VOLUME 1 ISSUE 1 THIRD QUARTER 2008
Printer-friendly version Table of Condiments: PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE: Greetings everyone! Well, it’s been a year since the Sandia Bears have been incorporated and we are building momentum. Those who wanted an active club have been working to make it happen, and the results are beginning to be seen. We just completed our third and very successful American Bear Awakening. With all the experience that has been gained over the last two ABA’s, we are well on our way to creating an outstanding fourth event next year that will involve our brother (or “sister”) clubs as well. Not to mention the other activities in which we participate that you can read about here. Another example of our reclaimed, active spirit is the inaugural publishing of this newsletter. We hope this will inspire as many people as possible to come out and see what’s going on, and help build upon our wonderful community of men. Lee Mitchell back to the top  ABA 2008 A SUCCESS! They came from near and far, from Colorado and Europe and right here in Albuquerque to take part in one of the hottest bear events in the Southwest, American Bear Awakening. After a half-year of planning and working hard on this party, The Sandia Bears ended up with close to $500 for their chosen charities and the revelers ended up with some fond memories. The Bears got the party started right on Thursday night with a meet-n-greet at the Wolfpack Lounge at Sidewinders Bar catered by Cops and Robbers. Festivities continued Friday with not one but two shopping trips and a movie, "Not Another Gay Movie" at the Guild Cinema in Nob Hill. After a brief stop at the Albuquerque Social Club for cocktails and camraderie, the bears traveled to the Sandia Pool for Bear Soup. The night completed with complimentary shuttle trips from the host hotel to Sidewinders. Saturday arrived as another beautiful day in the Land of Enchantment, and the party traveled North to Madrid for a shopping and exploring tour of the scenic, rustic little town where they filmed "Wild Hogs," including a stop at the famous Mine Shaft Tavern for lunch. Saturday night saw a fantastic prime rib dinner catered by Cops and Robbers and served by our friends in the NMGRA and a great Rise 'N Shine Bear contest, adroitly hosted by emcee Tony Carson, with over $3000 worth of prizes donated by Viewpoint Adult Bookstore. A fun and fabulous time was had by all. The weekend wrapped up with a small group of partiers traveling to the Sandia Casino for a little playtime and celebrating another wonderful run at our sponsor The Range's Menaul location. Thanks Matt and Lou! Many thanks go out to those who helped out to make this weekend a success: John and John C, Jay, Lee, Tony, Ben, James, Gary, as well as Ken, Jeff, Kelly and Keith of the NMGRA, the staff and management at Sidewinders and Viewpoint, Clyde Wanatee and the staff at Howard Johnson's on Eubank, Matt and Lou and the staff at the Range, and all the friendly, furry bears who took part. Thank you notes are on the way! back to the top  THE BEARS HAVE A NEW CYBERDEN With Pride looming on the horizon and the old Web site languishing for a bit, the Bears got together, agreed on a site design, and had a new cyberden ready the week before Pride at http://sandiabears.org. Features include: a News section with information on the next Sandia Bears meeting, agenda, and minutes of the old meeting, notes on upcoming events, and links to the latest copy of the the Growler newsletter; About Us, naturally talking about the club and providing links to the officers; Photos (coming soon) showing photos of the Bears at play and working to strengthen the community; and Contact Us, listing the various ways to contact the Bears. As the person responsible for leaving the site on hold for so long, my explanation is I didn't have the time until I started working for myself. Then suddenly and unexpectedly, I had a lot of free time on my hands and I could successfully tackle those things I had been promising to get to for so long. Part of the reason for the rush is I didn't know when that time would dry up... you never know how things are going to turn out. The site is still in its beginning stages, so new features and areas will be added as time goes on and need is expressed. One addition that has already been requested is the ability to add new events to the "Goings On" part of the News section without having to contact the Webmaster. This feature will be put in as soon as the Webmaster learns ASP. I hope the new site helps bring the club together and provides a platform for discussion and planning. I also hope members will feel free to suggest additions and changes to the site - the site belongs to the club, and as club property can be altered and improved as we all see fit. Members, please don't hesitate to make suggestions, and happy surfing! back to the top  SANDIA BEARS DEBUTS AT PRIDE 2008 Bruce and Jay purchased and collected decorations that week. Jay donated use of his van and small trailer to use as a float. At 8:00 AM the morning of the parade, Jay and his partner, James, were at the float setup area and started decorating the float. Soon Bruce showed up to help complete the decorations and final preparations. The theme for this year's event was Live, Love and Be. We gave it a bear flair and had banners on both sides of the float that read, "Live, Love, and Bear." The float was decorated with a luau theme along with blow up pink flamingos, palm fronds and a fun day-glow green party umbrella for shade. As we made our way down Central with the rest of the parade, we had some appropriate dance/party music blaring out of our boom box while we gave out 100 rainbow colored leis. Jay went through several gallons of water with his power blaster water guns spraying the hot crowds generously to get their attention and provide them some welcome refreshing relief from the hot sun. When we arrived at the judge's area, we opened the back of the van and released the approximately 50 multicolored helium balloons into the air for an exultant display of celebration. Bruce was a machine handing out hundreds of cards with the club's logo and web site address. If people know more about the Sandia Bears, we may thank Bruce's hard work and diligence getting the introductory cards passed out. All in all, it was a fabulous success. We hope next year to have many more beautiful bear men on our float to represent the club and show Albuquerque there is a group of big, hairy men and their admirers who are operating to raise money for charities here in town. Thanks to everyone who helped. back to the top SUPPORT OUR BARS Getting on the proverbial soapbox for a minute... Here in Albuquerque we have been well accepted by the community as a whole. They turned out in force to support us and to cheer us on and drown out the meager showing of protesters at Pride. However, the bars - all three of them - are still the one place (or places) we have where we can be absolutely certain we can be ourselves and let our hair down. There is a very human tendency to become complacent when things are going well and forget about the struggles that came before and the need we had to have a place where we could be ourselves. Hell, if you can give your better half a kiss in the produce section of Albertson's on a sunny Wednesday and even the old lady squeezing the tomatoes doesn't bat an eye, what need is there for a segregated place to meet and socialize? There's still a need. As far as we've come, we still have a long way to go. The reactions to issues like gay marriage and gay adoption show that while we may be accepted in a Will & Grace kind of way - hip friend accessories and fun people to hang out with - the abstract and the specific of our presence are two different issues. People do like us, but at the same time they're not completely sure how much. At present no straight bar would support as many gay clubs - the NMGRA, the Sandia Bears, the Rainbow Roadrunners, the United Court of the Sandias, Pride Inc., to name a few - as Sidewinders does. And they really do support; they provide beer to sell and food to entice and a space to meet and match funds for the beer blasts. No straight bar at present would provide the gay-specific (and very good) entertainment that can be found at the Social Club. And in both these places, you absolutely know that you are going to find like-minded people around and behind the bars. As far as we've come, you're still not going to see two men or two women two-stepping together at the Caravan. You're not going to see a drag show every month at the Vortex. And you won't see a same sex couple kissing at the Library bar downtown. As far as we've come, we still have a long way to go. These places, Sidewinders, the Social Club, Exhale, are our community centers, and they deserve our support. That doesn't mean we have to become a community of lushes, but we might want to make some time to visit our watering holes and buy a beer or two, get lunch or dinner, take in a show. They are a large part of our community. back to the top It's your club, It's your newsletter - send stories or story ideas to the newsletter editor and get involved! |
