Cougar Canyon To Host “Goose” Gossage

Major League Hall of Famer Will Be in Trinidad
to Support the Trinidad Community Foundation

One of the best closing pitchers in Major League history will be opening his golf bag for a good cause next month in Trinidad, Colorado. Richard “Goose” Gossage, a 2008 National Baseball Hall of Fame inductee, will play in the 3rd Annual City of Champions Golf Tournament at Cougar Canyon Golf Links on May 17th to support the Trinidad Community Foundation. Gossage will also be the keynote speaker at a charity dinner for the organization on Saturday, May 16th, the day before the tournament.

The organization for which Gossage is appearing, The Trinidad Community Foundation (TCF), is a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting other non-profits in and around Trinidad. Established just three years ago, TCF has already funneled more than $125,000 into local area causes such as the Purgatoire River project and Cimino Park, a new Trinidad city park dedicated to Trinidad native and TCF founding member, Jay Cimino. Cimino, who owns the Phil Long Dealerships, donated a large portion of the required funds through TCF. “The [Trinidad Community] Foundation is made up of a group of people who care about Trinidad and want to support its greatest resource: the people of Trinidad and Las Animas County,” said Howard Lackey, past president and current TCF board member. “We can’t tell you how excited we are to host Goose Gossage. His visit will go a long way to help us meet our goals this year,” Lackey went on to say.

Gossage is a Colorado Springs native who played Major League baseball for nine different teams during his 21-season career including the New York Yankees and San Diego Padres. The Goose earned nine All-Star appearances and pitched in three World Series including the 1978 World Series for the New York Yankees in which they won. After retiring in 1994, Gossage returned to Colorado Springs where he is very active in promoting youth sports. In early 2008, Gossage was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in his ninth year on the ballot.

The golf course hosting the tournament, Cougar Canyon Golf Links, has also had its share of national recognition. Since opening less than two years ago, Cougar Canyon has garnered no less than five national awards including Golf Digest Magazine’s “#3 Best New Course of the Year” in 2008 and Golfweek Magazine’s “#1 in Colorado – Best Courses You Can Play” 2008 award. “It’s only appropriate that the City of Champions Golf Tournament hosts one of the greatest Major League Baseball players of all time on the golf course that has won more awards than any other in Colorado in the past two years,” said Scott Candland, Cougar Canyon’s Managing Director.

To register for the 3rd Annual City of Champions Golf Tournament and Banquet, please call (719) 846-3943 or email to info@trinidadcf.org.

For more information about Cougar Canyon, please visit www.CougarCanyonLiving.com or call (877) 547-7455.

Upcoming Events in Montrose, CO - May 2009

MONTROSE WINE FESTIVAL


The sixth (6th) annual Montrose Wine Festival will be held on Friday and Saturday, May 15th and 16th at the Montrose Holiday Inn Express. The event will commence with the Grand Tasting on Friday at 6:30 PM. This event is open to the public and tickets may be purchased for $35.00 at Corks Fine Wine and Spirits, Canyon Creek Bed and Breakfast, Coffee Trader, the Holiday Inn Express and the Montrose Chamber of Commerce. The Reserve Tasting will begin on Saturday at 4:30 PM and be followed by a Reserve dinner. Sponsorships for the Reserve events can be obtained by calling 252-0800. All proceeds benefit the Black Canyon Boys & Girls Club and Voices for Children. For more information, visit www. montrosewinefestival.com.

The Moving Wall Comes to Montrose

“The Moving Wall,” a half-size replica of the Washington, DC, Vietnam Veterans Memorial will be on display at Cerise Park in Montrose, Colorado, starting Thursday, May 14, 2009 through 4:00 p.m. on Monday, May 18, 2009. “The Moving Wall” has been on display traveling around the United States since October 1983. It was last in Montrose, Colorado, in 1987. This is the only stop “The Moving Wall” will make in Colorado in 2009.

A special ceremony to honor Armed Forces Day and acknowledge “The Moving Wall” exhibit will take place in Cerise Park on Saturday, May 16, 2009 at 10:00 a.m.

Tax-deductible donations to assist in this charitable purpose, bringing “The Moving Wall” to Montrose, may be made payable to Montrose Community Foundation. Please note “Moving Wall Component Fund” on your check and mail to the Montrose Community Foundation, P.O. Box 3020, Montrose, CO 81402.

For further information, call Jenni Sopsic at Montrose Visitors & Convention Bureau, (970) 252-0505, or Randy Havens (970) 240-5489 or visit www.visitmontrose.net.

Youth Game Corps

Youth Game Corps™

Entrepreneur and Leadership Development Program
Do you know an exceptional person in high school or college that is looking for a unique challenge? If so, please act now and forward this opportunity to them!

Youth Game Corps is looking for exceptional and motivated high school and college students to participate in this entrepreneur and leadership development program. The Youth Game Corps team will receive coaching and education from local, volunteer experts including Dr. Robert Blattberg. Dr. Blattberg is a visiting Professor of Marketing at the Tepper School, Carnegie-Mellon University and the Director of the newly created Center of Marketing Technology and Information at Carnegie-Mellon University. He was formerly the Polk Bros. Distinguished Professor of Retailing at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University.

Applications are being taken from high school and college students until April 30, 2009. To learn more about Youth Game Corps and to apply for this opportunity click here.

Youthentity™, formerly Computers for Kids Foundation, is giving local youth an opportunity to develop and run one of the most fun and dynamic businesses in its organization. Youth Game Corps™ is a video gaming business in the Partnering for Success™ Center in Carbondale. Profits from the game room are used to support the non profit mission of Youthentity™, a 501 (c)(3) organization.

