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Daily smile 1 11 21 22

Cowboy State Daily is Wyoming’s largest newspaper with Wyoming’s most experienced journalists. 

<title>Daily Smile: Monday, November 21, 2022 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

He crashed his bike...

Daily Smile: Monday, November 21, 2022

Employee kate meadows cropped

Kate Meadows

Around Wyoming

Public Safety

Sweetwater County Sheriff's Deputy Zach Otte keeps a plastic sandwich bag full of coins tucked in his pocket.

It started as a $20 bill exchanged for quarters. Now it's become an essential piece of patrol equipment.

Otte, who has been with the sheriff's office for two years, is on a summertime mission to visit as many lemonade stands as his calls for service will allow.

The effort began after Jason Mower, the Sweetwater County Sheriff's Office public affairs director, announced on social media that deputies would spend the summer hunting down lemonade stands — places where they could wet their whistles, encourage young entrepreneurs and build connections with local families.

[{"type":"text","text":"Big dreams. Small stands. Cold lemonade."}]

Those are the kinds of calls Sweetwater County deputies are hoping to answer during the dog days of summer.

"This year, from my perspective as public affairs director, we have a lot going on with an election cycle and a lot of unknowns about what the next nine months will hold," Mower told Cowboy State Daily. "People are antsy."

He saw a similar initiative online and realized there was no reason Sweetwater County couldn't do the same.

Through social media, Mower invites parents whose children are operating lemonade stands to send him a direct message with the location and hours.

"Summer break is here, and we know there are some hardworking young business owners across Sweetwater County setting up tables, mixing lemonade and chasing big dreams one cup at a time," the sheriff's office wrote in announcing the Lemonade Patrol.

[{"type":"text","text":"The response was immediate."}]

"Boy, about the second I did that, my direct message inbox was flooded," Mower said.

He now maintains a running list of stands, updating it several times a week and sending locations out to deputies.

"Every time Jason sends out an address of where a stand is set up, if I'm not on a call, that's my first stop," Otte said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Maelie's Big Goal"}]

One youngster who benefited from the Lemonade Patrol is 6-year-old Maelie Teuscher.

Maelie was selling lemonade Friday outside Napa Auto Parts in Green River when deputies Otte and Mike Merkley pulled up.

[{"type":"text","text":"She wasn't pocketing the proceeds."}]

Maelie was raising money for the Clearwater Aquarium in Florida, where she will soon attend a marine biology camp.

Each year, her mother, Moriah Teuscher, tries to teach her daughter the value of working for opportunities and giving back.

"We like her to give back for opportunities and realize not everything is just handed to you," Teuscher told Cowboy State Daily.

This year, Maelie decided she wanted to sell lemonade to benefit an aquarium made famous as the home of dolphins featured in the 

 movies. Customers could have a cup of lemonade in exchange for a donation of any amount.

After two hours behind the lemonade table, Maelie headed home with $387.60 destined for the aquarium.

[{"type":"text","text":"Seeing sheriff's deputies pull up was among the highlights of the day."}]

"It's a neat initiative to teach kids that law enforcement is there to help," Teuscher said. "Their lemonade funds come out of their own pocket. It's all in the goodness of their hearts."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"More Than A Cup Of Lemonade"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Weekends have become especially busy for the lemonade patrol."}]

Not a weekend has passed since the initiative launched without deputies sending Mower photos of themselves sipping lemonade and grinning alongside young entrepreneurs.

Lemonade patrols have been popping up in communities around the country as law enforcement agencies look for ways to build positive relationships with families. Mower said he is unaware of any other Wyoming agency operating an organized effort like Sweetwater County's.

Police departments in Twin Falls, Idaho, and Puyallup, Washington, participate in their own initiative to support youth lemonade stands. Other interactions between young entrepreneurs and law enforcement occur more unofficially.

The Sweetwater County Sheriff's Office asks parents not to publicly post their children's locations, but instead to send them privately through Facebook.

