The success of Colorado Gives Day$8 million, maybe more — is nothing short of phenomenal. Yet it shouldn’t have surprised anyone because the giving spirit is alive and well in Colorado; when there’s a demonstrated and legitimate need, someone always steps up to fill it.
Here are some recent examples:
• Michael McDonald (McDonald Automotive Group) and Dan Fuller not only appreciate the groundbreaking research and patient services at the Barbara Davis Center for Childhood Diabetes, but they understand just how expensive it is to maintain the world-class facility located on the Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora. So they took it upon themselves to start a fundraising golf tournament, flying 90 local duffers to Nevada last month for the first Children’s Diabetes Foundation Golf Classic. It was played at the Wynn Las Vegas and raised $223,000. Add in $163,000 from the HealthONE Carousel Classic, and the Barbara Davis Center profits to the tune of $386,000.
• Even bigger: The $2.5 million raised for the Barbara Davis Center at the 2010 Carousel of Hope Ball. Barbara Davis herself hosts this star-studded gala every other year in Los Angeles, and quite a few of the Davis family’s Denver friends fly in for it.
• Florence Crittenton Services (formerly Parent Pathways) is celebrating the receipt of $100,000 in grants, including $30,000 from The Denver Post Charities and $25,000 from the A.V. Hunter Trust. The agency also made $90,000 at its Cycles of Success Luncheon, at which the speaker was Linda Armstrong Kelly, mother of Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong.
• Lance Armstrong’s charitable foundation, Livestrong, also gave $10,000 to the Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders at Children’s Hospital; the money is to be split by the center’s day camp and sibling-education program.
• At a breakfast held last week in the hotel’s Edge restaurant, general manager Thierry Kennel presented $80,000 to representatives from the four charities chosen to benefit from the Four Seasons Denver grand opening gala held Nov. 6. Checks for $20,000 each went to the Denver Zoo, the Kempe Children’s Foundation, the University of Colorado Cancer Center and the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.
• The DCPA also received a percentage of sales made during the grand-opening festivities at the new Trice Jewelers store in the Streets at SouthGlenn. DCPA founder Donald Seawell was among the 500-plus on hand for a cocktail reception that owners Ralph and Anne Klomp hosted on Nov. 27; others included Denver Center Alliance president Gayle Novak; president-elect Jill Behr and such members as Gayle Ray, Judi Wolf, Martha Kelce, Sharon Whiton Gelt, Lorraine Salazar, Vickie Dow, Edie Marks and Jan Hammond.This and that.
The B-52s are going to headline CoBiz Financial’s 11th BizBash; it’s a benefit for Savio House and Florence Crittenton Services and is set for April 28 at the Fillmore. Visit . . . . Susan Kiely’s Women With a Cause Foundation has jackets and other hand-crafted items for sale in its Trading4Treasures stores in Southwest Plaza and Aspen Grove.
Joanne Davidson: 303-809-1314 or jdavidson@denverpost.com
