomi are Christians, and that Tulsa is home to some 20 Zomi churches.

Khai recently completed his fouryear term as the chairman of Zomi Innkuan (Community) Oklahoma, which included overseeing the 2022 Zomi Khawmpi USA, the biennial national conference of Zomi communities throughout the country, which was held in July in Tulsa.

The three-day event featured everything from sports competitions and a talent show dubbed “Zomi Idol,” to forums addressing political concerns and youth issues.

But primarily, Khai said, it was in essence a family reunion.

“The Zomi are an ethnic minority in Myanmar, in India, wherever we are,” he said. “Communities were close, so it was like we all knew each other. But after resettlement, we are spread out all over the country. So this conference is important to us, because it brings our communities together again.”

Hau Suan Khai said helping his fellow Zomi adjust to, and thrive in, American society “makes me happy in ways that are difficult to explain.”

Khai said about 5,000 Zomis came to Tulsa for the conference, which garnered national press attention from the New York Times, which focused on the number of restaurants owned by Zomi, and how the food they serve reflects or reimagines traditional cuisine.

It also showed to the Zomi community that Tulsa was a welcoming place.

“Our community is growing, but mostly it is people from Zomi communities in other states moving to Tulsa,” Khai said. “Tulsa is the place that many Zomi are looking for.”

While Khai’s tenure as chairman

has come to an end, he said his commitment to helping his people will continue. He is a member of the board of Rising Village, a local organization that works to help refugees become self-sufficient, and in his day job as an on-site manager for Key Personnel, he is often able to help fellow Zomis through the process of finding jobs.

“I will always be looking for ways to help my people,” Khai said. “It doesn’t matter if the people I might help remember me. Just seeing that they have had some success in their lives here in America makes me happy.”

TULSANS OF THE YEAR

Malcolm Rodriguez

Dean Ruhl Tulsa World Magazine

In his first NFL game, Detroit Lions starting linebacker Malcolm Rodriguez took a five-time Pro Bowler to the mat.

Clutching at the shoulder pads of Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce, Rodriguez — a high school wrestling and football star at Wagoner who was an All-America linebacker at Oklahoma State — planted his feet and swung Kelce over his hips during a play in the second quarter.

Rodriguez, who weighs 70 pounds less than Kelce and is 11 years Kelce’s junior in NFL experience, had just successfully hip-tossed the center.

Just 15 minutes into his NFL career, Rodriguez — whom Lions coaches quickly dubbed “Rodrigo” in training camp — went viral.

“I thought I had him,” Kelce said afterward. “It was impressive.”

It’s just a small sample of why the Detroit faithful have become enamored with him and why he has been named a Tulsan of the Year. He went from a sixth-round pick at the bottom of the depth chart to a starter by the first game

of the season, something no scout or coach predicted. The unlikely journey was all documented on HBO’s popular “Hard Knocks” weekly TV series, which showcases NFL rookies as they try to make the team.

The confident rookie strolls up to Lions gamedays wearing cowboy hats with complementary boots. He wears western-cut button-up shirts with matching blue jeans.

“It’s the same thing he’s been doing since he was 6 years old,” said Rodriguez’s mother, Shanna, on seeing her son play in the NFL. “He’s just a little bigger and a little harder to get mad at.”

Lions fans have gotten a taste of what Oklahoma State fans had come to love.

“I suppose that just kind of came natural to me,” Rodriguez said. “I guess it just kind of showed my

character and just be me.”

Rodriguez’s No. 44 Detroit jersey was the second-highest selling Lions jersey this offseason, behind only Detroit’s No. 2 overall pick in the draft, Aiden Hutchinson.

While Rodriguez is relishing the newfound fame, the odds have never been in his favor. After winning three state championships with the Bulldogs — playing both defensive back and quarterback for Wagoner coach Dale Condict — Rodriguez was only tabbed a three-star prospect by college recruiting sites.

Despite being undersized for the position, Rodriguez dazzled in his super-senior year.

After the defense powered OSU to an 11-1 regular season, Rodriguez was honored with the Fiesta Bowl Defensive MVP after a 37-35 comeback win against Notre Dame.

PAUL SANCYA, ASSOCIATED PRESS

Detroit Lions linebacker Malcolm Rodriguez was an All-American at Oklahoma State.

Rodriguez

Former Wagoner star explodes onto NFL scene, becomes fan favorite in Detroit

Brandingyour businessworks!

DigitalMarketingExpertdrivesresults forCountertopSolutions’campaign

Brandingdoeswork!

“Brandinginandofitselfhasvalue,and plantsseedsthatbringbusinessdowntheline,” saidGregStrange,OwnerandPresidentof CountertopSolutionsInc.

Astimes,trendsandpeoplecontinuetochange, sohasCountertopSolutions’approachtofindingtheright waytogettheirproductinfrontoftherightaudienceatthe righttime.

“We’vetriednewanddifferentmarketingcampaign programsthatwethoughtwouldperformwell,butfor somereasonovertimeweonlysawmarginalresults,sowe decidedtochangeitup!”hesaid.

Thedigitalagehasusheredinanextensivemenuof offeringsattheTulsaWorldMediaCompany.Aftertalking toElizabethConner,marketingstrategist,anddigitalteam, CountertopSolutionsismovingforwardonestepatatime withamorefocusedandtargetedcampaign.

“Anumberofthingshavenowcometogetherandwe’ll havetheopportunitytotakealookathowournewcampaign isperforming,”hesaid.“Thisisanexcitingtimebecause consumerbehaviorhasalsochanged.”

Forthelast25years,theresidentialmarketwouldbe atalullinthesummer,andtheninthefallbusinesswould beatbreakneckspeedtogetdonebeforeThanksgivingand Christmas,Strangesaid.Eveninapoliticalyear,thereare addeddistractionsandthere’susuallyadownturninwalk-in andphonetraffic.

“We’vemetwithElizabethandtheteamseveraltimes,” hesaid.“Wecontinuetobeabletoreviewourcampaign statisticsandmakeanyrecommendedadjustments.”

Strangehasalwaysbeenopentoadjustments. Thirtyyearsago,heleftthecarbusinesswhenafriend hiredhimtohelp.Shortlythereafter,heboughtthecompany andquicklyswitchedtoagranitefabricatorandinstaller.

Emailusyourquestionsat

Thecompanyhasgrownoverthelast25yearsandnowhas 14employees.Addingmachinesfeaturinginnovativesaws, polishtechniquesandtemplateshasnotonlyimprovedthe qualityofproduct,butalsoserviceandleadtimes.

“Now,inadditiontoresidential,wehaveexpandedour businesstoincludecommercialwhichhastakenustobig jobslocallylikeBMXHeadquarters,hospitalsandlarge businesscompaniestonowbiddingonlargerjobsaround thestate,”hesaid.“Wearebeefingupourcommercial businessandatthesametimegrowingourresidential business,offeringaconcierge-levelrelationshipwitheach client.”

Combiningconsumerbehaviorandbackedbyresearch data,Connerandteamareabletostrategicallymarketto audiencesanywhereacrossthestatetohelpCountertop Solutionsreachtheirgoals.

“OurgoalistobetheNo.1granitefabricatorinthe next2years,”Strangesaid.

WorkingwiththeTulsaWorld,theyareontheroadto gettingthere–onestepatatime.

“Wewanttobeahouseholdword–sowhenitcomes timeforpeoplewhoarereadytoremodelortoremodel again,theywillgiveusconsideration!”Strangesaid. Formoreinformationondigitalmarketingstrategies,contact ElizabethConneratelizabeth.conner@tulsaworld.com orcall918-388-7232.

“Wewanttobeahouseholdword

Timetochangeyourflooring?

InjustafewclicksGrigsby’sCarpet,Tile&Hardwood canshowyouyourfutureflooringinvirtualdesign

Whenitcomestotransforming ahome,itmaybebesttostart fromthegroundup.

PennyCarnino,director ofoperationsatGrigsby’sCarpet,Tile& Hardwood,saidthefloorissometimesan overlookedaspectthatcanhaveamajor payoffwhenitcomestohomeremodeling.

“Flooringiswhatbringsitall together,”shesaid.“Youcanpaintandyou canbuynewfurniture,butifyouputiton thesamefloor—unlessit’satimelesswood floor—it’sstillgoingtolookthesame.”

CarninosaidthemajorityofGrigsby’s retailtrafficcomesfromcustomersseeking tomodifytheirflooringthatsheestimated isabout15yearsold.

“Theyarechangingitoutbecausethey havegottentiredofitandwantsomething new,likeanupdatetotrendorinstead refresh.”

Carninosaidhomeownershave gravitatedtowardhardsurfacesinliving spacesandawayfromcarpetingtheentire house,whichhasbeencommonthepast fewdecades.

“We’restilldoingcarpetinthe bedrooms,theaterroomsandother specialtyrooms,buttypicallynotallover thehouselikeitusedtobeseveral yearsago.”

Luxuryvinylplanksarethemost popularflooringchoiceatthemoment, Carninosaid.

Luxuryvinylflooringisfavoredforits widevarietyofstylesincludingrealisticlookingwood,tileandstone,according totheGrigsby’swebsite.Itisalsoeasyto cleanandmaintainandtendstobesofter underfootcomparedtoothermaterials.

Laminateflooring,thoughnotas popularasitwasinthe1990s,has reemergedinrecentyearsduetoupgrades initsdurability.

“We’veseenalittleresurgencewith thelaminateproductbecauseitismore scratchresistant,”shesaid.“Itpreviously wasn’twaterresistantliketheluxury vinylplank,butnowthey’vechangedthe waytheymaketheproductsonowitis waterresistantmakingitverykidandpet friendly.”

