Churros Hueso's, a Jalisco Style Family Affair

Churros Huesos is a family business that started more than 20 years ago. It carries the last name Huesos which also belongs to Jose and Agustin’s father. “I learned how to make churros helping my dad in Mexico when I was 15 or 16 years old,” says Jose.

“[My father] was the one who initiated this in Mexico making churros for many years at the fairs,” Agustin remembers. The style and flavors come from the Jalisco area, and now their truck thrives in northern Nevada.

What really sets them apart from others who sell churros, they say, are their custom-made, tradition based recipes. They have menu items such as Churro Macho which are bits of churros and plantain banana spread with sour cream. Other items include a mix of vanilla ice cream with churros and other delicious toppings. 

“The way we make our churros is very different. You don’t really see it around here, or around these areas. The people have even said, this is like in my pueblo. That’s a big difference, there may be other churreros but these are very different,” says Agustin. 

The biggest joy for them is interacting with their customers. “ I love to see people happy when I serve the churros. Especially the kids when they have happy faces,” says Jose.

The brothers say they enjoy hearing feedback from the customers even if it’s negative because they learn from it. Overall, the local support, especially from the entire Hispanic community, has been gratifying. “I think for the Hispanic community this is like a pride for them to know that they can and have churros as they tasted as kids in their pueblos,” says Agustin.

For the future, the brothers hope to expand their business and grow as people. “We hope to keep learning from our business and to take care of it,” says Agustin.

Our Town Reno reporting by Nancy Vazquez

Cafe con Papi, Bringing Culture by the Cup for Some, and Rekindling Memories For Others

Cafe Con Papi on East Sixth Street opened this year with little initial fanfare in an unassuming small building. Inside colorful, evocative murals start to give a different sense of a special place.

The story of its owner, Jose Delgado, who previously worked as a mixologist in Miami, is full of intricate coffee-linked layers, leading to a quick success story in Reno.

Regular clientele now comes in looking for delicious lattes, including favorites Café Con Agave, Café Con Leche and Café Con Platano. Word of mouth quickly spread about the quality and uniqueness of these offerings, while the five star Yelp reviews kept coming.

As indicated in comments, there are no quality shortcuts at this coffee place. Delgado sources his beans from Latin America, having travelled to different parts of the continent, to get familiarized with coffee and the entirety of its process.

“I got to see how my fellow Latinos processed and appreciated how a single seed from the ground up was not only a lifestyle, but a culture shock to me,” Delgado told Our Town Reno during a recent interview. 

He’s constantly working to create unique new drinks using traditional Hispanic flavors. For him the reward is when customers try something new or get exposed to a culture they might not be familiar with.

For the Hispanic community the biggest reward is being able to help his customers relive a memory. “When you get comments like I haven't had cafe de olla since I was a child, it breaks me down in tears, stuff like that really impacts you,” Delgado said. 

His family has been some of his biggest supporters, in particular his father. Delgado named the shop based on inspiration from his dad. “It all comes down to familiarity and having that cup of coffee with my dad every morning,” he said. “I still remember how he would always say get a business mijo, be your own boss.”

The shop's menu also has a few drinks named after family members, some of which are to honor their memory or to give back to his family for always being there. Other names are just tributes to Hispanic culture like one of his drinks Luna.  Delgado hired one of his long time friends, Abel Perez, a muralist and tattoo artist, to paint his parents portrait on the walls of the shop along with other beautiful pieces. “I wanted to capture the feel of how people tend to work in the field.”

In the future Delgado hopes to open more Cafe con Papis across Nevada. “I get a lot of people from out of town, based on my reviews and just hearing people’s comments, the way they experience the coffee, they keep telling me to venture out into Sparks or they wished they had a spot like this in Vegas,” he said.

Delgado wants to encourage more people to come down to his coffee shop and try something new and is so grateful for those who have supported him this far. 

“Cafe Con Papi is a home for all walks of life but also a tribute to our Latin ancestors and coffee farmers who continue on working in the fields day and night providing quality coffee for the world,” he said.

Our Town Reno reporting by Nancy Vazquez

New Generation of Boarders Learn with We Board Together

On a sunny Saturday morning, the Mira Loma skatepark, officially called Rattlesnake Mountain Skatepark, bustled with skaters of all ages and abilities. Music played through speakers, Capri Suns were flowing, and smiles could be seen all around. 

The day marked the first time We Board Together, a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that was founded by Ryan Fleming last year, hosted one of their free skateboard clinics at Mira Loma. The clinics will resume October 15th at North Valleys.

Ryan, although now residing in the Portola area of California, previously lived in Reno and will always consider it as home. “No matter where I move, if anyone asks me where home is, I’ll always say Reno,” he said.

Ryan in photo above with a friend has been skateboarding his entire life, and started We Board Together as a way to share his love of skateboarding with others, and in a few months, hopefully snowboarding as well. Over the past year, Ryan has been hosting free skateboard clinics in Portola, and is now sharing the riding love with the Reno community. Four clinics have already taken place at North Valleys Skate Park, and October 1st was the first clinic held at Mira Loma.

Ryan works as a full-time garden designer, dedicating the free time he has on weekends to make the drive to Reno for the clinics. He posts upcoming clinics as events on the We Board Together Facebook page and brings with him spare skateboards, helmets, knee and elbow pads, and drinks. Although the participants mostly consist of younger children, Ryan stresses that the clinics are extremely inclusive and anyone is welcome. “Sometimes parents will bring their kids, and because they’re here anyway will decide to give it ago. It’s awesome, we definitely encourage anyone who wants to give it a try to come along. There’s no limits on skateboarding.” 

“There’s a lot of negative stigma attached to skateboarding, when really none of it’s true,” Michelle, a volunteer at the clinic said. “There’s a huge supportive community within skateboarding, especially here in Reno. That’s why we love coming here.”

A parent of one of the participants explains that “these clinics are really great because my daughter can meet other kids, make friends, and have someone to progress with. They get to push each other and it’s really nice to see.”

It was clear there was some real camaraderie on show, with everyone hyping each other up and supporting one another. Even though Ryan hosts these clinics for free and doesn’t ask for payment of any kind, the participants actively want to give back. At the end of the skate session, a young lady came up to Ryan and handed him some cash to cover the drinks he provided; a delightful gesture.

Not only was October 1st the first clinic held at Mira Loma, it was also the first time Ryan hosted “Skate Art in the Park”. He brought with him dozens of pieces of old and broken skateboards that he had cut and sanded.

The boards had been collected by Ryan over time, with some being donations from friends and local skateboarders. Along with these blank wooden canvases, Ryan brought tubs of paint and brushes for participants to create their own artwork; a way to relax and get creative after skating for the last few hours in the sun. “I have been painting my decks for years, my walls are full of mine and my grandfather’s artwork. So doing SkateArt in the Park is something I have wanted to add to the events since last year. The time has finally come,” Ryan said.