Rapid Pro - Company Profile

Spirit of the American Dream

The story begins in 1994 when an engineer with a dream started his own company in his garage. He had the education, a little cash and the desire to succeed. He took out a loan and bought a piece of prototyping equipment called a stereo-lithography machine. (Laser process) He then leased an office in south Longmont, hired a couple of employees and began to build his business. Later, the business was moved to a prominent location on the I-25 Frontage Road for better visibility and access to corporate traffic from Denver to Ft. Collins. By 2001 the company had grown to $1,500,000 in annual sales.

At that time a local man named Ron Angstead was working as a production manager and Vice President at InterMountain Railway Company when he found out Rapid Prototyping Corporation was for sale. InterMountain is a high quality model train company. They design, produce and assemble model trains and distribute them to hobby stores across the USA and Canada.

In July of 2001 the founder of RPC contacted Ron Angstead and notified him that RPC was for sale. Ron was interested in the cutting edge technology and excited about the possibility of becoming involved with the high tech prototyping firm. He talked to his associates and found that his business partner from Boston was interested. Angstead put the deal together and the new company was born!

Mr. J.P. Barger bought RPC on August 21st, 2001 with the understanding that Ron Angstead would take over as the President and CEO to manage the company. Angstead was excited and enthusiastic as he met his new staff of 15 employees. He began to run the struggling company under a new plan for growth and change. Three weeks later our country and the world would change forever. The World Trade Center in New York City was attacked and the economy across the country took a dive. The new start instantly became an extremely difficult struggle. Through the adversity came a need for quick decisions in order to overcome the new obstacles. Angstead needed to buy some time so he and a few of his friends and business partners rallied together to loan the company $100,000 that would later be converted to stock purchases. This capital would get the company through for a few weeks until they could recover orders that had been frozen or cancelled. The economic paralysis did not last long and soon the orders started to come in again and an aggressive marketing campaign would yield good results over time. The addition of new manufacturing processes and an increase in outsourcing allowed RPC to grow quickly. Angstead changed the name to a more appropriate RapidPro Manufacturing Corporation and by 2005 the sales had reach almost $3,000,000. (Almost double what it had been in 2001.)

RapidPro and some of their customers found a common goal in working together and created partnership agreements. These deals help the customers benefit from the experience, knowledge or financing they need while RPM gets an opportunity to retain the business and share in a percentage of profits as the products begin to sell. The true meaning of a win-win situation!

One such customer is private inventor journeyman carpenter, Anthony Whitemiller, who co-invented a product with Angstead called the SpeedRocker utility knife. The SpeedRocker is a specialty drywall knife with multiple functions to work faster and more efficiently with drywall. Anthony and Ron became partners in 2001 and then made a deal with a worldwide distributor from Chicago. Since 2004, they have sold about 150,000 knives in the retailers such as Lowes, Home Depot and Ace Hardware. They are working on some additional new products for release later this year.

Another inventor and landscape professional named Eric Houseman came to RapidPro to develop a hand tool for the installation and repair of sprinkler systems. Houseman and Angstead became partners and co-invented the Poly-Gator which became the Poly-Pro and a second variation, the PVC-Pro. They successfully launched the products into Ace Hardware, Home Depot and will go into every one of Lowes’ 1,645 stores this spring. With a little help from the retailers the tools should sell well.

John Herman of Boss Outfitter invented several unique Hunting & Fishing Products with RapidPro’s help and now sells through RapidPro’s websites, Cabela’s, Bass Pro Shops, Sportsman’s Warehouse and many more.

RPM has become a qualified vendor for many of the most prominent Fortune 500 companies along the front range of Colorado. Over the past couple of years, this corporate business has been downsized significantly. The economic conditions in 2007 and 2008 have reversed the company’s growth trend and RPM’s sales dropped back to near its level from 2001. Several of RPM’s customers have gone out of business and most have scaled back. The new development work will need to pick up again in the near future for these companies to remain competitive. With reduced internal resources, they will rely even more heavily on companies like RapidPro for their outsourced product development. Angstead and his staff meet and plan with these customers regularly to gear up for new projects that are coming down the pipe.

RapidPro has also recently launched a new Sporting Goods website, www.rapidprosports.com. They use this site to introduce and sell new, innovative athletic products to the public. The company sells Baseball, Football, Basketball, Hunting & Fishing, Soccer and Golf products. RapidPro Sports specializes in unique training aids and accessory products that increase the skill level of young athletes.

While once again faced with adverse conditions, Angstead’s attitude remains very positive. “Difficult challenges do not determine the outcome of a situation,” says Angstead, “it’s the way you react and adjust to handle those challenges that will determine your level of success.”

Angstead believes that one of his most powerful assets is his ability to pull people together and strive toward a common goal. He says, “We have a fantastic team including our staff, suppliers and customers and are all working together on exciting new projects.” He is in the process of restructuring and refinancing the company to give it a new, more profitable start. Now profitable again, the future looks bright on the horizon. Within this small privately owned company and thousands more like it across the country, the “Spirit of the American Dream” is alive and well and will prevail in these changing times.

Angstead likens his business to “a maternity ward for new products and start-up companies. This is where the Spirit of the American Dream is born!”

To contact Ron Angstead and RapidPro for product development, manufacturing services or other business opportunities, please call or email.


RapidPro Manufacturing Corporation Email: ron@rapidpro.com
Ron Angstead, President, CEO www.rapidpro.com
14478 I-25 Frontage Road www.rapidprosports.com
Longmont, Colorado 80504 Office: 970-535-0550