The Colorado I Have a Dream Foundation wanted to make one thing very clear: Its annual dinner was going to be a toast to Rob Cohen, not a roast.
Which was all fine and good — until you noticed the asterisk that guided the eye to the invitation’s fine print. Toast, it indicated, sometimes gets burnt.
Which was the delicate way honorary chairs Carrie Besnette, Joe Blake, Noel and Leslie Ginsburg, Steve Kaplan, Rich Rainaldi and Carolyn Wollard let everyone know the evening wasn’t going to be all prim and proper. It would indeed have plenty of laughs at Cohen’s expense.
Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, who was roasted in 2004, said he was trying to get his head around how Cohen “was quick to put me up to be put down, but when it’s his turn, all of a sudden the roast becomes a toast.”
Hickenlooper “dismissed” Cohen, chairman and chief executive officer of IMA Financial Group and a past president of the I Have a Dream Foundation board, as having chaired the annual fundraiser “so many times everyone has lost count.” The mayor also went on to praise Cohen for his extensive community service, particularly his role in bringing 1,500 world sports leaders to Denver in March for SportAccord and for founding the Metro Denver Sports Commission.
Cohen’s commitment to pro sports also was reflected in the choice of emcees — former Denver Bronco Reggie Rivers and former Denver Nuggets player and coach Bill Hanzlik — and in the appearance of Denver Nuggets point guard Anthony Carter, an alumnus of I Have a Dream in Atlanta.
In addition to skewering Cohen, the dinner also was the occasion to honor the foundation’s Summit Award winners: Omolayo Dada, a Nigerian immigrant who graduated from Overland High School this month with a 4.0 grade point average, and Jose Octavios Dias-Fernandez, who lived in six different households during one of his middle school years. He persevered with the help of I Have a Dream, graduating from Arrupe Jesuit High School with plans to enroll at Community College of Denver and dreams of becoming a firefighter.
The dinner menu paid tribute to Cohen’s Midwestern roots. It was served family-style and included buffalo meatloaf, crispy fried chicken and spoon bread.
The foundation’s executive director, Mary Hanewall, and board president Jacqueline Berardini welcomed 600 guests, including state Sen. Chris Romer, a founder of the mentoring organization’s Colorado chapter; longtime benefactors Annabel and Jerry McHugh; such board members as Rusty Wehner, Eric Sondermann, Richard Weill, Bob Hochstadt,Loan Vo and Michael Johnston, who had just been appointed to fill the state Senate seat vacated by Peter Groff; and the two whose toasts to Cohen brought a standing ovation: Comcast senior vice president Scott Binder and Joe Blake, who is stepping down as president of the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce to become chancellor of Colorado State University.
Other well-wishers included superintendent of schools Tom Boasberg; Metropolitan State College president Steve Jordan; Craig Hospital Foundation director Denny O’Malley; Urban League chief Landri Taylor; Denver City Council president Michael Hancock; and attorney Steve Farber, who in 2001 was the chapter’s first roastee.
Society editor Joanne Davidson: 303-809-1314 or jdavidson@denverpost.com; also, and GetItWrite on Twitter.