Aestheticsaside,Carninolistedother factorstocontemplatewhenchoosingthe righttypeofflooring.

“Youneedtoconsideryourbudgetand lifestyle,includingkidsandpets,andalso considertheroomthatyou’reremodeling,” shesaid.“Ithinkit’salsoimportanttolook attrends,especiallyifyourremodeling processmightincludesellingyourhome.”

Withover60yearsservicingTulsaand NortheasternOklahoma,Grigsby’sisthe area’spremierflooringsitewithitshighly trainedstaffandbroadlineofproducts featuredinitsshowroom.Grigsby’shas beenfamilyownedandlocallyoperated since1959.

“Wehaveverycompetitivepricesand offeraveryextensiveselection,”shesaid. “We’reafull-servicestorethatoffersgreat customerservice.”

Grigsby’sproductsincludecarpet,tile, hardwood,laminate,naturalstoneandvinyl flooring.

Furthermore,Grigsby’shasavirtual roomdesignertoolinitsshowroomandon itswebsitethatallowsapersontovirtually designaroominafewsimplestepsby uploadinganimageoftheroomandthen choosingwhichproductstovirtuallyimpose uponit.

Thetoolallowsuserstovisualizeand comparedesignswithafewsimpleclicks onaphoneorcomputer.

“Youcantakeapictureofyourroom andwhateverflooringyou’rethinkingabout orinterestedinreplacinganditcanshow youtheproductinyourroomsoyoudon’t havetoguessanymore,”Carninosaid.

Grigsby’sprovidesfreeconsultations andestimates.Theyalsohaveexperienced salesassociatesthatguidecustomers throughtheprocesstoensureaseamless andoptimalinstallation.

Formoreinformationortosetupafree estimate,visitGrigsby’sshowroomlocated at4417S.SheridanRd.,goonlineat grigsbys.comorcall918-627-6996.

Grigsby’sCarpet,Tile&Hardwood

Emailusyour questions atexpert@ tulsaworld.com, andourexpert willansweronour TulsaWorldScene Facebookpage!

ANNETTERIHERD DIGITALMARKETINGSTRATEGIST

MCNneededtospread

Thebestadjectivetousewhendefiningmyexperienceis “easy,”saidHeatherGriffin,DirectorofDevelopmentand OutreachatCouncilOakComprehensiveHealthcare. “AnnetteandImetalittleoverayearago,afterthe MuscogeeNationpurchasedournewesthospital,CouncilOak ComprehensiveHealthcarelocatedinTulsa,”shesaid.“Asthe MCNhealthsystemcontinuedtoexpand,especiallywiththenew hospital,weneededassistanceinspreadingthewordthatwewere hiring–foravarietyofpositionsinalmostallofourlocations.”

TheMCNhealthsystemhaslocationsthroughouttheentire MuscogeeNationReservationsospreadingthewordfarandwide wastremendouslyimportant,Griffinsaid.Havingtherightteam inplacemadeallofthedifference,andshefoundthatAnnette Riherd,DigitalMarketingStrategistwiththeTulsaWorldMedia Company,wastherightfit.

“IwassurprisedtolearnthattheTulsaWorldnowoffers somanymoremarketingservices!”shesaid.“IknewtheTulsa WorldhadalotoftalentandhadexpandedcapabilitieswhenLee EnterprisespurchasedtheTulsaWorldafewyearsago,butIdid notknowtheextentuntilIhadanopportunitytositdownwith Annetteandtherestoftheteam.”

RiherdcalledGriffinonemorningandsuggestedshecome downtotheTulsaWorldboardroomtomeetsomekeymanagement teammembersandlearnfirsthandfromavarietyoffolks–includingsomethathadflowninfromoutofstate.

“InconversationswithAnnette,IlearnedthattheTulsaWorld couldhandleallofourneeds–digital,print,video,creative–just likeanyagency,”Griffinsaid.“Itwasonestopshoppingwithgreat rates.”

Annetteandteamputtogetheradigitalmarketingstrategy thatwouldensurethejobsatMCNhealthsystemwerehighly visible,shesaid.

“Annetteissoveryeasytoworkwith!Shegoesaboveand beyondandisreadytorolluphersleevesandhelpherclientsin absolutelyanywayshepossiblycan,”Griffinsaid.“Shechecksin

fromtimetotimeandislowpressure–whichIgreatlyappreciate. WhatImostappreciateistheteamapproachtheTulsaWorld takes.”

Whetherworkingonacampaignorajobfair,Griffincan comein,sitdownwithRiherdandcolleaguesandfeellikesheis workingwithherownteam,shesaid.

Since1977,MCNHealthhasgrowntobeoneofthelargest tribalhealthsystemsinOklahoma,providingmorethan201,000 visitsannually.

TheMCNHealthfacilitiesinclude:

•2communityhospitalslocatedinOkmulgeeandOkemah

•1specialtyhospital,CouncilOakComprehensive Healthcare,locatedinTulsa

•6outpatientprimarycareclinics

Today,MCNHealthproudlyservescitizensoffederally recognizedtribesatitsoutpatientprimarycareclinics.The communityhospitalsservebothNativecitizensandcommunity members.

MCNHealthprovidesprimarycare,urgentcare,dental, optometry,behavioralhealthservicesandancillaryservicessuch aslaboratory,radiology,pharmacy.Specialtyservicessuchas pediatrics,woundcare,physicaltherapy,diabetesmanagement andtobaccocessationarealsooffered.

Inordertoeffectivelymarketinallareas,havingtheright teaminplacemakesallthedifference.

“IcancallortextAnnetteandtellherwhatIneed.Usually, within24hours,shehasaplanputtogetherformeandhaslaid outthestepsweneedtotaketoexecutethecampaign,”Griffin said.

Formoreinformationondigitalmarketingstrategies,call AnnetteRiherdat918-694-3490oremailat annette.riherd@tulsaworld.com.

TulsaWorldMediaCompany

Bettervideoandaudiois comingtoyourTVinTulsa

VideoRevolutionishometoNextGen-equipment

Tulsa-areaTVviewerswillsoonhaveaccesstothelatest technologyintelevisionthroughtheintroductionof ATSC3.0—anupgradetothepreviousAdvanced TelevisionSystemsCommitteebroadcastingstandards thatdeliversanenhancedviewingexperiencethatincludes highervideoandaudioquality.

AustinMorton,seniorprojectmanagerofVideoRevolution, explainedthesignificanceoftheadvancementandwhatitmeans forTulsaviewers.

“ATSC3.0isanewerversionofabroadcaststandard.ATSC 3.0isthetechnicaltermforit,butit’salsocalledNextGenTV, whichisalittleeasierforpeopletounderstandandgrasp,” Mortonsaid.“Themainpurposebehinditistoupdatethe incrediblyoldstandardwhichiswhatwe’vebeenusingsince 1996.Thisisgoingtomakeanenormousimprovementinwhat broadcasterscanprovidetheendusers.

“Themaingoalistogetmoreinformationtotheenduserand thatcomesinwayofbetterqualityvideo,higherqualitycolorand bitratesaswellasmoreresolution.Wealsogetbetterquality audioformats,whichhaslongplaguedbroadcastersastogetting highend,goodqualityrecordingtopeoplewatchingover-the-air television.”

ATSC3.0deliverstheworld’sfirstbroadcaststandard builtonaninternetprotocolbackbonethatoffersthebenefit ofbroadcastandbroadband,accordingtoATSC.org.Thenext generationtransmissionsystemwillprovide4KUltrawith highdynamicrangeplusinteractivefeaturesandmultichannel immersiveaudio.

OklahomaCityrolledoutthenewformatin2020withseven stationsandsubstationsthatcurrentlyofferit.Tulsastationswill beginswitchingtotheformatbytheendoftheyear.

Toaccess3.0,aviewermusteitherhaveatelevisionwitha built-intunerthatcanaccessit,orelsetheymustpurchasean externaltunerthatcandothesame.

“Alotofourcurrenthigher-endspectrumtelevisionsoffer

thespecification,butyoudon’thavetobuyanewTVtogetit,” Mortonsaid.“Youcanpayfortheexternaltuneranditwillgive youallofthesamebenefits.”

VideoRevolutionsellsNextGen-equippedtelevisions andwillbefullystockedwithexternaltunerswhenTulsa broadcasterstransitiontothenewformat.

Mortonsaidthetunerscost$200to$300.

“We’repreparingtoprovidethemsincewedon’thavea broadcastinthemarketatthisexactsecond,butwehavea sourcepreparedforthem.Wehavetestedonetoseehowit functions,andsofar,we’vebeenverypleasedwithit,”hesaid.

Tunerscanbepurchasedpertelevision,butthereisamore cost-effectivesolutionformulti-televisionhomes.

“Sayacustomerhassixtelevisionsandtheydon’twanttobuy sixtuners,whichisveryunderstandable,theycanbuyonetuner anduseanitemlikeaRokuoraFire(TV)Stickandthetuneris abletosenditssignaloverthehouse’sWiFiconnectiontothose othertelevisions,soyouonlyneedonetunercapableforthe householdthatcanservicemultipletelevisions.”

Mortonsaidinterestisgrowingasthepublichasbecome moreawareofATSC3.0andhowitwillimprovebroadcast television.

“We’reseeingourover-the-airclientelegrowandpeople doingtheirresearchonline.Thereisalotofsurprisethatthere’s talkofthetechnologyrightnowwithoutaparticularmarketbeing capable,butthat’sbecauseitisalsobeingsuccessfulinother markets.”

MortonrecommendspurchasingthetunersatVideo Revolutionwhereastaffofknowledgeableexpertscanensurethe properinfrastructureandinstallationofthetunersandalsoassist withanyadditionalelectronicneedswithinthehome. FormoreinformationvisittheVideoRevolutionsshowroomat 7030SLewisAve,Tulsa,goonlinetovideorevolution.comorcall 918-495-0586.

