To those who have been on the receiving end of their generositythe Linda Crnic Institute for Down Syndrome, Denver Film Society, Denver School of Science and Technology and the Denver Art Museum, just to name a few — John and Anna Sie are angels, saviors or heroes.
They’d beg to differ.
“We’re just two regular guys,” John insists, as he did the night he and his wife were given the Mizel Museum’s 2010 Community Cultural Enrichment Award.
Larry Mizel — the museum’s co-founder and host of the dinner that brought 1,900 guests (who paid a minimum $150 each) to Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum — said they were hardly regular folks. “John and Anna Sie are immigrants — he from China and she from Italy — who grew up with firsthand knowledge of what racism is. But their love for each other and the love of their new country enabled them to rise above it, to raise five wonderful kids and live the American dream.”
Mizel also announced that the couple (John Sie is the founder and past chairman of Starz Entertainment Group) had given a gift “in excess of” $100,000 to be used in developing a memorial to the victims of world terrorism at Denver’s Babi Yar Park.
Former award recipients Arlene Hirschfeld (2001) and Dick Robinson (1994) emceed the event that was attended by such VIPs as former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Gov. Bill Ritter, Mayor John Hickenlooper and Hall of Fame quarterback John Elway.
Key Bank was the principal underwriter, and those making gifts of $25,000 or more included Manny Friedman of EJF Capital; Michael Hollinger, Fidelity Investments; David Einhorn, Greenlight Capital; Anne and James Hillary, Independence Capital Asset; Greg Maffei and Bill Myers, Liberty Media Group and Starz; Selwyn Isakow, Oxford Investment Group; Tom Gamel, Rockmont Capital Partners; and Michelle and Tom Whitten of the Anna and John J. Sie Foundation.
Joanne Davidson: 303-809-1314 or jdavidson@denverpost ; also, blogs.denverpost davidson and GetItWrite on Twitter
