Flaming Gorge Days Makes Comeback After Embezzlement Scandal Nearly Killed It

GREEN RIVER — Little Everly and Logan Smith of Rock Springs couldn’t contain the smiles on their faces at the 2025 Flaming Gorge Days Parade.

Candy was raining down at them as float after float went by, keeping the siblings quite busy chasing fistfuls of sugary stuff that they couldn’t wait to eat. 

Then they dutifully placed their sweet treasures into a bag their mom, Angel Lee,held open. They would get to eat a few pieces later, she advised them. If, that is, they behaved.

The two children were chasing after a toy and some more candy when a huge firetruck came along, spraying water on the crowds. They giggled and ran away to avoid getting drenched. 

“We did this every year,” Elizabeth Lee, the children’s grandmother, told Cowboy State Daily as she held onto one of the family pets. “We just love being outdoors and getting the kids outside.”

But in 2023, the Lees didn’t get to do Flaming Gorge Days at all. 

That’s because it was canceled after one of the event organizers was arrested and ultimately convicted on two felony counts of embezzling more than $77,000 from the event, leaving its coffers empty.

With nothing on hand to start again, the event was set up to struggle to make a comeback. But it was all the way back Saturday just two years after catastrophe. The vigor of the event was a pleasant surprise to many of those attending on Saturday. 

“I was surprised to see how many vendors there were,” Deborah Becker, of Rock Springs, told Cowboy State Daily. “And I was so glad to see that so many of them were local. That’s much better than big box stores.”

It felt like a summer reunion, she added, getting to see so many locals, and so many of the friends she’s made over the years.

“It’s so nice to see good clean fun,” she said. “This is a good thing, and Green River needs it. If it continues, this is going in the right direction.”

You Can’t Keep A Good Event Down

A stranger to Evers Park on Saturday would have been pleasantly greeted by a smooth, well-run event going off without a single hitch, and would have had no idea the kind of challenges this event has faced making a comeback.

Music was playing in the background while a couple thousand or so people milled around, checking out 95 vendors, each with hand-made goods that ranged from 3-D printed dragons to polished cabochons, leather works and more. 

Families sat in picnic rings under shade trees, enjoying lunch from various vendors in the park, and there was an aura of abundance and energy that permeated every corner of the park. It didn’t matter if a visitor was in the car show area, the music pavilion, the food trucks, the splash pad, or, Expedition Island, getting set up for a five-hour nighttime concert by the river.

The event felt alive but, in the background, things were not going as smoothly as they seemed. 

The day was just barely saved by a clutch donation from a new sponsor, organizer Sherry Bushman told Cowboy State Daily.

“The generator we had out there didn’t work,” she said. “So, this afternoon, we had no power. United Rentals were very kind to allow us to have a generator as an in-kind (donation).”

The owner of the business was on vacation at the time all this was happening, but that didn’t deter him from immediately agreeing to extend his help. That’s how things have been all along the way, Bushman said. When the event needs something, someone steps up to the plate.

“So that’s phenomenal,” Bushman said. “People just step up when we need assistance.”

The Snowball Effect

Stepping up is what helped bring the event back so big, so quickly, Bushman added. 

With empty coffers, the event had to start from nothing. That took the help of dozens of community volunteers, as well as community sponsors. 

It all started, though, with a relatively simple request. 

“Since the American Legion puts on the music for vets, they were solicited to actually bring the concert back,” Bushman said.

Bushman’s husband is a member of the American Legion, so that is how the couple first became involved.

From there, Bushman saw it as just a community snowball effect. 

“Other people stepped up,” Bushman said. “People wanted to do the three-on-three, and then there were just a lot of us who, we just felt we needed to have a community event, and we wanted to step up and make sure it happened.”

Volunteers came from all kinds of community groups. The VFW, the American Legion, the Miracle League, the Boy Scouts and more. 

And then there was Alishae Blazich, who volunteered to run the vendor show this year. A quiet star behind the scenes, even before she knew Flaming Gorge Days was coming back, Blazich worked to keep the vendor show going.

