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Features

  •     Where can you find Chewbacca on the big screen these days?
        The answer is in Dacono resident Derrick Red Earth’s feature film “Killer Ink,” which just wrapped up shooting around the Brighton area this past weekend.
        Peter Mayhew, the body underneath the “Star Wars” character’s fur coat, plays “Uncle Clyde” in the locally made movie. Brighton’s Sebastian Romero, who had never acted before, plays the part of his father as a demented high school student.

  •     Annie Lindsey answers the door of her Brighton home with a big smile and a twinkle in her eye.
        Before she gets into telling the story of the 100 years of her life, she wants to share a tale from earlier in the day: her trip to the café for breakfast that morning.
        “So there was this younger man there from my hometown, he’s about 80,” she said. “I flirted with him a little … and you know what? He picked up my tab.

  •     Get the family and head to downtown Denver Saturday for the third annual Denver Day of Rock sponsored by Denver-area non-profit Concerts For Kids.

  •     Brighton resident Judith Dickinson will be one of 125 Colorado artists featured at the Downtown Denver Arts Festival this weekend.
        “It’s very well organized and very difficult to get in,” Dickinson said. “It’s really a big deal, and I’m happy to be a part of it.”

  •     Nobody honors veterans on Memorial Day quite like Commerce City does.
        For more than four decades, the city’s annual Memorial Day parade has become a flag-waving, pride-filled rite of passage into summer. Many a Commerce City youth have lined the streets of the community to pay homage to veterans of wars past and, no doubt, many of them went on to also serve their country.

  •     The Denver Office of Cultural Affairs and Five Points Community will present the eighth annual Five Points Jazz Festival Saturday. Events begin at 1 p.m. at numerous venues along Welton Street in Denver’s historic Five Points area. All performances and activities are free.    
        The Five Points Jazz Festival celebrates the music, culture and history of Five Points neighborhood, with performances highlighting many of Denver’s finest jazz musicians.

  •     Whether your favorite country star happens to be Willie Nelson, Reba McEntire, Dolly Pardon, Alabama, Garth Brooks, Rascal Flatts, Hank Williams or Patsy Cline, Northland Chorale Music Director Ron Williams is confident there will be something for everybody at Saturday’s performance.
        “It’s a good way to spend an evening and go out and be entertained,” he said. “And if you like country music, we’ll probably hit your favorite in there somewhere.”

  •     COMMERCE CITY – The Rocky Mountain Arsenal is a land that has spent the better part of the last 100 years in a perpetual state of transition.
        Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge visitors can now trace the history of the land at the refuge’s new visitor’s center, which officially opens this weekend with the Rocky Mountain Wildlife Conservation Film Festival (see sidebar). The main entrance to the center is at 56th Avenue and Havana Street.

  •    Dave Patton, banjo player and singer for the bluegrass group Steel Pennies, remembers his 35th birthday well.
        “I can still picture my wife’s face when I walked in the door with a banjo,” he said. “Pretty soon, she realized that this wasn’t going away. I was serious about this. When I started playing that banjo, I didn’t want to put it down.”

  •     Motherhood is a juggling act, and it’s easy for a mom to lose sight of her personal purpose in life, says Brighton mother and author Cindy Skerjanec.
        Skerjanec believes she can help other moms discover their purpose with her new book, “Finding Purpose at the Speed of Motherhood.”

  • Paul Zastrocky
    MetroWest intern

    Most everyone remembers their favorite childhood toys. The toys that serve us as children often become reflective statements of a person’s skill-sets, interests and dreams.

  • BRIGHTON – Like a lot of people, Tracey Nazarenus thinks there’s a plethora of bad news on television and in the newspapers.
        Unlike a lot of people, she and several of her friends are trying to do something about that perception. And they are doing it through the use of some of the biggest animals you’ll ever see.

  •     A little boy’s first time on an escalator, his first visit with Santa Claus, his first birthday party, his first time eating corn on the cob.
        As foster parents, Carrie (who prefers not to share her last name to help ensure the confidentiality of her foster child) and her husband have been able to see their foster child experience a number of firsts over the last eight months.

  •     Volunteers at the Adams County Animal Shelter and Adoption Center in Brighton said it felt like Christmas when the Greater Brighton Neighborhood Volunteers dropped off carloads of pet supplies at the shelter last week.
        GBNV and the Brighton Standard Blade worked on a pet supply drive for the shelter that resulted in what volunteers said was the largest donation they ever received at one time.

  •     Childhood friends Amber Anderson and Kerry Villano began working out with personal trainer Melissa Whitchurch at Snap Fitness in Brighton nearly two years ago.
        Through their twice-weekly training sessions, the women got to know their trainer well, sharing their struggles and triumphs in life with each other.

  •     It is possible to step through the devastating diagnosis of cancer and all that comes along with it.
        Deborah Hardy should know.
        She’s lived it.
        Through her experiences dealing with her husband’s cancer diagnosis and death from the disease, she’s penned a book, “Stepping Through Cancer; A Guide for the Journey,” to help others fighting cancer and their caregivers.

  •     In late 2009, while spending time with his grandfather, 18-year-old Matt Durland blacked out.
        “It panicked him more than it panicked me,” Matt remembered. “He made sure I got a doctor’s appointment.”

  •     BRIGHTON – The wish of Shirley Gartman, a resident of Sterling House Brighton, was to visit the Denver Broncos practice facility.
        The wish was granted through Brookdale Senior Living and Jeremy Bloom’s Wish of a Lifetime foundation.

  •     BRIGHTON — Life as a foreign exchange student can be exhilarating and, conversely, overwhelming.
        And, when disaster strikes your homeland, it can be downright frightening.

  •     Kiara opens her jaws wide for a lazy yawn as she glances across the grass to her 3-month old lion cubs, Bob, Nancy and Percy, wrestling in the corner.
        It has been quite the month for Kiara, the cubs, and 21 other lions recently rescued from Bolivia and brought to live at Wild Animal Sanctuary near Keenesburg.
        And, maybe for the first time in their lives, it’s finally time to relax.

The Standard Blade is your source for local news, sports, events, and information in Adams County and Brighton, CO and the surrounding area.