Washington Park Profile October 2021

WashParkProfile.com

OCTOBER 2021

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DEBUNKING STEREOTYPES WITH ART Local Wash Park artist shares his art to connect with community

P14 FORESTERS, FAIRIES LOVE DENVER TREES Part 2 of Denver trees series

P4 PROVIDING A CALMING PRESENCE Denver Hospice chaplain has served 25 years with the nonprofit

P8 TRICKS-AND-TREATS Denver offers numerous options for a hauntingly happy Halloween

P18

2 Washington Park Profile

October 1, 2021

Business Matters Christy Steadman | csteadman@coloradocommunitymedia.com Business Matters is a monthly column featuring business news in the Life on Capitol Hill and Washington Park Profile coverage areas, which is roughly central and central-south Denver.

If you are a local business that would like to announce any updates to your operations, email Christy Steadman at csteadman@coloradocommunitymedia. com.

fort food.

The restaurant offers indoor and outdoor seating, and a happy hour menu features both food and beverages.

Revival is currently open from 3 p.m. to midnight Tuesday through Saturday.

The restaurant’s website states it will soon offer late-night and brunch hours.

Learn more at https://revival-denver. com.

NEW OPENINGS

CLOSINGS

Birdcall Birdcall, a Denver-founded fast casual chicken joint, recently opened a new location in southeast Denver.

The eatery specializes in chicken, specifically, chicken sandwiches, though it also offers salads and sides.

Birdcall first opened its doors in Five Points in 2016. Today, the restaurant has six locations in Colorado. One is in Boulder and one in Colorado Springs. Four are in Denver: Five Points, 800 E. 26th Ave.; Whole Foods at Union Station, 1701 Wewatta St.; Evans (University neighborhood), 1535 E. Evans Ave.; and its newest location at Cherry Hills Village, 4996 E. Hampden Ave. Birdcall also two Arizona locations that will be opening soon.

To learn more about Birdcall, visit www. eatbirdcall.com.

Rita’s Law Westword reported that Rita’s Law closed in September.

The bar was located at 2209 Welton St. in the south area of Five Points.

Rita’s Law opened in June 2019 and hosted various events, including comedy acts, live music, DJs and bingo, according to the August 2021 calendar on the bar’s website.

Owner Rita Price is a Denver native and third generation in the restaurant industry.

In an Instagram post, Price wrote: “The bar was open eight short months before the pandemic hit and, unfortunately, we haven’t recovered the way we would have hoped. We love the amazing community we have built and appreciate your support! Hopefully this is goodbye for now and not forever.”

Revival Denver Public House A new restaurant has opened in Denver’s Uptown neighborhood.

Revival Denver Public House, 630 E. 17th Ave., specializes in American com-

MILESTONES RPO Framing and Gallery RPO Framing and Gallery, 1588 S.

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RPO Framing and Gallery, 1588 S. Pearl St., celebrated its one-year anniversary on Sept. 1. Pictured is the shop participating in the First Fridays Art and Shop Walk along South Pearl Street COURTESY OF BOB PLATZ earlier this year.

Pearl St. in the Platt Park neighborhood, celebrated its one-year anniversary on Sept. 1.

Owner Robert Platz has about 30 years of custom framing experience, and is a Formula 1-inspired abstract artist, meaning he specializes in capturing the abstract characteristics of the motor racing circuits with special attention on the Formula 1.

His work, and that of other local artists, is represented in the gallery.

Platz said he would like to send a heartfelt appreciation to the community for its continued support and for shopping locally.

“Meeting hundreds of new and existing clients, some I can actually call friends, creating around a thousand pieces to brighten people’s lives, selling paintings and hosting art shows, I’m very grateful for all the support, big or small,” Platz said. “I do not take my position lightly.

I know how fortunate I am to be surrounded by art — mine and my clients’ — and that I get to do what I love every day. Create.”

To learn more about RPO Framing and Gallery, visit www.robertplatzoriginals. com.

MISCELLANEOUS Sullivan Scrap Kitchen Sullivan Scrap Kitchen has been listed in Bon Appétit magazine’s 2021 Heads of the Table issue.

Sullivan Scrap Kitchen is a casual eatery located at 1740 E. 17th Ave. in Denver’s City Park West neighborhood. Co-owners Terence Rogers and Holly Adinoff opened the sustainability-focused restaurant with a zero-waste kitchen in June 2020.

