ArtReach is in the enviable position of having some very well- connected supporters; one of them, former board member Frederick Churbuck, encouraged executive director Karla Johnson-Grimes to seek funding from his family’s James and Beatrice Salah Charitable Trust.
The trust was so impressed that it came through with a $100,000 grant.
Churbuck, market manager for Living Social Denver, has been involved with ArtReach for the past several years and served on the committee for its popular fundraiser, Dine & D’Art.
Johnson-Grimes says the money will go to Camp Art- Reach — the Summer Adventure. “This grant will touch so many lives,” she says. “We will be able to award more scholarships this year — and expand the camp to operate during fall, holiday and spring breaks.”
She describes the 5-year- old Camp ArtReach as a “hands-on creative opportunity of visual and performing arts workshops open to children between the ages of 5 and 12.”
The James and Beatrice Salah Charitable Trust is based on the East Coast and is a private foundation that supports nonprofit organizations in the United States that strengthen families and communities and encourages individuals to become productive and responsible citizens.
It is led by Churbuck’s mother, Noreen Salah Burpee, and her three children: Churbuck; Megan Fearnow, who is prominent in the advertising community; and George Taylor, a law student at Nova University in Florida. Noreen’s brother, Joseph Salah, is also a member of the foundation board.
“ArtReach is an amazing organization enriching the lives of the underprivileged through the arts,” Churbuck says. “We are humbled by the incredible work they are doing and we are tremendously excited to watch ArtReach grow and be able to help more families in Denver.”
A tortilla goes airborne.
Typically, a tortilla-maker doesn’t toss orbs of masa into the air like chunks of pizza dough; the cornmeal or wheat- flour mixture is patted or rolled into a circular shape. Then again, not everyone competing for the coveted Golden Rolling Pin Award at Tortillas for Tepeyac bothers to follow the rules.
This year’s winner, Rodolfo Cardenas, a host and producer at R&M Media Productions, scored points for creativity when judges Patricia Baca, Sandy Wolf and Amelia Paulgot a load of him flinging his tortilla heavenward — and then catching it before putting it back on the griddle to cook.
The judges were only semi- amused, though, when Denver City Councilman Paul Lopez emptied a flour bowl and used it as a template for a perfectly shaped tortilla.
Tortillas for Tepeyac, chaired by Yolanda Ortega and Jesse Ogas, is a fundraising prelude to Clinica Tepeyac’s signature gala, Fiesta on the Plaza. The 17th edition of this “tortilla tomfoolery” took place Friday at the Stapleton Recreation Center in Globe- ville.
Following a Mexican buffet from Continental “Divine” Catering, Dave Aguilera, Crisanta Duran, Elbra Wedgeworth, Art Garza, Lance Hernandez, Arturo Jimenez, Gregg Moss and Alana Rizzo and I battled it out for the title.
The luncheon also was the occasion for the clinic’s founder and executive director, Jim Garcia, and board president Dan Euell to announce the creation of the Dr. Gilbert Maestas Patient Assistance Fund. Maestas’ widow, Patricia, was there to acknowledge the honor.
Joanne Davidson: 303-809-1314 or jdavidson@denverpost.com; also, davidson and GetItWrite on Twitter
