SunUte Community Center opened to everyone in the Ignacio community in 2001, and on Dec. 16, staff and tribal leaders celebrated the center's 15th anniversary.
Members and employees gathered in the gym to view the center's new 15th-anniversary logo and hear from tribal members who helped lead the effort to build the facility, as well as those who will lead it into the next 15 years.
The center has provided swimming, exercise classes, popular basketball leagues and a weight and cardio facility to more than a thousand people in the past decades.
In 2001, the center had 86 tribal members, 79 employee members and 152 from the Ignacio community, said Beth Santistevan, the center's first fitness instructor who also is a Southern Ute tribal member. She found the figures in a 2001 article in the Southern Ute Drum, the tribal newspaper. Today, the center has a total of 1,089 members, including 403 tribal members.
"I have a lot of love for this building," said Tyson Thompson, a Southern Ute Tribal Council member attending the ceremony.
The fit-looking Thompson said he was overweight in high school, and he started what he called his journey to fitness after the center opened.
"I look forward to what the next 15 years will bring," he said.
Byron Frost, who advocated for the tribe to open the center for years, thanked past and current center employees for bringing his vision into existence.
He first brought the idea for a fitness center to tribal officials in 1990. In 1995, Alex Cloud and Marjorie Borst joined him, "and we kept on moving," he said of the long process to get approval.
"It was a long, long wait." He visited fitness centers in Grand Junction and Fort Lewis College to get ideas for what a tribal facility should feature.
Finally, an employee of the Southern Ute Growth Fund called and told him, "Mr. Frost, we're going to build your facility," he remembered.
Frost said he saw the center as a place of healing, where both tribal and non-tribal members could socialize, get rid of stress, and take care of their bodies and themselves.
"We wanted it to be open to all because the Creator said, 'here, take care of yourself,' " he said of the need for a new facility.
Frost's son, Byron, said he remembered playing ball and swimming as a kid at the old Pino Nuche Center in Ignacio. When it was closed, there wasn't much for tribal kids to do during their free time.
Santistevan also acknowledged and thanked Glen and Barbara Walker for helping organize the Town of Ignacio recreation programs for years when there was no rec center. She remembered going on ski trips with the Walkers when she was a kid.
Santistevan asked Barbara Walker, who attended the event, to stand up to receive the crowd's applause.
Ian Thompson is the director apprentice for the center, and he joined Santistevan in thanking the Frosts and other early advocates for the center. "They really did make a hard push to get this built," he said, gesturing his arms in the collegiate-sized gym.
Thompson said he had made some bad choices when he was younger, "and this building saved me."
Staff members helped him focus on becoming healthier and encouraged him as he became more fit.
"This staff is dedicated not to themselves but to the community," he said, gesturing to the employees in attendance. "What a blessing this is."
People leave the center feeling better about their health, but many also leave feeling blessed.
"That's huge to me," he added.
During the center's anniversary year, he and SunUte staff want to display more photos of Ute history to explain the tribe's origins and traditions to visitors.
Staff also celebrated their anniversary week Dec. 12-16 with some fun events, including a fitness challenge and a member-staff challenge. Sixteen staff members won at competitions ranging from basketball to diving, and seven members of the center won their contests. Lunch was served after the ceremony to culminate the anniversary celebration.
More information about the center is at www.sunute.com