Christmas ROAD TRIPS

Finding cheer north, south, east and west

James D. Watts Jr. // Tulsa World Magazine

Tulsa and its environs are home to a sleigh-full of Christmas activities, from skating on the outdoor ice at the Tulsa Winterfest downtown, taking in the displays and events that make up Philbrook Museum of Art’s Festival, driving through the millions of twinkling lights adorning the Rhema campus in Broken Arrow, to taking in performances of Tulsa Ballet’s “The Nutcracker” and “A Christmas

Carol” by American Theatre Company.

But while these things are very much Tulsa traditions, sometimes it’s a good idea to seek out a bit of the holiday spirit elsewhere, maybe to rekindle that sense of wonder for which this season is known.

Wherever you may choose to roam in the coming days — be it north, south, east or west — you’re sure to encounter a wealth of sights and sounds that will help to make the season bright.

COURTESY, SILVER DOLLAR CITY

More than 6 million lights adorn the buildings during “An Old Time Christmas” at Silver Dollar City.

The grounds and buildings of Woolaroc are covered with more than 750,000 lights.

NORTH

For much of the year, Bartlesville’s Johnstone Park is a popular gathering place for picnicking families and frolicking youngsters. But when December draws nigh, the park at 100 N. Cherokee Ave., is transformed into the “Fantasy Land of Lights,” which celebrates not only the holiday season, but also the city’s history, with a display dedicated to Bartles Mill, one of Bartlesville’s original landmarks.

The drive-through experience is a project of the Rotary Bartlesville Daybreak Club, which has sponsored the display since 2001. While admission is free, all donations help to fund the Rotary Club’s scholarship program.

The Fantasy Land of Lights is open 6 to 10 p.m. every night through Dec. 30. fantasylandoflights.com.

While visiting Bartlesville, take a side trip southwest to Woolaroc Museum and Wildlife Preserve for the Woolaroc Wonderland of Lights. The grounds and buildings of Woolaroc are covered with more than 750,000 lights that are open to the public 5-9 p.m. Friday through Sunday until Dec. 18.

Admission is $6 adults, $1 for children ages 3 to 12, and tickets are available at the gate. Woolaroc is located 12 miles southwest of Bartlesville on Oklahoma 123.

SOUTH

Whenever it’s time for anything festive, the Castle of Muskogee goes all out to provide people of all ages with an experience. The castle offers a number of outdoor activities, from taking the Christmas Train or the Holiday Hay Ride, driving through the lights and other holiday displays of Castleton Village, shopping at the

Fantasy Land of Lights at Johnstone Park in Bartlesville celebrates not only the holiday season, but also the city’s history.

holiday merchants or enjoying a meal at Rudolph’s Cafe.

While the drive-through portion is free, some of the activities carry an additional charge, such as the Christmas Train and the Hay Ride.

The Castle of Muskogee is located at 3400 West Fern Mountain Road.

Muskogee’s Honor Heights Park, 1400 Honor Heights Drive, is best known for its annual Azalea Festival, but it also decks itself out in myriad colors for the holiday season, using

more than 1 million colored lights to create the Garden of Lights.

This drive-through experience, courtesy of the Muskogee Parks and Recreation Department, comes complete with a holiday soundtrack that one can hear by tuning the car’s radio to a designated station, and witness how the display interacts with the music.

The Garden of Lights is open through Jan. 1 at 5:30 p.m. nightly, closing at 10 p.m. Sunday-Thursday, and at 11 p.m. Friday-Saturday. Cost is $5 per car, although admission on Mondays is free.

Also, the Depot Green in downtown Muskogee will be offering short rides aboard its Christmas Train. The train operates beginning at 5:30 p.m. every Thursday-Sunday through Dec. 31. Cost is $2 per person.

TULSA WORLD MAGAZINE FILE

COURTESY, CASTLE OF MUSKOGEE Ride the Christmas ponies, weather permitting, at the Castle of Muskogee.

COURTESY, FANTASY LAND

COURTESY, CASTLE OF MUSKOGEE Experience Christmas at the Castle of Muskogee.

WEST

In the early days of Oklahoma, Guthrie served as the capital city, and while the seat of power may have shifted to the south, this town holds on to its history as a territorial capital, especially at Christmas.

Guthrie’s Territorial Christmas celebration takes people back to Victorian

times on the lone prairie, with parades, highly decorated houses and more.

One of the main features of the celebration is the Victorian Walk, in which businesses in the city’s historical district will have live performances in their shop windows, vendors will offer holiday treats for sale, and other activities, all designed to create a Victorian

holiday atmosphere. The final Victorian Walk of the season will be noon to 9 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 10. See more at guthriesterritorialchristmas.com.

For an extra dose of Oklahoma Victorian Christmas, Guthrie’s Pollard Theater presents its “A Territorial Christmas Carol,” an original adaptation that transplants Dickens’ classic story into Oklahoma soil. Performances are through Dec. 23. thepollard.org.

EAST

If you’re going to be celebrating the Christmas season, then perhaps one should do so at the place that does it best. Last year, Silver Dollar City’s “An Old Time Christmas” was chosen as the best theme park holiday event in the country by the readers of USA Today.

This theme park, located outside Branson, Missouri, features more than 6 million lights, a eight-storytall animated Christmas tree, light spectaculars in the park’s Christmas In Midtown & Joy on Town Square areas, holiday foods to sample, and

BRYAN TERRY, THE OKLAHOMAN

A crowd passes by a building during the Victorian Walk Christmas celebration in downtown Guthrie.

COURTESY, LORI DUCKWORTH, OKLAHOMA TOURISM

two Broadway-style shows, including the new for 2022 production, “Coming Home for Christmas.”

All this is in addition to the park’s regular attractions, ranging from rollercoasters such as the PowderKeg and Fire in the Hole to ones more geared to the younger set, artisans practicing their turn-of-the-20th-century crafts, variety shows and more.

“An Old Time Christmas” continues through Dec. 30. See more at silverdollarcity.com.

If a day or two exploring “An Old Time Christmas” is not enough, the city of Branson more than gives itself over to all things Christmas before all

the Halloween candy can be eaten. The many theaters along the town’s main drag will be performing holiday programs, and most every business will be decked out in its Christmas finery.

For more, go to explorebranson.com.

COURTESY, BRANSON CONVENTION AND VISITORS BUREAU

The gigantic Branson Ferris Wheel gets decked out in its Christmas finery.

COURTESY, SILVER DOLLAR CITY Nutcrackers stand guard at the foot of the eight-story animated Christmas tree at Silver Dollar City.

Bald eagle sits for a closeup

MIKE SIMONS // Tulsa World Magazine

Photojournalists work from our cars a lot. I spend a lot of time around the Arkansas River, either eating lunch or just roaming around the river between assignments. Sitting and looking at the river for a few moments between assignments is relaxing. And, the best part is you never know what you’re going to see — kayakers, people riding wacky bikes or whole groups of runners passing by in sync in horrible weather. These are all things that have caught my attention recently.

But the best has to be when I was west of Tulsa and saw that tuft of white feathers moving in a tree. I thought there was no way I would be able to get to my trunk for my camera and put on a very long lens without the bird taking flight. But the eagle sat there and acted like it was waiting for its closeup!

ABOVE: Home cooks can procure most of the ingredients needed for a full Thanksgiving spread at our local farmers’ markets, farms and bakeries. LEFT: This stuffing (or dressing) can be prepared (don’t bake it yet!) a day ahead — let sit out for 30 minutes at room temperature before baking.

Is it possible to host a holiday meal sourced with food grown or raised within 100 miles? Absolutely.

Although, that meal will look drastically different depending on where you call home — no cranberries here in Oklahoma.

Home cooks can procure most of the ingredients needed for a full holiday spread at our local farmers markets, farms and bakeries.

Oklahoma’s largest farmers market, the Tulsa Farmers Market at Kendall Whittier, is open on Saturdays before Christmas, so shoppers can wait to gather ingredients until right before their big holiday feasts. I plan to grab everything from our local vendors, and it makes me feel good to know where my food comes from, who raised it and that my money will go straight into their pockets.

For holiday meals, gather butter, pecan oil, garlic, onions, herbs, celery, carrots, hearty greens, sweet potatoes, Brussels sprouts, eggs, cheese, ham, turkey, bread and baked goods, pies, soups and many other ingredients and prepared foods from the market.

Sticking to a 100-mile radius for even one weekly meal can be challenging for many people. We don’t farm sea salt or grow olives for olive oil here in

Locally sourced cornmeal makes the freshest cornbread for your stuffing.

Oklahoma. No cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, vanilla or sugar hail from here, or even the United States. But we can make an impact by buying what we can when it’s in season and available from local sources.

If an entire locally sourced spread is not in the cards this year, try going for one locavore (or Oklavore) dish. Dressing, or stuffing if you’re so inclined, is an easy recipe to source locally and adapt to your liking. Thanks to our many local bakeries, especially the Country Bird Bakery that opened recently, sourdough bread is abundant in Tulsa. Cat Cox fortifies her hearty loaves with cooked grains and other ingredients — buy one loaf and use half for stuffing or dressing and the remaining half for serving tableside.

FIND LOCAL INGREDIENTS

Tulsa Farmers Market, Oklahoma’s largest (and only 100% locally grown/raised) farmers market is open 8:30 a.m.–noon Dec. 10 and Dec. 17.

Visit tulsafarmersmarket.org for a list of vendors.