He has even bigger goals for We Board Together in the coming months, with snowboarding also on his agenda. “There’s a reason I called it We Board Together not We Skate Together,” Ryan says. “I didn’t want to limit myself to just skateboarding.”

Ryan hosted a pilot snowboard clinic at an abandoned ski area last year, which registered a lot of interest. He aims to partner up with some local ski resorts and rental shops to make it happen. “That’s why we made the decision to register We Board Together as a 501(c)(3) non-profit in California. When it comes down to snowboarding, more funding and industry relationships will be needed, so it will make things easier in the future,” Ryan said.

Snowboarding and skiing are known for being more ‘elitist’ sports, with one of the main barriers to participation being the sheer financial cost of even getting started with the sport. There are gear expenses; a snowboard, bindings, boots, goggles, helmet (not to mention all the new waterproof/insulated outerwear necessary to be out in the snow). Season pass lift tickets to ski resorts can be extremely pricey. In Tahoe, a season pass for one person costs roughly $500-600, and a single day pass around the $100 mark. Travel expenses, ski instructor hire and lessons… it all adds up very quickly, often putting people off or simply blocking them from participating completely.

By hopefully working alongside a local resort to get cheaper lift tickets and partnering up with a rental shop to secure a discount or borrow demo gear, Ryan wants to make snowboarding more accessible to people that want to give it a try, but maybe haven’t had the opportunity before.

Our Town Reno reporting and photos by Gaia Osborne

Locally Made, Reno Based Movie Carp-e Diem Premieres

Earlier this month, at the Summit Century theater, Carp-E Diem premiered on the big screen. What stood out in this movie was that the film had roots in Reno, behind the scenes, with “99% of the crew from Reno” according to those who made it, Andrew Arguello and Mj Palo (see details about them in above caption) and on the screen. The scenery was that of our town’s beautiful desert. Many aspects were recognizable such as Reno PD cars, local shops, and neighborhoods. 

On-screen playing the part of Agent Cooper is Jasmeet Baduwalia. He was able to kick start his career in Reno after acceptance into the Take 2 Performers Studio on Smithridge Dr. Also in the film is Gregory Klino playing the part of officer Dewey. Klino, who also has a writing credit on this film, is a local Reno producer and teacher for the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival.

The film runs 100 minutes and is about a drifter couple Natasha (who is very pregnant) and Vern (who is not the father of the baby). They go from place to place killing people to stay in their homes while pawning their valuables. The couple ends up killing Martha and Bob only to discover they were drug dealers for the Mexican cartel. Natasha and Vern then pretend to be them and make a profit from what they found left behind. Taking it to another level, Pedro the son of the cartel leader Mika goes to live with them. The entire film is pretty much about them getting themselves into more and more trouble.

By the end of the film, the viewer is left with a lot of questions including: What is the backstory of the father of Natasha’s child? Why was Natasha running from him? Why and where did Vern come into the picture?

The main actors are convincing though. Vern is very charismatic and even in dark times a light-hearted character. He is a classic example of the bad guy character the audience falls for and roots for. One of the villains in the story Mrs. Hendrix is brilliant as a seemingly ordinary middle-aged woman who is actually an unhinged hit woman. 

The cinematography is complex and amazing. The costume designers also did a good job. For example Vern with his Hawaiian shirts and Pedro with his flamboyant outfits.  The movie seems to be in the crime comedy genre, but the jokes can be violent, sexual, or stereotypical. 

The biggest issue for me with the film was using the Mexican characters to play stereotypical drug lord roles. Hispanics playing the roles of drug lords, gang members, and criminals is so overdone, so why continue this trend locally? The community is tired of this representation. This causes negative stereotypes and makes it harder for Hispanic actors to land roles outside of playing criminals. This is not what the culture is about and it was greatly misrepresented. Pedro is the gay, dumb son of a drug lord. Mika is a tatted Narco with an accent.

Carp-e Diem can also be seen as a stereotype of Reno. There is more to this vibrant and diverse art city than what was portrayed on film.  However, overall, this is a big leap for filmmakers and actors in Reno. The directors and producers hope to make more films in the future and grow from this experience. Such endeavors can help bring Reno a market for more cinematic productions and give our local talent a much needed spotlight. 

Our Town Reno reporting and review by Nancy Vazquez

Discovering the Many Little Free Libraries in the Biggest Little City

It’s a bright and cheerful Tuesday morning. I am taking my husky for a walk (or rather she is taking me for a walk) around my neighborhood as I do every single day.

Today, I choose to take a different route and walk around a part of the neighborhood I haven’t been through before.

As I wander past row after row of almost identical looking houses, one in particular stands out to me. It has a small white box perched on its front lawn, painted with brightly-colored birds and flowers. At first, I think it’s simply a beautifully decorated mailbox, but upon closer inspection, I realize it is filled with books. Books that are free for the taking. It’s yet another community library in Reno, operating on a take one leave one basis. 

A quick Google search reveals that this registered Little Free Library is one of 50 in the local area, and one of over 100,000 around the globe. They are springing up everywhere. On street corners and front lawns. Schools, parks, hospitals, and community centers.

Little Free Library is a non-profit organization based in Minnesota. Its mission is clear: to be a catalyst for building community, inspiring readers, and expanding book access for all, through a global network of volunteer-led Little Free Libraries. They believe that all people are empowered when the opportunity to discover a personally relevant book is not limited by time, space, or privilege. 

Essentially anybody can open a Little Free Library. Their website gives you the option to buy a pre-made kit for your own book-sharing box. You buy it, they ship it. All you need to do is assemble and decorate it, and finally place the registered library on your front lawn. Or there is the option to build your own from scratch, giving you the creative freedom to make it as large, ornate, and whacky as you wish.

But apart from being fun and novelty little houses for books, why do these Little Free Libraries even matter? And, specifically, why do they matter in our community? 

Little Free Libraries’ website stresses that the United States is currently facing a growing literacy crisis. Today, in the U.S., more than 30 million adults cannot read or write above a third-grade level. Repeated studies have shown that books in the hands of children have a highly meaningful impact on improving literacy – the more books available in or near the home, the more likely a child will learn and enjoy reading. However, two-thirds of children living in poverty have no books to call their own. 

According to a 2020 article published by Sierra Nevada Ally, Nevada is facing its own literacy crisis. Approximately two-thirds of Nevada’s school-age children score below a basic level of reading proficiency, and Nevada is rated in the bottom half of states in reading achievement for grades 4 and 8 by the National Assessment of Educational Progress. This achievement gap exists within all subgroups of students, but it particularly affects disadvantaged students; those from low-income households and neighborhoods. Little Free Libraries could potentially help solve the literacy crisis in Nevada, by playing a key role in providing 24/7 access to books in areas of Reno where books are scarce.

It seems that Reno locals have really jumped on this new movement, and book-sharing boxes can be found all over town. Local bookstore Grassroots Books has been a great supporter of the Little Free Libraries in town, hosting fill-a-bag book sales where LFL owners can restock their boxes inexpensively. 

