public:cb_mirror:the_little_engine_that_could_in_calhan_txt_blogposts_30690
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The Little Engine that Could in Calhan
| The El Paso County Fair is located in Calhan, which is 35 miles east of Colorado Springs. It’s a small town, population under 1000. I volunteered for a shift to see Calhan for myself and I met two volunteers, Lynn Bouette and Elizabeth Miller. It's always a memorable experience to meet and spend time with people at the COS booth. You end up meeting people from all over the state who are concerned patriots and love Colorado. I also worked with event manager Ernie Przybyla. That’s not the first time I’ve worked at an event with Ernie. I met him two years ago at the Colorado State Fair in Pueblo. He can get people’s attention! Ernie is a member of Colorado’s COS Veterans Coalition. They find the events, organize the events and cover any empty spaces if the time comes. COS Vets have the greatest track record of reaching out to the public, getting their attention and explaining the very technical and legal process of an Article V Convention and how close we are to getting there. They’re under the pressure of accomplishing it in under two minutes…and they get it done! It must be quick because people are just passing by. It’s the vendor area so people are looking around for something interesting. Let me tell you, if explained well in under two minutes, an Article V Convention of States is as interesting as it gets. They flash that dinosaur poster of the fossils still serving in Congress after decades of failure and people stand at attention! So the little engine, the El Paso County Fair was an unexpected surprise in 2025. Firstly it’s a county fair, secondly it’s in Calhan, a 45 minute drive from I-25, and lastly it lasts 8 days. Compare this to the Colorado State Fair which is about 5 miles from I-25, lasts 11 days and is the biggest fair in the state, drawing nearly a half million people from all over Colorado. COS in Colorado has been very successful with getting petition signatures at the state fair. The last two brought in a thousand or more petitions each year from Pueblo. It begins again on August 22nd! Still, I am impressed by El Paso County. From July 12th-July19th 2025, the El Paso County Fair collected over 800 petitions! The county fair draws in about 35,000 people. It was an amazing accomplishment managed by two COS Vets, Bill Powell, manager of the El Paso County Fair for COS and Ernie Przybyla, the event’s second in command. They took a camper to Calhan and rented a camping space and lived in Calhan for 8 days as they managed the event. They worked the event, trained and mentored new volunteers and built and tore down the booth. Bill lives in Winter Park and Ernie lives in Colorado Springs. Other Vets who drove in and worked shifts were COS Vets Coalition Director Art Sickler from Brighton and his XO, Lynn Ray from Broomfield. Also coming in for some shifts were Herb Rose from Castle Rock, Daryl Rice from Brighton and Ken Kusluch from Westcliffe. We had a big showing in Calhan for local volunteer activists, too, and they signed up for several shifts. It’s worthy experience for the new volunteers because they get that hands-on familiarity that's unforgettable. It’s not easy to understand Article V. It is law that exists in the U.S Constitution. That’s why we have COS University. There are 4 courses available to everybody, which explains the process. The rest are available for people who sign up as volunteers and there’s a lot of great courses. We are very grateful for COS Action volunteers Bill Powell and Ernie Przybyla. I went to a COS Statewide meeting yesterday and our State Director, Laura Neimeister, noted that any volunteer can organize an event. We love the COS Vets for organizing so successfully for the third summer in a row but any Colorado COS supporter can learn how to organize an event. You'll have the full backing of the COS Vets, any help that I can give you as the State Communications Coordinator and the support from the COS national and regional teams. I just had a volunteer email me asking why we don't have a booth at the Larimer County Fair. We are all grassroots volunteers and we need more people willing to make these events happen. We need more Colorado patriots who can help out. If your only volunteer role is to manage the Larimer County Fair in Loveland every year, then you have made a significant contribution to the nationwide efforts for an Article V Convention of States! If you want to understand this process better, go to COS University and take the four general courses that explain how Article V enables citizens to rein in the federal government and take ownership of our American destiny. If you’d like to volunteer, check out our volunteer page by clicking here.  == Ernie Przybyła on the left, volunteer Ron Book, Colorado HD16 Representative Rebecca Kelte and Bill Powell on the right. == == Volunteer Elizabeth Miller on the left and Ernie Przybyla on the right. == == Daryl Rice, left working the booth with Ernie Przybyla on the right. == == Volunteer Sharon Vincze on the left and Ernie Przybyla on the right. ==  == Above and below: Bill Powell with petition signers. ==  == Volunteer Lynn Bouette, helping out a petition signer == To see pictures from all of the COS Events in 2025, click here to see the gallery. |
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| Created: | 2025-08-05 14:15 GMT |
| Updated: | 2025-08-06 23:24 GMT |
| Published: | 2025-08-05 14:00 GMT |
| Converted: | 2025-11-11 12:06 GMT |
| Change Author: | Vivian Garcia |
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public/cb_mirror/the_little_engine_that_could_in_calhan_txt_blogposts_30690.txt · Last modified: 2025/11/11 12:06 by 127.0.0.1