Beijing isn’t the only place where amazing athletic feats are taking place this summer. Twenty-five swimmers, runners and racquetball players from Team Rocky Mountain brought home the goldsilver and bronze, too — after participating in the National Kidney Foundation’s U.S. Transplant Games held in Pittsburgh.
Members of Team Rocky Mountain ranged in age from 4 to 70. Gold medalists were Brittney Andrews, Christian Johansen, Dillon Jaap, Eric Rhoades, James Watson, Janie Kappius, Justin Fulton, Pat Butler and Mari Teitelman. Andrews, Johansen, Rhoades, Fulton, Teitelman and Butler also won silver medals, along with Ann Miller, Bev Velte, Signe Wheeler and Vienna Danna.Audrey Kimsey, Wheeler, Teitelman, Fulton, Kappius, Kimsey, Rhoades, Andrews, Velte and Miller were bronze medalists.
“We are proud of all of our team members,” said Judy Norman, executive director of the National Kidney Foundation of Colorado, Montana and Wyoming. “This is an athletic event, but the most important aspect is thousands of people connecting through a common bond: organ donation.”
The National Kidney Foundation began staging the U.S. Transplant Games in 1990 to showcase the success of transplantation and call attention to the critical need for donors.
Recipients who have received a lifesaving solid-organ transplant, or bone marrow, and are at least six months post-transplant are eligible to compete.
“The games are an athletic competition,” Norman adds, “but athletic ability is not a requirement to participate. In fact, many participants come just for the camaraderie.”
It’s all good.
Green Gables Country Club is the setting Tuesday for The Golda award luncheon honoring Francine Topelson for her many philanthropic efforts, especially on behalf of Allied Jewish Federation of Colorado . . . In an effort to avert family tragedies, the Kempe Children’s Foundation has established the Chandler Grafner Tribute Fund to provide emergency resources to families in crisis. Read more about it at . . . A reception at Don and Arlene Johnson’s home on Sept. 7 is the occasion for the high school seniors who will be presented at the 2009 Fine Arts Foundation Debutante Ball to meet for the first time . . . Tom Petrie is the 2009 recipient of the Mary Belle Grant Award and will accept the honor Jan. 7 at the Red Carpet Reception that launches the 17th annual Coors Western Art Exhibit & Sale at the National Western Stock Show. In addition, M.W. “Skip” Whitcomb of Fort Collins has been named featured artist. Petrie is a particular fan of Western artist Charles M. Russell, and pieces from his personal collection are currently on display at the Denver Art Museum’s Petrie Institute of Western American Art. Proceeds from the Coors exhibit and sale go to the National Western Scholarship Trust.
Society editor Joanne Davidson: 303-809-1314 or jdavidson@denverpost.com; also,