Prairie Creek Farms’ online store also offers pork, chicken, beef, bison, eggs and other products for your holiday meals. It also offers free delivery in the Tulsa area. Visit prairiecreek.farm as well as the farm’s social media for details. Instagram (@prairiecreekfarms)

Country Bird Bakery is open only on Saturdays for now, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., and customers are urged to pre-order the labor-intensive loaves owner Cat Cox offers in her bread club. 1644 E. Third St., countrybirdbakery.com Instagram (@countrybirdbakery)

Farrell Bread & Bakery is a great stop for pumpkincranberry bread, sage-filled stuffing bread and breakfast baked goods for holidays or any day.

Farrell @ Mother Road Market: 1124 S. Lewis Ave.

Farrell South: 8090 S. Yale Ave. farrellbread.com Instagram (@farrellbreadok)

JUDY ALLEN PHOTOS, FOR TULSA WORLD MAGAZINE

Judy Allen // For the Tulsa World

I am fortunate to know a family that grinds cornmeal from dried corn harvested on their farm — the Tulsa World featured Pearson Family Cornmeal in a past story. It’s not available to purchase retail, however. I bake cornbread to use in my traditional cornbread and sourdough dressing, but ready-made cornbread is also available at most bakeries and grocery stores during the holidays.

Pair the crumbled and cubed pieces of bread with an assortment of aromatics, including garlic, onion, celery, parsley, oregano and pecans, and a mixture of eggs and homemade turkey or chicken stock. This popular side dish is required at my holiday table and can easily be adapted to fit yours.

If you aren’t interested in cooking over the holidays, support local food entrepreneurs by buying side dishes, rolls, pies and other prepared foods from local vendors instead of big-name national brands. At the end of the day, every local ingredient or food purchased helps put money into local businesses.

CORNBREAD AND SOURDOUGH DRESSING

Serves 8 to 10

Baked in a shallow casserole dish, this dressing gets nice and golden brown, and develops a crisp crust. This version has both cornbread and sourdough, but feel free to use one or the other.

6 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 onions, finely chopped

4 garlic cloves, minced

6 stalks celery, finely chopped

½ cup finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh sage leaves

2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh oregano

1 recipe Buttermilk Cornbread, recipe follows

½-1 loaf sourdough bread, cubed (4-6 cups)

¾ cup chopped pecans or jarred chestnuts

4 large eggs

2 cups chicken stock, plus more if needed

1½ teaspoons coarse salt ½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Melt butter in a large sauté pan. Add onions, garlic and celery. Cook over medium heat until just tender, about 8 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in parsley, sage and oregano.

2. Crumble the cornbread into a large bowl and toss with the sourdough. Add the onion mixture, pecans or chestnuts, eggs, chicken stock, salt and pepper. Stir until well combined. The mixture should be saturated with liquid. If it seems dry, stir in more chicken stock.

3. Transfer mixture to a buttered 4-quart casserole or large ovenproof skillet, and bake until golden on top and cooked through, 45 minutes to one hour. Remove from oven and serve hot.

JUDY ALLEN, FOR TULSA WORLD MAGAZINE

The mixture should be saturated with liquid. If it seems dry, stir in more chicken stock.

CRUNCHY CORNBREAD

Makes one 10-inch round

2 cups coarse-ground cornmeal, sifted, if desired

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour, optional

1 teaspoon salt

¾ teaspoon baking soda

2 eggs

2 cups buttermilk, plus more if needed

2 tablespoons vegetable oil, for pan

1. Place a 10-inch cast iron skillet in oven. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. The crust will be crunchier if the skillet heats at least 15 minutes.

2. Combine cornmeal, flour, salt and baking soda in a bowl. Add eggs and buttermilk. Whisk only until moistened and just combined, adding more buttermilk if needed.

3. Just before pouring batter into the hot skillet, add oil to the pan and swirl quickly to coat the bottom and sides. Pour batter into pan and bake until golden and cooked through, 25 to 30 minutes. Let sit in pan for a couple of minutes and then turn cornbread out onto a plate for extra crunchiness.

JUDY ALLEN, FOR TULSA WORLD MAGAZINE

This dressing has both cornbread and sourdough, but feel free to use one or the other.

’ROUND GATHER

Winter

As the days get shorter and the nights get colder, families and friends start to gather around the warm glow of fireplaces.

Winter is the time for many to be in fellowship with their people, and for Gayle Ross, a prominent Cherokee storyteller, a warm winter fire is also perfect for traditional Native American storytelling.

“It’s true, winter is a perfect time and always was,” Ross said. “The long winter nights when people would be

Jacob Factor // Tulsa World Magazine

indoors because of the weather — storytelling was just a natural part of that cycle. Winter time is the time when people draw closer together. Stories are a means of doing that.”

In Cherokee culture, storytelling is a way of educating young people and teaching Cherokees about the world around them. For Ross, a descendant of Cherokee Nation Principal Chief John Ross, who led the nation during the Trail of Tears, she believes she is part of the living, breathing culture of storytelling and has been since she fell in love with stories when she was young.

Storytelling tells the history of Cherokee people and connects Native people to the Earth and to nature.

“You can see that wonderful connection that stretches back generations, literally to the beginning of time where we have existed as a distinct people,” Ross said. “It’s part of what makes us all Cherokees. Our history, our traditions, our relationships. Most importantly to me, as a storyteller, our beautiful traditional stories express our relationship with the world, with all the animals, all the birds, all living beings.”

draws people closer for traditional storytime with honored tales

‘THE COYOTE AND THE BEAR’

In the Osage Nation, stories also connect people to nature, but in modern times, the Nation uses stories to teach future generations Osage language.

The Osage Nation Language Department recently released a children’s storybook called “The Coyote and the Bear,” which tells the story in Osage orthography of how the bear got his stubby tail.

In many cultures, the Coyote and the Bear tells the story of Bear, who was vain and loved showing off his long, bushy tail, and Coyote, who was a trickster and wanted to teach Bear a lesson.

One day during winter, Coyote told Bear the best way to catch fish in a frozen lake was to stick his tail down a hole in the ice and lure the fish to him. The bear did this, and the next day when he pulled his tail out of the frigid water, his tail broke and became stubby.

Braxton Redeagle, the executive director of the Osage Nation Language Department, said this story has been passed down for generations and is an easy way to show young Osage people their language in context. The book launched in September and was given out to Osage members at the Osage Sesquicentennial Celebration on Oct. 22. The book was also made available to purchase.

“This project in particular is pretty symbolic of a lot of different things in our culture,” Redeagle said. “We thought it captured the essence of what we want to do and what we need to do to take those traditions our elders had and stay true to them, but adapt them in a way we can connect and be a bridge between our older people and our younger generations. This is a good demonstration of how we can do that with language and our stories.”

By using a traditional story to teach language, young readers can see Osage language in practice, and use context of the story to learn how to read.

“You get to see the real language usage,” Redeagle said. “When most people teach language, any kind of world language, they usually focus on things like vocabulary, verb conjugation. We teach those things as well, but we wanted to produce something that shows the language in action, in movement. The actual uses of the language.

“The long winter nights when people would be indoors because of the weather — storytelling was just a natural part of that cycle. Winter time is the time when people draw closer together. Stories are a means of doing that,” storyteller Gayle Ross said.

“The fact that we’re targeting children — children are our future. We start with them, and we can kind of

COURTESY, WAHZHAZHE COMMUNICATIONS

The Osage Nation Language Department recently released a children’s storybook called “The Coyote and the Bear,” which tells the story in Osage orthography of how the bear got his stubby tail.

mold the community and build that language.”

The storybook also has a mobile app version people can use, and a QR code in the print version of the book when scanned on the app turns the book into a pop-up story book. Redeagle hopes this modernization of storytelling will fuel younger people to engage in Osage language.

“We took a traditional story we had and repackaged it for modern times to where younger generations can use their technology to read the story and learn the language,” he said.

TULSA WORLD MAGAZINE FILE

COURTESY, WAHZHAZHE COMMUNICATIONS

Children at the Early Learning Academy in Skiatook hear the story of “The Coyote and the Bear.”

TWO CLAN BROTHERS MEET THE UK’TEN AND THUNDER

On a spiritual level, Ross said, storytelling connects Cherokees to cosmic beings, like the personification of Thunder, and the world beyond the physical one.

Outdated history tells people Cherokees worshipped the sun, the moon and Thunder as gods, but Ross said those are beings Cherokees had actual relationships and interacted with. One story explains this relationship.

There are two clan brothers, and when they are very small, they encounter a beautiful bright-colored baby snake.

The snake speaks to them and says, “I’m little, I’m helpless. You boys have those blowguns; I bet you could bring me some food.”

Of course, the young brothers are absolutely enchanted. They use the blowgun and bring some little birds and an occasional squirrel, and the snake keeps growing bigger.

The boys grow bigger, and now they are hunting with a bow and arrow and they’re bringing the snake much bigger food and the snake keeps growing until it’s apparent he is not an average snake.

He is an Uk’Ten (or Uktena): the giant Cherokee dragon.

The boys are frightened, but he keeps telling them they need to keep feeding him.

One day, as they’re making their way to the place where he lives, they come across the Uk’Ten, and his coils are wrapped around a man. They are wrestling to the death, and the man, every time he opens his mouth, thunder rolls.

They realize that man is Thunder. Thunder used to come into Cherokee country as a human.

The Uk’Ten and Thunder start pleading with the boys.

The Uk’Ten says, “Don’t you remember how Thunder frightened you when you were children with his roars?”

Thunder says, “I’ve always been a friend of Cherokees. This is the Uk’Ten, your ancient enemy.”

The boys are confused, but then they remember their mother telling them when they were frightened of the thunderstorms that without thunder and rain, the Cherokee people would starve.

