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Easter memories, p 3Las Vegas Arts Council, p 4Happenstance Kitchen, p 8

FFrroomm tthhee eeddiittoorr……

Deepest apologies. In the CASA Fourth article inlast week’s Happenstance, I left the name of MackCrow off the list of board members. Mr. Crow has

been involved in the community in various ways over theyears. His valuable service to CASA contributes to its success.

In this issue of Happenstance, Randy Campbell’s wonder-ful memory of a ‘50s Easter with its finely drawn momentsreminds us of how ‘out of the ordinary’ Easter is; page 3.

The Las Vegas Arts Council has been around for manyyears with a mission of providing resources and services toartists. The bigger picture is that it is an economic engine fu-eled by the energy of creativity and involvement. See LV ArtsCouncil celebrates the arts and helps them shine; pages 4-5.

There is nothing like live theater. It is a surprise every per-formance, not because the performance is different, but be-cause as an audience member you are seeing just thatperformance in that moment, unfettered by any experiencebut the one you are having as the players unfold the story onthe stage. You won’t get that sense of participation at a movietheater, not even a 3-D movie, because once it’s on film, that’sit, finito, end of story. In live theater anything can happen andit’s up to the actors, in character, to make it work. I am de-lighted we have an active theater group in Las Vegas. The NatGold Players has been around in one form or another for years.I played Abbey in Arsenic and Old Lace, in the ‘80s, my brother,Marc Conkle, was Teddy, Abby and Martha’s slightly daftnephew, who thought he was Teddy Roosevelt. We had ablast, even though it involved six weeks of intense rehearsalsfor a ‘run’ of four performances.

In recent years the players have evolved into a loosely or-ganized group that has a specific goal of fostering performanceas a thought-provoking and entertaining art form. Theater istoo often a stepchild to other art disciplines, partly because oftime requirements needed to mount a production, and partlybecause of funding. The Nat Gold Players forge ahead. Read moreof their story beginning on page 6.

Regular features include the Happenstance Kitchen with EasterPea Salad and Mom’s Potato Salad recipes, and The Best of the Webfeaturing Heifer International.

Enjoy Happenstance, life happens.—Sharon Vander Meer

Chief cook and bottle washer

Happenstance • April 2, 2010 • Page 2

Happenstancelife happens

Vol 1, No. 5, April 2, 2010 Happenstance is a digital publication of vandermeerbooks.com

Copyright, Sharon Vander Meer, Vander Meer BooksSelect content may be used with appropriate attribution:

Sharon Vander Meer, happenstance@vandermeer books.com Cover image by: Marc Stewart (Maggie Romigh of the Nat Gold Players)

Photos not identified by: Sharon Vander MeerSome images from: clipart.com

Happenstancelife happens

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Iremember:being awakened long beforedawn, resistance to getting

out of bed overcome by anticipa-tion of pending adventure, so outof the ordinary;

the chemical smell of ashiny new, electric blue acetateEaster necktie;

Dad staying in bed, refus-ing to leave his warm cocoon;

Mom driving throughcold moonlight, neighbor-hood friends in the car, every-one slightly nervous becauseher hands aren't steady on thesteering wheel, swaying usalong the lonesome, narrowroad, her wedding ring clickingon the steering wheel as shechanges grip on the wheel a little toooften in the now drowsy quiet; watch-ing fields and trees pass by mysterious inmoon-light, and distant houses, back longlanes, across valleys, glowing house windowsmarking early risers, glowing barn windows markingkeepers of animals, milkers of cows, whose long days al-ways begin at 4 a.m.

“Look!” Mom says, pointing through the windshieldas a pin-point of light streaks across the horizon. “A fallingstar! It means someone died.”

“Watch the road, Beulah, or we'll all die!” my friendyells out and we all laugh, even Mom, relieving stress.

It’s right and good to be here, with them, on this jour-ney, on this morning, so out of the ordinary.

We find seats in the high-school auditorium, sur-rounded by people who’ve made similar pre-dawn trips innew Easter clothes, other ties.

