Like dear friends who haven’t been home for the holidays in quite some time, it was so good to see Friends of Nursing back at Phipps Mansion for another Old Fashioned Christmas tour and boutique.
It has been 15 years since the all-volunteer organization has hosted the scholarship fundraiser; before it was put on hiatus, Old Fashioned Christmas had been one of the more popular holiday happenings in the Denver area.
FON’s founding president, Greta Pollard, chaired the 2008 edition with longtime member and benefactor LaFawn Biddle. Judie Stromberg and Jeanne Reeves planned the patron dinner that preceded opening day. Proceeds will be used to fund the scholarships that FON gives to nursing students from a host of Colorado colleges each spring.
Biddle also loaned the “family” of illuminated snowpeople that were placed at the entry to the 54-room Phipps Mansion.
The patron dinner also was the occasion for FON to salute two longtime supporters, Olga Miercort and Ed Harboe.
Miercort, who is 91 years young and was unable to attend, served as FON president from 1992-94 and chaired Old Fashioned Christmas in 1990. She became a nurse after her sons were grown, working first as what was then called a “practical nurse,” before going on to obtain a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Loretto Heights College and a master’s degree from the University of Colorado School of Nursing.
The degrees enabled her to become director of the nursing school at Metropolitan State College of Denver, where she also started a nurse-practitioner program.
Harboe was honored for the years he gave to FON on behalf of his late wife, Ruth, a charter member of the organization. She served on the Old Fashioned Christmas committee for 13 consecutive years, supervising the boutique with her friend and fellow member Vera Robinson.
After Ruth’s death, Ed Harboe endowed a perpetual scholarship in her name.
KEZW personality Rick Crandall emceed the patron dinner; he, too, has a long and personal association with FON. He said he will be forever indebted to nurses, thanks to the compassionate care one nurse in particular gave to his wife, Diane, as she recovered from a stroke at Aurora South earlier this year.
The evening’s patrons included FON president Phyllis Graham- Dickerson; Anita and Dr. Joe Becky; Donna and Dr. Karl Bernklau; Phyllis and Dr. Gary VanderArk; Terry Biddinger; Nell and Roland Muhrer; Jennifer Reeves; Nancy Markham Bugbee; Ann Percefull; Elsie Haws; Andrew and Judy Robinson; Janet Kritzer; and Ms. Senior Colorado, Linda Holloway.
Society editor Joanne Davidson can be reached at 303-809-1314 or jdavidson@denverpost.com; also, .
