Rotary Club of Ruidoso

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Rotary Club of Ruidoso 🌟 Rotary Club of Ruidoso 🌟
We are a dedicated group of local volunteers who believe in putting Service Above Self.

Through meaningful projects and heartfelt efforts, we strive to positively impact our community and the world. Rotary Club of Ruidoso, NM meets every Tuesday at noon at K-Bobs! The first Tuesday of September through May, we meet at Tepee Lounge at Ruidoso High School. We hear from different members of our community and engage in service projects to improve the lives of everyone in our community!

Ask a Rotarian the most important thing about Rotary and you’ll often hear “service.” Last Tuesday, Rotary District 5520...
10/12/2026

Ask a Rotarian the most important thing about Rotary and you’ll often hear “service.” Last Tuesday, Rotary District 5520 Governor Nominee Mark Goodman gave us another answer: relationships.

Mark joined us at Teepee Lounge at Ruidoso High School, our first meeting there this school year, for our annual District Governor’s visit. Rotary clubs belong to regional districts, and ours is a big one. Rotary District 5520 covers all of New Mexico and stretches across Far West Texas, from El Paso through Van Horn and Marfa to Fort Stockton.

The district governor has traditionally made the rounds to every club in a single year, which is a lot of driving for someone who also has a career. So this year the district is sharing the load, with our current governor, Jeff Weinrach, and governors-to-be splitting the visits by region.

Mark, who will serve as District Governor in 2028-29, has the eastern part of the district. He told us he plans to come back to our club more than once, because he wants to build relationships with clubs rather than drop in and move on.

Mark’s message was simple. If you distill Rotary down to its essential ingredient, you find relationships. Service projects, global grants, and the long push to end polio all begin with people who know and trust each other.

This year’s Rotary International message is “Create Lasting Impact,” and Mark shared two moments from his own life that showed what that can look like: a professor’s unexpected decision that sent him toward ministry, and a Christmas telescope that sparked a lifelong love of astronomy. The point was that lasting impact doesn’t have to be big or planned. He gave each of us two pins, one emphasizing the Create Lasting Impact message from Rotary International and another showing a map of District 5520 from corner to corner.

Mark is Dean Emeritus of St. John’s Cathedral in Albuquerque and president of the Albuquerque Astronomical Society. He also spent a few years serving at Church of the Holy Mount here in Ruidoso, so it felt like a welcome back.

This wasn’t Mark’s first trip to Ruidoso this fall. He and District Foundation Chair Dick Jones of Santa Fe also drove down on September 22nd to join us at Rotary Business After Hours, hosted by MCM Elegante Lodge and Resort - Ruidoso.

Thank you, Mark, for all you’re doing to help Create Lasting Impact in Ruidoso and across our area. We hope to see you again soon!

Looking back on a great evening last Friday running the concession stand at the homecoming football game for Ruidoso Hig...
10/05/2026

Looking back on a great evening last Friday running the concession stand at the homecoming football game for Ruidoso High School. We appreciate the opportunity to serve and the patience shown towards our obviously "enthusiastic" volunteer crew!

Rotary Club of Ruidoso, Ruidoso High School - Official, Ruidoso Municipal Schools

Four employees at Ruidoso Ford, Inc have worked for Chris Carusona for more than 30 years, and ten more have passed the ...
09/30/2026

Four employees at Ruidoso Ford, Inc have worked for Chris Carusona for more than 30 years, and ten more have passed the 10-year mark.

At Tuesday's meeting, Chris explained why: "If you treat them right and you give them a job and they have the dignity, they're going to stay with you."

Chris got into the car business in 1973 in Texas and bought the Ruidoso dealership in 1988. Next month he begins his 39th year here. His philosophy is simple: be straight with customers, back up your people, and treat everyone the same.

Chris called his technicians the most technical people in the store, and today much of their work happens on the computer. As he was quick to point out, they're not watching YouTube. They're pinpointing exactly what's wrong with a customer's vehicle, which makes possible the free lifetime maintenance commitment he's held since 2006.

