Organizers were thrilled when Susan Saint James and her husband, Dick Ebersol, agreed to speak at Glitz, Glam and Glory, the sixth annual gala benefiting .
As well they should have been. By the time the dinner, dance and auction held at the Arvada Center had concluded, the 312 attendees felt like Ebersol, senior advisor to NBC Universal Sports and co-creator of “Saturday Night Live,” and his wife, the Emmy-winning star of the TV hits “Kate and Allie” and “McMillan and Wife,” were part of the family.
“The Ebersols are just plain wonderful people, and they love what we are doing,” observed Sandy Hembd, who, with her husband, Jim, founded the Broomfield-based, nonprofit Glory Community nine years ago after discovering an acute shortage of quality residential care for special-needs adults, like their twin sons with Down syndrome, Mike and Mark.
Saint James shared stories about her involvement with Special Olympics while Ebersol offered anecdotes from his 20 years with NBC Sports, including behind-the-scenes glimpses at what’s involved with producing such blockbuster events as the Olympics.
Car collector Leonard Johnson volunteered to chauffeur the Ebersols in his 1959 Bentley, picking them up at the Omni Interlocken in time to arrive midway through the gala’s social hour to mix and mingle with a crowd that included their friends Mo and Jennifer Siegel of Boulder. Mo Siegel was a founder of Celestial Seasonings tea.
They also met Glory Community’s architect, Jerry Gloss, who in February traveled to Orlando, Fla., with John Stevens of Sopris Homes to accept the national Building Industry Community Spirit Special Judges Award for their work on the project.
Interior designer Colleen Johnson of Insite Design Group was there, too, along with representatives from the McDonnell Family Foundation. The foundation matched gala profits up to $70,000 which, said Sandy Hembd, “enabled us to realize a six-figure profit for the very first time.”
When it is complete, Glory Community will operate five homes, each of which will have eight residents, age 22 and older, who are capable of working 4 to 6 hours per day, but need some help negotiating everyday life. A couple skilled in special-needs care will live in each home.
The first, Scott’s Place, is due to be finished in August. The live-in staff moves in for on-site training at that time; the residents arrive in October.
Scott’s Place is named for the Hembd’s oldest son, a 20-year-old engineering student who was killed in a 1986 automobile accident that happened when he and some friends were returning to the University of California Irvine after a post-finals ski trip.
“The (5,000-square-foot) homes are going to be gorgeous,” Sandy Hembd said. “They are a dream come true, one step toward addressing the waiting list of 12,000 Colorado adults with intellectual disabilities who are in need of this kind of residential care.”
Eventually, Glory Community will establish an off-campus business enterprise that will employ its residents, and others. The yet-to-be-determined business will produce a product or service, and not just sell labor, as in a sheltered workshop. The effort will not only provide work for Glory Community residents, it will also support the overall budget.
Glitz, Glam and Glory was planned by a committee of seven: Janan Alford, Jeanne Frith, Kathy Harrison, Colleen Johnson, Susan Larson, Polly Tasset and Sandy Hembd, who noted: “It’s an impossible task for this small a group, but we did it!”
Joanne Davidson: 303-809-1314 or jdavidson@denverpost.com; also, blogs.denverpost.com/style and @GetItWrite on Twitter.
More online: See additional pictures from Glitz, Glam and Glory > denverpost.com/seengallery
