Physician, heal thyself
Not to say he looked green around the gills or anything, but if Dr. Dean Prina seemed a bit subdued the night that Bright Beginnings honored him at its annual fundraising dinner it was because he’d been in bed with a case of food poisoning in the days immediately preceding this event.
All in the family
Bright Beginnings was founded in 1995 by the late Brad Butler and then-Gov. Roy Romer, and it was so important to Butler that his family remains actively involved. His widow, Erna, is an honorary member of the agency’s board of directors while his daughter, Nancy Butler Accetta, also a board member, chaired the dinner at which Prina was honored. Brad Butler, who died in 1998, had been chairman of Procter & Gamble before retiring and moving to Colorado.
Romer’s wife, Bea, attended the dinner, as did Mile High United Way CEO Mike Durkin; Denver school board members Lucia Guzman, Theresa Peña and Bruce Hoyt; Caz Matthews of Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield; Denver Foundation President David Miller; Katherine Pease, founding executive director of the Gill Foundation; Megan Ferland, president of the Colorado Children’s Campaign; Junior League President Barb Miller; the U.S. Small Business Administration’s regional executive Patricia Barela Rivera; and Temple Hoyne Buell Foundation director Susan Steele.
Of historic proportion
Tattered Cover owner Joyce Meskis, who dared to move her popular bookstore from tony Cherry Creek North to the emerging East Colfax Avenue neighborhood near East High School, was rewarded for her pioneering effort when Historic Denver held its 36th Community Preservation Awards Dinner at the Brown Palace Hotel. Meskis received the Ann Love Award, named for HD’s founder, while the Lowenstein Theater redevelopment effort, which the Tattered Cover anchors, received a preservation award. Other awards went to the Baur Building, the Colorado Colfax Marathon, the Episcopal Diocese of Colorado, the Hughes/Brody House and Denver City Councilwoman Jeanne Robb, who received the Molly Brown Spirit Award.