The play begins: amateur actors, not well-rehearsed;male and female disciples dressed in bathrobes and san-dals, forgetting King James lines, clumsily running fromcardboard room to cardboard tomb, acting surprised andconfused because a flat cardboard stone has been rolled

away; angels in white sheets making theancient proclamation yet one moreEaster morning—

“He is not here, He is risen!”Not has. Is?Rejoicing! Rejoicing all

around and the indiscriminateCommunity Choir, with goodand not so good voices beginssinging, led and directed byDad’s cousin, a short, barrel-chested dairy farmer, his legcrippled by polio as a child,singing with all his might, hisvoice audible above all theothers:

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, liftup your voice and sing,

Hosanna in the Highest!Hosanna to the King,”and“King of Kings. Lord of Lords!”

repeated again and again, everyround going higher, higher.“And He shall reign forever and ever!”

We’re all on our feet, reverberating with su-pernatural singing.The message bulls-eyes my being. I accept the idea that even my own falling-star death is

nothing to fear and laughter is OK.Undying love has reached me through this adventure

with Mom and friends, through these very human formswho do their best to act it out and sing it out, throughthese people who are more conscious of God's graciousPresence than their imperfections.

A spiritual burden I didn't even know I was carryingdisappears.

We go out into bright dawn light, find the car for thejoyous trip back home in a world of fresh colors.

It’s right and good to be there, with them, that Eastermorning so out of the ordinary, smelling the aroma of myshiny new electric blue necktie all my life long.

—by Randy CampbellMinister, Presbyterian Church

RREEVVIISSIITTIINNGG YYEESSTTEERRDDAAYYRREEVVIISSIITTIINNGG YYEESSTTEERRDDAAYY

Happenstance • April 2, 2010 • Page 3

Easter morning sometime in the late 'Fifties:Childhood memories; something out of the ordinary

What does it take for an art organization to sur-vive in these economic times? Patrick Rucker,president of the Las Vegas Arts Council

(LVAC) knows it’s more than money. “It’s collaboration andcommitment. It’s people willing to set aside the time to dowhat needs to be done,” he said.

Fund raising is part of that and so is outreach, which iswhy LVAC is connected. Its attractive and enticing website atwww.lasvegasartscouncil.org has eye popping photographicgalleries and access to online ticket sales for upcomingevents. Most notable of those events is the April 10, Paganini& Pasta dinner and concert at the Plaza Hotel Ballroom, fea-turing world-renowned violinist Jack Glatzer. Tickets are $30per person and may be purchased online or at the LVAC OKCafe office on Bridge Street, WarDancer, Tome on the Range,or from Em Krall.

“This is a fund raiser. To maximize the benefit to the ArtsCouncil we want to sell at least 200 tickets,” Rucker said.“Mostly we want a packed house for the performance. JackGlatzer is internationally known and we’re lucky to have himhere.”

Arts activities and events thrive in Las Vegas, but it is anongoing challenge to bring money in the door to assure con-tinued viability of organizations like the Arts Council. Find-ing funding is part and parcel of Rucker’s role as the LVACpresident. Currently he is also the volunteer project director.With no paid staff, keeping the doors open is dependent onvolunteers. For other needs LVAC contracts for services, likedevelopment of the website, using the skills of talented BirdieJaworski.

“I’m here Tuesday throughThursday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.,”Rucker said. “And then we haveother volunteers who come inMonday and Friday. We rely onour volunteers to help out at othertimes, like on 2nd Saturdays, the

event sponsored by the Arts and Culture District committee.”Rucker credits Jaworski with creating a more visible

presence for the Arts Council. “She has also identified andcatalogued the 350 known artists in the area. Nobody haddone that and this is a real benefit to us as an arts group,whether they are professional artists or do it as a hobby,knowing who is out there makes it possible for us to betterserve them.”

Serving artists and keeping the arts at the forefront ofcommunity awareness as a resource keeps the LVAC boardbusy, so busy in fact that Rucker has begun to rethink busy-ness.

“We used to do twenty to thirty events a year. It waskilling us. It taxes volunteers and burns them out. Our goal,my goal, is to outsource some of the projects and concentrateon the major ones, like the Las Vegas Celebrates the Arts StudioTour and the People’s Faire. These are signature events and wewant them to continue. Doing those things well and collab-orating with others to take on some of the other projects

LV Arts Council celebrates the artsand helps them shine

QQuuiicckk FFaaccttss

What: Las Vegas Arts CouncilLocation: OK Cafe, Bridge StreetPhone: 425-1085

Happenstance • April 2, 2010 • Page 4

“It has made a big difference to be in the heart of what is happening on the Mainstreet corridor. We provide a valuable

service by promoting the city in everything we do.” —Patrick RuckerLVAC President

World-renowned violinist Jack Glatzer will perform at thePaganini & Pasta dinner and concert at the Plaza Hotel Ball-room on Saturday, April 10. The evening begins at 6 p.m.