"We love seeing kids build confidence, responsibility and a little small-business grit," the sheriff's office shared on social media.

[{"type":"text","text":"For Otte, the patrol is about changing perceptions."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"\"A big thing for me is to get out in communities,\" he said."}]

Too often, he said, children assume a patrol car means someone is in trouble.

"I like to flip that," Otte said. "We give them positive interactions. We sit there and connect with them. We ask why they're doing it."

One of his favorite stops was a lemonade and bake sale at a Green River school.

After buying lemonade and a cake pop, Otte turned on his patrol lights for the children.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"They were over the moon,\" he said. “They were giddy.”"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Lt. Derek Morrell has been making informal lemonade stops for years."}]

After once arriving at a stand empty-handed, he started keeping a cup full of spare change in his patrol car. The cup moves with him whenever he changes patrol cars.

Mower said he believes the initiative has made deputies more mindful of what local kids are doing throughout the summer.

"I think it's led to paying more attention to those types of things," he said.

For example, one deputy noticed while out on lemonade patrol that the Green River high school wrestling team was having a burgers and brats fundraiser.

"I think with the lemonade stands and kids on our deputies' radar, it's led to some other interactions with youth," Mower said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Inflation Even Hits Lemonade"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"The first cup Mower bought this summer cost $1."}]

"At the next stand, it cost $2," he said, laughing. "I was like, 'What is this?'"

[{"type":"text","text":"Deputies jokingly blamed inflation."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"One young entrepreneur sweetened the deal by offering 25-cent refills."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Mower gladly took advantage."}]

"I'll stand here and talk to you and have an extra cup of lemonade," he said.

Word about the lemonade patrol continues to spread as children tell their friends about deputies stopping by.

Mower said he hopes it may even inspire kids who are bored during summer break to try something new.

"Maybe it's not lemonade," he said. "Maybe they make chocolate chip cookies."

For deputies, the effort has become a simple but meaningful reminder that community policing can be as easy as stopping for a cold drink on a hot afternoon.

"We're helping kids realize we're not just here to take everyone to jail," Mower said. "We're people, too. We care."

"There are days where it's hot, and we don't want to just be drinking water or energy drinks," he said.

In many ways, deputies say the lemonade patrol has proven to be a win-win: Kids gain customers, officers gain conversations, and a community gets one more reason to smile.

Or, as Mower put it, the biggest question may be why it took them so long to think of it.

[{"type":"text","text":"Sometimes, the sweetest ideas are also the simplest."}]

Lemonade Maelie with Sweetwater County Sheriffs Deputy Mike Merkley 7 4 26

<title>Why Sweetwater County Sheriff's Deputies Make It A Point To Support Lemonade Stands | Cowboy State Daily</title>

The Sweetwater County Sheriff's Office is making it a point to support lemonade stands in the community. Deputy Zach Otte said that children assume a patrol car means someone is in trouble. The lemonade patrol is about changing perceptions, he said.

Why Sweetwater County Sheriff's Deputies Make It A Point To Support Lemonade Stands

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Wyoming Life

For more than 40 years, Hope Sheets marched through Cody's famed Stampede Parade in a flowing pink gown, four-inch heels and an extravagant flowered hat, waving to thousands of spectators while leading a fluffy white poodle dyed bubblegum pink.

[{"type":"text","text":"Children waited for her."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Visitors photographed her."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Generations of Cody residents simply expected to see her."}]

When Sheets died in May 2025, the Pink Lady disappeared with her, and last year's Fourth of July felt different.

"It was a weird parade," said her oldest daughter, Lisa Kealey. "We were all very sad to go watch it without my mom in it."

[{"type":"text","text":"This year, however, the Pink Lady returned."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"In Her Shoes"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Kealey insists she never intended to step into her mother's famous shoes."}]

Then parade organizers invited her to help celebrate America's 250th birthday by bringing back some of the event's most iconic entries.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"I just said yes,\" she recalled. \"I didn't think about it.\""}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Only afterward did the reality sink in."}]

"I'm doing my version of my mom," Kealey said. "I'm not copy-catting her exactly, but it is the same idea. It has the same personality."

