**Pictured is Renegade Soul, a group that will perform at Hot Summer Nights this Friday.** Submitted Photo

This Friday, May 24, will be momentous in at least a couple of ways locally.

It is the last day of school, and the second of six Hot Summer Nights events will take place in Uptown Denison.

Event organizer Taylor Borkowski hopes that families will take the opportunity to celebrate the last day of school by attending Hot Summer Nights.

Hot Summer Nights will also afford an opportunity to support the beef industry.

The Crawford County Cattlemen’s Association will be grilling in observance of May Beef Month.

The cattlemen will be selling steak sandwiches and burgers with their proceeds going to help with the Crawford County Fair.

“What’s neat is that you are able to support more than one entity just by coming to the event,” said Borkowski. “You will also be supporting Washington Park because all the proceeds from Hot Summer Nights this year will go to the Washington Park Master Plan.”

Other vendors will be selling food as well.

Hours for Hot Summer Nights will be from 6 to 9 p.m.

Setup will begin at 2 p.m. and will close off Broadway from Avenue C to 14th Street.

Live music will be performed by Renegade Soul, a five-person group that includes Claudia Coltrain, of Denison. Claudia, whose married name is Rihner, goes by her maiden name as a performer.

All the favorite features from Hot Summer Nights on May 4 will be returning on May 24.

The Kids’ Zone events will be as fun as ever with inflatables and the return of the Iowa Army National Guard rock climbing wall.

‘Something new at the first event on May 4 was a new Gaga ball pit, and the kids played in that the entire night, so that will be there again,” said Borkowski.

She added the carpet ball table, another huge hit with kids, will be back.

Volunteers help run the event. Borkowski said the May 24 event is well covered already but she will always add volunteers to her list. Those who are interested can contact her at The Cottage at 712-263-5786.

Groups have been stepping forward to help run the Kids’ Zone. On May 4 it was the Denison Kiwanis Club and on May 24 it will be the Denison Job Corps Center.

Renegade Soul has some personnel overlap with another group that Claudia is a part of – Salty View.

“Renegade Soul plays country with a little bit of light rock mixed in,” Claudia said.

Along with Claudia, Tim Salter is the lead guitarist for both groups, and Jerry Benson is the lead male singer and acoustic guitarist for both groups.

Claudia plays fiddle and sings.

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“Renegade Soul is a band that came out of Salty View,” said Claudia. “We knew we wanted to do a full band arrangement of some sort, so last year we kind of started brainstorming and reached out to a couple people that we knew in the area that could fill other needed instrumental positions.”

Those people are Alex Trevino, the bassist, and Andy Shelly, the drummer. Trevino is a Berkely College of Music graduate and a full-time musician. Shelly is an orthodontist by day and a drummer by night.

Members of the group, except for Claudia, are from the Fort Dodge area.

Renegade Soul opened for Josh Turner at the Downtown Country Jam in Fort Dodge last year.

“It’s been great. We’ve been together now for about a year, and it’s been a great year of music together,” said Claudia.

“We’re super excited to be coming to Denison,” she added. “I’m always happy to be able to bring my music endeavors back to town.”

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