El Paso Times from El Paso, Texas • 35

IKaiflefiallcDscBaDnD Section HD imcs Friday. February 15, 1985 Page 1D rn a Sometimes Dolores wonders, especially if guests freeze up "Que Pasa with Dolores" airs at 5:30 p.m. Saturday and Sundays on Channel 22-KRWG. the PBS television station in Las Cruces. By Edna Gundersen Times staff writer There's scarcely a soul in Southern New Mexico who doesn't know Dolores Lenko.

For the past six years, she's entered their living rooms twice a week by way of her community magazine television show, "Que Pasa with Dolores." 'V lit- 1 I i i 7 i' itWl Iff Two weeks ago, lenko technically left KRWG-TV to devote full energies to her independent production projects. her affiliation with the station is by no means over. "Que Pasa" segments will air March 3 ar i will be preempted by Festival, the station's fund drive March 9 to 23). Lenko plans to participate in Festival and hopes "Que Pasa" production will resume in April under a contract basis. "KRWG is my favorite client," she says.

The 30-minute in- inhn Ta-fcn ill I was a documentary on teen alcoholism in New Mexico. "I thought I was pretty sophisticated about the problem," Lenko says solemnly, "but I learned 1 was a child. We found alcoholics that were 7, 8 and 9 years old." A statuesque woman who dresses dramatically in black suits and heavy Navajo jewelry, Lenko is fun-loving by nature but takes her work seriously. She even enjoys fund raising, a duty performed grudgingly by most in the business. "I do it gladly." she says, "even when it means doing something ridiculous for money.

I had to dance with a gorilla once. But he did bring in the cash. "I beueve in PBS," Lenko adds. "It provides a real alternative, and not just for white-collar workers. The blue-collar worker is certainly a part of our audience.

They are demanding more arts and entertainment. With cable booming, we're finally to a place where we have alternatives. I think the American people are becoming more selective." Though more stations mean stiffer competition, Lenko welcomes the growth. "It forces everybody to do a little bit better," she says. "It keeps you on your toes because you realize something else is just a click away." The most painstaking aspect of her job as producer is editing.

For every minute that makes it to the screen, an editor has spent an hour or more choosing and arranging footage, she says. "Time is always our enemy," Lenko says, adding that she has learned to use each minute efficiently. "Before I got into television, I thought five minutes was a short period of time. Now I think I can do anything with five minutes." She is producing religious television shows for Channel 14-KCIK, as well as audio travel tapes that will guide tourists on journeys from Santa Fe to Juarez. A long-planned vacation has been indefinitely postponed.

"There's no time," she says with a sigh. What are the rewards for this ceaseless grind? Lenko's eyes fill with warmth. "The people." she says simply. "Those wonderful people." Last summer, she was named honorary Duck Queen at the Deming Duck Race and given an official sash and tiara. "It was hysterical," she says, clasping her hands together.

"I get to be their queen until I go to the great duck pond in the sky." Invariably, Lenko will stroll through a small town and be spotted by fans. "I was walking down Main Street in Silver City once," she recalls. "I thought I was being so elegant. This pickup truck pulls up and a tobacco-chewing cowboy yells out the window, 'Hey, Dolores! Que Pasa? Yuk, yuk, My director says to me, 'You really got fans, Lenko chuckles softly and shakes her head. "Seriously," she says, "people open their doors to me.

They invite us for coffee or dinner wherever we go. They treat us like family. I don't know why, but I'm glad. It would be a cold-business otherwise. I'm thankful that somehow I've projected an image that I'm all right, that I'm a nice lady." lerview snow nas noWs' son Tlmn photo by Joel Silcido Dolores Lenko and the Rev.

Wilfrid Diamond of St. Jude Mission in Alamogordo discuss the seven religious programs they are producing. versy and tomfool- aJ hf. waits to ery, senior citizens snoot. and children, politics and comedy (often one and the same), good news and bad.

Through it all, Lenko has maintained an enviable professional control, her trademark. Even when guests stiffened and stammered as the cameras rolled, Lenko coaxed them into conversation. "The toughest aspect is that many of the guests are not professionals," Lenko says. "They're frightened of the camera. You have to learn to pretend the set is your living room.

If I can put them at ease, I've done my job." 1 Lenko shifts in her chair, lights a cigarette and flashes her winning grin. "Yes, some shows have bombed," she says, letting a robust laugh escape. "I've had interviews that sounded wonderful on the phone, but these people would get on the set and freeze. Nothing. I almost got to the point that I was asking them to stomp their foot once for yes and twice for no." Lenko soothes many nerves with 'humor.

She playfully chides them, and laughter is contagious. In Alamo-gordo, where she is producing seven religious programs with the Rev. Wilfrid Diamond of St. Jude Mission, Lenko ribs the priest with distinctly irreverent banter. i "Hey, Diamond!" she hollers across pews, "Fix your lipstick and get up here! And don't try to upstage me, ei-jther." But Lenko's remarks are friendly, never disrespectful.

That something else was television. Seven years ago, Lenko began her Las Cruces broadcasting career as host of "Cancer Answers," a medical question-and-answer series that ran 16 weeks. Lenko was selected moderator. "I was told to keep it light, but this wasn't exactly the Mickey Mouse Club," she says with a mischievous smile. Naturally, Lenko broke through the polite facade and asked doctors blunt questions.

