Etiquette experts frown on money talk in a social setting, but discussing dollars sure wasn’t a faux pas at the Kempe Foundation Alliance summer fiesta, Salt on the Rim.
Not when a $12.2 million capital campaign is speeding toward completion, and a couple of major donations had been received just days before. The campaign, which chairmen Steve Cohen and Walt Imhoff say has only $1.5 million to go, will fund the move of the Kempe Children’s Center to the Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora.
Dr. Rob Clyman, the center’s executive director, explains that by relocating the facility from its current location in Denver, “We are putting the issue of child abuse and neglect into the very center of some of the greatest minds in the country. It will promote collaboration on a scale that has never been seen before — and do more to protect our children.”
In the days leading up to Salt on the Rim, held in the garden at Ralph and Betty Peterson’s Highlands Ranch home, the Gary-Williams Co. gave $500,000 to the campaign while the Gates Family Foundation sent a check for $400,000. The campaign was launched with a $2.2 million gift from the Anschutz Family Foundation.
Virginia Bray and Jan Brooks chaired Salt on the Rim, which featured margaritas poured by husbands of Kempe Foundation Alliance members; south-of-the-border fare from Lime, Mezcal, Tambien, Your Way Gourmet, Gourmet Fine Catering, Zink and Gelazzi Gelato; and live and silent auctions. CW2 meteorologist Jason Boyd emceed.
The sunset gathering also was the occasion for alliance president Lyn Schaffer to pass the gavel to Ryta Sondergard, who will lead the group in 2008-09. A nine-year member of the alliance, Sondergard also served as the evening’s auctioneer.
Foundation president/CEO Jesse Wolff, there with his wife, Molly, was making sure that everyone knew Kempe had beat out 100-plus nominees to become the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce Nonprofit of the Year for 2008.
Others mixing and mingling in the Peterson garden were Harvey and Joanne Sender; Jill DiPasquale; Louis and Ginny Messina; Peggy Hector; Leo and Linda Goto; Vickie Dow; Ren and Maureen Cannon; Cindi Burge; Nick and Debbie Lepetsos; Pam Kelker; Marilyn Neukirch; Steve Sondergard; Gary and Gayle Ray; Dr. Michael Schaffer; and Perry and Stephanie Odak.
Since its founding 35 years ago by the late Denver pediatrician C. Henry Kempe, the Kempe Center has become a world leader in the treatment and prevention of child abuse.
Society editor Joanne Davidson: 303-809-1314 or jdavidson@denverpost.com; also,