“I really just wanted the community to have Flaming Gorge Days back,” she told Cowboy State Daily. “You know, for many, many of us, these are our childhood memories, coming out here and enjoying face-painting, trampolines and stuff like that. It was just having a good time.”

It was unthinkable to Blazich that the event wouldn’t be coming back. It just had to.

Her husband, Bill Blazich, meanwhile, recalls hearing the cancellation announcement on the radio in 2023 and being momentarily stunned.

“I called my wife up immediately after that and said, ‘Reserve the park,’” Bill Blazich recalled. “We had an event planned out of our store for that weekend, so we ended up moving that event to the park for Flaming Gorge Days weekend and we called it Party in the Park.”

Alishae and a friend, meanwhile, worked together on a plan to try and have some kind of event with vendors every year, even if it wasn’t as big as before. 

Ultimately, that was one of the big reasons Flaming Gorge Days was able to come roaring back so strongly. All the vendors were already lined up and ready to pull the trigger.

“We had almost 80 vendors last year,” Alishae said. “And so, this year, it’s almost 95.”

Alishae would love to say the vendor show will get even bigger next year, but realistically, she feels the vendor portion of the show is probably about as big as it can get at its current location in Evers Park.

“The park is only so big,” she said. “We had almost 95 vendors here this year. And the reality of it is, it’s really hard to fit everybody in here.”

Food Trucks Were A Highlight

Food trucks are another area where Flaming Gorge Days really does shine. 

Mexican fruit salads and fire-roasted elote — grilled Mexican street corn sprinkled with cotija cheese, chili powder, and lime juice — were among the things available at one stand. Fried Alligator, over-sized shrimp, and crawfish etoufee were available at another that was devoted to real live Louisiana Cajun food.

There were barbecue stands, hamburger stands and hot dog stands, kettle corn and cotton candy, as well as fresh-squeezed lemonade and Italian sodas. 

The abundance of vendors didn’t hurt Jenn Vegors’ feelings at all. 

“That meant the lines weren’t too long,” the Green River woman said, smiling from under an umbrella she was holding over her and her daughter’s head while they rested on a picnic blanket with friend Megan Johnson.

The car show, Vegors noted as they watched children playing in the nearby splash pad, was a bit smaller than it has been in years past, but it’s just one of many things she expects will build back up over time.

“I was definitely bummed about it being canceled,” she said. “I remember there was a community group who did like a kids carnival one side of the railroad tracks after that and there was something else on the other side.”

It was nice that they tried, she said, but it just wasn’t the same as her beloved, all-out Flaming Gorge Days. 

Saturday’s event hit all the right notes in her opinion.

“I’d love to see a few more things for the kids,” she said. “But this is nice.”

Building Back Better

More things for the kids, along with other activities that used to be part of Green River’s signature event, are exactly what the organizers of the event say they are hoping for next year.

“We are going to build on it for next year,” Bushman said. “We’re going to start having meetings in September and start asking people to, say, ‘Hey, there’s an activity you want to manage, then go for it,’ and we’re just going to make this bigger and better.”

Bushman hopes that will lead to the return of community favorites at the event like the cornhole tournament. 

With no budget to speak of yet, this year’s concerts were good and included the well-known American rock band Adelitas Way and hard rock band Otherwise, with support from local bands ZamTrip, Gundo and Zephyr Grey. 

In year’s past, the concerts have featured nationally prominent bands and singers, such as Styx, Eddie Money, Kenny Chesney, Night Ranger, and Wyoming’s own Ned LeDoux. That too, is something they will build on, Bushman said. 

“My husband’s been in charge of dealing with (the bands), and he’s been doing a phenomenal job,” Bushman said.

However, Bushman herself has been doing her part. She drove out to Salt Lake City the night before Flaming Gorge Days to pick up some of the members of the headliner bands and bring them back to Green River. 

It was worth the effort, she said.

“This is about our quality of life,” she said. “People love enjoying themselves. And, also, the small businesses. How else do you support them? Well, you have events. You bring people here. It’s a social event, and it’s bringing happiness back into Green River.”

Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.