Sullivan Scrap Kitchen is one of 12 inspiring restaurants, chefs and organizations located across the U.S. to make the Heads of the Table issue. Sullivan Scrap Kitchen is recognized as The Food Waste Hero on the list.

Rather than sharing the magazine’s Best New Restaurants list, Bon Appétit’s restaurants editor Elyse Inamine developed the Heads of the Table list to showcase the

restaurants and people that pivoted during the pandemic to better their community and fellow industry workers.

To learn more about Sullivan Scrap Kitchen, visit www.SullivanScrapKitchen. com. To read the Heads of the Table article in Bon Appétit magazine, visit www.bonappetit.com/story/heads-of-thetable-2021.

The Offices at Broadway Station/ T-Mobile T-Mobile recently signed a 10-year lease at The Offices at Broadway Station in Denver.

The lease “represents one of the larger long-term local office market leases completed during the pandemic,” states Mile High CRE, an online commercial development news publication, which originally reported the news of the lease signing.

The Offices at Broadway Station is a three-building campus located at the nexus of I-25, South Broadway and the RTD Light Rail station in the Washington Park West neighborhood. Two of the buildings, 900-990 S. Broadway, are office buildings, and the third building is a fourlevel parking structure with ground floor creative office space.

T-Mobile previously occupied about 30,000 square-feet of the 990 S. Broadway building and will now expand to two full floors totaling a 78,336-square-foot space of the building, Mile High CRE reported.

According to The Offices at Broadway Station’s website, the 900 S. Broadway building was built in 1903 as an assembly plant for the Ford Motor Company. It was sold to the Gates Corporation in the 1940s, with the 990 S. Broadway building constructed in 1984 to serve as Gates Corporation’s administrative offices.

Today, The Offices at Broadway Station total 318,053 square-feet on 6.51 acres.

Mile High CRE reported that about 86% of the campus is leased, and there is about 45,600 square feet available for lease.

To learn more about The Offices at Broadway Station, visit www. officesatbroadwaystation.com.

Washington Park Profile 3

October 1, 2021

Open your door to the built environment Doors Open Denver takes place through Oct. 17

By Clarke Reader Special to Colorado Community Media

Even a casual drive around the Denver metro area will unveil a bevy of architectural gems, with even more design secrets hiding behind doors you might not expect.

But since getting an invite to house parties at all these places was dubious even before a global pandemic, the Denver Architecture Foundation hosts Doors Open Denver to share these built environment stories.

This year’s event began on Sept. 27 and will run through Oct. 17. It features a blend of virtual and in-person tours. The free, virtual tours are available on-demand and include four 2021 stops and 12 archived stops from last year’s event.

In-person tours take place Saturdays and

The Baker Historic District is one of the in-person tours that the Denver Architecture Foundation is offering during this year’s Doors Open Denver event. COURTESY OF KEVIN HENDERSON

Sundays with four tours per day, according to provided information. Sites include the Clyfford Still Museum, the Historic

Elitch Theater, the Historic 11th Avenue Hostel and the US. Olympic and Paralympic Museum. Tickets for in-person tours are available but are expected to be in high demand.

As part of the event, the Y/OUR Denver photography competition will also be back, accepting entries through Oct. 23. The corresponding exhibit of top entries will open to the public virtually in December.

Colorado Community Media spoke with Pauline Herrera, Denver Architecture Foundation’s executive director, about this year’s event and what you need to know:

nities, if that became possible. We’re glad it did and that we’re able to present a hybrid event this year.

How did you go about planning this year’s event, with the pandemic still going?

We began planning in late 2020. Since, at the time, we did not know where things were headed with the pandemic, we decided to pursue a virtual event for 2021, like we had in 2020. We remained open, however, to including in-person opportu-

What are you most excited about with in-person visits back this year?

I’m excited for our members and patrons who have missed them. It’s wonderful to be able to offer them in-person tours again.

How will this year’s event be familiar to participants? What will be new?

The event will include nine sites never before offered during Doors Open Denver.

It will be familiar in that it includes inperson insider tours led by expert tour guides, as Doors Open Denver historically has. It will also be familiar for folks who participated last year in that we will once again offer virtual tours.