Little Free Libraries have various programs through which they grant no-cost book-sharing boxes already filled with books to underserved, urban, suburban, rural, and Indigenous communities. Their website (www.littlefreelibrary.org) has plenty of information on such programs, as well as information on how to build and set-up your own library. They also have a very useful interactive map which details the locations of all the Little Free Libraries in your area, including street addresses and photos of the boxes. 

Our Town Reno reporting by Gaia Osborne

A Fresh "Poppin'" Mural on Keystone Ave.

Before they went back to their studies, summer was productive for a group of Reno highs school artists who refreshed the Keystone Bridge overpass base with the “poppin’ colors of a 70s psychedelic design,” as described by painter and Hug High student Ivana with a smile.

The bright and bold mural, designed by noted local muralist Hannah Eddy (@HannahEddy on Instagram) with the input of the students, replaces a flaking and faded turquoise water drop mural that had been there several years at the corner of Keystone and Riverside by the McKinley Art Center.

The teens involved in the painting were invited, and paid for their assistance, through the Nevada Art Museum and Community in Schools, along with the City of Reno. They worked closely with Eddy on developing and then creating the bright graphic design.

John, a student at enCompass Academy, pointed out the spitting snake he had suggested.  The painting continues around a corner to a long wall filled with mountains, brightly colored birds, a frog, balloons for the balloon festival, and stylized desert plants. 

“We all just put in ideas of what we felt describe Reno,” said Freya, a junior at enCompass.  Emily, a Hug High junior, pointed out that the group of 12 students who helped paint the walls, did not really know each other before beginning to work together last February.

Each of the teens felt that working on the mural gave them a connection to Reno and a sense of pride. It also increased their artistic abilities and they said that working with Eddy, who has designed murals around the country, was both inspiring and fun. 

The result is bright and very public art to add to both the urban Truckee River corridor and the city as a whole.

Our Town Reno reporting by Dina Wood

Steve Boyer, A Wine Specialist Bringing Mobile Oysters to Reno

Steve Boyer, a leading wine entrepreneur on the Reno scene, who showed resilience as a local businessman during the pandemic, is now bringing oysters to a wine bar and brewery near you, including his own, Archive at West Street Market.

What pairs the best? “Champagne always, always sparkling wine,” he told Our Town Reno during a recent interview, before opening Archive on a weekday.  “I think a lot of people focus on white wines with oysters or beer with oysters. There's some amazing beer and oyster pairings, but there's also some beautiful, fresh, vibrant reds that'll work well with oysters. It honestly probably depends more on the weather than on the oyster. Although there are definite pairings we will be featuring with each oyster.”

Most conversations with Boyer, who has more than a quarter century experience in the wine and service industry, turn into mouth watering propositions. Oysters have long been only available inside casinos in northern Nevada, but Boyer is coming up with the concept of a mobile oyster trailer called the Mini Pearl Oyster Company.  

“We’re going to go around, serve freshly shucked oysters and a couple of other fresh seafood alternatives. It’s going to be a lot of fun. I think it'll be something that Reno hasn't seen. It will be a way to get access to fresh oysters without having to go sit down at a fancy restaurant,” he said. 

The name for this new oyster venture comes from Minnie Pearl, the American comedian whose real name was Sarah Cannon.  She  appeared at the Nashville country music stage the Grand Ole Opry for more than 50 years.

“My wife [Amy, the co-owner of Archive and a wine distributor] and I met in Nashville, Tennessee, home of Minnie Pearl. She was a tremendous asset to her community, as well as a tremendous comedian, for her time. And we thought it represented making [oysters] more approachable. It just sounds like a lot of fun. And then of course, oysters and pearls, they're a natural combination. So I think, I think it'll be a lot of fun to, to see how people react to it.”

Archive can be found through one of the West Street facing doors of the West Street Market in downtown Reno.

For Boyer, it will be the latest in a series of entrepreneurial ventures, some of which failed, including when he first moved to the region and opened a restaurant in what was then Squaw Valley in 2007 just as the Great Recession hit.  He was out of that business after two years. Boyer opened Archive (“a repository of great things that represent place”) just six months before the pandemic started.

“We were were building a lot of momentum, right before the pandemic,” he remembers. “We closed down a little bit for, for just a short period of time. And then we opened up [again]. we do have a retail license here, so we can sell bottles and cases to go. So we tried to pivot to some retail sales, but our location downtown made that a little bit more difficult. Honestly, people were just scared to get out and about for a long time.”

He said the plan was never to prioritize sales though but the experience and interacting with guests. “We firmly believe that great wine is a conversation, not a product. For what we do, it's important for us to be able to really interact, and explain what we have and find out what it is people are looking for. And so that made it really difficult, but, you know, we're resilient. We got some support from the community and then honestly it was just buckling down and making our minds up that we were gonna keep going, even if we weren't making money.”

Boyer says the pandemic reinforced the importance of supporting small local businesses. 

“I think we are feeling that love a little bit now, which is great,” he said.  That support is also giving him new confidence, despite the many current challenges of inflation, supply chain strangleholds and climate change to name a few. 

“A lot of that depends on how we treat it, whether we treat it with respect, and treat Reno with respect,” Boyer said of now succeeding with the oyster venture, at least in terms of what he can control.  “I think it also depends on how much work we put into it. And then there's always a lot of luck involved [with] timing.”

Outside of work, Boyer is an avid snowboarder who during the winter volunteers at Sky Tavern, where both his boys have been going since they were four.   He advises other entrepreneurs to keep a healthy balance. 

“It’s easy to get so caught up in the day to day grind,” he said. “And, you know, one of the commitments that I made to my wife and that we made to each other when we opened Archive was that this wouldn't become so important to us that we would sacrifice our family, or sacrifice ourselves and the things that we love to do. We moved to Reno to raise a family and we moved to Reno to be outside and to enjoy what Reno has to offer. I think it's really important to maintain that sanity and that balance. It's okay to sacrifice a little bit of growth financially to be able to grow in other ways. And I think that's a balance that's hard for entrepreneurs to do, but I think you have to find a way to do it.”

Our Town Reno reporting, Summer of 2022

Beth, A Riverwalk Chalk Artist with Positive Messages

Reno is proud of its commitment to public art, including the many beautiful murals on buildings, mainly in gentrifying parts of town.

If you cross the street from the Riverwalk and look down at your feet you can often find more public art in a series of lively little images, often with bugs and cheerful flowers as the subject.

Using the medium of chalk, artist and life coach Beth Hefley makes vignettes in a style she calls “woodland fairy”. For the last four years every two weeks she sets out to decorate the sidewalk along the river.

She grew up in Florida, where she and her brothers discovered their artistic talents. One brother chose realism photography, another is now a Reno tattoo artist and Beth felt drawn to chalks. After leaving school she wanted a change and moved to Reno, which now feels like home.

Beth’s art is for the public in a very free and open way. “I really just want to make people happy and smile,’’ she says, looking up from a nearly finished little red mushroom. "There's so much pain in the world. If I can create something to make someone happy, why not?”

