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Before becoming a business leader, Zierke worked as a political consultant and built out the outreach offi ce for the Colorado Senate majority. She also worked as an advocacy coordinator for Children’s Hospital.

After moving to Englewood in 2009, Zierke opened the Englewood Grand, a neighborhood bar on Broadway, in 2015. It quickly morphed into a beloved community hub, hosting everything from birthdays and engagement parties to weddings and memorials. Along the way, the bar has also partnered with the city on neighborhood trash cleanups and school fundraisers.

“All of the key moments in life that people want to celebrate, we’ve been able to participate in that,” Zierke said.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Zierke and her bar emerged as a community-leader. She said the bar shuttered its doors even before the state-wide stay-at-home order in an effort to get ahead of the virus’ spread and protect people’s health.

The bar closely followed COVID protocols, Zierke said, and sold t-shirts with the word “Love” to remind patrons that its closed doors were for the care of the community. When the warmer weather rolled in and outdoor activities became safer, Zierke helped lead the charge to establish open-container areas within the city as well as helped businesses secure more outdoor spaces for dining.

At the state level, Zierke advocated for lawmakers to extend to-go cocktails, a pandemic-era policy that kept many bars and restaurants afl oat.

Englewood, being an open and caring community, Zierke said, never gave her the angered resistance other parts of the metro area and the country faced over COVID policies.

“I love this city so much,” Zierke said.

Along with her leadership through Grand, Zierke helped launch the inaugural Englewood Block Party in 2017 as a way to showcase the city’s vibrant business community and bring in local tourism.

And the event “gets better every single year,” said Zierke, who also served as the board president for the Greater Englewood Chamber of Commerce and currently serves on the Englewood Downtown Development Authority Board of Directors

Zierke was nominated for Citizen of the year by former Englewood mayor Linda Olson who called Zierke a “a role model that can make us proud as a community to say she’s one of us.”

“Erika has not only given of her time, money and goods to improve our community, she has shared a listening ear to ensure diverse points of view are included,” Olson said. “Her service and active concern for the common good of Englewood is a benchmark that I hope inspires us all.”

But Zierke said nothing she has done has been “all on my own” and that all her work has been a collective investment from members of the community.

Zierke said she is optimistic for the future of Englewood as it continues to grow and become a more vibrant, energetic place to live.

“It’s a small town next to a big city, we have this sense of pride and love in Englewood,” she said. “It has everything that you need.”

Erika Zierke, owner of the popular bar Englewood Grand, has been active in community and civic life for years. COURTESY OF CITY OF ENGLEWOOD

Celebrating 30 years of IMAGINATION, IMPACT AND INVESTMENT for LPS Students!

Thanks to our amazing community, we raised more than $300,000 through the Spirit Celebration on April 8th. We are so grateful that our community rallies to support the amazing educators and students in Littleton Public Schools. From all of us at the LPS Foundation, THANK YOU! It is an honor to serve this school district and community!

The money would go toward several existing grant programs

BY ANN SCHIMKE AND ERICA MELTZER CHALKBEAT

With just over a year until Colorado begins providing free preschool to 4-year-olds statewide, state lawmakers want to inject $100 million into efforts to beef up the early childhood workforce and create more slots for young children.

During a news conference Wednesday afternoon, a group of lawmakers announced the legislation, which would be funded with federal COVID relief dollars.

The money would go toward several existing grant programs, including one to help child care providers with operational costs and another to help new providers open and existing providers expand. It would also create a new program to support and train people who care for young children but are not licensed by the state.

“This bill is a massive investment in ensuring we as a state rise to the occasion of helping families out, by allowing parents to work, by allowing single parents to return to the workforce,” said state Rep. Alex Valdez, a Denver Democrat who sponsored the bill. “COVID-19 gutted our child care workforce and we need to rebuild it.”

The just-introduced bill comes at both a tenuous and momentous time for Colorado’s early childhood industry. Many child care providers are still reeling fi nancially from the pandemic and struggling to fi nd employees willing to work long hours for low wages. At the same time, there’s a sense of excitement as Colorado plans a massive expansion of state-funded preschool with funding from proceeds of a nicotine tax approved by voters in 2020.

This story was originally published by Chalkbeat Colorado. More at chalkbeat.org.

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