COURTESY PHOTO LVAC

makes sense to me.“We’re growing our volunteer

pool, not only to work in the officebut to help with things like the JackGlatzer concert and dinner, andother scheduled events,” he said.

Rucker wants to concentrate onthe Arts Council’s core services tothe entities for which it is fiscally oradministratively responsible, suchas the new co-op gallery, el ZocaloLos Artesanos de Las Vegas, the NatGold Players theater group, the Lit-eracy Council, Children’s Dance The-ater, Youth Theater, and Pendaries ArtLeague. These are a fraction of thegroups that come under the um-brella of the Arts Council’s 501 (c) 3.

The Arts Council formed in1977, which was also the first year of the People’s Faire, anevent embraced by the community from the outset. It has be-come so well publicized and respected that it attracts up to5,000 visitors each year. Held in August the show featuresartists from a variety of disciplines as well as community or-ganizations, storytellers and musicians.

Rucker said the best thing that has happened to the ArtsCouncil is its move from the building at Rodriguez Park onGrant Street to the bustling and vibrant Plaza/Bridge Streetbusiness district.

“At the OK Cafe building we’re accessible. The Arts andCulture District designation was the impetus for us moving,but it is the generosity of the City of Las Vegas that allowedit to happen,” Rucker said. “To carry out our objectives tosponsor visual, performing and participatory arts in the com-munity, we need to be accessible. It has made a big differenceto be in the heart of what is happening on the Mainstreet cor-ridor. We provide a valuable service by promoting the city ineverything we do.”

Janet Remenyik, a former LVAC president for thirteenyears, said the Arts Council is important to Las Vegas for allit has been able to do over the years. For twenty-five years,LVAC had a summer arts program for children and youth.

“That’s gone away because the 21st Century programthrough the schools has been able to expand to a year aroundprogram, all day in the summer, and after school during theschool year, “ she said. “Before that, if it hadn’t been for theArts Council, there wouldn’t have been a summer arts pro-gram.”

Rucker sees the 21st Centuryprogram as a natural progression.“We can’t do everything. We con-centrate on what we can do, and doit well,” he said.

Remenyik credits Nat Gold, anearly project director for the ArtsCouncil, and John Gavahan (bothnow deceased) with getting thegroup formalized as an organiza-tion. “It was through their effortsthat the Arts Council received its 501(c) 3 status.”

Funding continues to be a chal-lenge for arts groups across thecountry and Las Vegas is no differ-ent. “There are a lot of sources offunding out there, but there are alsoa lot of entities going after those

funds. About one-third of our budget comes from member-ships. That has dropped off some, I expect because of theeconomy, but we still need funding to be effective.

“Art adds to the quality of life in a community,” Ruckersaid “We need the diversity it brings and the collaborationamong all the groups who are in their way promoting LasVegas. We’re now where people can find us. We have exhibitspace and we have a board of directors who want to seethings happen.

“We have Kayt Peck looking for grants and we look for-ward to being one of the receiving entities for the Plaza HotelAnnual New Year’s Eve charity bash, but what we need asmuch as anything are people who want to contribute to thecontinuing success of the Las Vegas Arts Council.”

Patrick Rucker is a retired educator with a BFA from theUniversity of Texas, an MFA from the University of Okla-homa, and a Ph.D from Texas Tech. He spent thirty-eightyears in education, the last twenty-five at Eastern New Mex-ico University in Portales, where he was chair of the theaterand drama department for nineteen years and interim deanof fine arts for five years.

“I have always been involved in community. It was a nat-ural to become involved in the Las Vegas Arts Council whenI moved here.” Rucker has been president for two years. Hisdream is to develop a pool of volunteers, outsource some ofthe projects, and keep the Arts Council at the forefront as acommunity resource. For more information about the ArtsCouncil go to their website, www.lasvegasartscouncil.org, orcall 505 425-1085.

Happenstance • April 2, 2010 • Page 5

Art adds to the quality of life in a community

Las Vegas Arts Council President Patrick Ruckertakes care of business as a volunteer at the organiza-tion’s office located in the OK Cafe building on BridgeStreet.