After living in Reno through many changes for the city socially and economically she says: “I have to adapt to them, right?”

Beth picks another color to add. “I try to go to heavily trafficked areas so I can get as many smiles as possible,” she says.

Our Town Reno photos and reporting by Dina Wood

VoluntYou Brings NASA Astro Camp and Much More for Local Youths

The Silver State’s first NASA Astro camp took place at the University of Nevada, Reno’s Robotics Innevation Center’s K-12 Robotics Center last week, spearheaded by VoluntYou, a locally created platform bringing volunteers, NGOs, and schools together.

The summer camp, sponsored by and borrowing curriculum from the titular NASA, focused on the Artemis program to explore the moon. Some activities included designing stabilizing fins for rockets, a heat shield or a crew module for astronauts.

“All of this material is aligned with next-generation science standards and ties back to common core topics,” Julianna Schneider, the Founder and CEO at VoluntYou, said. “All of that information is provided as part of the curriculum and each step that we go through ties to that. All the skills that we teach will become useful to the kids at some point in their development, and we tend to try and tie what they learned here to what they’ve learned at school.”

VoluntYou works to help community members fulfill their ideas while matching volunteers with opportunities. Other projects outside of the NASA Astro camp include working with the Reno Burrito Project, administrative and recording duties of providing COVID-19 vaccines in Italy and working with a group to facilitate donations to the citizens of Ukraine. In the case of the NASA Astro camp, that’s working with a young robotics team to help organize the red tape behind a summer camp.

“We aim to be flexible in the way that we do things while maintaining high quality standards, and I think they’re a really great example of how we will help people who may not have a 501c3 or financial backing of that sort to be able to reach into the community,” Schneider said.  “We will ensure that all the things that are featured on VoluntYou are of a certain level and a high quality standard.”

Every camp receives a similar, standardized curriculum across the country, but this NASA Astro camp was the first for the state of Nevada. Schneider said other organizations will integrate the NASA Astro Camp into summer camps that have been established or other similar opportunities.

 “Museums that run day-long or week-long camps for kids sometimes will embed NASA as after camp activities in their programming,” Schneider said.  “It is variable in that sense of how you might see and manifest itself, but the curriculum is standardized and that's how it can actually tie to school standards.”

VoluntYou, started in Reno, aims to become an international organization. It has over 20 so-called Ambassadors from Ukraine to Italy and Cambodia. Schneider, an Albanian native herself, said that these Ambassadors help communities around the world turn the ideas they have into tangible action.

“Our ambassador team helps local communities build capability to hold community service events,” Schneider said. “They tend to be very involved in things like national honor society and 501 c3s. They use that knowledge along with the knowledge gained through being part of volunteering to advise groups that are looking to become community service organizations. That enables organizations that might have not been able to really get off the ground to do that through the help of our ambassadors and then the full suite of the platform that we provide.”

A U.S Presidential Scholar and aspiring AI researcher Schneider herself already has an impressive resume, with the Davidson Academy where she won multiple awards propelling her to starting her college studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology this fall.

Our Town Reno reporting by Jesse Stone

Remi Jourdan, A Reno-Based Innovator “All Ears” for Local Musical Talent

Since first arriving in Reno he calls “Reno de Janeiro,” Frenchman Remi Jourdan has owned a live music nightclub on Fourth Street, started a digital startup to help independent musicians from his home near downtown Reno, and coordinated multiple concerts and festivals across local venues.

Up next, he’s managing the musical portion of the Sept 8-11 Reno Tahoe International Art Show, in its first edition, with stages at the Reno Sparks Convention Center, a special night at Cargo and a gala at the Nevada Museum of Art. 

“My role is exclusively booking talent, showcasing all the amazing talent we have in our area. There's going to be about 80 musicians and 17 performances in three locations,” he said. 

Styles will range from jazz to blues, funk and pop, many of them coming from local musicians, who will all be paid to perform.  

“I think that we tend to not think too much about our local community, as far as art and music. We tend to bring people [from] out of town.  Post COVID, artists have been really struggling, not been performing. So the idea is … to support the local music scene,” he said.  With rising rents and other inflation, many independent venues are also having a hard time putting on shows. 

His digital music platform Tunetrax also has many Reno artists listed, and is a global endeavor he started from the Biggest Little City. 

“It’s a self generated platform, so artists can sign up, it's free to sign up to the platform. The idea is for artists to create a profile, and [get] electronic press kits. They can publish the music, promote the music, to their fans, or music professionals to get booked. It's a very useful tool for artists to be competitive in [the] online community,” he said.  He calls it an alternative to MySpace which before it disappeared club owners and booking agents used extensively to find and schedule musicians.  

Once they make the jump to in person attendance, Jourdan urges fans to support their favorite musicians even more when they can.  “You know, remember to support artists, you know, a little extra, you know, buying a CD, tee-shirts, whatever, because remember those guys didn't have any income for a very, very long time for the last two years. So, you know, it goes a long way,” he said. 

Jourdan has had experience managing bars and clubs in Los Angeles and Paris, including the famed Moulin Rouge, which has been open since the late 19th century.  In Reno, he was one of the co-founders of the Off Beat Arts and Music Festival which started in 2015.  He first arrived in the Biggest Little City in 2007 after purchasing the Club Underground at 555 E 4th street, just as the Great Recession was hitting Nevada particularly hard. 

Despite many challenges to keep that club open for as long as he did, Jourdan has fond memories of his Reno beginnings.  “We had two stages, two bars and two different different rooms, one bigger room and one smaller room. I booked about 4,135 bands in five years. So that's about 80 bands a month, paying them, which was important to me as well, again, going back to supporting the local community … so giving opportunities [for] more exposure. I did a lot of all ages show as well, back in the day. I lost a lot of money doing that, but I had a lot of fun doing it. And you know what, today, when I walk in around the river and I see kids waving at me and saying, ‘Hey, how you doing, man? And like, you know, I have a hard time to remember them and, you know, they come to me and say, ‘you know, I remember I was 16, 17 when I first played your venue.’ That's pretty cool.” 

Jourdan said back then metal shows and hip hop were the dominant genres, but that now the Reno style of music has broadened to appeal to all sorts of musical tastes. 

Going forward, he’d also like to organize a music festival for the unhoused community, which would include paid for food trucks, haircuts and an outdoor stage. Jourdan would also like to reach back to his French roots and bring to Reno the “Fete de la Musique” which started in 1982, and now takes place in over 1,000 cities across the world on June 21st and into the night.  The Biggest Little City has yet to have one.  There’s paid events but also free outdoor musical events at all hours, in bars, restaurants, parking lots, coffee shops, parks, everywhere.

“That's something that would be fantastic to bring to Reno and let everybody be able to get involved, you know, and it’s free to get involved. Everybody can be involved during that initiative. So again, if anyone wants to get, involved [with these ideas], and help out and make that a reality, I'm all ears.” 

