Denver, CO
Renck: For Rudden family, joy comes from Cherry Creek baseball, Gabby’s legacy
Joy comes in many forms.
It was impossible to miss as royal blue caps and baseball gloves soared into the air on a cloudless Saturday, celebrating Cherry Creek’s 10th state baseball title.
On the All-Star Park field after an 8-1 victory over Regis Jesuit, teammates screamed and hugged as parents, overcome with emotion, wiped away tears. There is nothing like finishing a season as a champion.
For Wyatt and Walker Rudden, it represented their last time on a high school diamond together. Wyatt, the senior ace on his way to Michigan, and Walker, the gritty junior second baseman who refused to give up on his dream of starting, paused when trying to wrap their heads around the scene unfolding around them.
“His last pitch was a groundball to me,” Walker said, shaking his head. “Can you believe that?”
“He battled all year to get out there,” added Wyatt. “This was really special.”
Joy comes in many forms.
On the mound, Wyatt operates more like a middle linebacker than a pitcher. His fastball reaches 88 miles per hour, and he throws inside without fear, a trait “that really separates him and leads to his success,” explained Bruins pitching coach Dave Veres.
Wyatt reacted to three inning-ending strikeouts by flexing like Hulk Hogan before his finishing move.
“There might be a sip of an energy drink involved,” said Walker, who allowed one run on three hits, while navigating six walks with eight Ks over five innings. “What can I say? I love to compete. And the stakes were high.”
Joy comes in many forms.
Behind home plate, mother Megan stood watching, cheering, hiding her anxiety with polite conversation and a nervous smile. Husband Nick planted down the left field line, watching as a proud father and former Cherry Creek feeder team coach who worked with many of the kids on the roster.
“It means so much not because of the outcome but everything that goes into it,” Nick said. “We are blessed.”
The Rudden family is a Cherry Creek family. Nick and his three brothers played for legendary coach Marc Johnson. Nick won back-to-back titles in 1998 and 1999 as part of the school’s five-year run of dominance.
He carved out a role as a utility player at Michigan before returning home. That is when reality clobbered him over the head. His sister Tammy Rudden Krause’s 5-year-old daughter Gabby was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2003. She passed away after a 19-month battle.
Joy, even when facing unimaginable pain and loss, comes in many forms.
Tammy created the Bags of Fun Foundation in Gabby’s honor. Over 15,000 backpacks with toys and games have been given to children fighting critical, long-term and life-threatening conditions in Denver, Kansas City and Omaha.
“Gabby was so brave, such a strong spirit,” said Dananne Solomon, the foundation’s director in Colorado. “She turned her own fight into a movement of laughter.”
The program relies on fundraising — Cherry Creek High School plays an important role during their spring power week — and volunteers. Wyatt and Walker never met Gabby, but became immersed in her memory as they helped out in any way they could.
“They are always available for work at the warehouse,” said Tammy, who has been attending Cherry Creek games for decades, watching her brothers and nephews. “They go to work and do the not-so-fun stuff behind the scenes.”
The way Nick sees it, he would not have a family if not for Gabby. Megan worked as Gabby’s nanny after college. That is how she met Nick.
“My wife and our children, none of it exists without the cause. It is hard to articulate who Gabby was, her resilience,” Nick said. “I can’t do justice on what she has meant to us.”
It was around middle school when Wyatt and Walker began to realize how special Gabby was. It was natural for them to volunteer. But it went beyond that. At Cherry Creek, they recruited teammates and classmates. They saw firsthand how awful cancer is, and how customized bags of toys can allow kids to be kids again, even if only for a few hours.
“It just changes their lives. It’s horrible to have to deal with cancer,” Walker said. “This gives them some control in a situation where they often feel like they don’t have any.”
Wyatt has also viewed Gabby as someone who put others before herself. Not long ago, he listened to a classmate recall his experience with cancer. It brought everything full circle.
“He got a Bag of Fun. And just to hear his story was amazing. He had a really tough time and that really helped him through his process,” Wyatt said. “It was a reminder of just how meaningful the work and the (foundation) are.”
Joy comes in many forms.
Holding a trophy, surrounded by friends you have played with for years, creates goosebumps. These teammates will walk together forever.
But there was something deeper than sports at work on this sun-bleached afternoon. When the cheering stopped, and the long walk began to the parking lot, there was humility learned from small victories that are a lot bigger than a baseball game.