There are somepeople who flatout personify

what it means to promotethe arts. Nat Gold was oneof those people. You sawhim everywhere, doingwhatever he could to stim-ulate theatrical and otherart forms in Las Vegas. Hewas especially fond of livetheater and directed count-less plays. The Las VegasPlayers were for the mostpart a fluid group that cametogether when there wereenough people to put on aperformance. The groupexisted before Nat’s in-volvement but it achieved asort of continuity once he became the unofficial artistic di-rector.

Nat passed away some years ago put his spirit remainsin the creative hearts and minds of those who carry forwardhis dream to have a more formal live theater group perform-ing regularly in Las Vegas. That group, now called the NatGold Players, is headed up by Cyn Riley, Anne Bradford, JaneHyatt and Karyl Lyne. Like many all-volunteer theatergroups they struggle to put the pieces together, but manageto annually stage at least three, and sometimes four, perform-ances.

Just about everything connected to the players is ‘unof-ficial’ so it was a natural to sit down this week with the ‘un-official’ spokesperson for the Nat Gold Players, Karyl Lyne,one of the two (see quote marks in the air here), directors. Inreality there are any number of performance directors be-cause that is the essence of what the players represent.

“We want people,” Karyl said. “We want people whowill perform, direct, write plays, work backstage, work on-stage, do makeup, costumes; we want people!”

Karyl is passionate about live performance. In describingher involvement she became emotional to the point of tears.“It’s the process,” she said. “I like theater; I love to direct. It’s

watching people come to-gether to create somethingand in the creation becomeintegral to it. I can’t explainhow it happens, it just does.They come in as individualsand then become this groupthat depends on each other.It is teamwork, but more.”

Karyl is among severalwho feel that energy to cre-ate through performance art.There is no ‘membership’ inthe Nat Gold Players as such;members are whoever par-ticipates.

“It takes everyone tomake it work. Right now thedirector is pretty much re-sponsible for everything:getting the costumes, de-

signing the sets, making sure the props are there. Our idealwould be to have enough people so we could call on indi-viduals to take on responsibilities. Not everyone wants to bean actor, but there is much more to putting on a performancethan actors.”

Currently the players include a wide range of individu-als from a ten-year-old boy to an eighty-five-year-oldwoman. Then there are those who come in based on open au-ditions and are part of the troupe for the duration of a partic-ular play.

The Nat Gold Players don’t have a regular performanceschedule, although Karyl looks forward to a time when thegroup can have a predictable ‘season’. Despite not having aseason they have certainly made their mark in Las Vegas.

“We made a conscious choice to take on subjects thatmight be considered controversial, like the gay/lesbian issueand women’s roles in a Catholic community,” she said. “Butwe also do Over the Edge, our yearly spoof of Las Vegasloosely based on KFUN’s Over the Back Fence. It’s topical andcurrent, all in fun, but a little biting as well. Joseph (Baca ofKFUN) is a good sport about it, in fact he has allowed us touse his old fashioned microphones as props.”

“We want people. We want people who will perform, direct, write plays, workbackstage, work onstage, do makeup, costumes; we want people!”

–Karyl Lyne, SecretaryNat Gold Players

The Nat Gold Players Live! in Las Vegas

The Nat Gold Players enjoy a backstage moment at the Theatre NewMexico Spring Conference in Artesia at the new Ocotillo Performing ArtsCenter. From left are Karyl Lyne, Cyn Riley, Juan Diego Chavez, PatrickRucker, Nique Clarke, Kayt Peck, Cody Romero and Maggie Romigh.

PHOTO: MARC STEWART

Happenstance • April 2, 2010 • Page 6

Karyl said the group does not limit itself to performancein the traditional sense. “We created a series called, Box Seats,ten minute plays with no more than four characters and a setcomprised of four boxes, two twenty-four inches square andthe other two twelve inches square. We have an open call forscripts to encourage new and accomplished playwrights.”

The group just returned from a competition at the The-atre New Mexico Spring Conference in Artesia where two ofthe Box Seats plays were performed. The plays presentedwere Waiting to Go (a take off on Beckett’s Waiting for Godot),by Meredith Britt, and Give a Shit Repair Shop, by Kayt Peck.