Our Town Reno reporting, August 2022

Reno's Crystal Powell Seeks to Become a Cover Girl

Throughout the summer, new mom Crystal Powell sought out help on Facebook trying to get votes for the Maxim Cover Girl Competition. She often posted photos of herself and her daughter, or updates about her challenging life to encourage people to vote for her. She proceeded onward at first but then finished third in the latest voting group she was in.

Undeterred, she’s now setting her sights on another competition to become Ms. Stars and Stripes. “Calling All Country Girls,” is that competition’s headline: “We’re searching for ONE woman who represents a “country” way of life to be crowned Ms. Stars & Stripes in 2022! This country queen will be featured in STAR Magazine, take home $25,000, and be the belle of the ball at all the hottest events of the year!”

Part of what Powell is doing is trying to get Reno more on the fashion and modeling map.

“There is a fashion industry in Reno,” Powell said.  “It’s very small and people do know each other, but I feel more than other cities that I've gotten work in, it's very intimate and they're willing to accept any kind of model, no matter what age, no matter what body type. I really appreciate that about the modeling industry here.”

Powell won awards for the above documentary, Life’s Just Hard, she made during her time at the Reynolds School of Journalism at UNR.

During the week, Powell is a media production specialist with the Washoe County sheriff’s office. Two years ago, she was contacted by a marketing agency to do some modeling work for a product advertisement on Instagram. From there, Powell has spent the last few years dabbling in part-time modeling work in addition to her full-time job.

Doing all this while being a new mom is not easy, but Powell says she also wants to set an example for her daughter.

“I want her to realize the sky is the limit,” Powell said. “You can do anything you want to do in this world, especially with the way it's changing. Talking about modeling, certain barriers to entry in the industry are disappearing. Ten years ago, you couldn't do certain things if you didn't look a certain way, if you didn't have a certain background or the right connections. And that is not the case anymore, especially with social media.”

If she ever wins one of these magazine prizes, Powell said she would use the money to move her family into a safer part of town. Where she lives now, she says, she has encountered issues with cars being broken into and gunshots into the night. Powell wants to stay in Northern Nevada, though. 

“My daughter's dad is a firefighter and we love the Reno area,” she said. “I've lived in a handful of other large cities across the US since college. And I've always come back here because it really is the biggest little city in the world.”

Reporting by Jesse Stone for Our Town Reno

Garlic Braiding, Part of Desert Farming Initiative's Bimonthly Communal Events

Ahead of Reno Garlic Fest on July 30th, the Desert Farming Initiative, the agricultural program established in 2013 at the University of Nevada, Reno, recently held a Garlic Harvest and Braiding Workshop with Reno Food Systems and Katy Chandler of Be The Change Project.

The workshop was one of their community connection events which occur every other Saturday. Fifteen attendees showed up, interested in bettering their skills in growing garlic in the Reno area.

Chandler, who grows garlic on her urban homestead, instructed participants on how to identify suitable “soft neck” garlic for braiding and how to weave it correctly. Braiding garlic is a traditional way to store garlic both functionally and decoratively.

It took most attendees a handful of tries to make a suitable braid. Attendees were given the choice of leaving their braids with DFI or taking these home for a suggested donation of $15, to fund student wages in the fall. Garlic is one of DFI’s main “cash crops” or revenue sources. 

"Locally grown food, regionally grown food, is an important solution to a lot of the challenges we’re going to be facing going forward," said Jill Moe, DFI's Director for the past four years.

DFI sources funding from grants, donations, and farming revenue, such as the sale of their organic plant starts and produce. “I think DFI has so much potential as a public resource to provide education… I feel like we provide a great platform for that now but going forward I only envision us doing more,” Moe said.

Photos and Reporting by Ariel Smith for Our Town Reno

Our Casinos, from the Perspective of Students, a Tourist and an Employee

 It’s a windy day in the Biggest Little City while reporter Sean Sear, scrambling down the streets of downtown Reno, starts to make his way into the one and only Circus Circus casino hoping to have a vision full of nothing but casino goers. Little did Sean know how truly dreary this day was about to get.

The state of Nevada is very familiar with tourists and welcoming in people from all over the world, look at Las Vegas for example. While Reno is a smaller city, there is still a large population of tourists that come to Reno. The best part (to some) about Nevada is the casinos and we wanted to find out what casinos are popular these days.

A very noticeable thing from the information we gathered was that people will not often change the casinos they stay at once they have liked their original experience there. As many of us may know, not many people are fond of change and like to be comfortable in their routines and casinos can be included in that. 

There’s also a major difference between someone that is traveling to Reno for the first time versus someone that has been in Reno for a long time and has been able to experience and stay at a lot of the hotels/casinos here. Whether it is local discounts or comfortability, there will always be something that catches the eye of one of the travelers that keeps them coming back.

Sonya, who is a worker at Circus Circus and a local to Reno, said that she prefers Peppermill out of all the options here. “I just like their style and it’s very nice there, it’s bigger and better than most hotels here in Reno,” she shared.

A major part of the appeal for Sonya was the gambling aspect at Peppermill as she said she used to spend most of her time there and was a big gambler before she started to try to save money. Peppermill appeals to locals as there is a 20% discount for most things at the hotel.

On the contrary, a tourist from Florida named Sheri won a trip to Reno and spent the last five days living the hotel life and learning about some of what Reno had to offer.

Her interest wasn’t gambling as much as a nice place to stay and she proclaimed that “the Silver Legacy had some live music and action on the weekends… so it had something to do besides just gambling.”

Sheri wasn’t too happy with how her gambling went during her stay.

“I’m not coming back to Reno. It was a long flight and honestly I had zero luck at any of the casinos,” she said, This can be mentally, and financially, taxing to lose all of the “fun money” you had planned for the trip and can dampen your mood on going back to gamble again.

What side of the coin are you on? Do you prefer to stay at a hotel that offers local discounts and ensures that they want locals back or would you prefer to stay at a hotel that might not have better local discounts but is more lively during the weekends and offers more fun for your weekend stay?

Admittedly, we just got a small taste and there’s so much more in casino land that can be experienced here, but as many other locals without any intense attraction to gambling it’s also easy to just pass them by while going elsewhere, and wonder what happens inside.

Our Town Reno reporting by Sean Sear and Troy Welling

Teenager Prepares Bitchin Betties Skate Event in Name of Women’s Solidarity

Ella Haworth, 19, is emailing and calling left and right, asking friends for logo designs, getting permits, applications, sponsors and musicians lined up for what she hopes will be an all-ages women’s skating extravaganza on the evening of August 13th at Idlewild Skatepark.

Haworth needs to secure more funding though by July 13th.  Sponsors have already offered prizes for event winners but she is still short about $800 she said, to rent the park, get the application fee, a generator and an amplified sound permit, among other necessities to pull off a successful night of women’s skating and bonding.

