SWEETWATER COUNTY — Can you believe another year is coming to an end? It’s been a whirlwind for sure.
Come take a walk down memory lane with us as we share our top stories of 2022. It was sure difficult narrowing it down, but after looking through the entire year of great stories, we came to the conclusion that Sweetwater County is a pretty great place to live and we are a community that rises up to help each other in times of need.
Before revealing our top picks, we want to thank you, our wonderful readers and subscribers, for sharing your stories, photos, videos, and news tips with us. We are grateful to live in such an amazing community with so many trusting us to tell their stories.
Here’s our top stories of 2022. Enjoy!
Tiger and Wolf Pride Shown During Blood Drive Challenge
(January 27, 2022)
Once again, students, staff, and community members showed their Tigers’ and Wolves’ pride by bleeding orange or green for their schools during the14th Annual High School Blood Drive Challenge.
The high school blood drive is a friendly rivalry between Rock Springs High School (RSHS) and Green River High School (GRHS). Through this friendly competition, both high schools work hard to try and collect as many blood donations as possible. The group that collects the most pints of blood wins. The totals are tallied by unbiased employees from Vitalant.
Each year, the totals seem to come closer and closer, so one never really knows who’s going to win the title and the trophy until it’s announced. This year the winner was Green River, which went on to win the state competition as well. The Green River and Rock Springs schools collected a total 566 pints of blood in four days, which is enough to save more than 1,700 lives.
Click here to read the whole story.
Local Heroes: Joey Majko
(February 18, 2022)
When local trucker Joey Majko saw stranded truckers at the Sweetwater Events Complex back in November an idea popped in his head.
Joey had the idea to feed the truckers dinner while they waited out a snowstorm that shut down Interstate 80 for a couple of days.
Before cooking a big meal and heading to the events complex, Joey asked his friends at the city and county if there were any ordinances they knew of that would prevent him from cooking dinners, lunches, and breakfasts and distributing them to the stranded truckers. When he was told there weren’t any, he set his plan in motion.
Click here to read the complete story.
RSHS and GRHS Raise $50K for Make-A-Wish
(February 24, 2022)
A week of giving and selfless service came to conclusion during Thursday night’s Make-A-Wish basketball games between Rock Springs High School (RSHS) and Green River High School (GRHS).
Between the two schools, a total of $50,617.94 was raised for Make-A-Wish Wyoming. Rock Springs raised the most with a total $25,670.68 while Green River raised $24,947.26. All money that is raised stays local to help grant wishes.
As part of the finale, the Tigers and Wolves basketball teams faced off for the final time during the regular season.
Click here to read the complete story.
Pasborg Receives Sheriff’s Commendation for Heroic Acts in House Fire
(May 17, 2022)
The Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office recognized Ryan Pasborg with the Sheriff’s Commendation during Tuesday’s Sweetwater County Commission meeting.
Pasborg was recognized for his selfless service when saving the Wadsworth family from their burning home in Jamestown in February. Sheriff John Grossnickle said Pasborg was driving down the highway, “late for work. There’s small miracles everywhere in the world.”
He noticed the smoke and the house that had erupted into flames and took it upon himself to go to the house to see if he could help.
Click here to read the rest of the story.
Washington Square Building Could Become Home for Single Mothers
(May 19, 2022)
On December 26, 2019, the Green River community nearly lost a historical landmark when the Washington Square building went up in flames. Now, two years and five months later, a future has been outlined for the building.
Debra Moerke, a Casper resident, has announced her plans to restore the building and turn it into a transitional home for single mothers. While the 1950s side of the building will be the home for single moms, the 1920s side, which was the one impacted by the flames, would remain a place for offices and banquet halls for community use.
Along with being a transitional home, Moerke said the goal would be to have a program set up for the mothers to help them gain independence. The home will be known as the McKenzie Home, named after Moerke’s late granddaughter who was born to a single mother.
Click here to read the entire story.
Documentary Film ‘Dear Sirs’ Receives GI Film Festival Award
(May 27, 2022)
Just how well do we truly know someone? Sometimes even our closest family members keep things to themselves. Who knows why? It could be because they don’t want to be seen differently or because it’s just too painful to relive an awful experience by telling someone and they’d rather just forget.
For Mark Pedri and his family, they only knew grandpa Silvio Pedri as “the miner”. They didn’t know Silvio as “the solider” until after he passed away and some of his World War II medals, letters, photos, and other memorabilia were discovered in his Rock Springs home.
Little did Mark know that the discovery of his grandfather’s WW II service would lead him and his wife, Carrie, on a 500-mile biking trip across Europe to retrace his grandfather’s steps through all his experiences during the war, which led to the creation of the documentary “Dear Sirs.” This documentary went on to receive an award at this year’s Best Documentary Feature at the GI Film Festival in San Diego. While Mark is humbled and honored to have received the award, that’s not why the documentary was created.
Click here to read the entire story.
Fortune Favors the Bold
(June 3, 2022)
Ever since he was 8 years old, Andrew Gallinger has dreamed about being a broadcaster.
It started when he accompanied his mom to work and listened to her as she recorded radio advertisements for a local station.
Andrew had always been an avid sports fan as well, and about that time he realized that “this talking on the radio thing may be kind of fun.”
Click here to read the whole story.
Private Joshua Thompson Honored by Fallen Soldiers Memorial Motorcycle Ride
(July 14, 2022)
United States Army veteran Private Joshua Thompson was honored today by a group of tribute motorcyclists traveling across the country to remember and honor those who served.
The 13th Annual Tribute to Fallen Soldiers Memorial Torch Motorcycle Ride stopped in Rock Springs to honor local fallen hero Private Joshua Thompson. Joshua was a United States Army Veteran of the Iraq War who passed away on August 13, 2013. The Tribute Riders are traversing the county from Eugene, OR to Arlington National Cemetery over the course of the summer and should arrive in Washington D.C. on August 7.
“I’m very, very humbled by the support our community has given us,” Joshua’s mom April Thompson said. “He would do anything for anybody.”
Click here to read the whole story.
Musician Steve Davis Wins Wyoming Singer-Songwriter Competition
(October 28, 2022)
Local musician Steve Davis proved his musicianship is top notch when he took first place at the Wyoming Singer-Songwriter Grand Finale over Labor Day weekend in Ten Sleep.
Davis has been playing music since he was 11 years old, and this was his first try at a music competition. He said the talent was immense and everyone was so different, which made winning all that more exciting.
“It was such an amazing feeling when I won,” Davis told SweetwaterNOW. “They announced third place, then second, and then they waited to announce first so I was on the edge of my seat. When they called ‘Steve Davis’ I couldn’t believe it because of how talented everyone was. With tears rolling down my face, I went up there to accept the award. It was an awesome experience.”
Click here to read the whole story.
Employees at Local Retail Store Buy Coworker a Car
(November 4, 2022)
When Rock Springs resident Richard Turner arrived at his job last Thursday, he had no idea his life was about to get a little bit easier when his coworkers gave him a 2001 Chevy Malibu.
You see, Richard has been riding his bike 6 miles every day to and from work, 5 days a week for the past six months. With the weather getting colder and snow just around the corner, he wasn’t looking forward to the winter months.
Richard said he did have a car until April of 2022 when it was repossessed because the cosigner on his car loan filed for bankruptcy and all assets the cosigner had were being repossessed. And just like that, his car was gone. Thankfully, Richard had his trusty bicycle to rely on. Richard said he had been trying to find a car since his was repossessed, but due to the repossession on his record no one would sell him a car. He also quickly discovered that even if he found a car, he couldn’t afford it.
Click here to read the entire story.
