Photo: David Demic

“When the doors opened and everyone came in at once, there was a little panic between everyone,” bartender Joe Hruska said.

The stress and excitement of the Crow Bar & Grill finally opening was underway.

“We had a list of drinks on our order tape about 7 feet long within four minutes. It was a couple of hours before we really got into a flow of things,” Hruska said.

And with all this business flowing in the doors, there were some kinks that the newest of Laramie’s bars suddenly faced.

“We had seven or eight kegs on tap opening night and all the beer was pouring warm and the pressures were way too far off. They had just been installed that day, so we never had time to fiddle with them,” Hruska said.

This beer malfunction made it difficult for customers’ needs to be met. Overall, the process of opening the Crowbar & Grill was no easy task. Co-owner Andy Glines, who worked at Big Hollow Food Coop before he decided to open his own gastropub with friend and co-owner Justin Turner, describes the hoops he had to jump through to get the business going.

“I guess the pieces that took the longest were … our building permit which [took] about two months,” Glines said. “We were changing this entire space from basically just a retail store to a kitchen.”

Glines has learned a lesson in the short few days of being open.

“Everybody says ‘don’t open until you’re ready,’ but the first thing we found out was like when we thought we were ready – you’re really not,” Glines said.

After opening night, and realizing the issues that popped up, there are some changes being made to accommodate the flow of business.

“We are currently waiting for a walk-in cooler to chill the kegs and get some kinks worked out with the tap lines as well,” Hruska said. The Crowbar & Grill hopes to serve up to 15 craft beers on tap.

“Another issue has been keeping a steady list of bottled beers for people to choose from. The distributors didn’t expect us to be needing so much of so many, and we keep buying out their stock,” Hruska said.

The Crowbar & Grill sets itself apart by its mood and relaxed atmosphere.

“It’s a great place to go for groups just wanting to eat, sit around and talk and enjoy some beers and cocktails you don’t normally find in other establishments in Laramie, or go on a date, or just got sit at the bar and have a conversation with someone,” Hruska said. “The Crowbar and Grill is different because of the atmosphere we are trying to provide.”

Holly Diorio

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A group of children along with University of Wyoming Campus Ventures and Casper College Campus Ventures take a moment to pray for neighborhood safety, last year. (Photo: Brittany Henderson)

The group of 15 Campus Ventures members will travel by train from Denver to Chicago, following a group of members from Casper College. Campus Ventures is located on several campuses in Wyoming, Nebraska, South Dakota and Mexico.

Casey Valkenburg, a Campus Ventures member, said the trip is designed to share the gospel with children and adults, as well as work with kid’s ministry, praying with community members and playing games with children.

The group will be staying at the Urban Youth Outreach center in Englewood. The center serves approximately 80 community members, ages 1–26, Valkenburg said.

The Casper College group has been visiting Englewood for more than 25 years, Jennifer Valkenburg, Casey Valkenburg’s wife and Campus Ventures member, said.

Englewood is one of 77 communities in Chicago. Jennifer Valkenburg said the crime rate in Englewood is very high, rising almost 40 percent in recent years. The area is 98 percent African-American, she said.

Religion is already very important to the community of Englewood, Jennifer Valkenburg said. The Campus Ventures group will attempt to discuss community members’ personal relationships with God, she said.

On Dec. 27, 2011, a shooting occurred in Englewood that resulted in two deaths. Both the shooter and the victims attended Urban Youth Outreach, Jennifer Valkenburg said.

The UW Campus Ventures group decided to travel to Englewood after the Valkenburg’s pre-marital counselor suggested it to them.

Campus Ventures usually meets at 7 p.m. every Tuesday on the UW campus. The meetings are open to anyone interested in ministry, he said.

For more information about Campus Ventures or the Urban Youth Outreach, visit www.campusventures.org or www.urban7.org.

David Knight

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The Laramie Valley Composite Squadron poses while participating in Wreaths Across America, a nationwide project where wreaths are placed on the graves of death soldiers. (Photo: Courtesy)

Started in December of 1941, the CAP was formed in response to submarines sinking ships along the eastern seaboard.

“Our air crafts were responsible for spotting the subs, and the military armed the small aircraft. The Civil Air Patrol ended up sinking two subs,” Stan Skrabut, a member of the Laramie Valley Composite Squadron, said.