For Chris, backing his people starts with training them. He works with a Ford program in which students earn a two-year associate degree by alternating eight weeks in the classroom with eight weeks in his shop. All of this, he believes, helps him stay straight with his customers and set his dealership apart in a world where shoppers find largely the same prices from dealer to dealer.

Outside the car business, Chris is committed to community service. A former member of our club, he was on the Board of Directors in the 1990s when the club voted to welcome women as members. During his talk, he shared fun anecdotes about Enchilada Days of years past, and it was great to welcome him home. Today his service continues through his involvement with the Lincoln County Prayer Breakfast and the Lincoln County Food Bank, among other causes.

Thank you, Chris, for reconnecting with your Rotary roots and sharing a bit of your story!

Tuesday's Rotary program was all about club history, almost 75 years of it. Veteran members had a chance to reminisce, a...
09/17/2026

Tuesday's Rotary program was all about club history, almost 75 years of it. Veteran members had a chance to reminisce, and newer members got to connect with the generations of Rotarians who came before them. Our guide for our trip back in time was Tom Rigsby, a past president who joined back in the Elks Lodge days.

Tom started at the beginning: our club was chartered in 1952. From there he turned to Enchilada Day, which started in 1975 and turned 50 last year. It began at the Elks Lodge, moved to the high school, and has been at the Convention Center since 2013. The form of the enchiladas has changed a bit over time, and bingo has added some fun in recent years, but the event is still powered by member labor.

Another thing Tom brought up was the different locations for our weekly meetings over the years. Whispering Pines, K-Bob's (before and after it was K-Bob's!), Prime Time, the Holiday Inn, Cree Meadows, Farley's, and the Swiss Chalet all got mentioned.

Tom also covered the list of club presidents going back to the charter, including the year four past presidents — Gregory Cory, Gary Thompson, Lynn Willard, and Tom himself — each took a quarter apiece. In addition, we heard about our club's first woman member in the mid-1990s, Karen Kilgore, and how Frank Saynor will mark 50 years of membership in the club in March.

Tom then went on to cover important aspects of our service record:

- Before ENMU had a presence in Ruidoso, Rotarians chartered buses to Santa Fe to make the case to the legislature.

- The club put up the playground at Kids Connection behind Sierra Vista Elementary, and Rotarians' names and businesses are still on it.

- Members have been changing the U.S., New Mexico, and Rotary flags at the Y (US-70 and Sudderth) for years.

- Every December, Pack the Bus raises several thousand dollars for Food 4 Kids Backpack Program, Inc from shopper donations of food for local students.

- Trips to support Bethel Orphanage - Juarez, Mexico span decades, and Tom showed photos of members stuccoing walls there in 2001 and again in 2005.

After that, the floor opened, and people started adding their own memories.

Gary Thompson remembered Rotarians arriving at 6:15 in the morning to cook breakfast for adaptive skiers. Lynn Willard told about hosting visiting Rotarians from India at his farm, where the women took over the four-wheeler and didn't want to give it back. Clayton Alred described going to El Salvador to help build a footbridge after hearing Lynn talk about the trip the year before. Friend of Rotary John Creek recalled a cataract surgery project in Mexico — he'd had the surgery himself, but he wasn't prepared for the faces of patients who could suddenly see their grandchildren clearly. Tim Keithley put in a word for the Christmas gift exchange, and for the rubber chicken he brought the first year that keeps turning up.

Club members enjoyed our trip down Memory Lane, and we thank Tom for guiding us. Most of our history isn't written down anywhere — it's carried by the members who were there for it. On Tuesday, some of that got passed down, and we're better for it.

Lincoln County government doesn't have a room of its own big enough to hold a public meeting. When it needs one, somebod...
09/11/2026

Lincoln County government doesn't have a room of its own big enough to hold a public meeting. When it needs one, somebody calls ENMU-Ruidoso and asks what's open on the calendar. Soon that will change.

