Denver Public Library

FOR DIG. Bamboo in French Polynesia. Photo by Jules Strauss/California Academy of Sciences.

Aurora, CO July 19, 2005 Team Imua Polynesia practices for next week's dragon boat races at Aurora Resevoir. Rick Giase/Special to the News

Aurora, CO July 19, 2005 Emily Matner (left), Shawn Martinet and Lendau De Leguna and other members of Team Imua Polynesia practice for next week's dragon boat races at Aurora Resevoir. Rick Giase/Special to the News

Aurora, CO July 19, 2005 Chip Havens (right), a team member and technical advisor, gives tips to memebers ofTeam Imua Polynesia who was practicing for next week's dragon boat races at Aurora Resevoir. Rick Giase/Special to the News

Paul Lugar, a personal trainer and cycling coach in Boulder, paddles his way across the Boulder Reservoir in the late afternoon. Lugar is riding Sevylor Sports' new "Samoa" - a new inflatable model of the stand-up paddle boards that are all the rage in Ca

Cadet Candidate Mercy Teo(cq), 18, from American Samoa, right, (she's in Dick Foster's story) hugs Ellen Cesarone (cq), assistant to U.S. Congressman Joel Hefley, after Teo was sworn in as a new U.S. citizen at Ft. Carson in Colorado Springs on April 22

Twenty-five members of the U.S. Armed Forces and one spouse are sworn in as new U.S. citizens at Ft. Carson in Colorado Springs on April 22, 2005 in an INS naturalization ceremony. (ELLEN JASKOL/ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS).

87-year-old Benny hensen (cq) poses for a portrait in 944 with a Papua New Guinea native when he worked as a Topographic specialist in the army during WWII. Hensen is an rockies fan who is in hospice care at the Atria Inn at Lakewood. He has played baseb

4:18 p.m. October 7, 2006. Rachel Chayer, (cq), 7, of Ft. Collins builds her own sculpture, fashioned after the wooden Yipwon Spirit Figure from the mid 1800's, from Papua New Guinea in the Oceanic Art Gallery on the 3rd floor of the new Frederic C. Hami

Bigger isn't necessarily better, according to the Guam delegation, who traveled farthest to be here.

Colonel Karen Weldon (cq), left, works with her friend Lt. Colonel Michael Patrocky (cq) on writing their resumes in the Army Career and Alumni Program area at Ft. Carson. The two will be leaving the army soon and are utilizing the program and workshops

FILE (NYT29) APRA HARBOR, Guam -- May 17, 2005 -- SUBMARINE-CRASH-2 -- A U.S. Navy photo of the submarine USS San Francisco as it sat dry dock in Guam, Jan. 27, 2005 where the damage to its bow following a collision with an undersea mountain was being ass