TAPS Honors Pete Coors for years of support
The 19th Annual TAPS Colorado Celebrity Classic is Sept. 14, supporting family members of military service personnel who have died in service to their beloved country. The program has been in existence for 35 years with local leadership for many years headed by Bo and Lynne Cottrell and a band of loyal volunteers. For many years we listened to the music of singer Tony David, who volunteered his entertainment for decades, before leaving Colorado for Florida.
This year the event is honoring longtime supporter Pete Coors who is helping prepare the prime rib dinner with the Coors Cowboy Chuckwagon Club, coming all the way from Texas. Local fabulous Epicurean catering is also adding to the dinner delights.
The annual event is this Saturday night. I’m sorry I didn’t get this written sooner, but it has been advertised in this newspaper and in our calendar of events. Just so you know, we mail the newspaper on Wednesdays. Lately, with the closing of our printer in Berthoud, all 90 newspapers had to find a new home. We’ve ended up at the Cheyenne-Eagle-Tribune in Wyoming, up the road about 50 miles north of the former printing plant. The Denver Post printing plant was operated by subsidiary Prairie Mountain Media, owned by Alden Capitol, owner of The Post, and many more of ionic publisher Dean Singleton’s massive newspaper chain that he sold, The Denver Post took their weekly newspapers, over 18 of them, to their Denver plant where they print The Pueblo Chieftain, and The Colorado Springs Gazette-Telegraph, both daily newspapers, along with the Post, et al. We were only given 30 days to find a new home. We love our new friends in Wyoming. The printing deadlines are about the same, but the mailing operation has been challenging of getting bundles of newspapers addressed to the right mail routes and addresses. We’ve worked out new delivery schedules and after a few tough weeks we’re almost back to normal times and deliveries.
The TAPS event has also moved from the Grove Ranch on Parker Rd. to the Wings Over the Rockies facility. For many years we listened to Tony David, and many other great artists and this year’s entertainment is the Jay Silence Band and guitarist Billy Bower.
Event chairs this year are Laura Benton, and George Dempsey, with a host of notable board members and volunteers, like Edie Marks, her daughter Elise Marks Gruitch, Pat Robinson, Miles and Jan Cortez, and Vic and Sharon Evans and a special thanks to the Groves for using the ranch location site for decades.
If you can’t attend the dinner, you can bid on auction items or make contributions to the Military Surviving families at TAPS.org/Colorado for the survivors left behind.