“Box Seats is one of our most important programs,”Karyle said. “Through Box Seats local playwrights are en-couraged to write down those ideas they’ve had in theirheads for a while and submit their scripts for production.Through Box Seats people who have always wanted to be ina play but daunted by memorizing a full length play can au-dition for a ten-minute part. Through Box Seats people whohave never directed because there is so much involved withsets, costumes, acting, lighting, and all the other facets of aplay, will give it a try with a short uncomplicated piece.

“Encouragement for beginners in theatre and increasingthe numbers of people involved are goals of the Nat GoldPlayers,” she said.

The two plays will be part of a full evening of entertain-ment in April when all four productions will be staged lo-cally. Where has yet to be determined. That is one amongseveral challenges the players face. “We don’t have a perma-nent performance space, storage space, or a place to buildsets,” Karyl said. “Some of our set pieces are in a barn seven-teen miles from town, some are upstairs in a second storyspace, and the rest are in another barn in the other directionfrom town. It takes a lot on energy just to get everything to-gether, which is why we need a place to call home.”

The problem with that, however, is that the group can’tsupport a building. Because of the nature of the organization

its primary income is from ticket salesand from A Little Light Music, a De-cember event. Funds raised from

this performance are dedicated tothe purchase of lighting, an im-portant aspect of production

for any play. Right now the group

rents lighting from SteveLeger of Love Music andgets loans from the High-lands University TheaterDepartment of addi-tional lighting if needed.

The Nat Gold Players exists on the edge when it comes tofunding. They are under the umbrella of the Las Vegas ArtsCouncil, which gives them the advantage of liability cover-age for performances and access to other resources, but as anentity it is solely responsible for paying its own way.

“My dream,” Karyl said, “is to have a more organizedapproach to getting support through levels, like ‘front rowpatrons’ who pay a certain amount, or ‘footlight patrons’,things like that, but we’re a long way from that.”

She pointed out that small theaters still thrive in smallcommunities. “There is nothing like live theater and thatdraws audiences.”

The arts are also important to the development of youngpeople. Karyl referred to a study that followed ten thousandstudents over a twenty-five year period. The study demon-strated that students trained in the arts (drama, music, danceor painting) scored as much as sixty points higher in eachsection of the SAT test when compared to students nottrained in the arts. Another study showed the arts to be apowerful magnet in keeping youths in school.

“We try to involve young people whenever we can. Cyn(Riley, the group’s president) is especially committed to mak-ing sure young people are given the opportunity to partici-pate.”

Karyl and the rest of the troupe are worker bees, but theyneed more active members for everything from gathering upprops or costumes, to selling tickets, to doing promotion andeverything in between.

“The problem is that everyone is so busy already, theydon’t think they can add one more commitment, or theythink they don’t ‘fit’ in a theater group because they aren’tMaggie Romigh in The Give a

Shit Repair Shop.

Happenstance • April 2, 2010 • Page 7

Box Seats is an important Nat Gold Players project

Performing at the competition in Artesia were, from left, CodyRomero, Maggie Romigh, Nique Clarke and Juan Diego Chavez.

PHOTO: MARC STEWART

PHOTO: MARC STEWART

—See more Nat Gold Players, page 11—

If the only foodI ever ate wassalad, I’d be

happy. Salad can be soeasily dressed up ordressed down. It canbe a side dish or amain meal. Hmmm, Ithink I’ve said that be-fore. Oh, well, you’llprobably hear it again.These are two of myfavorite salads. Justthis week my husband and I had the Pea Salad with bakedchicken and it was delicious.

Mom’s Potato Salad is probably the same recipe youhave, but I include it here because when I go to salad barsthe offering they have is usually bland and too ‘saucy’ for mytaste. This recipe allows the ingredients to blend so you geta little taste of everything in every bite.

At Mom’s the Easter meal almost always included ham,the best fruit salad on the planet (I’ve never been able to getthat blend just right), potato salad, and what mom called arelish tray. This included canned cranberry sauce surroundedby black olives and a variety of cut veggies with a creamysalad dressing dip. Dessert was invariably warm homemadeapple pie with a crushed graham cracker crust and toppedwith a mix of cinnamon, butter, brown sugar and crushedgraham crackers. Right before she served it Mom addedgrated cheddar cheese. I have never seen this done by anyoneelse, and I’ve never tried to prepare it myself. It was deli-cious! I think that pie will be a Mom thing I will never try toduplicate.