Hope's original gown wouldn't fit. Standing just over five feet tall, she was much smaller than her daughter.

Kealey sat at her sewing machine and created a new pink dress inspired by the original — one longtime Cody residents would instantly recognize, but that still reflected her own style.

[{"type":"text","text":"One piece, however, came directly from her mother's costume."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"The flower-covered hat."}]

"I actually gave her that hat," Kealey said. "So now it comes full circle."

She carefully cleaned it, reshaped it and added fresh posies before wearing it down Sheridan Avenue.

"I do look quite a bit like my mom," Kealey said. "And everybody that found out is just super, super excited that I'm kind of bringing this whole thing back in honor of her."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Poodles To Pomeranian"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"After the decision was made, one challenge remained. "}]

[{"type":"text","text":"The Pink Lady needed a pink dog."}]

Courtney asked the community if anyone had a white poodle she could borrow.

"I was shocked at how many people came forward to offer their dog," she said.

At one point she nearly settled on Roscoe, a large Goldendoodle whose owner had even bought him tiny pink Crocs.

"It was hilarious," Kealey said, but ultimately, Roscoe was simply too much dog.

Instead, she found a tiny white Pomeranian to be professionally groomed and dyed before the parade.

"She'll look like a little stuffed animal out there," she said ahead of the march. 

For a few blocks through downtown Cody, spectators once again saw a flash of pink, a fluffy pink dog, and a familiar flowered hat.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Performance Art"}]

Long before she became the Pink Lady, Hope Sheets was already well known around Wyoming.

She and her husband, Lloyd, traveled the country performing music before eventually settling in Cody, where the family became known for singing and entertaining together.

When health problems ended her singing career, Sheets found another stage.

She opened a dog grooming business with the slogan, "There's Hope for Your Pooch."

[{"type":"text","text":"Then she had another idea."}]

"She lived to perform," Kealey said, so it made sense to advertise her dog grooming business in dramatic fashion. 

[{"type":"text","text":"The gimmick worked."}]

"It was just kind of a cool, catchy thing to do," Kealey said. "She was very brilliant, very creative, and it just took hold."

Soon, the Pink Lady became one of the Cody Stampede Parade's most recognizable figures.

Kealey laughs that many people remember the pink dress before anything else.

"It's hilarious that she's known for that when she was such an amazing musician and singer."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Cody Original"}]

"She was alive and nutty and crazy," is how Jenny Zink remembers her longtime friend.

Their shared love of performing quickly grew into a friendship that lasted more than three decades.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"She was a very dramatic person in a lively, colorful way,\" Zink said."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"The parade simply amplified who Hope already was."}]

"She walked in three-inch heels all the way down the parade route and just waved," Zink remembered. "People would run out from the crowd and give her a hug."

Even after breaking her ankle while rescuing one of her beloved poodles, Hope refused to miss the parade.

Instead, Zink dressed as a nurse and pushed her the entire route in a wheelchair, her cast stretched proudly out front while the pink poodle trotted alongside.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"We weren't going to miss the parade,\" Zink recalled with a laugh."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Hope's absence last year didn't go unnoticed."}]

"People would ask why she wasn't in the parade," Zink said. "They just couldn't imagine that she would be missing a parade after all those years."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"More Than Pink"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"To Kealey, her mother was much more than Cody's Pink Lady."}]

"She was an irreverent, brilliant, funny, naughty and loving, eccentric person,” she said.

