When 400-plus friends of Anchor Center for Blind Children meet for dinner July 12 at David and Laura Merage’s home in Cherry Hills Village, they’ll be feasting not only on fare the Footers Catering chefs have prepared but on the news that a $7.5 million capital campaign is coming to a successful end.
The funding drive began when it became apparent that after 15 years, Anchor had outgrown its home in the former boys dormitory on the Clayton Campus for Youth at Colorado and Martin Luther King boulevards. Anchor is the only privately funded organization in Colorado with the sole mission of providing early intervention and developmental education to blind children up to age 5.
With the $7.5 million, Anchor’s governing board purchased land at 26th Avenue and Roslyn Street in Denver’s Stapleton neighborhood and began construction on the 15,000-square-foot Julie McAndrews Mork Building and a campus filled with things unique to the teaching of blind children. The funds also created a $1 million endowment. A ribbon-cutting ceremony is set for Sept. 28.
The dinner at the Merage home, Sunset in the Country, is being chaired by Wendy Clayton and is expected to raise $200,000 for Anchor Center programs. Guests are invited by 62 hosts and hostesses who decorate their tales in themes ranging from the elegant to the whimsical.
Clayton and Lexy Pfeifley co-chaired the capital campaign.
Anchor Center also is the recipient of Lafarge West’s 2007 Building Blocks of Our Community award. The $30,000 gift of asphalt, concrete or aggregate products, plus technical assistance from a Lafarge building materials expert, was applied to the cost of completing Cane Walk Lane and a “Braille trail” at Anchor’s new home.
Cane Walk Lane features different concrete textures and patterns so that children can learn to use their canes on different surfaces, while the Braille trail is a circular walking and tricycle path that has the Braille alphabet and the numbers 1 through 10 on survey grid markers.
In other news
Beta Rho Sigma chapter of Sigma Gamma Rho sorority hosted a reception at the Cork House to celebrate Jennifer Carter’s election to International Grand Tamiochus. A member since 1993, Carter has held numerous local and regional offices in the 85,000-member sorority and is a past president of the Metro Denver PanHellenic Council. A widow with two grown children, she is a civil rights specialist active in Here’s Love Christian Fellowship.
Nominations for 2008 induction into the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame are due Aug. 29. As many as 10 will be selected in both historic and contemporary categories. Forms are available online at or by calling Lindy Conter, 719-594-9443.
Lakewood Country Club is the setting July 23 for the Sports Legends of Golf Tournament. It’s a benefit for Arapahoe House and begins with a 7:30 a.m. shotgun start. Register with Kristin Gibbs, 303-412-3641.
9News anchor Adele Arakawa is chairing the eighth annual Tom Arganese Memorial Golf Tournament that’s to take place Aug. 13 at the Inverness Hotel & Conference Center. It benefits the Limb Preservation Foundation and there’s a discount for early bird reservations. Call 303-217-0998.
Society editor Joanne Davidson can be reached at 303-809-1314 or jdavidson@denverpost.com. She also contributes at