For access to the virtual tours and to purchase tickets for in-person tours, visit denverarchitecture.org.

Denver resident to chair Legal Marketing Association

By Christy Steadman csteadman@coloradocommunitymedia.com

A Denver resident has been named chair of the Denver Legal Marketing Association’s Local Steering Committee.

Katherine “Katie” Wright of the Virginia Village neighborhood was appointed to the role in September, and will serve as chair through the end of 2022.

The Legal Marketing Association (LMA) is an international nonprofit that exists to help its members develop best practices for legal marketing. Legal marketing is gov-

To learn more about the Legal Marketing Association, visit https://legalmarketing.org/ erned by the American Bar Association and Rules of Professional Conduct, of which the LMA educates its members, Wright said.

The LMA represents about 1,404 law firms internationally, states its website.

Wright chairs the local Denver group, which serves all of Colorado and has about 50 members.

“I am honored to hold a leadership posi-

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tion at an international association that serves so many people on so many levels,” Wright said. “The LMA provides great resources to people in the legal community to better serve its members, the public and clients.”

The LMA is a great resource and supportive organization, Wright added.

“Legal marketing is its own discrete specialty, and the LMA offers education and training, opportunities to participate in the community, and networking with a large circle of professionals,” Wright said.

Wright is a litigation paralegal and the

marketing manager for Kelly Law Partners, LLC — a civil litigation defense firm based in Cherry Creek that serves local and national clients. Wright has been with the firm since 2016, and got involved with the LMA in early 2017.

Wright intends to move further within the organization’s leadership structure, she said.

“I’m looking forward to continuing to serve the Denver community through the LMA,” Wright said. “My ultimate goal is to move onto regional and national leadership within the organization.”

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4 Washington Park Profile

October 1, 2021

Who’s up in those City

Park trees?

Bleached tree skeletons on the island in City Park’s Duck Lake provide a rookery for nesting cormorants. Dead trees, which also attract insect colonies, are popular with many PHOTOS BY TIM COLLINS types of wildlife for roosting, storing food like acorns and hunting bugs.

Denver’s urban forest prepares for autumn and a magical new playground

Editor’s note: This story is Part 2 of a two-part series in which journalist Kirsten Dahl Collins explores the hidden stories of Denver’s trees. Part 1, which focused on the trees in Washington Park, ran last month in Life on Capitol Hill and the Washington Park Profile.

By Kirsten Dahl Collins Special to Colorado Community Media

I

n the fall, as the leafy giants of City Park gird themselves for winter, they put on one last magnificent show of scarlet, russet and gold.

Denver Parks and Recreation forester Ben Rickenbacker and his 12-person staff also gird themselves, because winter is pruning time. That’s when men and women, mostly young, strap on up to 30 pounds of equipment — including chainsaws, handsaws, ropes, blocks and pulleys — and prepare to climb as much as 100 feet to minister to the needs of towering oaks, elms, lindens and the many other species that populate Denver’s urban forest.

In the fall, deciduous trees slow their production of chlorophyl, shed their leaves and begin to go dormant for the winter.

That’s the best time to prune, according to Rickenbacker, because without their leaves, “you can really see the structure.” Dor-

mancy also lessens the chance of accidentally spreading diseases like Dutch elm or fireblight.

Pruning is essential for landscape trees, since they co-exist with people. Removing deadwood and coaxing trees into structurally sound, balanced shapes is essential for their health — not to mention the safety of wandering pedestrians. But Rickenbacker and his colleague, Urban Forestry Inspector Paul Cancik, frown on bucket trucks, which make it difficult to reach dense interior branches.

“It’s better to climb the tree,” Rickenbacker said. “But it’s a dangerous job. You can be 60 feet up with a chain saw inches from your leg.”

Added Cancik: “You have to be a real athlete.”

Forestry’s Operations Division routinely SEE TREES, P5

‘It’s better to climb the tree. But it’s a dangerous job. You can be 60 feet up with a chain saw inches from your leg.’

Ben Rickenbacker, Denver Parks and Recreation forester

Denver foresters Ben Rickenbacker, left, and Paul Cancik stand with City Park’s elderly and famous “Shakespeare Elm,” planted in 1916. Urban legend has it that the original shoot was cut from a Wych elm growing near the Bard’s grave in Stratford-upon-Avon.