“My sister has taken the memory of Gabby and created a legacy. I can’t tell you how proud I am of her, of what she’s done,” Nick said. “She has inspired our family, Wyatt, Walker, Annabelle and Hudson. She has inspired the Cherry Creek baseball community to help, to never take anything for granted. Today is a day when Gabby’s memory lives on.”
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Originally Published:
Rocky Mountain sandhill cranes battle warmer conditions due to drought
Wildlife biologist Jenny Nehring and farmer Rob Jones talk about Sandhill cranes and their impact on the San Luis Valley.
DENVER — Zoos are of necessity big gulpers of water, a fact that has some zookeepers in the drying American West working to rapidly upgrade efficiency and reduce unnecessary irrigation or leaks.
Denver Zoo, formally known as the Denver Zoo Conservation Alliance, has rapidly reduced its demands on threatened and declining water sources, including the Colorado River.
Among the upgrades is a sea lion water filtration system that allows most of the water to be cleaned and reused each time the pool is drained. That’s saving more than 8 million gallons a year, zoo sustainability director Blair Neelands said. “You can get in there, scrub it with a toothbrush and refill it with the same water,” she said.
Similar upgrades to an African penguin showcase reduced its water use by 95% by largely eliminating what’s sent down the drain. (Like a backyard swimming pool, though, these tanks sometimes still need to be drained and refreshed with new water to reduce mineral buildup.)
“The biggest thing for us is swapping from dump-and-fill pools to life-support systems,” Neeland said.
Another biggie is replacement of a 50-year-old water main with funding of about $3 million from the city. There’s no way of knowing how much that pipe had leaked over the years, but Neeland suspected it was more than a million gallons a year. The savings should become apparent as the zoo tracks its water use over the next few years.
Creating hippo-sized water savings
When The Arizona Republic visited in 2025, the zoo was on the cusp of eclipsing a goal to reduce its water use by half of what it had been in 2018. The zoo had used 80 million gallons in 2024, or about 219,000 a day, a 45% reduction in just a handful of years. Much of the savings had come in the form of smarter irrigation practices and use of drought-tolerant native plants where possible. The landscaping also pivoted to recycled “purple pipe” water from the city, which owns the zoo’s land, restricting potable water to areas where animals really need it.
“When people hear ‘recycled water,’ they get worried about cleanliness and hygiene,” zoo spokesman Jake Kubié said. “But it’s safe for the animals, and it’s not their drinking water.”
Getting past the water conservation goal would mean draining the pool where Mahali the hippo spent most hours lurking with just his eyes, ears and snout visible to visitors. Because he spent so much time in the pool, the water needed daily changes. It amounted to 21 million gallons a year, not to mention water heater bills that drove the cost to $200,000 a year, according to zoo officials. They estimated that Mahali used as much water as 350,000 four-person households.
“This facility is outdated,” Kubié said. “Some day this will become a huge saver of water.”
That day came before year’s end, and it indeed brought a tremendous savings. The zoo shipped Mahali to a new home (and a potential mate) at a wildlife preserve in Texas and drained the pool one last time. Ending the daily change-outs shaved more than a quarter of the zoo’s entire water usage from the previous year. It put the zoo significantly beyond its goal.
Denver Zoo’s water savings are part of a broader waste- and pollution-prevention effort aimed at being a good neighbor in uncertain times, Neeland said.
“Water savings and drought is top of mind for anyone who lives in the Western United States,” she said.
In Phoenix, a different mix of animals
That’s true of the Phoenix Zoo, as well, where zookeepers must maintain landscaping and animal exhibits in a city that baked under 100-degree-plus high temperatures for a third of the days last year. The zoo creates a “respite in the desert,” spokeswoman Linda Hardwick said, but has no hippos, penguins, grizzly bears or many of the other species that would require big water investments for outdoor swimming or cooling.
“We really specialize in animals that will thrive in the temperatures here,” Hardwick said.
The Phoenix Zoo uses most of its water on landscaping. After a consultant’s 2023 irrigation assessment, the staff centralized irrigation scheduling under a single trained technician and employed technologies including weather-based controllers and smart meters. Salt River Project awarded $70,000 in grant funds for the upgrades and several thousand more for training.
The zoo uses about 189,000 gallons a day, she said. That represents a 17% reduction from 2023, or 20% when adjusted for the year’s particular weather and evapotranspiration demand.
Brandon Loomis covers environmental and climate issues for The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com. Reach him at brandon.loomis@arizonarepublic.com.
Environmental coverage on azcentral.com and in The Arizona Republic is supported by a grant from the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust.
Follow The Republic environmental reporting team at environment.azcentral.com and @azcenvironment on Facebook and Instagram.
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