Mom was a wonderful cook, but she wasn’t the recipeand measuring kind. She was a let’s-see-what’s-in-the-cupboard kind who made the most of what was available. Isort of do that myself, but have learned the hard way thatyou can really make a mess of things if you don’t follow arecipe.

Happy Easter!If you have a recipe and story you would like to share, please

send it to fsharon@msn.com.

Mom’s Potato Salad5 - 6 large potatoes boiled in the skins5 - 6 chopped boiled eggs1 cup chopped dill pickle½ cup finely chopped onion½ cup chopped celery1 cup mayonnaise2 - 3 tablespoons yellow mustard¼ cup pickle juiceSalt and Pepper to taste

Peel skins from cooled potatoes and cut potatoes intocubes. Set aside. Place pickles, onion and celery in a mixingbowl and stir to blend flavors. Add mayonnaise and mus-tard; mix thoroughly. Add eggs to dressing and toss, season-ing to taste. (Mom used salt and pepper. I like to use Mrs.Dash Table Blend to prevent over salting.) Add potatoes andpickle juice and stir. You may add more mayonnaise andmustard if the salad is too dry. Serves 6 to 8 people.

We never had Easter without this potato salad on thetable. It was delicious and the leftovers kept well making ita great next-day side dish for ham sandwiches!

Pea Salad1 pgk frozen peas, defrosted at room temperature½ cup finely chopped dill pickle1 hardboiled egg, chopped½ cup diced cheese (Colby/Jack or similar)¼ cup chopped green onion (optional)½ cup mayonnaise1 teaspoon honey dijon mustard (more if you want it to have sharper taste)Mrs. Dash Table Blend (season to taste)Because of the pickles and other salty ingredients I don’t recommend adding salt to this recipe.

Place dill pickle, egg, and diced cheese in a mixing bowland mix to blend flavors. Add mayonnaise, mustard andMrs. Dash and stir. You can add more mayonnaise after thepeas have been included if the mix is too dry. Stir in the peasuntil well coated. Serves four. This recipe can be made low fat by using reduced fat cheese and

mayonnaise.

Happenstance • April 2, 2010 • Page 8

Super salads for Easter and every dayTTHHEE HHAAPPPPEENNSSTTAANNCCEE KKIITTCCHHEENNTTHHEE HHAAPPPPEENNSSTTAANNCCEE KKIITTCCHHEENN

Don’t know what to do with all those Easter eggs?Toss them in a salad!

Heifer is different. Heifer works.Those are two of the first phrases

you see on the Heifer Internationalwebsite. There is a reason for that.When Dan West, founder of the or-ganization, set out to change the wayfood was provided to the hungry, heset in motion the development of aglobal nonprofit with a proven solu-tion to ending hunger and poverty ina sustainable way. Heifer helps em-power millions of families to liftthem out of poverty and hunger toself-reliance through gifts of live-stock, seeds and trees and extensivetraining, which provide a multiply-ing source of food and income.

Heifer's mission to end hungerHeifer envisions…A world of communities living together in peace and eq-

uitably sharing the resources of a healthy planet.Heifer’s mission is…To work with communities to end hunger and poverty

and to care for the Earth.Heifer's strategy is…To Pass on the Gift. As people share their animals’ off-

spring with others–along with their knowledge, resourcesand skills–an expanding network of hope, dignity and self-reliance is created that reaches around the globe.

Heifer’s historyThis simple idea of giving families a source of food rather

than short-term relief–a cow not a cup–caught on and hascontinued for more than sixty-five years. Today, millions of

families have been given giftsof self-reliance and hope.

It began when a mid-western farmer named DanWest was ladling out rationsof milk to hungry childrenduring the Spanish Civil War.

“These children don’tneed a cup, they need a cow,”he thought.

West, who was serving asa Church of the Brethren reliefworker, was forced to decidewho would receive the lim-ited rations and whowouldn’t, literally decidingwho would live and whowould die. This kind of aid,

he knew, would never be enough. West returned home toform Heifers for Relief, dedicated to ending hunger perma-nently by providing families with livestock and training sothat they “could be spared the indignity of depending on oth-ers to feed their children.”

West's idea has now changed the lives of more than 8.5million people

In 1944, the first shipment of 17 heifers left York, Pennsyl-vania, for Puerto Rico, going to families whose malnourishedchildren had never even tasted milk.