“It’s always been really hard for me to find other girls to skate with and yes, of course there are girls to skate with in Reno, don't get me wrong, but every single time it comes down to like having competitions, I feel like I'm the only one that signs up and then they put me with the boys and then it's unfair. So my idea for starting all of this was I had just heard about Roe v. Wade being overturned. And that's a really big deal for me. And I was like, oh wow, ‘I need to have something where we can get all the women together.’ And then for a while I've been wanting to throw a women's skate competition. So it all kind of just mashed together. I'm like ‘whoa, women supporting women and women being badass.’”

There will be a donation pot for the Wild West Access Fund of Nevada which assists those seeking abortion care both inside the state and coming from outside.  Rollerskaters will also be integrated into the different competitions, as she recognizes they can be a different demographic than younger skateboarders.  Competitors will enter for free, and the public will be asked to pay five dollars. 

How did Haworth come up with the name and flyer for the event? “My friend drew it for me actually. I was like, ‘oh, well, what if the flyer was like a girl, like a skull girl with like rock and hair?’ Bitchin Betties is like a name for a badass chick.” 

Haworth is organizing the event in between working two jobs, at Safeway and Sierra Nevada Hemp Company. 

She says her goal is also to help the local skateboarding community better understand each other.  

“I just want everyone to get along because  especially in Reno, I don't know about other places at all, I know for a fact there's lots of like random secret little beefs that people have with each other,” she said. “And I think getting everyone together in one big open space kind of helps with that. You know, you get to see people in their environment, see people hanging out with your friend, with their friends and being like, ‘oh, maybe they're not so bad of a person.’”

Haworth started skateboarding looking up to an older brother. “I just wanted to do what he was doing genuinely. And so I would go like skate with my friends and then all of my friends who were girls, they had penny boards and I wanted to learn how to penny board with them. And I couldn't afford to buy a penny board because they're like a hundred bucks, but I had a bunch of old skateboard parts. So I put together a board and then boom, I'm a skater. This was like when I was like 14.”

Haworth said she struggled with online schooling, and with different family situations recently, so she had to put graduating from high school on hold, but hopes to finish her few remaining credits soon.  She finds being an event entrepreneur exciting, very much like skateboarding.

“It tears away, all your insecurity, it tears away your fear of things,” she said of her love of skateboarding. “It makes completing challenges in daily life easier simply because skating is such a challenge. And the fact that you have to put your mind to something really hard and nobody really teaches you skating either really it's you, that really does it yourself. So it's pretty much learning how to be self sufficient.”

You can donate to Ella’s endeavor here and support a young woman trying to create a #keeprenorad event for the community: https://www.gofundme.com/f/womans-skate-competition-idlewild-park?member=20407455&sharetype=teams&utm_campaign=p_na+share-sheet&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=customer

Our Town Reno reporting, July 2022

Soil Solidarity Keeps Giving and Growing in Reno

Soil Solidarity is a recent nonprofit with anarchist roots, based in “Maddux House”, a brightly painted orange home with a community garden in its backyard.

Founder Katie Colling has years of experience in community outreach and activism. She previously co-founded the Reno Initiative for Shelter and Equality, which has had many endeavors, including community meals and a free market of donated items.

Soil Solidarity works with other local initiatives such as Hampton House Garden Project, Reno Food Systems, Biggest Little Food Not Bombs and Puff Puff Pass The Love, growing healthy food to support people in need.

“It's all given away,” said Colling of their organically grown produce. “We grow all the food for the homeless and pass it along to the people who serve it.”

Soil Solidarity now operates out of Colling’s own backyard after a failed attempt at a local church’s plot where plastic sheeting had been laid under the entire space.

Colling uses a no-till method to promote mycelium growth, the root systems of fungi that allows for healthy nutritious soil that is erosion resistant. It’s fostered through compost, which can include food scraps, yard waste, and some paper products. Mushrooms were introduced to speed up the process.

A pile of finished compost that “cooked” for eight weeks. Composting is the controlled rot of organic material to create nutrient-dense soil that improves plant performance. 

Compost turning is one of the chores volunteers of Soil Solidarity are tasked with. It is turned to allow for a quick and even breakdown of the material. Large pieces are sifted out of the compost and introduced into subsequent batches to start fungal growth.  Compost is then placed on top of the green cart and pushed through to remove clumps and large pieces, leaving behind airy and healthy soil.

“I started coming to volunteer at the community garden because nothing made me as happy as putting my hands in the dirt,” said Edwards (left), who is unable to garden at her own home.

Soil Solidarity uses organic and Indigenous planting methods. One of these is the Three Sisters method. Corn is planted in the center, beans surround and climb the corn, and squash is planted at the base. The corn acts as a trellis, the beans provide nitrogen to the soil, and the squash leaves shade the roots like a living mulch that retains water. Through these organic and Indigenous techniques, Colling says she is able to grow food in our difficult climate. 

The Three Sisters represent squash, beans, and corn and is an example of companion planting, where each plant in a plot contributes to the success of another.

“Our next garden project is to have housing on-site,” said Colling of long-term goals for the nonprofit. “Two tiny homes for staff who run the property. Two tiny homes for the interns who are learning how to run a project and the property, and six tiny homes for low-income residents. So it would be a 10-unit place with a garden and a community center.”

Our Town Reno Reporting by Ariel Smith

Sam Crabtree, Saying Goodbye While Hoping to Start a New Broadway Night Tradition

Sam Crabtree, 24, is a recent UNR grad with an acting degree. Tonight at 7:30 PM he is hosting his first cabaret night at Shim's Surplus Supplies, which he says will consist mainly of Broadway music rearranged into "a fun, informal night of song."

The cabaret show has been largely Crabtree's own doing, but he credits professors and friends who have guided and helped him make the show possible.

"There's not always been a strong connection between nightlife and the arts entertainment section of Reno," Crabtree told Our Town Reno as he made final preparations.

In addition to creating a local space for cabaret, Crabtree seeks to provide theatre students in Reno a place to grow their skills.

The big night comes just as Crabtree is planning to move out of Reno, to take on a theatre internship in Florida later this summer. He hopes to make the event big enough to pass it on to someone to keep up the "fun, frantic energy of cabaret."

"There's something so valuable for students to perform in front of a crowd of people who just want to be entertained," said Crabtree. He recognized a need for performers coming out of UNR to have experience performing for the public in addition to shows at the university for an already accepting audience. "There's something valuable about that in terms of crowd work and learning how to win an audience over."

Reporting by Ariel Smith for Our Town Reno

A Day at a Beehive with a Young Reno Beekeeper

At around noon on a bright sunny high desert day, Conor Croskery drove into the parking lot of Reno’s River School Farm in his Subaru Forester. He walked out of his vehicle barefoot and sat in the back of his SUV to put on his ivory white bee suit and shoes. He then walked over to the top-bar hive he had placed inside this farm a few days ago. He was there for an inspection.

“They're going to stay in the box. That's their home,” he said. “And so today I just had to come by. And since it is a different style of hive, I had to make sure everything is doing okay and it looks like all the comb is being built straight. There's no problem. The queen is laying eggs in the little honeycomb cells. They look happy, healthy. Nothing is going on. So just kind of a checkup to make sure everything's running smoothly.”