The boys then carefully aim their arrows and shoot the Uk’Ten, but a horrible noxious cloud of poison rises from the dragon. Thunder yells at the boys to run, and as they are running,

- GAYLE ROSS, STORYTELLER

Thunder sends lightning to strike trees behind the boys as they run away.

The fire and smoke starts clearing the air of the poison, and after the seventh time Thunder sends lightning, the last of the poison is gone.

And a gentle rain starts falling. The boys are safe.

That story tells us about how Thunder was a friend to Cherokees and always will be.

— Gayle Ross

‘SHE KNOWS THEM BY HEART’

In Ross’s work, she has gone to many places to tell children stories, and it was one of those children who actually helped her see the value of storytelling from a child’s perspective.

She was at a third-grade classroom telling stories, and one boy asked her how she was able to memorize all the stories she told.

“A little girl sitting next to him poked him with her elbow and said, “She doesn’t memorize them; she knows them by heart,” Ross remembered her saying. “I never thought of it that way, but that is absolutely true, because if you’re not engaged and in love with the world the story takes you, you can never make it magic for your listeners.”

Having that emotional connection to traditional stories keeps Cherokee culture alive, Ross said, and gathering together, whether in a classroom, at a festival or around the warm fireplace in the winter, reminds Cherokees what it means to be Cherokee.

“It’s the relationships we have with each other, with our families, with our neighbors, with our community,” Ross said. “Gathering together and listening to told stories is such a wonderful vehicle for that. It reminds us of who we are as Cherokees, as families, as people.”

COURTESY, WAHZHAZHE COMMUNICATIONS

By using a traditional story to teach language, young readers can see Osage language in practice and use context of the story to learn how to read.

Gathering together and listening to told stories is such a wonderful vehicle for that. It reminds us of who we are as Cherokees, as families, as people.”

art sweet Sweet,

Most people who live in a foreign land for any length of time know they’ve reached a level of fluency in the native tongue when they start dreaming in the language.

For Sami Cooper, it wasn’t the language of her dreams but the content of them that marked a turning point.

“Mom, I just dream in ice cream,” Cooper said when she called her mother from Vietnam.

It wasn’t that the country’s climate was too warm for Cooper. It was that the exotic flavors and spices of Vietnam’s traditional foods had heated up her desire to create with them.

Cooper had always been a “foodie,” a label she came by almost genetically.

STEPHEN PINGRY, TULSA WORLD MAGAZINE

Sami Cooper is a Sand Springs native who owns and operates Big Dipper Creamery, which recently expanded to three locations.

Sharon Bishop-Baldwin // Tulsa World Magazine

The Sand Springs native who owns and operates Big Dipper Creamery’s three locations — the original at Tulsa’s Mother Road Market, the newest one in Brookside and the one in Sand Springs that functions as the kitchen for all three sites — saw first her grandfather and then her parents spend their lives and careers in the restaurant industry.

Her grandfather Lee Blair operated Lee’s Drive-in in Sand Springs for 20 years until he retired in 1982, and her parents, Benny and Terri Blair, owned and operated the city’s Crescent Café for 25 years until they retired in January 2018.

But how does one meld classic American diner fare with the exotic flavor palates of Asia and come away with … ice cream?

“It all starts with the base of the ice cream,” Cooper said. “What flavor do we want to build around?”

She described the development of a recent concoction, pistachio cardamom brittle ice cream:

“We start with cardamom, but what do we want to do with it? Pistachio’s great, so we’ll scent it with pistachio. Then we want to add texture to the ice cream, and having a crunch is really nice, so we add the actual toasted pistachio.

“Then sometimes you want a little bit of melty sweet to go with that texture, which is where we add the brittle, which melts really nice into the ice cream.”

She makes it sound easy.

“It just creates that multifaceted, multilayered ice cream experience,” Cooper said. “So we do take our ice cream very seriously in how we formulate it, create it and then test it.”

Once in a while a flavor gets sent back to the drawing board before going to the consumer, she said, but it would be rare that something can’t be adjusted, because there are always unexplored flavors to work with.

If you know what you’re doing, that is. But where does one acquire this knowledge of flavor profiles and the like?

“Well, I love food, so I eat it,” Cooper said. “I call that field work.”

Mostly, though, she credits her success to having a curiosity to try different flavors and the work she puts into “trying to figure out what kind of feelings and emotions each flavor evokes.”

“Different things can make you feel warm, can make you feel energized.”

Cooper said she really got into food when she and her husband, Brian Cooper, who was then her boyfriend, traveled abroad.

“We lived in Vietnam for a couple of years, which is where we started to eat a lot of different, never-before-tried

— at least in my life — cuisines,” she said. “And so I became really interested in cooking and in spices and in how flavors develop and work together. It’s a beautiful art.”

But it wasn’t until they moved to Morocco that Cooper “really started cooking every day, learning how different flavors work together.”

The Big Dipper Creamery sources in-season ingredients from local growers and local merchants.

STEPHEN PINGRY PHOTOS, TULSA WORLD MAGAZINE

The Big Dipper Creamery in Sand Springs supplies the other two locations with artisanal ice cream.

“They have these great markets with lots of different spices everywhere,” she said. “So you would go every day and just pick out what you want to mess with, and then go home and mess with it, and you’d create something.”

Fusing creativity and food appealed to her as something both fun and exotic but also familiar and comfortable.

“I thought, ‘Why not food? I know food. I grew up in the food industry,’” she said.

“And I love ice cream.”

That “food” seed might have germinated abroad, but its ice cream DNA — specifically artisanal ice cream — was formulated in Portland, Oregon, where the Coopers lived briefly before their foreign travels.

They both worked on a chestnut farm; he also worked at a brewery, and she also worked in an artisanal ice cream shop.

“It was the first time I had ever tasted small-batch, heavy butter-fat — which is super important — ice cream,” Cooper said. “I was like, ‘Well, this is fun.’”

Although most chefs will tell you that cooking is as much science as art, it’s re-

“The cream, the milk and the sugar is your canvas, and all the other ingredients you throw into it, that’s your completed painting,” said Cooper.

ally the latter where Cooper is happiest in thinking about her products.

“The cream, the milk and the sugar is your canvas, and all the other ingredients you throw into it, that’s your completed painting,” she said. “I like to use that metaphor whenever we create ice creams.”

But while ice cream might be her outlet for creativity, running a business is where Cooper wants her head fully in the game.

Only four years since debuting as an original tenant at Mother Road Market; only a year since the opening of the second location in Sand Springs; and still basking in the glow of the opening of the Brookside location, her head must be spinning.

“Scaling up is a challenge. It goes like a big wave, and you just run toward it and try to keep up,” Cooper said.

“I want to say that it’s a lot of hard work — like the hard work surprised me — but that didn’t really surprise me. I kind of expected it. But it did surprise me about how well it worked out.

“Whenever you first start a business, you’re always anticipating what’s going to go wrong,” she said. “That’s my process, at least. … I think with those kinds of expectations, when things go right, it can be kind of a surprise. And that’s been very pleasant.”

“I was also surprised about Sand Springs’ reception for an artisan ice cream shop. I didn’t quite know how it would land here. But I grew up here, and this is my home, and it was really nice to be welcomed by my community with open arms and open minds.”

Cooper graduated from Charles Page High School in 2005, a year after

her husband did. Today the couple have two children, Arlo, who is 3½, and Charlie, their 1½-year-old daughter.

And in the same way that Cooper grew up in the food industry, her family is invested in her success, too.

Her father served as a contractor for the renovation of the Sand Springs location. Her mother does the seasonal and window decorations for that location. Her older sister, Crystal Hendricks, was the interior designer for the Sand Springs and Brookside locations; and her younger sister, Mandi Gordon, is her production manager.

While those familiar faces are nice, ice cream is why people show up — or don’t. So how do you keep people coming in?

One key, Cooper said, is sourcing inseason ingredients from local growers and local merchants.

“It tastes better when it’s grown right here, and also you’re supporting your local economy and your local farmers,” she said.

And that’s how you get flavors such as roasted strawberry in the spring, corn ice cream in July, and roasted sweet potato with toasted marshmallow in the fall.

What’s next on her bucket list? Cooper was a bit coy, but she did mention possibly a cinnamon roll ice cream of some fashion.

“But it wouldn’t be that simple,” she said. “It would be a rendition or a riff off of a cinnamon roll. Like maybe a deconstructed cinnamon roll.”

founding

FATHER

Overall // Tulsa World Magazine

Acarpenter’s wife brought a Bible to Tulsa in 1883, apparently the first book of its kind in the new town, founded less than a year before. And she invited a couple of Tulsa’s earliest pioneers, Dr. W. P. Booker and J.M. Hall, to see it in the tent where she lived with her husband, who had come to work on some of the town’s very first buildings.

J.M. Hall was one of the most influential figures in early Tulsa

TULSA WORLD MAGAZINE FILE

The remains of J.M. Hall, aka “the father of Tulsa,” are interred at Rose Hill Funeral Home & Memorial Park.

Michael

She wanted their help to organize a Sunday school, she told the men. She was a Congregationalist, Booker a Baptist and Hall a Presbyterian, so they called it a “Union” Sunday school, and it attracted four or five children to its lessons.

Maybe it doesn’t seem like much, but it was “the first organization of any kind in this community,” Hall later wrote.

Hall and his brother had followed the Frisco railroad’s construction to Tulsa, setting up tents along the way to sell goods to the railroad workers. And they chose the town site for Tulsa, building the first general store at First and Main streets.

By the 1890s, H.C.’s declining health had left J.M. in charge of the business, which became known as J.M. Hall & Co. And J.M. became one of the most influential figures in early Tulsa, widely considered the town’s “founding father” — although he always

insisted that his brother deserved the title.