Why heifers? These are young cows that haven’t yetgiven birth – making them perfect not only for supplying acontinued source of milk, but also for supplying a continuedsource of support. That’s because each family receiving aheifer agrees to “pass on the gift” and donate the female off-spring to another family, so that the gift of food is never-end-ing.

—Source: Heifer International Website

Happenstance • April 2, 2010 • Page 9

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WWHHAATT YYOOUU WWIILLLL FFIINNDD AATT WWWWWW..HHEEIIFFEERR..OORRGGWWHHAATT YYOOUU WWIILLLL FFIINNDD AATT WWWWWW..HHEEIIFFEERR..OORRGG

Heifer International: A gift of hope

This photo is from a Pass on the Gift celebration in Haiti.Celebrations are emotional events where original Heifer proj-ect partner recipients feel great pride and accomplishment asthey Pass on the Gift of their animal’s first-born female off-spring to help another family in need, just as they werehelped. Passing on the Gift is one of the keys to ensuring self-sustainability.

Heifer International Work• Successes• Approach• Field video

Get Involved• Team Heifer• Fund Raising• Volunteer

Give• Gift Catalogue• Greatest Need• Online Giving

Learn• Pass it on• Education Resources• Study Tours

Every gift to Heifer International contributes to the sustainability of a family and a village.

WWOORRDD FFRROOMM TTHHEE WWIISSEE:: SSPPRRIINNGGWWOORRDD FFRROOMM TTHHEE WWIISSEE:: SSPPRRIINNGG

The Book: Jesus, A New Understanding of God’s SonThe Author: Joseph F. GirzoneDoubledayPrice: $23, hardcover

Iconfess I haven’t finished thisbook, but I am thoroughlytaken with it. It is written in

plain language and it is clear the au-thor has a deep faith and personal rela-tionship with God the Father and Jesusthe Son. One might think it’s becausehe is retired from active priesthood inthe Catholic Church, but I think it’s be-cause his love for Christ is central to

who he is. In 1995 he established the Joshua Foundation, anorganization dedicated to making Jesus better knownthroughout the world. His bestselling books include Joshua,A Portrait of Jesus, and Never Alone.

In Jesus, A New Understanding of God’s Son, Girzone be-gins with Herod, a mad man whose paranoia lead him totake the lives of his own sons because he thought they wereplotting to usurp his position and assume his throne.

Girzone takes us on the journey with Joseph and Maryto Bethlehem, examining how Joseph must have felt andgiving historical details of what life was like at the time of

Jesus’ birth. He speaks of Jesus’ meeting with John the Bap-tizer, and his later baptism at John’s hand.

It’s like reading a historical novel written by a writerwith an eye for detail and an understanding of nuance inadvancing the story. Girzone is a skilled writer and heknows his subject well.

Of course we all know where this story ends, and ifyou are a Christian, begins, but before we get there Girzonecarefully details the everyday experiences of Christ as ahuman among humans. It speaks of his mother, the friendshe gathered around him, reminding the reader that thesewere not vagabonds. Many of them where successful busi-nessmen participating in the family business, and yet theywalked away at his request and followed him. We gain in-sight into how he acts and reacts to a world unprepared forhis message and fearful of it.

It tells of his parables and describes his interactionswith Pharisees, priests set against him because they eitherdidn’t understand who he was or because they were sobound up in their religiosity they didn’t want to know. Gir-zone is an engaging, well versed author, writing about asubject he knows and loves. Jesus, A New Understanding ofGod’s Son is available locally at Tome on the Range. Formore about the author and other books he has written go towww.randomhouse.com/features/girzone.

Happenstance • April 2, 2010 • Page 10

HHAAPPPPEENNSSTTAANNCCEE RREEVVIIEEWWHHAAPPPPEENNSSTTAANNCCEE RREEVVIIEEWW

Spring is nature's way of saying,"Let's party!"

—Robin Williams

Spring shows what God can do with adrab and dirty world.

—Virgil A. Kraft

In the spring, at the end of the day, youshould smell like dirt.

—Margaret Atwood

The first day of spring is one thing, andthe first spring day is another. The differ-ence between them is sometimes as great asa month.

—Henry Van Dyke

The day the Lord created hope was prob-ably the same day he created Spring.