Growing up, Kealey remembers waiting for Hope to come home after late-night performances.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"She'd come in and lean over my bed and kiss me goodnight,” she said."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Remembering that still brings tears."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"\"I loved my mom,\" Kealey said. \"I couldn't imagine life without her.\""}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Then she laughed while describing the woman the community adored. "}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Kealey chuckled before describing another side of her mother."}]

"She was narcissistic,” she said. "She would be out there to see who could see her, but in the process of seeing who could see her, she saw other people too.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"They felt seen by her. She just made everybody she met feel special.\""}]

Cody Stampede Parade 3

<title>Cody’s ‘Pink Lady’ Back In Stampede Parade As Daughter Continues 40-Year Legacy | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Hope Sheets was a fixture for four decades in the Cody Stampede Parade as the “Pink Lady.” More than a year after her death, her daughter has stepped into the iconic pink dress to keep the tradition alive. "I'm doing my version of my mom," she said.

Cody’s ‘Pink Lady’ Back In Stampede Parade As Daughter Continues 40-Year Legacy

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's business and tourism reporter, Renée Jean

Renée Jean

DUBOIS — It was a scene straight out of a Mad Max movie. Two tanks met like gargantuan beasts on a dusty field of battle tucked behind the National Museum of Military Vehicles on Friday. 

The tanks were heralded first by the echoing rat-a-tat-tat of machine guns over the hills of Dubois, thrilling a crowd of hundreds that gathered to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary by watching these rumbling 42-ton tanks show off. 

“Our thinking was this doesn’t have to just be solemn,” National Museum of Military Vehicles founder Dan Starks told Cowboy State Daily. “It can also be fun. And what’s more American than machine guns and tanks crushing cars?”

Starks didn’t get any disagreement from the huge crowds turning out for the daylong event devoted to America. More than 500 people showed up in the first hour, which offered two chances to see the tanks in action. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Starks couldn’t contain his grin."}]

“You see the crowd we’ve attracted with this kind of family fun,” he said. “So, because of that, the messages we’re delivering about the genius of our founding fathers is going to reach more ears, because we created a fun event, instead of just saying, ‘Hey, we’re going to be giving some lectures.'”

The star of the show was what Starks cheerfully calls the “Car Crusher.” It’s an 80-year-old M4 Sherman tank, which was the primary medium battle tank used by the United States and its Western allies during World War II. 

It’s a tank that’s practically purpose-built for exactly this kind of spectacle, Starks said.

“We call it the car crusher tank for two reasons,” he said. “One, it has steel tracks, and so those tracks are quite a bit less likely to be damaged driving over a car — driving over steel with the potential of sharp edges.”

In fact, the Sherman’s steel tracks is one of the reasons it can’t be used in the annual Fourth of July parade in Dubois, which features around 25 tanks and other military vehicles from the museum to celebrate Independence Day. 

“It would tear up the road,” Starks said. “But that’s exactly the kind of track to crush a car with. That particular tank also does not have fenders on the tracks, so there’s less that can get hung up from the car. 

"So it’s really a good configuration to just have the ridiculous fun of crushing your car with it.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Co-Starring The Leopard"}]

The M4’s co-star in this Mad Max approach to history was a 1981 German Leopard tank, one in a series of premier main battle tanks (MBTs) developed by Krauss-Maffei, now KNDS Deutschland GmbH & Co.

The original Leopard 1 MBTs revolutionized armored warfare in 1965, bringing superior mobility and a 105 mm gun to bear. Its successor, the Leopard 2, debuted in 1979 and is still one of the world’s most widely deployed advanced main battle tanks. 

Leopards weren’t designed to go head-to-head with other tanks, said Tom Hartman, who drove a tank on Friday. Theirs was more of a “scoot-and-shoot” strategy. 

“You’d see a target of opportunity, shoot it, and the second you shoot it, hit the reverse and speed away,” Hartman said. “Then you’d go another way and try to hit it from another angle.”

If the tank was spotted, it has a row of smoke grenades to deploy to put down instant cover in which to escape. 

“You’re supposed to be able to create a massive smoke screen a few hundred feet wide,” Hartman said. 

Canada was the first large purchaser of the vehicles, which are still in use by a number of countries, including Greece, Italy and Brazil. 

