Barbara Lawlor, Peak to Peak.  None of us like the scary, malevolent clowns that show up in horror movies, that reek of evil, creeping into our nightmares. Most of us like the funny clowns that do silly things and hand out treats and make people laugh.

Everyone admires the rodeo clowns, the bull fighting athletes, who save cowboys from being gored by horns or mashed by hooves.

Now there’s another kind of clown to admire, one that has attracted three people from the Ward/Gold Hill area to become Clown School graduates. It began in 2003 when Fran Etzkorn of Gilpin County and president of the High Country Fire District board decided to retire.

Looking for something to reign in her energy and imagination she decided to enroll at the Clown Camp in Lacrosse, Wisconsin. Taking on the name KOLO, Etzkorn’s alter ego was born.

“I was immediately addicted to this art of clowning,” she says.  She let time tell her who KOLO was: Chef KOLO and KOLO the Hobo. She became Gilpin County’s clown, showing up at many public events, with her hot dog on a leash and a treat in her pockets. She traveled around spreading good cheer and smiles.

Health issues forced her to leave the high altitude and move to a lower altitude, but she never let go of KOLO. “Clowning is my passion. I’m only good for about three hours at a time, but it is great to put a smile on someone’s face with just a little love.”

KOLO volunteers three times a month at local hospitals, she participates in parades and attends fund raising events and extended care facilities. She created a fire hydrant and fishing tackle box to put her Oxygen tank in when she does short parades or walks around at an event. She says being a caring clown is one of her niches.

In the last Clown School Graduating Class, she discovered there were three students from the Ward/Gold Hill area and was delighted to discover these clowns were more than just funny, they took their clown jobs of aiding in disaster events extremely seriously and want to spread some of their knowledge of clowns as caretakers and stress relievers to mountain residents.

The Clown College that Pam Sherman, Zeke Yewdall, and Stephenie Badger enrolled in is located in Englewood and began the first Sunday in January. It ends on the first Saturday before the St. Patrick’s Day parade in Denver.

Etzkorn helps to teach the 10 classes along with many other Colorado Clowns. She was able to clown 50 times last year and all of it was volunteer work:  like at Longmont United hospital, parades, PHUN raising events, and even did a laugh class for some seniors.

Etzkorn has been president of Colorado Clowns, 2011 and 2015, as well as holding other offices with Colorado Clowns. She is a member of Longmont United Clowns, World Clown Association, Clowns of America International, West Region Clowns Association and Colorado Clowns. She says she’s almost 76 years old and doesn’t plan to be sitting around like a lump on a pickle.

Pam Sherman, who lives outside of Gold Hill has been part of the Intermountain Alliance, which was formed after the Fourmile Fire to help mountain communities come together after the fire. “When I read about disaster clowns late last year, and how clowning/humor is in some cases able to re-set a traumatized nervous system, I was really intrigued for Psych First Aid/Disaster Behavior Health purposes. Humor as a disaster healing tool, and it generally relaxes us and gives us a new perspective on our lives.”

The purpose of disaster and community clowning is not about being funny though smiles and laughter often result. It’s about lightness, presence, focus, and caring.

Pam looked into it further, and realized she had the right background to really get into the program: an MA in traditional theater with a focus on one particular trickster/fool/clown figure and an MA in Psych. She created a community comedy theater in New York that ran for 20 years, was a professional storyteller, did a lot of drama/improv teaching, and was a social worker for both child abuse and geriatrics.

It’s been humor that’s helped get her family through the hardest of times.

“So I decided to do the Colorado Clown “College.” I took Stephenie Badger from Ward aside one night and asked if she’d do it with me. She was ripe for this!  She then convinced her partner, Zeke Yewdall, to do it. They are amazing. They are not as into the disaster clowning as I am, more into just regular clowning.”

The new clowns are all members of the Indian Peaks Radio Club in Nederland and ham radio operators. They all just assisted the Sheriff’s office with communication during the Frozen Dead Guy Days festival in Nederland.

Then Jan Mussler, of the IPRC, asked Sherman to do a presentation for the IPRC regular speaker series and she plans to do a skit with other clowns, but the skit is under ten minutes. So she decided to introduce disaster clowning and community clowning, which we will do between disasters. She has invited the disaster services community in the county as well as local community organizations. She is hoping that Etzkorn will help with the presentation.

The event will take place on April 26th at 7:00 in the Indian Peaks Radio Club room at the Ned Community Center.

Pam says, “My goal is to train people from community organizations and also individuals who want to make a difference in family and community to be disaster clowns and community clowns. We will have different teachers for the different parts of the training. If there are clowns trained who are not affiliated with particular organizations, then we would be able to provide clowns for organizations which don’t themselves have clown representatives. This way caring clownship can seep into the community.”

Sherman says she will contact the Red Cross to pre-arrange their presence in shelters after an event. This is commonly done in other parts of the country; she says they are not re-inventing the wheel with any of this.

Clowning is not age-ist. There is no discrimination against old clowns and she plans to meet with the Nederland Area Seniors about community clowning.

“Older clowns are valued for their skill and wisdom and experience, the way elders used to be in slower cultures. To me that is priceless.”

It is the very beginning of the journey: a journey meant to include all the good, fun things about clowning to help ease the tragic and painful events that happen in our lives.

The IPRC Speaker Series is every Fourth Tuesday Evening.