The Laramie branch of the CAP focuses on three main areas of aerospace education of the community, its cadet program and providing emergency services.

Aerospace education is provided through the CAP to teachers in the community in order to support the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Initiative. The program meets national standards and teachers are given the resources needed to teach about aviation.

The cadet program is a leadership training opportunity for boys and girls from the ages of 12–18. In this program they experience military training as well as nine opportunities to fly. At the age of 14, cadets are allowed to take Glide School, which enables them to fly a glider after completion. At 16-years-old they can attend Powered Flight School.

“They come out soloing and well on their way to a pilot’s license” Skrabut said.

Cadets participate in drills as well as community service. Recently, Laramie Valley Composite Squadron took part in the nationwide project Wreaths Across America, in which wreaths were placed on graves of soldiers.

The Air Force is often called in on emergency situations in the US, and 90 percent of those missions are preformed by the Civil Air Patrol, according to Skrabut. Missing snowmobiles and missing aircraft are two of the recent search and rescue missions.

“Other branches of the Civil Air Patrol provided transport of doctors and medical supplies during 9–11,” Skrabut said.

The CAP provides training for adults to participate in these emergency services as well as leadership opportunities within their organization.

Angela Beeson

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Beaded necklaces and bracelets do not simply have to be made by Grandma as an unwanted stocking stuffer during the holidays. With beaded bracelets and necklaces made by youth, the Partners of the Americas Biojewelry Beading for Breast Cancer workshops at the University of Wyoming prove that beading is not only a hobby for the elderly. 

The Partners of the Americas organization creates beaded accessories with Biojewelry, beads made from plants, to raise money for the impoverished women of Goiás, Brazil. (Photos: Tomasz Bogucki )

The workshops will be held from 4 to 8 p.m. every Monday throughout the spring semester in the Cheney International Center’s basement lobby. The beading workshop is open on a walk-in basis to anyone interested. Experience is not necessary. The workshops have two to three instructors each night to help teach the art of beading. 

Dorly Piske, president of the Wyoming chapter of Partners of the Americas, said the project was started in order to raise money for a travelling mammography program and mammogram machine for the impoverished women in Goiás, Brazil. So far, the organization has raised $15,000 toward the machine’s purchase, Piske said. The cost of the machine is $70,000. 

Volunteer Zoe Brain, left, works on a beading project for Beading for Breast Cancer Monday evening at the Cheney Center.

Partners of the Americas began in the 1960′s after President John F. Kennedy called for citizens of North and South America to join together for support, Piske said. Currently, each participating state is linked to a region in South America that the state helps in various ways. Wyoming’s assigned country is Brazil.

The idea for a beading project started in 2008 when the International Club at Laramie High School decided that beading would be the perfect way to raise money. Piske said the goal was to also involve more youth from the community in the project. 

One of the ways that youth are involved is through groups such as Big Brothers Big Sisters, Piske said. Youth groups will send participants who need community service hours to the beading workshops. The youth will then create beaded pieces that they donate back to Partners of the Americas. 

After the jewelry is donated back, Partners of the Americas sells the pieces at various venues throughout Laramie, including the Farmer’s Market and The Brown ‘n Gold Outlet.

Piske said several UW Registered Student Organizations have also participated in the fundraising by selling the jewelry at places such as the UW Student Union. One RSO generated more than $400 in one week for the fundraiser, she said. 

The beads themselves are made in Brazil from the seeds of the açaì palm tree and other tropical plants, hence the term Biojewelry, Piske said. Crescent moons and various shapes are also made from coconuts for the necklaces, she said. 

The Big Brothers Big Sisters youth work with Dorly Pisky, top and right, to create their jewelry.

The organization also sells pre-made coconut rings from Brazil, Piske said. 

The turnout for the workshops has been very good with up to 20 people showing up to create jewelry, Piske said. She said she hopes more RSOs will sign up to help create and sell the jewelry as well. 

For more information, or for groups or RSOs to sign up for community service, contact Dorly Piske at (307) 760-8279. 

David Knight

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The cross-cultural communication class at the University of Wyoming exceeded its goal of raising $5,000 at the Benefit for Botswana last night. 

The money raised by the students will fund a water pump for an orphanage in the village of Pandamentanga. 

The pump will provide safe drinking water for the 50 children at the orphanage and irrigate a small vegetable garden. The students said they hope the vegetables will provide food and a source of income.