Washington Park Profile 5

October 1, 2021

TREES FROM PAGE 4

practices aerial rescue.

“One employee dislocated his kneecap when swinging between branches,” Rickenbacker recounts, “and couldn’t make it down on his own.”

The pampered trees of City Park As forestry operations supervisor, Rickenbacker and his crew are responsible for the care of 82,000 park and parkway trees.

Cancik is with the Forestry Inspections Division, which watches over 230,000 “rightof-way” trees planted along Denver streets.

When not pruning, the foresters make their rounds with wooden mallets and probes to check for internal decay.

City Park is a demanding charge. Built in 1882, the Beaux Arts era-park sprawls over more than 320 acres and houses the Denver Zoo and the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. The park is home to more than 3,000 trees and hundreds of different species. Pampered by irrigation, many of the trees grow much larger than in the wild. Every fall, some earn the title of State Champion from the Colorado Tree Coalition (CTC), a volunteer group working to preserve community forests. The group selects from among 750 species.

According to the CTC’s Neal Bamesberger, City Park is currently home to five State Champions — including two pine varieties over 65 feet high. In fact, this urban preserve has so many large, old trees that a decade ago, Parks & Rec considered turning the park into an arboretum. The arboretum map, offering a self-guided tour of 70 trees, is still available online at City Park Arboretum Tree Walk.

Leafy eccentrics, large and small There’s a lot for tree lovers to choose from in City Park.

“Possibly the most spectacular — and underappreciated — tree feature in the park is the Robert More Pinetum,” said horticulturalist Sonia John, curator of the Arboretum at Regis University.

A preserve of 120 conifers southeast of the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, the little-known Pinetum (pronounced:

pie-NEE-tum) has no sign marking the entrance, no paths and no labels on the trees.

But if you descend from the museum’s southern terrace down a set of broad steps, you’ll find yourself surrounded by pinion, ponderosa, mugo and white pines along with three types of juniper, and whiteand-blue spruce. There are even some bald cypress — a species that often grows semisubmerged in the bayous of Louisiana.

Not all the park’s conifers have survived the city’s 2004 switch to irrigating with recycled water. The higher salt level in this water has been particularly tough on conifers, since they can’t rid themselves of excess salt by shedding their leaves. But one tree that appears to be thriving is a 67-foot State Champion red pine east of Ferril Lake, in the south-central section of the park. Red pines, the state tree of Minnesota, actually prefer sandy soil with low nutrients — which makes them well-suited to the harsh, high desert conditions of Denver.

Can a tree that’s only 17-feet-high qualify as a State Champion? That seems unlikely, except in the Kingdom of Lilliput. But what it lacks in size, the park’s State Champion yellowhorn makes up for in durability. Native to northeastern China and Korea, the yellowhorn is currently thriving in an unirrigated southeastern section of the park.

The yellowhorn’s fruit, which resembles an exploded baseball, contains so much oil it has stirred interest as a biofuel. Most of the tree is edible, including the seeds. Rickenbacker and Cancik compared the flavor to macadamia or hazelnuts.

Rickenbacker and Cancik are also impressed by Japanese pagoda trees, including a 65-footer on the park’s east side, which has a full, rounded shape, bright green compound leaves composed of 10-15 leaflets and not one, but five, thick, sinuous trunks.

“It’s one of the few trees to flower in late summer,” Rickenbacker said approvingly.

He eyed the pagoda tree’s generous assortment of trunks. “If these were all one trunk instead of five, this would definitely be a State Champion.”

Nature Play As in Washington Park, City Park foresters try to preserve dead trees that don’t threaten to fall on people. Since there is

City Park trees frame a view looking west over Ferril Lake, with downtown Denver and the Rocky Mountains beyond. The park, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, helps cool and oxygenate the city with an urban forest of more than 3,000 trees.

PHOTO BY TIM COLLINS

no public access to the island in Duck Lake, several dead trees were left upright, where they provide a rookery for nesting cormorants. Forestry also supplies logs and branches to the Denver Zoo, where treemunching animals like giraffes and zebras use them as “browse.”

A dead maple’s upright skeleton will also play a nurturing role — but for children instead of animals. In an unusual partnership between Parks & Recreation and the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, the small playground in the park’s southeastern quadrant will be re-developed with a new focus on natural objects for kids to explore.