Twenty-four year old Croskery who was always interested in the natural world pursued mechanical engineering as an undergrad, but has kept up with bees as a hobby.

“So the undergrad that I went in didn't really support [this] at all because it was all math, science, thermodynamics, fluid dynamics. It is cool, though, now that I know those things because I can kind of look at the beehive in more of an engineering perspective,” he said. “Like ventilation wise, how is the heat going? What are the bees doing to move the heat throughout it? And they kind of have a deeper understanding of that. So that's kind of cool. But I wouldn't say anything in my undergrad necessarily, supported my bee hobby.” 

Croskery started beekeeping in his senior year of high school after he was inspired by a teacher at Carson High School who used to be a beekeeper. Though his parents never owned a hive, his father helped him build on.

“The new ones I built this year are made from old redwood decking that my parents tore out,” he said. “They used to have a pretty big redwood deck down in Carson City (where his parents live) and wanted more garden space. So they took that out and saved all the wood and I used that to build a couple more beehives because it's important to recycle. And the bees don't really care if the wood is old and gnarly looking.”

“Generally, if you buy bees, they're going to be from California, especially for this area, because they're more local,” he explained but this year Croskery got them from his Reno neighbor.  “I got them from a local beekeeper who is actually not that far away from me. He's like three blocks away who has just had his own bees for like six years. He breeds them here. He sells packages and little hives to people,” he added. 

Croskery has other hobbies like climbing, skiing and backpacking which he says is “adrenaline seeking” but finds beekeeping to have a calming effect on him.

“What kept me going with it was just that it's such a nice, calming and relaxing hobby to have, which maybe sounds counterintuitive because it's a box full  of stingy insects, but just actually getting into the hive and I just feel like you talk to the bees and the bees talk back to you,” he said. “And there's so many little things that you kind of learn about them.  The box hums at a different pitch or something depending on how they're feeling. If they're upset, if they're not upset, they'll fly in your face to be like ‘...hey, get out of the hive, we were fine with it ten minutes ago now or  we are not.’ So I kept going at it just because it's just such a great and rewarding hobby to have.” 

On his bee inspection at the River School Farm, he checked for cross combing in the hives and made sure that the bees were building perpendicular hives. He also checked whether the queen was doing fine and if the bees were producing food and making “bee bread which is pollen.”

Croskery checked each hive carefully to inspect that they were making honey and straightened one comb he felt was not perpendicularly aligned. While doing so, he talked to the bees to calm them down and make sure that they were not being harmed in any way.

“It's like when I'm getting in you have to reassure them, like, ‘hey, I'm not stealing any honey. I'm not coming in here to destroy the hive. I'm just trying to help. I'm not here to hurt any  of you guys.’ Honestly I feel like they're pretty receptive to it because I feel like when I talk to the bees and maybe it's just the mental thing, but I feel like when I talk to the bees, they're less aggressive.” 

Although he is extra careful, Croskery has been stung often by his bees but says that it doesn't stop him from keeping them. “The reaction your body has to it, gets mellower and then you just kind of get used to getting stung. And so it's just like a needle prick. Or maybe it's like a shot or something. I don't get the whole swelling and big red bump and burning and all that stuff. And again, it doesn't happen as often anymore. Like, it will happen occasionally and, and if you're coming like every three to four weeks, you get stung once or twice, I just feel like it's not that big of a deal.”

Croskery says he has lost a hive recently to extreme temperatures and sudden snow and was deeply affected by it.

“I do move my beehives around because like now we know that native bees are what you're supposed to be supporting,” he said. “And I don't want to deplete the food (for native bees) in an area. So I like to move them around to make sure the natives have food.” 

A Reno resident, Croskery insists on supporting native products by people around us. “Make sure the honey you're buying is local,” he said. “You can go to the farmer's markets. Most of the time beekeepers are at farmer's markets. I'm sure you could probably look them up and find them too. And there's organizations too. There's an organization in Reno that does beekeeping for vets who have PTSD and first responders. So you could support them because they're doing good work. They're trying to help people out. But buy local honey, buy any of the products. A lot of them have bee pollen too, and they have lots of stuff and most of them are great people and they'll answer any bee questions you have if you have them. If you want to keep bees, ask them to mentor you, maybe they'll help you out.” 

Our Town Reno reporting and photos by Kingkini Sengupta

Ried Indart, A Reno Trail Blazer in Mountain Biking

Ried Indart, 20, a student at the University of Nevada, Reno, plays a big part in the growing mountain biking scene in the Biggest Little City.

He is currently racing nationally for the Reno Tahoe Junior cycling team.

Organizations like NICA (National Interscholastic Cycling Association) and the Reno Tahoe Junior Cycling team have helped get more kids outdoors and on bikes at an affordable price.

New trails are being built and bike shops are thriving as summer rounds the corner.

What got Ried into mountain biking were his parents.

“My dad took my sister and I on a ride one day,” he remembers. “I didn’t like the uphill but I liked the downhill, so I never stopped riding after that.”

Ried says that mountain biking has helped him develop skills off the trails as well in regards to decision making, and finding one's path.

He points to the National Interscholastic Cycling Association known as Nica which organizes races and other events as a good entry point for kids ages 12-18 in middle and high school.

“They (NICA) help kids in Reno by setting up some skills clinics where a bunch of more experienced riders go around and help kids that are just getting into it learn the basics of riding a bike,” he said.

Ried does hear complaints about mountain bikers from time to time.

“If you see a mountain biker riding down a trail slowly, some people will take that as ‘oh they were trying to destroy the trail or skid all around’ which I think is not accurate so the attitude towards mountain bikers because of these stories in Reno has shifted.”

Many mountain bikers are trying to better their reputation by being more aware of others on the trails.

“I try to always treat other people on the trail, whether it's a hiker, mountain biker or equestrian all the same. I pull off to the side of the trail whenever anyone is coming whether I’m going up or down. I just try to make everyone smile and tell them to have a great day.”

Keep Reno Rad reporting by fellow rider Nate Francis

Christopher Torres, In Recovery for the Performance Art of Wrestling

For Christopher Torres, wrestling is more than a physical fight. It’s an art form, a violent theater and a way to tell a story. A story of underdogs versus champions, competitors creating their reputations and building up throughout matches to their signature moves. Torres broke their right arm in the ring just a few months ago. But they’re not letting the injury keep them down.

“I've come to the realization that maybe this is a good sign that I have to take a little bit of time off,” Torres said during a recent interview with Our Town Reno. “I don't feel like I'm competing at the level I could be. I feel at this time I'm really going to hone my craft, not only in the ring, whenever I'm clear to do that, but outside of the ring. I think the part about wrestling a lot of people forget is the character aspect. I feel personally, for myself, that the character aspect has been lacking for a while.”

Explaining the broken arm leads to a lot of common questions when people learn Torres is a wrestler. Is wrestling fake? Is it choreographed? Torres, for their own amusement, comes up with slightly different answers explaining the broken arm every time. For Torres, the arm is an opportunity to explain to the uninitiated the sometimes difficult realities of wrestling. 