“These kids do not have a sustainable source of water and nutrition. They are literally living hand-to-mouth,” Barb Sandick, one of the students involved with the class and project, said.

The garden-themed benefit featured live music and food from locally owned shops and restaurants. Money was raised through ticketing for the event and sale of drinking glasses etched with the Benefit for Botswana logo.

Students said what they learned in the cross-cultural communication class applied directly to the project.

“Americans are very individualistic,” Sandick said. It was difficult to switch to a collective way of thinking. But once we did, we really learned to depend on each other to accomplish a common goal. Wow, what we can do with a group.”

Dr. Tracey Patton, professor of the cross-cultural communication class, chooses a project each year to give her students a real-world application for the coursework. 

Patton split the students into focused groups based on what the students want to do after they graduate. These groups included public relations, marketing, community liaison and budget/grants.

Patton chose this project after reconnecting with a former UW student who is now in Botswana with the Peace Corps.

“I was looking for a new project where we could affect real change and we knew the money was going straight to the organization, not going to bills or copies,” Patton said.

“We always try to pick projects based on what they need, not our idea of what they need,” Patton said.

Patton also stressed that she alternates between international and local projects because crossing cultures happens everywhere, not just when crossing oceans.

The class is still excepting donations through Dec. 1, and individuals can contact Sandick about donations at bsandick@uwyo.edu.

Branding Iron

The Branding Iron is a Student Media project. Student Media gives University of Wyoming students valuable experience in writing, editing, advertising, sales, graphic design, photography and production through its publications with the guidance of professional staff members. If you find a mistake in an article, e-mail us at bi@uwyo.edu. We will make sure to torture the poor soul until it's corrected. Just kidding. We probably won't do anything, since we're busy studying for finals.

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Kermit the Frog once said, “It’s not easy being green.” That frog could not have been more wrong. The student-organized Green Team at the University of Wyoming is continuing to prove that being green as a university is simple and easy.  

“The group started out under the Environment and Natural Resources program at the university, and the idea really came from a campus sustainability class which set its goals toward creating projects like this,” Carly-Ann Anderson, student coordinator of the Green Team, said.

This environmentally-minded group began this last spring after being inspired by other universities across the country. Among them were Portland State University and Penn State University.

“The group is working to bring faculty and staff from every field and facet of the university together to merge all kinds of ideas and to use that creativity to come up with simple steps to establish a highly sustainable university,” Anderson said.

The approach the Green Team is taking toward sustainability is a three-part method: Creativity, Conscious Consumption and Collaboration. The group is working to bring together faculty members from all subject areas in the university, pool their ideas and work toward a simple, step based program which will promote environmentally friendly activity.

“We want to get faculty to start with things like turning off all the lights once they leave the room and recycling as first, easy, yet effective steps in being more sustainable.” Anderson said. 

“The Green Team wants to keep meetings informal and encourage staff members to bring any and all their ideas to the fore, so we can work our way up from simple steps like turning off the lights to creating school-wide programs,” Anderson said.

Faculty members who are interested in sharing their ideas on sustainability programs have the chance to meet with other involved staff at the Green Drinks meeting at 3 p.m. tomorrow at Coe Library, oom 504. 

Free coffee, tea and cookies will be provided for those who attend and express interest in the group. 

The Green Team meets once or twice a month to discuss ideas and possible solutions and improvements to sustainability on campus.

Any questions can be directed to Carly-Ann Anderson at camander@uwyo.edu or Christopher Michael at cmichae2@uwyo.edu. 

Emma Knox

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Chad Lore and Free Bier covered a car with old harmonicas and made music.

Tours can be difficult for any musician. Band members have to be away from their family and friends. But the difficulty can be even more when members of the band are parents. That’s why one Wyoming band decided to tour 10 states in 24 hours—in a “Harmonicar.” 

Chad Lore poses next to his harmonicar with a guitar. He toured with Free Bier around the Rocky Mountain region pursuing the goal to play in 10 states in 24 hours. (Photo: Courtesy)

Chad Lore and Free Bier decided to take their bluesy acoustic stylings across the region.

The idea for the tour started with a collection of broken harmonicas over the past 20 years, Lore said. 

After concluding a coffee table would be too boring to decorate with the broken treasures, Lore and his friends decided upon creating a “harmonicar,” Lore said.

