The first National Sleep-in Day is on Saturday, and while snoozers across America burrow under the covers for some extra z’s, a whole bunch of Coloradans will awake with the satisfaction of knowing that by daring to wear pajamas in public the previous week, they raised almost $1 million for a couple of worthy causes.
The bulk of the money — $900,000 and counting — goes to Denver’s Road Home, an initiative to end homelessness. It was raised at events that were part of the sixth PJ Day: a Capital Grille luncheon hosted by the Pinstripe PJ Club; the Mayor’s PJ Party at the Residence Inn; a bed race on the Auraria campus; and a PJ Crawl with stops at pubs, shops and restaurants in the Highland, LoDo and Cherry Creek North neighborhoods.
In addition, RedLine, 2350 Arapahoe St., earned $5,000 for children’s programming by hosting its second Valentine Pajama Party.
On Feb. 11, 100 friends of the nonprofit studio and gallery founded by Laura Merage donned jammies that ranged from plaid flannel bottoms and logo T-shirt tops to silky creations with designer labels to enjoy a Mexican buffet, music played by a DJ and informal modeling of luxe nightwear from Neiman Marcus in Cherry Creek.
The city’s PJ Day — now almost a week in duration — is a fundraising arm of the 10- year effort to end homelessness in Denver. It was started by then-Mayor John Hickenlooper and has the enthusiastic backing of a broad cross-section of civic leaders.
Sage Hospitality chief Walter Isenberg and developer Evan Makovsky were among the first to come aboard, and when they built the Residence Inn at 17th and Champa streets, the first Mayor’s PJ Party was the grand opening event.
“Back when we first started talking about this party, if someone would have told me there would be 500 people in PJs in the lobby of the Residence Inn, I would have told them they were dreaming,” Isenberg said. “But it isn’t a dream, and every year the party gets bigger and better.”
The executive director of Denver’s Road Home, Amber Callender, said it was fitting that the 2011 edition be held on a bitter-cold night.
“It’s a good reminder that everyone’s not like us, we who only had to decide which pair of cute PJs to wear tonight. They don’t have a home, let alone a pair of pajamas or a warm blanket. We’ve made a ton of progress (at changing that situation) over the past several years, but there’s a lot of work yet to be done.”
In support of National Sleep-in Day, P.J. Salvage, a Hollywood-based manufacturer of pajamas and loungewear, is donating 500 pairs of PJs to the Pajama Program. This nonprofit organization furnishes new pajamas and books to children in orphanages, group homes and shelters. Debbie Donaldson is president of the Colorado chapter and can be reached at debbie@pajamaprogram.org.
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