For a while, they were readily available for around $100,000. 

“Right now they cost anywhere between a quarter million dollars to $750,000,” Hartman said. “They made just a ton of these, I forget the exact figure, but a little country called Russia invaded its little neighbor friend called Ukraine, which doesn’t have a lot of Western tanks.”

Overnight, every available Leopard tank was suddenly headed to Ukraine.

From a distance, it looks like something of a feat when a tank rolls right over a car. 

People in the crowd cheered, kids squealed, and smartphones everywhere were rolling, getting video of cars being smashed flat.

For the tank crews, though, the real surprise was just how smooth the ride was.

“You can kind of feel it go like this,” Hartman said, demonstrating with his body leaning from one side to another. “But it’s not like one solid piece. You can feel it start to crush underneath you.”

That’s unlike the cinderblock wall, 2 feet high, that was part of the warmup obstacle course set up to demonstrate the tanks' capabilities before the cars were crushed. 

“It was really fun,” added Jared Radison, another driver. “But it’s honestly surprising how smooth it is. We came down pretty healthy, but other than that, going on these cars, you almost don’t feel it.”

For Casey Ladelle driving the M4 tank for the first time, he wasn’t sure how fast he should really go in the historical 80-year-old antique. 

“Like, how fast is too fast?” he wondered. “It’s an 80-year-old tank, and today was my first day hitting any obstacles with it.”

His first time rolling over the car, he hit it almost too slow. 

“The second time, I knew what was going to happen,” he added.

So he let the car have it, and it felt “really cool.”

All three drivers, however, were cognizant that the power the tanks gave them also meant awesome responsibility as well. 

“It’s a 42-ton machine that can go up to 45 mph,” Hartman said. “You do not want that going through anything out here, because you’re not going to feel it if you hit something.”

That had all three scanning the field, making sure they weren’t gong to run into each other or anything else. 

If the spectacle sounds one-of-a-kind, that’s not too far off. 

Starks and his crew can rattle off a short list of places on the planet where tanks might be smashing cars.

“There’s one in Bovington, England, which is probably the most famous one,” Hartman said. “There’s one in Canada, the Oshawa Tank Museum, which is a phenomenal museum.”

There are also a couple of high-end commercial “experiences” in Texas and Las Vegas.

“I mean, no museums, where their whole thing is like education, do this, like, ‘We’re going to crush your car,'” Hartman said.

At the for-profit tank experiences, the cost is typically $1,000 to $1,500 per person to crush a car. 

By contrast, spectators in Dubois got to watch the mayhem for $20, the price of regular admission, which also came with free rides and family-friendly demonstrations woven throughout the day.

For all the roar and spectacle, though, Starks is clear that the point of the event wasn’t just entertainment. 

He paired the fun with new exhibits as well as with a few lectures, including a reflective talk from Starks on what he called — to a round of applause and cheers — the “genius” of America's Founding Fathers.

Knocking down a bad government, Starks told the crowd that was enjoying hamburgers and sandwiches from the museum’s canteen, had been the easy part. 

The hard part is what came next — dreaming up a system that would be better than tyranny from a monarchy, or the equally bad: tyranny by a majority. 

“Just think about all the examples of genocide throughout history, modern and ancient history,” Starks said. “That’s majority rule. That’s the majority saying, ‘I’m going to wipe you out, you’re a minority.’ 

"Think of all the examples of, ‘My religion is such and such, and your religion isn’t, so I’m going to turn you into a fugitive.’” 

Majority rule sounds appealing on the surface, Starks said, but is really no better than tyranny by a minority. He said it overlooks the single most important premise of the U.S. Constitution, that all men are created equal.

Military tanks spent an hour crushing cars Friday as an enthusiastic crowd cheered to celebrate America’s 250th at the National Museum of Military Vehicles in Dubois. “What’s more American than machine guns and tanks crushing cars?” owner Dan Starks said.

Daily Smile: Monday, November 21, 2022

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