“So we thought, lets glue them on the Oldsmobile cause that’s an old junker car,” Lore said. 

Lore glued a total of 220 harmonicas to the hood and roof of an Oldsmobile in just the right spots for the wind to catch. 

“Going down the road in it sounds amazing. It’s like the Pink Floyd album they haven’t made yet,” Lore said.

After seeing the product of his collection, Lore was looking for a way to show off the harmonicar. “It was a great idea, but we needed something to do with it,” Lore said.

Taking it on a tour sounded like the most fun, Lore said, but being a parent made it difficult for band members. As a joke, they figured a 10 state tour in 24 hours was the best solution, he said.

Pretty soon that joke became a reality as the band took a small film crew of two and the harmonicar down to Texas.

In a 24-hour stretch, the Chad Lore and Free Bier attempted to play 10 shows through Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, the Dakotas and Montana.

Things began to get a little rough around the midpoint of the 24-hour tour, Lore said. The tour was two hours behind schedule. The band continued on, and managed to slowly make up the time through South and North Dakota.

“This is the irony of the whole thing,” Lore said. “We were right on schedule for our last gig, which was right on the Montana and North Dakota border. We hit road construction with five miles to go!”

Chad Lore and Free Bier finished their 10-state tour in 24 hours and 34 minutes. 

Lore said he hoped to have a documentary made of the tour because being 34 minutes off will add to the humor and irony of the ending. Additionally, it would allow those who missed the tour to still experience the harmonicar.

Chad Lore and Free Bier are still playing one or two shows each week around Wyoming, Lore said. More information on Lore and the 10-state tour can be found at chadlore.com.

Davis Bonner

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Photos from left to right: Wyoming Entomology Club members Selena Hammer and Guinevere Jones ,left, uncap a frame of a beehive (Courtesy : Entomology Dept. )

The University of Wyoming Entomology Club extracted its first honey crop last weekend after three years of planning and work on the project. 

Issues with high elevation, extreme climate and the law preceded this club members’ defining moment. 

The extraction, which took place at the club’s bee farm on the edge of Laramie, produced over five gallons of raw honey, which the club intends to package this weekend and sell at selected entomology club events for a suggested donation price.

Kyle Bolenbaugh, the entomology club public liaison, said it has taken a lot of dedication to reach the point that the club is currently at. When the idea for a bee colony first came about, the club discovered that there was a law against beekeeping in Laramie, he said. 

The club began working with the City of Laramie in Spring 2011 to change the law by creating an outline about the effects of bee populations and the positive impact it could have on the community. After presenting the outline to the city council, the council reviewed it and voted unanimously to repeal the ban on beekeeping, Bolenbaugh said. 

“We really started pushing full swing to have honey bees as prominent and prevalent within the community as possible,” Bolenbaugh said. “We’ve been learning how to use them and the behaviors that they exhibit as educational resources for community enrichment as well as we were hoping to have this be a sustainable fundraising project for the Wyoming Entomology Club.”

Bolenbaugh said bees are both fun and safe to manage but can be complicated at times. The club started with two hives but difficulties prevented any honey extraction. This season, the club managed a total of nine hives, which included approximately 250,000 honey bees.

“We epically failed our first year and lost both of our colonies. About the time we got to winter they abandoned their hives,” Bolenbaugh said. 

Honey is created by bees through a process involving regurgitation of nectar into wax honeycombs. The honey acts as a food source for the bees and provides shelter and warmth during the winter. When the honey is extracted by humans food and warmth must be provided to keep the bees alive during the winter. This is especially true at high elevations, Bolenbaugh said.

The entomology club used a production line for extracting the honey that included uncapping the honey, pulling the honeycomb out and running the extractors, which act as centrifuges. Nobody was stung during the extraction this year, and Bolenbaugh said he has only been stung once while working with honeybees. 

Bolenbaugh said the club lost money this year with the extraction, but he hopes that the program will be self-sustaining in the future. The club is keeping three hives through the winter and would like to have more community involvement next year, he said. 

The club is currently working with a Boy Scout to complete a new set of hives in LaBonte Park as part of his scout project. The hives will be in production next season and include some very intricate details, Bolenbaugh said. 

For those interested in joining the club, the entomology club mixer will be held Oct. 7 and the next regular meeting is Oct. 10. 