County Manager Jason Burns brought that news to K-Bob's on Tuesday. A 350-person meeting room is going up as part of an indoor shooting range and training facility, funded by a recreation grant, that will replace the county's existing range. Jason described the site as centrally located — not far from Ruidoso, not far from Capitan and Carrizozo, and close enough to put it within reach of the whole county. That matters for more than county business. Lincoln County covers 4,800 square miles, and a room that size, centrally placed, gives the whole county somewhere to gather. Modular units arrive in November, with the building targeted for completion before the end of the year.

The new arena at the county fairgrounds is moving as well. The design is finished, a federal Economic Development Administration grant is behind it, and groundbreaking is expected within 30 days. Wind farm revenue, which brings the county between two and three million dollars a year, is helping fund both the range facility and the arena.

Turning to recovery from the fires and the floods that followed, Jason said the county is only now, three years on, seeing those dollars move. Part of the delay was deliberate. Federal rules generally require rebuilding what was there exactly as it was, and his view is that putting infrastructure back in the same place, the same way, doesn't make sense when the water keeps coming. So the county spent that time on planning and design to do it differently. The first improvement projects have now been awarded, and a major Cedar Creek project involving two federal agencies is underway to better handle water coming down the canyon.

Rebuilding differently only goes so far while the forest above town is still primed to burn. State Forestry and the U.S. Forest Service recently signed a shared stewardship agreement, and Lincoln County is working with Otero County on a Good Neighbor Agreement that would let local crews support work on federal land at the local level rather than waiting on the federal process. The Wildland Urban Interface thinning started behind Ruidoso Downs and is working toward meeting in the middle near Highway 70. The idea is straightforward: forests that got too thick to fight fire in, thinned enough that crews have somewhere to make a stand.

The floods are the other half of that same problem, and Jason was frank that they will likely keep coming for a while. That's the thinking behind the buyout program, which drew the most questions of the hour. It's the first flood buyout in the country driven by post-fire flooding, which means everyone is watching how it's run. About 1,129 properties were identified and sorted into five tiers, from destroyed to at-risk in a larger event. Roughly 320 owners have signed up, about 280 have qualified, and around 212 are in appraisal. Appraisals use pre-2024 disaster values, and Jason said owners have responded well so far. Two offers have been made and accepted, with more going out. Land the county acquires stays green space, with walking and nature trails the current vision and possibly fishing access. Who owns and maintains it long term is still being worked out with the state.

What Lincoln County can realistically take on came up again with Bonito Lake. The lake sits in Lincoln County but belongs to the City of Alamogordo, and the county doesn't want to see it closed to the public. Jason attended Alamogordo's public forum and spoke there, and the county is looking at whether there's a role it might be able to play.

Another subject that came up was the county's move to a four-day, ten-hour work week, taking effect September 14. It won't affect closings or county real estate business, and title companies are asked to call the clerk's office ahead of a Friday closing. The efficiency case is about field crews. Assessors and road department staff lose hours to drive time, and a ten-hour day puts more of that time on site and less in the truck. Jason framed it as a trial.

In closing, Jason stated that even after the disasters, Lincoln County is in a strategically strong position to address the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. We appreciate Jason taking the time to update us!

Downshift Brewing Company co-owner Shelby Rist offered some insight on the growing Ruidoso company during Tuesday’s Rota...
09/05/2026

Downshift Brewing Company co-owner Shelby Rist offered some insight on the growing Ruidoso company during Tuesday’s Rotary Club meeting, including work in the community that goes well beyond just creating some great b**r.

Downshift is a labor of love for Grist, her husband Eddie Gutierrez, and fellow co-owner James Rupley. The business has seen major expansion since launching in August 2021 with the Hidden Tap, which was where the brewing operation was located in addition to offering live music, food, and b**r. That expanded to include the Downshift Riverside location in 2023. Recently, a new 15-barrel brewhouse with 30-barrel tanks opened on Carrizo Canyon Road.