"I think sometimes the doctors were shocked by my questions, but I asked what I thought people would want to know. "Viewers can spot a phony in a minute. If you don't care about them, it will show. When a doctor started talking about rectal exams in medical nomenclature, my questions was, 'Does it hurt? He said, And I repeated, 'Does. It.

Doctors tend to forget how frightened we are of medicine." "Que Pasa" was launched six years ago. Her favorite shows include interviews with Cajun chef Justin Wilson and television personality Ralph Edwards. "Interviewing Ralph Edwards was just like talking to a nice old farm boy," Lenko says. "We genuinely became friends." The toughest show she ever produced going into Indian country. My mother asked me, 'What are you going to do if you need a We all panicked." That was 20 years ago.

Only a few hours after Lenko crossed the New Mexico state line, she decided to stay. "As soon as we hit Santa Fe, I knew I'd never leave," she says. "New Mexico was so dramatic and beautiful." Lenko left only once, to teach music in Denver while her husband studied law. She returned to Las Cruces in the late 1950s when her husband was appointed city attorney. Lenko opened a dress shop, the Gold Key, but sold it when she discovered she was pregnant.

"I decided not to work while I was raising my kids," Lenko says. "Being a mother is the best job I've ever had." Lenko, now divorced, has two sons, John, 23, a communications graduate from New Mexico State University, and Paul, 18, a Mayfield High School senior who plans to study business at NMSU. Lenko nurtured her children, almost excessively, she says. "I've been guilty of overwatering," she admits. "I can kill ivy with too much love.

So when my youngest was in junior high school, I realized I better find something else to do." Dolores Lenko's guests are varied and have included Big Bird. "Father Diamond is absolutely the greatest teacher and preacher I've ever met," Lenko says firmly. "He's terrific. Of course, he does have connections." She winks at the priest. Lenko, the daughter of a grain elevator dealer, was born in the farm community of George, Iowa, near Sioux City.

She studied music, English and theater in college, then moved to New York City, where she took a job at a private studio teaching children how to perform on television. "That studio was filled with some of the strangest characters I've ever seen in my life," Lenko says. "I had never seen these people in Iowa." Lenko got married, and when her husband was drafted, she suddenly found herself packing for White Sands Missile Range. "My mother cried," Lenko remembers. "Everybody thought we were REACH 5 women honored for being tops in their business areas I 7i Jk aafniViii' tiii fcii nM-fiin.

Pearl Calk Cecilia Lang I pifHl (7i "These women are trailblaz-ers in the business world," she said, "because they are getting the recognition that is vitally important in the evolving employment issue. They are part of a revolution in the 'Changing Roles of Men and Women' that are blurring the sex roles." She said four factors in today's society are making those changes necessary: The reduction to 8.9 percent in the population of the traditional man provider-woman home-wage earner. The majority of homes today belong in the two-wage earner category or the single head of family household. Women make up 46 percent of the work force. The country's move from a heavy industry economy to a technological economy with a demand for more talent.

The talents of the upcoming generation have to be nurtured more than previously because of that groups smaller, size. "But women are not yet comfortable with their new roles," Schwartz said, "and are pro-1 ceedlng cautiously into the future. They have not yet comple By Guadalupe Silva Times stall writer Five businesswomen were recognized Thursday at the seventh annual REACH Awards luncheon in the El Paso Country Club. The winners in the five categories: Pearl Calk, owner-operator; Cecilia Lang, executive; Sandra Lee Tyler, management; Carole Barasch, professional; and Mary K. Santaella, technical-clerical.

The five were selected from 75 nominees submitted by El Paso industries and businesses. Felice Schwartz, luncheon keynote speaker, announced the REcognized ACHievement (REACH) awards winners to an audience of more than 350 businessmen and women. REACH is sponsored by the YWCA and the El Paso Electric Co. Schwartz, president and founder of Catalyst, a national non- firofit organization that helps amilies with job options, said the winners were women selected by their companies because they had made a difference in the companies' operations. tely discarded the image of man being the provider and woman the nurturer.

Women need to take a bolder step in the right direction." Lang, vice president, marketing director for First City National Bank, was nominated by her employer. A native of Argentina, Lang said during her acceptance of the award that she would not be receiving this honor "if America was not the land of opportunity for everyone." Barasch, co-anchor and co-producer of the Channel 4-KDBC news program, expressed relief in winning. She told the audience her boss had told her "this was going to be absolutely the last time she was nominated." This was Barasch's fourth nomination. Santaella is a utility consultant in customer accounting for El Paso Electric Co. Tyler is manager of the Residence Service Center for South, western Bell Telephone Co.

Calk, owner and partner of Future Company Realtors, was nominated by the Women's Council of Realtors. After the ceremony, she said every woman should get recognition. Carole Barasch for her achievements in whatever category. "It's great that I won," she said, "but it's a shame that others had to move aside so I could make it. The award is a tremendous recognition by your peers and, most importantly, by the business community." 1984 REACH winner Ruth Brennand, director of El Paso Cultural Planning Project, said that by recognizing one woman, all women were honored.

"No one achieves success alone," she said. "The network of women provides reinforcement to all. Two judges in each category selected the winners. Judges were: Owner-operator, Jaime Torres and Betty Hervey; Executive, William Holik and Kathleen Paxson; Management, Bill Mitchell Mary K. Santaella Sandra Lee Tyler Technical-clerical, Guiller- i mo Licon and Rosemaryj Steele.

and Ruth Ash; Professional, Mickey Schwartz and Janet Ruesch;.