Whoever deserves more credit for starting Tulsa itself, J.M. definitely started a lot of things in Tulsa and played a major role in developing a small prairie village into a major city.

After the first Sunday school, Hall helped organize Tulsa’s first church congregation. He became president of Tulsa’s first public school board and was Tulsa’s first resident-postmaster. And in 1902, he helped organize the Commercial Club, a forerunner of today’s Tulsa Regional Chamber.

In 1927, at age 81, he used pen and paper to write a book called “The Beginning of Tulsa,” without which much of the city’s early history would have been lost.

“For 50 years he has entered into all the activities for the building of Tulsa and to make it a good place to rear a family,” Hall wrote about himself in third-person. “He is a staunch believer in morality and the enforcement of law. Very friendly to all organizations that are trying to make this world what the Man of Galilee would have it be.”

Hall died May 26, 1935.

A Tulsa World obituary declared that “he always had a leading part” in guiding the city’s growth and that “the Tulsa of today” wouldn’t have existed without him.

“Hall was privileged,” the World wrote, “to experience the satisfaction of seeing a metropolitan city develop from the bald prairie expanse where he pitched his tent.”

J.M. Hall built Tulsa’s first general store in 1883 near what is now the intersection of First and Main streets. He replaced this wooden structure in 1902 with a brick-and-stone storefront on the northwest corner of the intersection.

MUSEUM

COURTESY, BERYL FORD COLLECTION/ TULSA HISTORICAL SOCIETY &

He is a staunch believer in morality and the enforcement of law. Very friendly to all organizations that are trying to make this world what the Man of Galilee would have it be.”

- J.M. HALL

Theperfectwines forChristmas

OwassoLiquor&Wineoffersbudgetfriendlyholidaytipsandgiftideas

Nothingbringsfamily,friendsorco-workerstogether liketheholidays—oralcohol.

Thesociallubricantisnotonlyastapleofholiday gatherings,butalsomakesawelcomedgifttothose thatappreciateagooddrink.

ButlikethemallinDecember,theliquorstorecanfeel overwhelmingwithitsinnumerableliquor,beerandwine selection.

Fortunately,OwassoLiquor&Wineco-ownerAndyO’Neal hassomebudget-friendlyholidayentertainingtipsandgiftideasto keepitsimple.

“Youdon’tneed17differentkindsofwineforyourparty,” O’Nealsaid.“Youwanttogetsomethingthatisamediumred ormediumwhitethatappealstoalotofpeople.Youjustneeda coupleofthingsthatwalkrightinthemiddlesoyou’rekindof pleasingeverybody.”

Regardingliquor,O’Nealsaidthatcustomerstendtopurchase darkerspiritslikerumandwhiskeylaterintheyearwithone exceptionbeingvodka.

“Youseeaswitchfromsummertimecocktailstowintertime cocktailswithwhiskeyandstufflikethat,soyoudoseethat transition,”hesaid.“Vodkaisstillthenumberonesellerright now.It’sglutenfree,clean,andwesellatonofit.”

O’NealsaidTito’svodkaistheirtopsellingbrand.Iteven comesinfestivewrappingpaperfortheholidays.

Healsosuggestedofferingaglassofchampagnetowelcome partyguestsasanicebreakerofsorts.

“Haveaglasstokickoffyourparty,”hesaid.“Somepeople thinkyouhavetowaituntilmidnightonNewYear’sEve,butthat’s nottrue.Makeatoasttogettingeveryonetogetherinthebeginning becausepeopleoftenneedtoleaveapartyatdifferenttimes.”

Moreover,hesaidabottleofchampagnealsomakesasmart holidaygiftwithNewYear’sEvearoundthecorner.Hetypically giftshismotherchampagneorBaileysliqueurtoenjoyover theholidays.

Giftpacks,whicharenoveltyitemsincludedwithliquoror wineinspecialholidaypackaging,areanotherpopularliquorstore purchasethistimeofyear.

Cocktailglasses,wineopenersandcollectiblebottlesare examplesofspecialtyitemsincludedingiftpacksthataddvalue andamorefestivepresentationofalcoholtothegiftrecipient.

TheytypicallyarriveinlateNovemberandaremetwith highdemand.

Ifacustomerisnotabletogetaholdofagiftpack,Owasso Liquorcanstillaccommodate.

“Whetheritbeabirthday,holidayorwhatever,weoffergift wrappingrightatthecounter,”saidO’Neal.“Wehavedecorative sleevesthatcanmakeanythinginhereintoagift.Itaddsa nicetouch.”

Forthosebuyingonabudget,OwassoLiquorpricesare unbeatable,saidO’Neal.

ConsumersseemtoagreeasOwassoLiquor&Winehas beenvotedTulsaWorld’sBestintheWorldLiquorStorefortwo consecutiveyears—adesignationthatO’Nealbelievesisadirect resultoftheirabilitytobeatcompetitorpriceswhileservingupan impressivebeer,liquorandwineselection.

ThedeepdiscountshavealsoearnedO’Nealthemoniker“The CloseoutKingofOklahoma.”Itisanamehewearswithpride.

“Whenyou’vegotgasat$3.50orhigher,yeah,thecostmakes abigdifference.Wecansavepeoplemoneyonweddings,holiday partiesandnobodyisgoingtobeabletobeatthatprice.”

OwassoLiquor&Wineiscurrentlyexpandingtoasecond locationinBrokenArrowatthesoutheastcornerof81stStreetand AspenAvenuecalledBoozeBrothersafterO’Nealandhistwin brotherwhoco-ownthebusiness.Theyhopetoopenitsdoorsby theendoftheyear.

GobyOwassoLiquor&Wineat8787N.OwassoExpy, SteC,call918-272-4202orvisitowassoliquor.com.

Yourgaragehaspotential

Historically,homerenovationshavebeenlargely centeredonkitchen,bathandlivingrooms,but thatmaybechangingasmorehomeownersare leveragingthestorageanddesignpotentialof theirgarage.

JasonJohnsonisthepresidentofGarageInnovations, aTulsa-basedbusinessthatcreatescustomizeddesign solutionsthroughitsqualitycabinetandflooringproducts. Heexplainedhowthegarage—onceaspacedesignatedfor carsandtools—hasbecomereimagined.

“Wethoughtthatmenwouldbetheonescontacting uswantingcoolgarages,”saidJohnsonwhoassumedthat wouldbethetopreasonforhiringhisserviceswhenhe launchedhisbusinessin2004.“However,themainpeople contactinguswerewomen.Theirgarageswerebeingused asamainentranceintotheirhomewhenkidsweregetting droppedofforguestswerecomingoversincesomany peoplewereusingthegarageasamainentranceintothe houseinsteadofthefrontdoor.”

Johnsonsaidtheirclientsoftenlivedinnicehomesbut wereembarrassedbytheclutteranddisorganizationof thegarage.

“Earlyoninbusinesswequicklyfiguredoutthatour clientswantedtheirgaragetoreflectthebeautyoftheir home.”

Johnsondescribedthemulti-stepprocessthatoccurs afterreceivingtheinitialrequestforaquotethroughtheir websiteorshowroom.

“Anon-sitevisittakesplacewherewewillmakealist ofitemsthattheyaretryingtostore.Wetrytogetasmany ofthoseitemsbehindcabinetdoorsbecauseitresultsina cleanerlook,”Johnsonsaid.

Thenextstepistocategorizeitemsthatwillneedtobe mountedonceilingsandoverheadrackstomaximizethe spacewithminimalclutter.

Aftertakingprecisemeasurementsandinventory,

theprofessionalsatGarageInnovationsgenerateaplan ofaction,computerizeddrawing,andquoteforthejob, sotheclientgetsaclearideaofwhattoexpectfromthe remodeling.Thisisallincludedinthefreeconsultation.

Atthatpoint,manyclientsopttovisittheshowroom— afeaturethatlegitimizesthebusinessbyallowingclientsto seehowtheproductsareproduced.

“Havingaphysicalshowroomisonethingthatsetsus apartfromothercompaniessotheycancomein,touchand feel,andactuallyseehowthecabinetsaremanufacturedfor theirhome,”Johnsonsaid.

Inadditiontoashowroom,GarageInnovations alsomanufacturesitsowncabinetline,SimplyStorage Cabinets.Bycraftingcabinetsin-house,theycancutdown middlemencostsandshippingdelays,whichtranslatesto savingsandquickturnoverfortheircustomers.

Onceadesignandinstallationdatehasbeenagreed upon,theclientwillsortthroughtheirpersonalbelongings todeterminewhichitemswillbesavedorstored.Garage Innovationswillarrangetotransportanyitemstobe discardedordonatedtocharity.

Installationtypicallytakesonetothreedaysdepending onthesizeofthegarageandthescopeoftheproject.

Johnsonsaidclientsareoftensurprisedathowquick andnon-intrusivethewholeprocessis.

“I’veseenhomeremodelsdragonforyears,butwe cangoinfromstarttofinishandcompletelyturnagarage aroundinfivedays.Wecangoinandbetotallynonintrusiveandnotinsidewheretheyaretryingtocook dinner.We’vebeentoldahundredtimesthat‘thisisthe easiestremodelingprojectwe’veeverdone.’”

GarageInnovationshasbeenservingallofOklahomasince 2004withshowroomsinTulsaandEdmond.TheTulsa showroomisat4560W.57thSt. Call918-872-7990forafreein-homeconsultation.

JENNIFER&JASONJOHNSON

AnOldTime FEATURESANEW CHRISTMAS

Thisseasonmarksthedebutofa newproductionshow ComingHome ForChristmas,alongwithover 6.5millionlights,anelaborate8-storyanimated Christmastree,alightparade,holidayfoods andmore.SilverDollarCityshinesbrilliantly withsomuchentertainmentthattheparkis thefive-timereigningchampionfor BestTheme ParkHolidayEvent inAmericabyUSAToday’s 10Best.