The operation makes about 20 different year-round b**rs and another 20 seasonal brews. Downshift b**rs are now available at 20 different locations around town as well as Lowe’s, the company’s first move into grocery. In November, Hidden Tap also received a makeover, with a new stage and more welcoming decor.

Grist and Gutierrez grew up in Ruidoso, graduating high school here. She went on to attend the University of New Mexico and he went to New Mexico State University. They later moved to Houston for about a decade before having their first child and deciding that heading back to Ruidoso was the right move.

“We were just you know over the big city, and we thought it was probably time to move back home and how wonderful it would be to raise our kids here,” she says.

Downshift hosts numerous events throughout the year and the business and number of employees continue to grow and Grist is pleased at how things have progressed. While tourism season is a big part of the business, locals make the difference and she’s overwhelmed at how many area residents have become regulars.

During the fires and floods of 2024 and 2025, the property was a hub of activity hosting first responders, utility workers, and others in town for meals and during time off. Downshift never lost power, which allowed some in the community who may have been without electricity to work remotely on site.

Currently, Downshift is gearing up for the fifth annual Oktoberfest, which is set for Sept. 26 at 2 p.m. The b**r, arts, and music festival takes months of planning and those in attendance can expect some German-themed culture and cuisine as part of the fun as well as contests, arts and crafts booths, and more.

For Grist and Gutierrez, Downshift is more than just a name, it’s a philosophy in business and life – to slow down and appreciate the beauty and the brevity of life and the products the company makes and the people they hire. They plan to be a major part of the community for years to come.

“We've really moved with the intention to go deep in the community,” she says. “We're not really interested in expanding to Albuquerque or moving into distribution to Texas. We have three small children … so we are really interested in staying close to home and going deep.

“Eddie and I love this town. We love Downshift, and we have been so grateful to be here and get to grow within our community.”

For 28 years, Lori Coleman farmed cotton in the Mississippi Delta. She picked rocks out of the fields along the way, bec...
08/27/2026

For 28 years, Lori Coleman farmed cotton in the Mississippi Delta. She picked rocks out of the fields along the way, because they threw off the counters on her planters. Today she's a commercial miner in New Mexico known across Western Europe.

Lori was Tuesday's speaker at Rotary, joined by her husband Bruce. Together they run Spanish Stirrup Rock Shop in Alto, where the rock comes in raw and leaves as art.

After Hurricane Katrina, Lori decided she wanted to live somewhere she would never see another hurricane — and somewhere she could still pick up rocks. New Mexico had both. She started the business in Deming in 2009 and built her expertise from the ground up, mentored by people in the rock community and now collaborating with New Mexico Tech and speaking at symposiums from a miner's perspective.

Her specialty is the thunder egg. Unlike a geode, you can't pop one open with a hammer. The shell is rhyolite, a 7 on the Mohs scale, and it takes a diamond blade to cut. When it finally opens, it's the first time anyone has ever seen the inside — in 20 million years.

That age is important. German thunder eggs run about 120 million years old and come out fractured and fragile. New Mexico's are young and intact, carrying quartz, agate, and opal in white, orange, and blue. Uranium was present when they formed, so the interiors fluoresce green under shortwave light. About one in ten also glow red, where calcite met manganese.

Lori found and named one of those deposits herself: Lava Cap, now considered one of the finest thunder egg deposits in the world. She's licensed, bonded, and permitted by seven state and federal agencies — the only woman in North America doing this commercially. Every bit of it is mined in southern New Mexico and processed right here in Lincoln County.

Lori spent years building a reputation abroad. Now she's turning some of her attention homeward, letting New Mexicans know the fame our own ground has earned in the rock world.

As she put it: "It's wonderful to be able to go to work and do something that's a hobby you love, because then it's really not like a job."

Lori and Bruce, we sure appreciate you joining us and letting us know about your work. Come back and visit when you can!

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P. O. Box 495
Ruidoso, NM
88355

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