Just when you think there couldn’t possibly be another first for the 55-year-old Denver Debutante Ball, a very nice one pops up.
Three of the young ladies to be presented at the Brown Palace Hotel on Dec. 21 — Emily Clinton, Chapin Duke and Paige Duke — are granddaughters of women who have chaired the ball in years past.
“It’s the first time in our history that this has happened,” observed 2010 chairwoman Dawn Fulenwider Wood at a mother-daughter tea held last week. The purpose of the tea chaired by Eileen Morton and Amy Whalen and held at the home of Barbara Danos was to give the new debs a chance to meet one another while receiving a formal introduction to the ball committee.
Clinton, a senior at East High School and captain of its varsity swim team, is the granddaughter of Jane Yale, who led the ball committee in 1984 and 1985. The Duke twins — Chapin is a senior at Brooks School in North Andover, Mass., and Paige attends Middlesex School in Concord, Mass. — are granddaughters of the late Virginia “Gigi” Dunklee, who put in three years as ball chairwoman in the 1950s.
Caroline Clair Ammons, Jules Broz, Vivian Brooks Carlson, Caitlin Pharis Clark, Kathleen Theresa Crowley, Kathleen Margaret Dermody, Kaylin Kay Dines, Avery Isabella Duncan, Sarah Stuart Emery, Tenney Hearst Espy, Sydney Elizabeth Ford, Laura Grace Gilbert, Morgan McKnight Jolliffe, Bethany Josephine Koelbel, Bailey Anne McHugh, Lindsay Gerte Laughlin O’Neal, and Mary Dawson Rassenfoss also will be making their debuts at the ball.
Biographical notes on all of them can be found by logging onto my Seen First blog:
Coming right up.
In 1988, when he was pastor of Dolores Mission parish in Boyle Heights in Los Angeles, the Rev. Greg Boyle took it upon himself to start a jobs program that would give the young people living in one of the city’s toughest neighborhoods an alternative to street gangs. Homeboy Industries has since grown from a tortilla stand to a national model with kids running businesses that range from a bakery to a landscape service.
On Saturday, Boyle delivers the keynote address at Magis Night, a dinner benefiting Arrupe Jesuit High School. Susan Murphy and Nancy Zoellner are chairing the 5:30 p.m. event that also features entertainment by Frank Sinatra impersonator Derek Evilsizor. Call 303-455-7449. . . . Glenna Goodacre, a graduate of Craig Hospital’s traumatic brain injury program, and her husband, C.L. “Mike” Schmidt, will receive the Christopher and Dana Reeve Inspiration Award at the ninth edition of PUSH, a March 4 dinner being chaired by PCL Construction Services president Al Troppmann. Colorado Avalanche president Pierre Lacroix is the honorary chairman. A sculptor perhaps best known for creating the Vietnam Women’s Memorial in Washington, Goodacre also is the mother of Victoria’s Secret model Jill Goodacre, who is married to musician/singer Harry Connick Jr. Learn more about this benefit for Craig Hospital by visiting . . . . Mile High Miracles, a tribute to the 1977 Denver Broncos football team, begins at 6 p.m. March 6 in the East Club Lounge at Invesco Field at Mile High. Jim Jensen is chairing this benefit for Dani’s Foundation; hosts are Lois Melkonian of KOA, CBS4’s Vic Lombardi and former Denver sportscaster Gary Cruz. Call 303-601-1881.
Joanne Davidson: 303-809-1314 or jdavidson@denverpost.com; also, and GetItWrite on Twitter
