This week 34 years ago: ‘Dream Team heads to Spain, small phone company powers Ronan, nuclear weapon march

The Lake County Leader, August 6, 1992

Reins in Spain: Endurance rider Suzsanne Hayes heads to world finals in Barcelona

ST. IGNATIUS — The U.S. "Dream Team" plans to really shake things up when they hit Barcelona next month.

What's that you say? The Dream Team is already in Barcelona whipping up on people? Not that Dream Team!

It's probably safe to say the people on this team don't know who Chris Mullin is, or what position John Stockton plays. And if you were to ask them to name The Mailman, they'd probably give you the name of their local postmaster.

This is the U.S. Equine Endurance Team, and they're set to head to Spain for the Sept. 12 world championships. Local resident Suzanne Hayes and her horse Kooter have made the squad

"We're jokingly calling ourselves the dream team," Hayes explained. "1 think the U.S. has a real good chance to bring home the gold. I think we (she and Kooter) have a real good chance to medal individually," she added.

Endurance riding isn't part of the Olympics — yet, Hayes said, but there is a move to get the sport into the 1996 games. They will use the same facilities the Olympians are currently using.

Rides are either 50, 75 or 100 miles, she said. Hayes prefers the 100-mile jaunts, which are usually won in approximately 10 hours. "That's moving right along," she said.

Asked if that doesn't make for a long day, she said no. "I really like it. Out on a remote trail with your horse..."

She is seldom even sore at the end of the ride, she added.

Only the top six horse and rider teams are chosen to go to the world championships, Hayes said. There are between 25,-30,000 riders active in America today, she added, with approximately 1,000 rides sponsored. Each rider has to come up with about $10,000, she said, in order to make the trip. "I probably need about $5,000 more."

Kooter is a "once in a lifetime horse," Hayes said, bred especially for endurance riding. He has 4,000 miles in competition and was U.S. national champion in 1990.

Meet phone companies' Johnny Appleseed

RONAN — In seeing the country, Lou Bilodeau is living out a lifelong dream this summer. It's the same dream a lot of Americans have. But Bilodeau is doing it a little differently than most.

He is driving the OPASTCO (Organization for the Protection and Advancement of Small Telephone Companies) van on its tour across the country.

In 58 days, he will cover 13,000 miles, making 63 stops in 40 states.

"And in my spare time..." he added, smiling.

The tour, which stopped last Thursday in Ronan, is to increase the awareness of the nation's more than 1,300 small independent telephone companies, according to Jay Wilson Preston, president of Ronan Telephone Company.

The telephone company sponsored a barbecue in the city park to help show off the tour.

"I obviously am a proponent of small telephone companies," Preston said. "I think they do a better job than big telephone companies."

Ninety percent of the people in the U.S. are served by Bell Telephone, he added. The common view, Preston said, is if you're not as big as Bell, you can't do as good a job." Not true, he emphasized. Small companies are every bit as advanced, or even more advanced, as the larger companies. Rural co-operatives and independently owned telephone companies have been "very aggressive" in updating equipment, according to Preston.

"We just think small companies do a better job and we're trying to publicize that."

Ronan Telephone Company was one of 60 small companies nationwide to host the van program. The van is transporting a mobile promotional telecom museum and technology demonstration.

Bilodeau retired last spring after 40 years in the telephone industry.

During those years, he said he saw the entire country — from 20,000 feet above. "Now I get to see the real people," he said. "It's a very, very ambitious schedule, but it's great.” … 

Road to peace: Walkers say it still requires traveling

The Cold War may be over, but a dozen walkers on a Polson-to-Whitefish peace trek set out Tuesday morning to show that concern about nuclear weapons still exists.

Their route up the West Shore of Flathead Lake is approximately equal to the length of the bodies of Hiroshima and Nagasaki victims laid side by side.

The walk, sponsored by the Whitefish-based Flathead Peace Alliance, began at an Air Force radio tower south of Polson and will end Sunday in Whitefish with a potluck supper and candlelight vigil.

Organizer Pam Gerwe of Whitefish says the event is designed to raise awareness of nuclear issues and network people with shared concerns.

"Walks like this go on all the time," she added, and this year many are celebrating American Indian rights in conjunction with the Christopher Columbus anniversary.

Husband and wife Bill Starkey and Co Carew of Polson planned to walk with the group to the Polson bridge. Gerwe said there'll be about 10 full-timers, with many more people expected periodically along the way.

"We just wanted to have a Polson presence here," said Starkey, who organized a cross-country run for peace 10 summers ago. Carew said she's glad to see continued grassroots activism against nuclear weapons, because international tensions didn't necessarily end with the collapse of European communism.

Rainerd Knutsen, a veteran of half a dozen peace walks, hitchhiked in from Las Vegas for this one.

The peace movement of the 1990's resembles a family reunion, he added: "It's like a huge big grapevine."