ThroughoutthestreetsofTheCitycarolers singandstroll,whilethecenterpieceof Joy OnTownSquare,an8-storyChristmastree, andsurroundinglightsglowspectacularly. Evenbrighteris ChristmasinMidtown with itsremarkabledisplayoflighttunnels,wreath portals,flyingangelsandspecialeffects 9-storiestall.Forthrillseekers,ridessoar undertheOzarkMountainstarlightwithallthe Christmaslightsvisiblebelow.Plus,craftsman intheChristmasspiritdemonstrateglassblowingwoodcarvingandpottery,creating one-of-a-kindheirlooms.

TheCity’sstagesoffermorethan 30showseachdayandnight.Includingthe longtimefavoriteproduction, ADickens’ ChristmasCarol.Theallnewshow, Coming HomeforChristmas,featuresalivebandand acastof14singersanddancerspresenting holidaymusic,storiesandfamilytraditions. Otherproductionsinclude TheLivingNativity andthe SaloonFrontierFa-La-LaFollies.

Thetwo-monthlongholidayeventboastssomeimpressive statisticssuchas680milesoflights,1,000decorated Christmastrees,600wreathsandover3milesofgarland andribbon.TheFireman’sLandingoffersapeakofthe City’s6.5millionlights.

SPONSOREDFEATUREOFTULSAWORLDMAGAZINE

Rudolph’sHollyJolly™ Christmas LightParade windsthroughThe City eacheveningwithlightedfloats, characters,dancersandperformers. Guestsaboardthe FriscoSing-Along SteamTrain enjoyaChristmasstoryand sing-alongtotheirfavoriteholidaytunes allwhilegettingauniqueviewofThe City’s6.5millionlights.

Toaddtothefestivities,menus offeravarietyofseasonaltreatssuch asaHolidayDinnerwithsmoked turkey,ham,primeribandtrimmings; specialtysoupslikepotatoleek;Silver DollarCity’sMiner’sBeefStew;plus,a varietyofsweetssuchashotchocolate andwassail,s’moresorwarmapple dumplingswithhomemadecinnamon icecream.TastingPassportsletguests sampletheirwaythroughTheCity. Thetwo-monthlongholidayevent boastssomeimpressivestatisticssuch as680milesoflights,1,000decorated Christmastrees,600wreathsandover 3milesofgarlandandribbon. Youandyourfamilyandfriendswill makememoriesthatshineforyearsto comeatSilverDollarCity’sAnOldTime Christmas.

Visitusatsilverdollarcity.com

COURTESY,SILVERDOLLARCITY

TheLivingNativity

Rudolph’sHollyJolly™ChristmasLightParadewindsthroughTheCityeachevening withlightedfloats,characters,dancersandperformers.

AlongtimefavoriteproductionandChristmasclassic,thisseasonmarksthe19thanniversaryof ADickens’ChristmasCarol.

LET’S GO.

Christmas

Editor’s note: All events are subject to change. Please check websites for more information.

DECEMBER

> 12/8-12/10,

TULSA FARM SHOW

The Tulsa Farm Show, billed as Oklahoma’s premier agricultural and ranching event, returns to Expo Square for the 29th year.

WHERE: SageNet Center, Expo Square, 4145 E. 21st St.

FOR MORE: tulsafarmshow.com

> 12/9-12/23, “THE NUTCRACKER”

Tulsa Ballet returns with its new version of this holiday classic, choreographed by Val Caniparoli and Ma Cong, that debuted last year. Tracy Grant Lord designed the elaborate sets and costumes.

WHERE: Tulsa PAC, 101 E. Third St.

FOR MORE: tulsaballet.org

> 12/9-12/23, “A CHRISTMAS CAROL”

> NOW THROUGH 1/2,

RHEMA CHRISTMAS LIGHTS

More than 2 million colorful lights adorn the buildings and grounds of Rhema Bible Church.

This original, Tulsa-created musical adaptation of Charles Dickens’ classic 1843 novella is back for the 45th year.

WHERE: Tulsa PAC, 101 E. Third St.

FOR MORE: americantheatrecompany.org

NOW THROUGH 12/24, PHILBROOK FESTIVAL

>

Enjoy a variety of activities, special exhibitions, a community-sourced Lego Villa, thousands of lights and festive decor on select nights now through Dec. 24. Celebrate the season with hot cocoa, make-and-take art projects, visits with Santa Claus and more. Advance timed entry ticket required.

WHERE: Philbrook Museum of Art, 2727 S. Rockford Road

FOR MORE: philbrook.org

WHERE: Rhema Bible Church, 1025 W. Kenosha Ave. in Broken Arrow FOR MORE: rhemalights.org

>

NOW THROUGH 1/8, ARVEST WINTERFEST

The 15th annual Arvest Winterfest returns to downtown Tulsa. The outdoor ice skating rink offers 9,000 square feet of ice for revelers to enjoy.

WHERE: BOK Center, 200 S. Denver Ave. FOR MORE: tulsawinterfest.com

>

12/10, TULSA CHRISTMAS PARADE

The 96th Tulsa Christmas Parade, presented by American Waste Control, will be a traditional format with spectators lining the streets while floats, balloons, bands and Santa Claus drive by, bringing Christmas joy to the streets of downtown Tulsa.

WHERE: Downtown Tulsa

FOR MORE: tulsachristmasparade.org

>

NOW THROUGH 12/31, CASTLE CHRISTMAS

The Castle of Muskogee offers train rides through the Village, an old-fashioned hayride or rides on Christmas ponies and camels (all weather permitting). Visitors can shop for a holiday gift, have a meal at Rudolph’s Cafe or simply enjoy a stroll through the Village.

WHERE: Castle of Muskogee, 3400 W. Fern Mountain Road, Muskogee

FOR MORE: okcastle.com

> 12/5,

SILVERSUN PICKUPS, WILDERADO, CAFUNÉ

Z104.5 The Edge’s Christmas Concert features alternative music artists, including Tulsa’s own Wilderado.

WHERE: Cain’s Ballroom, 423 N. Main St. FOR MORE: cainsballroom.com

> 12/8, CLAY WALKER

Country singer and Texas native Clay Walker performs at the Cove at River Spirit.

WHERE: River Spirit Casino Resort, 8330 Riverside Parkway

FOR MORE: riverspirittulsa.com

IAN MAULE, TULSA WORLD MAGAZINE FILE

lights shine at the Rhema Christmas Lights display at Rhema Bible College.

TULSA WORLD MAGAZINE FILE

Tyler Wimpee, Maxim Rainer and Justin Kila of the Tulsa-based indie rock trio Wilderado will perform at Cain’s Ballroom on Dec. 5 with Silversun Pickups and Cafune.

TOM GILBERT, TULSA WORLD MAGAZINE FILE Clay Walker returns to Tulsa on Dec. 8 to perform at the Cove at River Spirit.

>

12/10, OKLAHOMA VS. ARKANSAS

The Sooners and Razorbacks men’s basketball teams return to the BOK Center for the Crimson & Cardinal Classic.

WHERE: BOK Center, 200 S. Denver Ave.

FOR MORE: bokcenter.com

> 12/10, DC YOUNG FLY AND FRIENDS

The So Fly Tour 2022 brings comedian DC Young Fly to Tulsa.

WHERE: Tulsa Theater, 105 W. Reconciliation Way

FOR MORE: tulsatheater.com

> 12/15,

DRAG QUEEN CHRISTMAS

For the eighth consecutive year, Murray and Peter present “A Drag Queen Christmas” as fan-favorite queens take to the stage.

WHERE: Tulsa Theater, 105 W. Reconciliation Way

FOR MORE: tulsatheater.com

> 12/16, MARTINA

MCBRIDE

The Grammy-nominated country singer brings her Joy of Christmas Tour to Hard Rock Live.

WHERE: Hard Rock Live at Hard Rock, 777. W. Cherokee St., Catoosa

FOR MORE: hardrockcasinotulsa.com

>

12/16, DAVID PHELPS

The acclaimed vocalist and former member of the Gaither Vocal Band returns for his annual Christmas show.

WHERE: Tulsa PAC, 101 E. Third St.

FOR MORE: tulsapac.com

> 12/16-12/17, “CHRISTMAS IN TULSA”

New artistic director Scott Seaton will lead the Signature Symphony and the Signature Chorale in a concert of holiday classics and new favorites.

WHERE: VanTrease PACE, 10300 E. 81st St.

FOR MORE: singaturesymphony.org

> 12/17, NIKKI GLASER

Comedian and actress Nikki Glaser will perform stand-up comedy at the Tulsa Theater.

WHERE: Tulsa Theater, 105 W. Reconciliation Way

FOR MORE: tulsatheater.com

> 12/18, CIRQUE DREAMS HOLIDAZE

Broadway style meets contemporary circus arts in this Sunday night performance.

WHERE: BOK Center, 200 S. Denver Ave.

FOR MORE: bokcenter.com

> 12/28, ELI YOUNG BAND

The country music band will perform at Hard Rock Live.

WHERE: Hard Rock Live at Hard Rock, 777. W. Cherokee St., Catoosa

FOR MORE: hardrockcasinotulsa.com

> 12/31, RON WHITE

The comedian will perform a New Year’s Eve show at The Cove at River Spirit.

WHERE: River Spirit Casino Resort, 8330 Riverside Parkway

FOR MORE: riverspirittulsa.com

Tulsa Ballet’s production of “The Nutcracker” is an annual holiday tradition.

