Backpackin’ the Backcountry
Backpacking in the wild can be a once-in-a-lifetime adventure, but for Kinsey Winters, it’s a once-a-week adventure. She dons a 50-pound backpack and leads vacationers through wild, uninhabited territory. The Edmondite has a wandering spirit, so she guides adventurers in different places each season. This summer, she’s working for Wildland Trekking, leading people through the…
Read More >From Skits to a Screen Near You
As classmates and class clowns at Edmond Memorial High School in the late 1980s, Tommy Woodard and Eddie James could only have dreamed of starring in a movie together. Their first major motion picture, Family Camp, comes after 30 years of performing Christian comedy under the name Skit Guys. In the movie, two completely opposite…
Read More >Farm Fresh and Fabulous Photography
For more than a decade, Deborah Vivona has raised chickens at her home in Deer Creek. Although she had never raised livestock before, she was motivated by the fear of the ticks at her five-acre farm. After some research, chickens seemed like the solution for preventing tick-borne diseases, so Deborah bought a dozen chicks and…
Read More >Erase the Hate
An ill-placed tattoo can have lifelong ramifications—especially if it relays a message of prejudice, hatred, or gang affiliation. Tattoo removal is possible, but very expensive, so options are limited for many people who have taken a new path in life but continue to display an offensive message on their skin. In 2019, Oklahoma Plastic Surgeons…
Read More >Out of the Wood Work
Put one physicist and one chemical engineer together and you get…a sawmill? Ryan Joyce and Zach Welton are amused by this result, themselves. Neither one aspired to build a sawmill until a year ago when friendship and conversation came together during the pandemic. Cuttin’ to the Story Zach and Ryan both grew up on farms….
Read More >Law Enforcement Torch Run
Since 1986, police officers in Oklahoma have volunteered at Special Olympics, and the annual Law Enforcement Torch Run is their largest, most-visible event. Volunteers from over 180 police agencies carry torches, running routes that ultimately end at the opening ceremony held in Stillwater. “Edmond police department participants run to the Oklahoma State Capital, uniting with…
Read More >Last Place; First Place
Triathlete Steve Lovelace Pushes Through the Pain When Steve Lovelace crossed the finish line in last place at the 1986 Triathlon, he had a secret. He had not revealed that he was disabled from a spinal cord injury for fear of elimination from the competition. Steve had not entered the race for glory, he’d entered…
Read More >Pinball Wizard
Mark Schwisow likes to say his enthusiasm for playing pinball is a story in three acts. Act One: As a young adult in the 1970s, Mark played lots of mechanical pinball at bowling alleys and convenience stores. Act Two: As a father, Mark introduced his children to pinball machines in the mid-80s as something they…
Read More >The Sound of Heartland America
Clackity, Clackity… Strum, Strum… Thump, Thump… Such non-glamourous sounds, and yet symbolic of the early lives of three local musicians: Kyle Dillingham, Peter Markes and Brent Saulsbury. Separately, they are significant musicians, but together, they form a band known as Kyle Dillingham and Horseshoe Road. They perform a blend of music that includes jazz, country,…
Read More >