For more information on the UW Entomology Club, you may email Bolenbaugh at kbolenba@uwyo.edu.

David Knight

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Caitlin Garner models the feather in her hair, above, and her bracelets, right. (Photo: David Demic)

David Demic:As a freshman, how did your high school fashion style influence your style in college?

Caitlin Garner: I pretty much stayed the same. My style was different. I didn’t really dress like everybody else did. I like weird stuff—it was just old-fashioned stuff.

DD: How would you describe Wyoming’s fashion style?

CG: Wyoming’s fashion is pretty mainstream. At my high school, all the girls dressed in [mainstream brands], and that’s all they wore and everybody had the same clothes, all the time. I also really like Paris. They all wear really cool clothes. And here everybody wears sweaters and baggy clothes, but there everybody can dress up nicely.

DD: What influenced your style?

CG: Probably magazines, and I really like Taylor Swift’s style because she wears classy stuff. But I really like simple.

DD: The bracelets are a break from the classy black and white. How come?

CG: I really like to make bracelets and because I wear a lot of black and white, just basic stuff in general, it’s a good way to add something. And I like the feeling of bracelets. Otherwise its really boring, because I’d wear black and white all the time and people would think I’m emo or gothic. I just like black and white because it goes all the time.

DD: Another individualizing factor in your style is that feather extension in your hair. How did you come up with it?

CG: I got the idea from my cousin’s hairdresser. She introduced it to me. It’s different because people were getting colored hair all the time, you know, crazy colors—so feathers was something different.

DD: You said earlier that people in Wyoming tend to dress differently than in other states, or even countries. What’s the difference?

CG: I feel like you can’t dress up too much or people will think you’re too dressy, but if you’re in Paris or New York you can wear nice clothes and high heels and it’s okay. 

David Demic

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Cowboy State Paranormal Investigations in Laramie claim to have video evidence of an apparition in the building.  

Knight Hall

Ghosts may roam Knight Hall at the University of Wyoming. 

“Knight Hall at the University of Wyoming is probably right at the top of our list as far as fantastic experience because that is actually where we caught our first, and so far only, video evidence of supernatural occurrence,” CSPI Director Adam Vernati said. 

The apparition was caught using an infrared camera in the third floor hallway of Knight Hall. 

“There’s definitely something there,” Vernati said. 

UW Professor Phil Roberts said human remains were found underneath what is now Knight Hall in the early 40s. Part of the UW campus sits on the old Laramie cemetery that was moved in the early 1880s, he added.

Some human remains were left behind when the graveyard, consisting of early Laramie settlers, was relocated, Roberts said. He said that there is a strong possibility that there are still some undiscovered bodies underneath the campus. 

Adam Vernati founded CSPI in April 2009 in order to scientifically investigate paranormal occurrences. Since that time he has conducted an estimated 100 investigations throughout the country and his organization now includes 11 volunteers. 

CSPI puts emphasis on scientific collection of data, Vernati said. The organization uses high-sensitivity microphones, infrared cameras and electromagnetic field meters to investigate paranormal activity. They try to visit places more than once and conduct investigations identically to reduce the chance for false results.    

“I’ve always experienced paranormal events throughout my entire life, from seeing apparitions to hearing voices to seeing shadows,” Vernati said. “I wanted to know why it was happening and what was causing it.” 

Laramie also contains other places of interest for paranormal activity, including the Laramie Plains Civic Center and the Wyoming Territorial Prison. As far as paranormal experiences, Vernati said that these two locations are the best in Laramie. 

Vernati said he believes 90 percent of strange occurrences have logical explanations. It is the other 10 percent that he is investigating. 

“I think once we open ourselves up, we’re more apt to experience those things that are kind of on the fringes of our normal perception,” Vernati said. 

Vernati said most ghosts are harmless but many people tell of ghosts that have physically harmed them. Some ghosts act as if they are human in a non-human environment. 

They are able to move objects in a room and flip light switches, he added. 

“I don’t think that ghosts can physically hurt you,” Vernati said. “My personal feeling on this is that they manifest their energy  on the emotions that we deliver.”

CSPI organizes public events so that people can experience the paranormal investigations. Vernati said that someday he would like to investigate the Queen Mary ship in Long Beach, Calif. 

“Our long term goal is to continue to offer the public events but also to advance scientific knowledge of the paranormal,” Vernati said. 

David Knight

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