JANUARY

> 1/13-1/29, “1776”

Theatre Tulsa presents the story of the founding of America, but with a twist — an all-female cast.

WHERE: Tulsa PAC, 101 E. Third St.

FOR MORE: theatretulsa.org

> 1/14, “INVIGORATING: PROKOFIEV’S SYMPHONY NO. 5”

Gerard Schwarz is the guest conductor as the Tulsa Symphony presents the first entry in the Patti Johnson Wilson Classics Series.

WHERE: Tulsa PAC, 101 E. Third St.

FOR MORE: tulsasymphony.org

> 1/18, JOSH TURNER

The country music singer is set to perform at Hard Rock Live.

WHERE: Hard Rock Live at Hard Rock, 777. W. Cherokee St., Catoosa

FOR MORE: hardrockcasinotulsa.com

> 1/19, GRAND FUNK RAILROAD

Grand Funk Railroad brings its Some Kind of Wonderful tour to Hard Rock Live.

WHERE: Hard Rock Live at Hard Rock, 777. W. Cherokee St., Catoosa

FOR MORE: hardrockcasinotulsa.com

IAN MAULE, TULSA WORLD MAGAZINE FILE

IAN MAULE, TULSA WORLD MAGAZINE FILE

The Tulsa Christmas Parade is a tradition going back nearly a century.

>

1/20, ANCIENT ALIENS LIVE

The hit History Channel series Ancient Aliens presents a live show that will explore questions as old as the planet itself.

WHERE: Cox Business Convention Center, 100 Civic Center

FOR MORE: coxcentertulsa.com

> 1/24-1/29, “JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR”

Celebrating its 50th anniversary, a new production of the iconic musical returns to the stage.

WHERE: Tulsa PAC, 101 E. Third St.

FOR MORE: celebrityattractions.com

> 1/27,

CHAMBER MUSIC SERIES: MOZART

The Tulsa Symphony presents the Josephine G. Winter Chamber Music Series, featuring Beethoven’s Quintet in E-flat for Piano and Winds, Op. 16, and Mozart’s Viola Quintet in G minor.

WHERE: First Presbyterian Church, 709 S. Boston Ave.

FOR MORE: tulsasymphony.org

> 2/2,

AARON LEWIS

The founder of the multi-platinum nu metal band Staind returns to his country origins for an acoustic show at The Cove.

WHERE: River Spirit Casino Resort, 8330 Riverside Parkway FOR MORE: riverspirittulsa.com

> 2/3, THE SPINNERS

The R&B band that formed in Ferndale, Michigan, in 1954 comes to Hard Rock Live.

WHERE: Hard Rock Live at Hard Rock, 777. W. Cherokee St., Catoosa FOR MORE: hardrockcasinotulsa.com

> 2/4, “CAPTIVATING: BRAHMS’ NO. 1”

Yaniv Dinur is the guest conductor as the Tulsa Symphony presents the second entry in the Patti Johnson Wilson Classics Series.

WHERE: Tulsa PAC, 101 E. Third St. FOR MORE: tulsasymphony.org

> 2/7,

DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE

> 2/17-2/19,

DARRYL STARBIRD NATIONAL

ROD & CUSTOM CAR SHOW

The Darryl Starbird National Road & Custom Car Show is a can’t-miss event for car enthusiasts.

WHERE: SageNet Center, Expo Square, 4145 E. 21st St.

FOR MORE: starbirdcarshows.com

> 2/21, BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN

Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band will perform in Springsteen’s first show at the BOK Center since 2009.

WHERE: BOK Center, 200 S. Denver Ave. FOR MORE: bokcenter.com

> 2/25, “AIDA”

Tulsa Opera presents Verdi’s classic tragedy as Daniela Candillari, newly appointed principal conductor at Opera Theatre of St. Louis, makes her Tulsa debut.

WHERE: Tulsa PAC, 101 E. Third St.

FOR MORE: tulsaopera.com

> 2/25, “LEGENDS & SWANS”

> 1/27-1/29,

GREEN COUNTRY HOME & GARDEN SHOW

The Green Country Home & Garden Show celebrates 20 years as it returns to Expo Square with vendors for all your home and garden projects.

WHERE: Expo Square, 4145 E. 21st St.

FOR MORE: coxradiotulsa.com

> 1/28, OKLAHOMA

R&B BASH

Grammy-nominated performers Keith Sweat and Jagged Edge along with Next, Lloyd and J Holiday will take to the stage.

WHERE: BOK Center, 200 S. Denver Ave. FOR MORE: bokcenter.com

FEBRUARY

> 2/2, THE JUDDS

Wynonna Judd is wrapping up the Judds’ farewell tour.

WHERE: BOK Center, 200 S. Denver Ave. FOR MORE: bokcenter.com.

The Grammy-nominated alt rock band brings the Asphalt Meadows tour to Tulsa.

WHERE: Cain’s Ballroom, 423 N. Main St. FOR MORE: cainsballroom.com

> 2/10-2/12, “CINDERELLA”

Tulsa Ballet will present the world premiere of a new version of this classic fairy tale, choreographed by Andrew McNichol, one of the rising stars of the dance world.

WHERE: Tulsa PAC, 101 E. Third St. FOR MORE: tulsaballet.org

> 2/10-2/11, PBR UNLEASH THE BEAST

For the 19th consecutive season, the Professional Bull Riders elite Unleash The Beast will compete at the PBR Express Ranches Classic.

WHERE: BOK Center, 200 S. Denver Ave. FOR MORE: bokcenter.com

> 2/16, KENNY WAYNE SHEPHERD BAND

The Grammy-nominated blues-infused guitarist will play at The Cove.

WHERE: River Spirit Casino Resort, 8330 Riverside Parkway

FOR MORE: riverspirittulsa.com

Acclaimed violinist Andrew Sords joins the Signature Symphony for a concert featuring two rarely heard works for violin and orchestra, along with selections from Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake.”

WHERE: VanTrease PACE, 10300 E. 81st St. FOR MORE: signaturesymphony.org.

> 2/28,

DANCING WITH THE STARS LIVE

The American dance competition takes to the stage featuring favorite DWTS pros plus special guest stars at the Tulsa Theater.

WHERE: Tulsa Theater, 105 W. Reconciliation Way

FOR MORE: tulsatheater.com

MARCH

> 3/3-3/11, “SKELETON CREW”

This play about an auto factory on the brink of closure in 2008 in Detroit was written by Dominique Morisseau.

WHERE: Tulsa PAC, 101 E. Third St.

FOR MORE: americantheatrecompany.org

> 3/4, “ALLURING: AN EVENING OF OPERA”

Daniel Hege is the guest conductor as the Tulsa Symphony presents the third entry in the Patti Johnson Wilson Classics Series.

WHERE: Tulsa PAC, 101 E. Third St.

FOR MORE: tulsasymphony.org

> 3/4, FAITH PRINCE & JASON GRAAE

Broadway legends Faith Prince and Tulsa native Jason Graae bring their award-winning cabaret show to Tulsa.

WHERE: Tulsa PAC, 101 E. Third St.

FOR MORE: tulsapac.com

> 3/7-3/19, “HAMILTON”

Featuring a score that blends hip-hop, jazz, blues, rap, R&B and Broadway, this musical is the story of America’s founding, told in a modern way.

WHERE: Tulsa PAC, 101 E. Third St.

FOR MORE: celebrityattractions.com

>

3/9, BUDDY GUY

The 86-year-old blues legend who has influenced generations of guitarists brings his Damn Right Farewell Tour to The Cove.

WHERE: River Spirit Casino Resort, 8330 Riverside Parkway

FOR MORE: riverspirittulsa.com

> 3/12, PROKOFIEV’S SYMPHONY NO. 1

Guest conductor Brett Mitchell and the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra present the Dr. David B. Waters Series at the University of Tulsa.

WHERE: Lorton Performance Center, 550 S. Gary Place

FOR MORE: tulsasymphony.org

>

3/17, CHAMBER MUSIC SERIES: BEETHOVEN

The Tulsa Symphony presents the Josephine G. Winter Chamber Music Series, featuring Valorie Coleman’s Afro-Cuban Concerto and Beethoven’s String Quartet in A minor, No. 15, Op. 132.

WHERE: First Presbyterian Church, 709 S. Boston Ave.

FOR MORE: tulsasymphony.org

>

3/23-3/26, “TCHAIKOVSKY: THE MAN BEHIND THE MUSIC”

Tulsa Ballet presents the inspiring story of the composer behind some of the most beloved ballets in history.

WHERE: Tulsa PAC, 101 E. Third St.

FOR MORE: tulsaballet.org

> 3/25,

TOBYMAC

Multiplatinum-selling contemporary Christian artist TobyMac brings his Hits Deep tour to Tulsa.

WHERE: BOK Center, 200 S. Denver Ave. FOR MORE: bokcenter.com

> 3/25,

“SECOND CITY SWIPES RIGHT”

The renowned improv comedy troupe takes on modern romance and all its technological permutations in a new show.

WHERE: Tulsa PAC, 101 E. Third St.

MORE: tulsapac.com

Woody Guthrie Center mural

Prayer tower at Oral Roberts University

World’s Largest Totem Pole in Foyil

Keystone Dam in Sand Springs

Hangar” sculpture at Crystal

Shopping Center

Blue Whale on Route 66 in Catoosa

Philbrook Museum of Art rotunda dome

doors at Trinity Episcopal Church

Oklahoma.It’swhoweare.

BornandraisedMuskogeeproud.He’scaredforhisneighborsfor25years, now,DonaldismorethanjustapartoftheSaintFrancisfamily—he’spart ofourpromisetoimprovethehealthofthecommunitieswecallhome.

DonaldMayes •CertifiedSurgicalTechnologist