Blanket statements are risky at best, but not this one: No parent of a 2006 Le Bal de Ballet honoree could ever look at their child and wonder “Where did I go wrong?”
The 47 debutantes and 41 Young Men of Distinction presented on June 17 included Denver Academy’s 2006 valedictorian (Evan Vessels); East High’s senior class president (Josh Greenwood); the Fred Steinmark Athlete of the Year (Danielle Kachulis); all-American swimmers (Danielle Gonzales and Martin Erzinger); a magna cum laude graduate of Kent Denver School who received the Prix Sevigne for outstanding achievement in French (Claire Finch); a four-time state tennis champ (Julie Swinehart); and a Regis High grad who will travel to Holland this summer to play baseball with Team USA (Elliott Morgan Alston).
Also among the honorees was a young man whose great-great-great-great-great grandfather signed the Declaration of Independence (Michael Roddy); the granddaughter of a former Colorado governor (Rachel Romer); a fourth-generation Colorado native (Chase Puckett); the great-
grandson of the late architect Temple Hoyne Buell (William Augustus Pickard); the daughter of the late telecommunications guru Peter Barton (Kate Barton); the son of 7News anchor Bertha Lynn (Elliott Naves); and the daughter of Denver Social Register & Record editor Renee Piper (Aundrea Piper). Aundrea’s grandmother, the late Kathy Piper Johnson, also had been editor of the Social Register and was a past chair of Le Bal de Ballet.
YMOD Josh Greenwood is the grandson of Marie Greenwood, after whom a Denver elementary school is named to honor her contributions as one of the state’s first African-American school administrators, and the nephew of Ida Daniel, president of Denver chapter of Links, and her husband, federal judge Wiley Daniel. Josh recently served as an escort at the Owl Club Debutante Ball and had the lead in the East High musicals “Oklahoma!” and “Fiddler on the Roof.”
His East High classmate Edward Scott also was in “Oklahoma!” and sang in the Angelaires. Stefan Stathopulos, who graduated Mullen High with letters in lacrosse and basketball, is the third in his family to take part in Le Bal de Ballet. His sister, Argyro, and brother, Theodore, preceded him.
David Wirtzbacher was captain and Most Valuable Player on the Regis High lacrosse team, where he also received the Doc Stabler Award for lacrosse leadership and skills. Amber Lister, who made a name for herself in field hockey and lacrosse at Smoky Hill High, will play Division I lacrosse for St. Mary’s College in Moraga, Calif., which she will attend on both athletic and academic scholarships. Jennifer Muniz, a Mullen grad, is the first four-time gold medalist in 4A high school state swim meet history and is a United States Swimming record holder in the 15- and 16-year-old women’s 400 medley relay.
Come fall, the honorees will be heading off to top-shelf colleges and universities like Harvard (Cameron Spickert); Yale (Erzinger); Stanford (Gonzales, Romer); Johns Hopkins (Zach Tedeschi); Duke (Lauren Miller, Finch and Kachulis); Notre Dame (Chelsea Moore and Patricia Pogge); Dartmouth (Lauren Kenney and Molly Parker); Wake Forest (Evan Lengerich, Eric Sipf Jr., Chelsea Lehman and Wurtzbacher); Northwestern (Elizabeth Hirsch Walker); Vanderbilt (John Armstrong, William Barclay Holmes and Malia Myers); Boston University (Julie Ellen Curtiss-Lusher, Alexandria Meers); and Villanova (Kaitlyn May).
Courtney Smith, a DECA state champion this year for Cherry Creek High School, won a Provost Scholarship for Academic Merit at Baylor University; Ally Smola, who was in the chamber and symphonic choirs, women’s jazz ensemble and mixed jazz ensemble at Smoky Hill, will study music therapy at the University of Kansas.
Several of the debs, including Sarah Wyman, who played varsity lacrosse at Cherry Creek and toured Canada and Europe with the school’s award-winning Meistersingers, had come full circle, so to speak, having been a Colorado Ballet Auxiliary Sugarplum while in elementary school.
Le Bal de Ballet is presented by Denver Ballet Guild to raise money for Colorado’s nonprofit dance community by paying tribute to teen achievers. Sandra Betker was the chairwoman and Debi Tryon was the honorary chair.
Dr. Toby Cole introduced the honorees on stage at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House; afterward, they traveled by horse-drawn carriage to the Adam’s Mark for dinner and dancing.
Society editor Joanne Davidson can be reached at 303-809-1314 or jmdpost@aol.com.
