December 22, 2023

For a lot of people, the holidays mean getting a Christmas tree, and usually, that means some type of big, bushy green tree – like a Douglas fir, blue spruce or even a fake tree. But, Wyoming Public Radio’s Caitlin Tan tagged along with one Sublette County local who went on a hunt for an unexpected type of Christmas tree.

Mom and pop ski resorts are often the heart of ski towns. They’re usually pretty affordable, safe and not very crowded – lending themselves to being family oriented where a lot of kids learn to ski. But what happens when winters become less predictable and there isn’t even enough snow to open around Thanksgiving – which has become widely thought of as the start of ski season? How can these resorts afford to stay in business?

Jackson resident Connie Owen answered Wyoming Public Radio’s open call for holiday stories with a tale of Christmas past. Owen’s mother Ruth Hartzell Trout, who was born in 1923 and passed away in 2022, wrote this story on an old recipe card years ago.

The center received a grant from the Wyoming State Trails Program to create a new Avalanche Information Exchange page for the area on their website. The page is a centralized place for the public to share and see other community snow-focused observations for the Big Horn, Sierra Madre, and Snowy Mountain ranges.

Most people in the United States — Christian or otherwise — recognize December 25 as Christmas Day. For some, the day remembers the birth of Jesus Christ, for others it’s a celebration of family, an excuse to give gifts and party during the darkest part of the year. And for many, it’s all of the above. But for Patrick Ivers, a retired math teacher from Laramie, December 25 is a day to remember the discovery of calculus. Wyoming Public Radio’s Jeff Victor asked Ivers about his unorthodox holiday tradition.

Organ donation saved Douglas resident Rhonda Hill’s life. She’s been an advocate for the Donor Alliance nonprofit since a kidney and pancreas donation in her thirties gave her a new lease on life. On New Year’s Day, Hill will represent the Donor Alliance and Wyoming in the Rose Parade hosted in Pasadena, California. Wyoming Public Radio’s Jeff Victor is no stranger to organ donation himself; he gave a kidney to his father five years ago. While Victor gave a living donation — undergoing a transplant surgery to give up one of his organs — Hill received her new kidney and pancreas from a deceased donor. That means someone Hill never met added a little red heart to their driver’s license and when they died unexpectedly, their tragedy became someone else’s chance at a new life. Whether living or deceased, Hill told Victor the gift of life is not an easy gift to receive.

Stewart Shipman and his family live in Laramie. And they have a pretty unique tradition that has lasted over 70 years. He told Wyoming Public Radio the story.

Back in 2020, Rowan Shea was diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare type of cancer that forms in soft tissue. He was 11 years old. Make-A-Wish was not on the family's mind at all. But his mom Jodi said someone she knew reached out to her.

For many residents, the holidays hold a special place in their lives. And from Gillette to Cheyenne, towns play a big role in how people from around the Cowboy state celebrate.

Today on the show, Wyoming’s only avalanche center, based in Jackson, is trying to bring together snow observations from community members in the eastern half of the state. This past year, Make-A-Wish Wyoming granted a pretty unique wish. And we’ll hear some holiday traditions from a few of our listeners. Those stories and more.