—Bern Williams

The first day of spring was once the time for taking theyoung virgins into the fields, there in dalliance to set an ex-ample in fertility for nature to follow. Now we just set theclocks an hour ahead and change the oil in the crankcase.

—E.B. White

An optimist is the human personification of spring.—Susan Bissonnette

Spring is when you feel like whistling even with a shoefull of slush.

—Doug Larson

In the Spring, I have counted 136 different kinds ofweather inside of 24 hours.

—Mark Twain

A hush is over everything, Silent as women wait for love;The world is waiting for the spring.

—Sara Teasdale

Happenstance • April 2, 2010 • Page 11

Books byF.S. Vander Meer

These books are available in LasVegas at Tome on the Range Book-store. Online purchases may be madeat Amazon, Xlibris, and Barnes andNoble.

Not Just Another Day isa series of daily reflec-tions that celebrate thegift of life. Based on theauthor’s Christian faithtradition the book usesBible passages, prayersand readings to capturethe common experienceof living a life of faith inan ever-changing world.

In Future Imperfect con-flicting forces control twoindividuals seeking stabil-ity and sanity amid esca-lating political andenvironmental chaos.Their lives are fraught withlies, treachery, and an al-tered environment.

In The Ballad of BawdyMcClure short hauler JakeCasey is confronted withthe age old question: Whocan you trust? From theopening scene in whichhe finds the body of hismurdered friend to theend he is constantly ques-tioning the motives ofthose closest to him.

At your service24/7

www.cfblv.com

A proud supporter of Happenstance

actors. It’s not just about performance,” she said. “It’s aboutgetting a lot of people involved to do a lot of different things.We need a critical mass of about twenty people we can callon, not for every performance, but as a backup in case theirparticular skill is needed.”

Despite the challenges Karyl is not discouraged, in factshe, and the rest of the troupe are getting ready for their nextproduction and anticipating what they will do for the re-mainder of the year and into next year.

She said there are many people to be thanked but theplayers are most grateful to those who have provided stor-age, rehearsal and storage space: CCHP, Matthew and Linzy

Behr of Lion Park GiftShop, New Mexico High-lands University, RoyMontiban, Tome on theRange Bookstore, Pas-time, the Plaza Hotel, theLas Vegas Arts Council,Kathy Gould andAlexandra Walters,Werner and HelenMuller, and Adele Simp-son.

If you would like tohelp with financial sup-port, send donations to:Nat Gold Players c/o theLas Vegas Arts Council,PO Box 2603, Las Vegas,NM 87701. To lend yourskills, whatever they maybe, to the players, sendan e-mail to Karyl atlyne@desertgate.com.

Cody Romero in the ten-minuteplay, Waiting to Go.

PHOTO: MARC STEWART

Continued from page 7

Nat Gold Players

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When I was a kid every year at Easter the wind huffed andpuffed its way through the day. My sisters and I wore prettyEaster dresses that belled out like inverted tulips. Our

straw hats with little silk flowers bore evidence of having been helddown by brute force. My brothers in their crisp white shirts and clip-on ties looked as innocent as angels even with the wind makingtheir hair stand out in spiky disarray. Mother always made sure thaton Easter we were decked out in our Sunday best.

We went to church on Sunday but even before that we participatedin every Easter egg hunt advertised whether it was at school or thepublic park. I loved Easter but I hated those doggone hunts. I wasthe kid who invariably ended up with an empty basket. The worst —I mean the very worst — was when the other kids were forced totake pity and share their eggs with me. I didn’t even like it when myolder brother shared his. I wanted to get my own.

The parts of Easter that I loved most were the old songs: “Up Fromthe Grave He Arose,” and “On Easter Morn.” Coloring eggs was apretty big deal as well. We had such fun because we all gatheredaround the kitchen table and did it together. Mother was a great onefor being able to make us laugh.

I love the lesson of Easter: that Jesus lived and lives still. The painof the cross was washed away in the triumph of the resurrection. Jesus lives and I am glad to know he lives in me.

Lord, may we carry the triumph of the resurrection with us every dayand show you live in us by the way we live in the world.

From From Not Just Another Day, Not Just Another Day, by F.S. Vander Meer • For ordering information go to by F.S. Vander Meer • For ordering information go to www.vandermeerbooks.comwww.vandermeerbooks.com