Author: Carlyn Ray Mitchell
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EMPTY STOCKING FUND: Couple finds new family in Urban Peak
William Rodriguez,19, and Sarah Dunhan, 20, are young and in love but when religious differences forced them to cut their families from their lives, the two were alone and broke. “Our families wanted us to be adults, and we are adults, but at the same time they want us to do it their way,” Rodriguez…
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EMPTY STOCKING FUND: Silver Key assists, visits man in hospital
After his wife died in Texas five years ago, Richard Travelstead was en route to his son’s home in Seattle when health problems indefinitely sidelined him in Colorado Springs. The now 77-year-old married a woman who he says took all of his money. He was sick and broke when El Paso County Sheriff’s deputies tried…
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EMPTY STOCKING FUND: Military family finds support, fun at Y
This weekend, Charmaine Lloyd-Skinner’s three kids participated in what is becoming a tradition for this military family: Santa’s breakfast at the Southeast YMCA. The event, held exclusively for children of military parents, is one of several bright spots the Y has offered Lloyd-Skinner and her children in the last two years. Lloyd-Skinner’s husband, a soldier…
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EMPTY STOCKING FUND: Agency a godsend to grandmother
When Susie’s granddaughter accidentally threw away the medicine that helps quiet the voices in the young teen’s head, Susie turned to Tri-Lakes Cares, just as she has for the past four years. The northern El Paso County non-profit got the girl 30 pills for $14, a significant savings for the family of special needs teens…
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EMPTY STOCKING FUND: YMCA helps soldier’s family
Wonda Barker has been married 14 years but knows well the struggles of single parenthood. Her husband is with Army Special Operations and spent the first four years of the family’s station at Fort Carson deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. With three children under the age of 10, there were few places Barker felt comfortable…
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EMPTY STOCKING FUND: Urban Peak helps teen turn life around
Last spring, three months before she was set to graduate high school, 19-year-old Cali Johnson dropped out. She was living in her car with her boyfriend, two friends and a pit bull. She lost her job at McDonald’s. It wasn’t until early June when her boyfriend drove her car and her friends to Queen’s Canyon…
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Three Carson cavalry scouts killed in Afghanistan
Three Fort Carson soldiers were killed in Afghanistan on Thursday when their unit was attacked with an improvised explosive device, the Defense Department said Friday. Sgt. Carlos A. Benitez, 24, of Carrollton, Texas, Spc. Rafael Martinez Jr., 36, of Spring Valley, Calif., and Pfc. Tramaine J. Billingsley, 20, of Portsmouth, Va., died in the blast,…
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UPDATE: No one found in house man threatened to blow up
No one was found inside a house where a man turned on all of the natural gas stove burners after telling his ex-wife he was going to blow the house up, police said. Police think the man may have turned on the gas and gone out the back door before authorities arrived. Colorado Springs police…
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Body found in running car the Springs’ 23rd homicide
Crowds recently climbed the steep ties of the Manitou Incline. Photo by CHRISTIAN MURDOCK, THE GAZETTE FILE
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Small chemical spill sparks hospital evacuation
The Pikes Peak Regional Medical Center in Teller County was evacuated Wednesday afternoon after a small chemical spill in the lab. About 50 patients and employees were removed from the hospital and the adjacent medical center around 1 p.m. after a spill in the lab caused concern vapors would get into the ventilation system and…