“I've met so many different people, and all of these people want to make sure that the show that they're putting on is the best product that they're doing,” Torres said. “They're pouring their hearts and souls into this show, because it's something that they believe in. Wrestling on its own could be a religion. It could be cultish, but it’s a religion.”

Their own character has gone through a couple of different iterations and nicknames. Names like “Panic Torres” and “Firebrand” were prototypes, but, for Torres, a wrestling character requires both amplifying who you are as a person and giving the audience what they need to enjoy the match. It isn’t just a physical sport for them. It’s violent theater. And authenticity in this violent theater is part of the reason that Torres now uses their real name as part of their wrestling nickname, “ATOMIC” Christopher Torres.

“I want to be able to demonstrate to the world who I am, and I’m not going to be apologetic about it,” Torres said. “I’m not going to be rude to anyone or put down others on my way to getting to wherever I need to go, but I’m not going to hold back who I am. I’m going to show people what it is that ATOMIC Christopher Torres is. And that might be different from what my real-life Christopher Torres is. But is it? I’m using the same name. I’m using my same identity. I’m just turning [it] up a little bit more.”

Screengrabs from the Instagram page.

Helping the public see what they want to see sometimes comes into conflict with their non-binary gender identity. Torres said they are happy to stand with other wrestlers and to be a non-binary wrestler to show other people, inside or outside wrestling, to live their best lives whether people like you or not. Torres said that representation for marginalized gender or sexual identities in wrestling has been hit or miss, outside of a few specific promotions.

“I don't make a habit of correcting people on my pronouns only because I know a lot of people aren't going to make the effort to use my correct pronouns,” Torres said. “That's the reality of the wrestling industry.”

Torres wants to one day pay the bills exclusively through independent wrestling, which have smaller events than professional leagues like WWE. Torres though sees the independent events as more effective at developing a connection with the fans. A wrestler can point at a fan and ask them to cheer, and spectators have to learn quickly to dodge out of the way as a body flies into the crowd. 

“We are self-funding most of these shows,” Torres said. “We have to pay for the chairs. We sometimes have to rent a ring, because we don’t have a ring. We have to pay for the building. We have to make sure we have insurance for wrestlers, all these different things that you have to account for.”

Torres see the independent wrestling industry as growing, but they plan to eventually move to California, a scene with more events and more action. For Torres, wrestling is a place where everyone can find something to love. They encouraged anyone to check their area and any cities close by for any independent wrestling events to support. 

“Don't go in with any preconceived notions that this may be fake,” Torres said. “It may be choreographed or it may be bad, because, I’'ll be real with you, sometimes bad wrestling exists. But it's fun. Wrestling, all wrestling, can be fun. And that on its own deserves its merit as an art.”

Our Town Reno reporting by Jesse Stone

Louis Bubala, Helping Protect the Wilderness Around Us

Louis Bubala, a local lawyer specializing in bankruptcies, remembers how he started volunteering with Friends of Nevada Wilderness in 2004, a moment which would set his path for countless more hours of helping preserve the region’s ecosystem.

He had first moved to Reno and was looking to engage in outdoor activities. “I left after work on a Friday and I had my five- year-old son with me,” he told Our Town Reno during a recent interview. “And I didn't have a four-wheel drive vehicle and so this was September and it was pitch black by the time we got up to Gerlach and I was up there. So I just kept going, and driving. And eventually I saw some taillights and found the campsite. And we went out and just had a great time with Friends of Nevada Wilderness and BLM (Bureau of Land Management) staffers and I think we were working on the Soldiers Meadows Hot Springs, trying to figure out how to get that area cleaned up and protected.”

Fast forward and Bubala has now been a secretary on the Board of Directors of Friends of Nevada Wilderness for the last seven years. The organization works towards preserving and protecting public lands in Nevada as wilderness and educating people about the need for restoration of such wildlands. 

After his initial foray, Bubala kept volunteering and also started donating money for the cause. Friends of Nevada Wilderness, with headquarters in Sparks, has about twelve to fifteen full-time employees and about the same number of seasonal and contractual employees throughout the year. Bubala’s role as a board member is to ensure that they watch their expenditures and become more efficient in their roles.

“So wilderness is an actual defined term by Congress. Wilderness is an official designation of federal public lands that only Congress can approve. And it's the highest level of land protection that you can put on federal lands, so lands that are either managed by Bureau of Land Management, US Forest Service, National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife,” he explained. “And really, it's designed to keep that land in undisturbed condition. So there's a level of solitude, there's a level of protection, it becomes a reservoir for water for animals, for plants. It's not hard to get into those areas. But if you're getting in there, you're doing it on foot. There's no roads, there's no driving into it. There's no bikes that are going into the wilderness. So the impact that people have on those lands is really minimal. And we're working to try to protect that.”

Friends of Nevada Wilderness mostly focus on “advocacy and stewardship,” according to Bubala. This involves interacting with many different types of people.

“We work with local landowners surrounding these areas, because oftentimes there's an interplay with what they do,” he said. “We work with local governments, they often  need to know what's going to happen to the tax base, how is land going to be developed or not developed? We work with the Congressional staff and federal agencies, because those are the people that are ultimately managing it. And on the Congressional side, Congressman [Mark] Amodei, Senator [Catherine] Cortez Masto, Senator [Jacky] Rosen, those are the people who get to vote on whether or not we're going to designate lands as wilderness.”

Bubala still also enjoys the role of being a volunteer and “getting out on land.” He says this is the most crucial role for anyone helping out.

“We're working to make sure the public lands that we have that are designated for wilderness or in the surrounding kind of buffer areas, how do we get out there, get our hands dirty, and make sure that those lands continue to be a high quality area for the plants and animals that depend upon them. And it's really rewarding to be out there and see that happen and look at the landscape and realize that you had a hand in keeping it beautiful and gorgeous, and protected.”

Friends of Nevada Wilderness has a signup sheet on their website for volunteers. On the basis of this, crews are prepared to go up to wilderness areas and experience working and spending time with the expert teams (trail crews) that lead these expeditions.

“We have a couple of trail crews that work normally, four to five people on each trail crew and they will go out into the wilderness further out,” Bubala explained. “So those people have actual training, they get training from the Forest Service and other people on these huge broadband saws, where you've got one person on each side of the saw to cut these down, not cut down really, but trees that have fallen across the trail, they can cut them into multiple segments. They will often hike 10 to 15 miles a day to get out to some of these areas that need the tender care that they can provide.”

The website https://www.nevadawilderness.org/ includes many opportunities of how a person can be a part of the organization.

“It's an opportunity to disconnect, to get in contact with the land in getting contact with yourself,” Bubala said, encouraging others to follow in his footsteps. “They are a great group of people and we won’t work you to death because part of the deal is we want you to get out on the land and see it yourself and understand and appreciate how beautiful this state is.” 

Reporting by Kingkini Sengupta for Our Town Reno