Good thing Denver Health didn’t ask the Baseball Writers Association of America to pick the most valuable players for its 2008 Triumph Over Challenge Gala.
We’re still peeved at the writers for robbing the Colorado Rockies of postseason awards so richly deserved by Troy Tulowitzki (rookie of the year) and Matt Holliday (most valuable player). So much so that it would have been easy to imagine the writers voting for goodness-knows-who instead of the eight people whose names were announced at a kickoff party held at the home of Denver Broncos head coach Mike Shanahan and his wife, Peggy.
The Shanahans are honorary chairmen of the April 12 dinner-dance that is being chaired by Cheri and Dan Issel, former Denver Nuggets player and coach.
One hundred friends of Denver Health were at the Shanahan home to hear Paula Herzmark, executive director of the sponsoring Denver Health Foundation, introduce 2008 MVPs Bruce and Lisa Alexander, Chris and Yvette Pita Frampton, Evi Makovsky, Hubert and Luella Farbes and Barbara Burry.
“Without their time, energy and support, we would not be the organization we are today,” Herzmark observed.
Frampton, for example, was born in Miami to Cuban parents and has volunteered as an interpreter for Denver Health’s Spanish-speaking patients. “Personally, I can’t imagine going to a doctor’s office where I couldn’t clearly communicate my needs,” she said, adding that she chose Denver Health because she wanted to volunteer in a setting “where I could make the biggest impact.”
A documentary filmmaker, she is president of the Denver Health Volunteer Association board.
No tree yet?
Lisa Alexander chaired the Denver Health Gala in 2007, and Barbara Burry has coordinated several of the benefit’s auctions. Hubert Farbes, a shareholder at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, and his wife, an accomplished pottery artist, have served Denver Health in numerous ways, including his terms on the Denver Health and Hospital Authority board.
Then check out Bough House, a display of 29 lavishly decorated holiday trees, that remains on display through Tuesday at One Home in Cherry Creek North.
And if there’s something that really catches your eye, wait till Wednesday when the trees will be auctioned at a party that begins at 6:30 p.m. at the Walnut Foundry. Proceeds go to the Rocky Mountain Children’s Law Center. Designers include 4240 Architecture, OZ Architecture, Rule Gallery, studiotrope, Semple Brown Design, Alvarez Morris Inc. and in situ DESIGN. Call Sara Payne, 303-302-9910.
Joanne Davidson: 303-809-1314 or jdavidson@denverpost.com; also,