The City Park Nature Play & Waterway Restoration project will span three and a half acres, and with plenty of logs and boulders for climbing. Water will once again flow through the park’s historic DeBoer waterway, constructed in 1953 but dry in recent years. The revived waterway will offer stepping stones, bridges and sandy “beaches” — guaranteeing play that’s not only natural but satisfyingly messy. And just to cover all bases, there will also be traditional swing sets and slides. Construction is slated to begin next year, in time to open the new play area for the spring of 2023.

A nearby tree might just bestow good luck on the project. In the northeastern corner of the old playground, stands a tall catalpa, with floppy, heart-shaped leaves and seed pods resembling green beans.

There’s something a little magical about catalpas, which perfume the air every spring with huge clusters of sweet-smelling flowers. And the magic doesn’t stop there.

“About 12 fairies live up in the tree,” reported a Life on Capitol Hill reader recently. “Look for the scar on the trunk, then look up 15 feet.”

If you do, you will discover that foresters are not the only ones who climb trees in City Park.

The new nature-based playground will preserve the fairy wishing tree. And park visitors who wish to honor this Gaelic tradition can continue to leave offerings for the resident tree spirit.

Is this at odds with the concept of a science-based playground? Perhaps not.

The very idea of fairies — with their acorn hats and cobweb garments — was probably inspired long ago by fascination with the natural world.

Exactly the sentiment Nature Play hopes to inspire in kids.

g Denver tree organizations and events

By Kirsten Dahl Collins Special to Colorado Community Media

To be a well-informed volunteer — or just bring more enjoyment to a stroll through the park — download a free, tree-identifying app to your mobile phone. The PlantNet or iNaturalist apps will quickly identify most species you encounter.

Denver has many opportunities to get more involved with creating a greener city.

Here are some suggestions: American Forests Association Founded in 1875, American Forests is the oldest national nonprofit conservation organization in the United States. Currently they are focusing on building a reforestation movement in America — in response to large-scale, rapid destruction of our woodlands. Visit americanforests.org to learn about new findings in tree science, current

legislation affecting trees, tips on planting and to read the organization’s magazine, American Forests.

tional programs, nominating one of your local trees as a State Champion or locating Champions in your community.

Arbor Day, April 29, 2022 In April, many communities throughout the Denver metro area hold tree sales and planting events. With the assistance of local volunteers, Denver Parks and Recreation plants 150-500 trees to commemorate this national holiday.

Friends and Neighbors of Washington Park (FANS) FANS of Washington Park Inc. was organized in 2006 to give a public voice to the care, use and maintenance of the 165acre park, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. FANS volunteers often fill in to help Denver Parks and Recreation with planting and other service projects.

City Park Friends and Neighbors (CPFAN) Send an email to info@cpfan.org for news of the latest projects undertaken by this neighborhood association dedicated to preserving and enhancing City Park. CPFAN was active in the ultimately unsuccessful 2017 effort to prevent the city from removing more than 200 mature trees from the City Park Golf Course.

Colorado Tree Coalition (CTC) A volunteer nonprofit administered by the Colorado State Forest Service, CTC seeks to preserve, renew and enhance community forests in Colorado. Visit coloradotrees.org for information about volunteering, educa-

The Park People For the past 35 years, The Park People’s Denver Digs Trees program has been providing Denver residents with free and low-cost trees for planting on both private and public property. More than 60,000 trees have been planted to date. Learn more at theparkpeople.org or send an email to info@theparkpeople.org to sign up to participate in free tree planting when the program gets underway again in 2022.

Tour des Trees The Tour des Trees cycling event, held

annually in the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom, raises money for the Tree Fund, which supports tree science research and education programs that connect young people with environmental career opportunities. Participants can choose to cycle for up to 320 miles, planting trees, educating children and raising awareness of science-based tree care. Riders in this year’s Tour des Trees completed their long-distance cycling adventure through the greater Denver area on Sept. 3. It began Aug. 28. Visit treefund.org to learn about the next Tour des Trees.

Urban Forest Initiative The Downtown Denver Partnership, a nonprofit association of local businesses, has launched the Urban Forest Initiative (UFI) to increase Denver’s urban forest canopy through education, built infrastructure and good stewardship of trees.

UFI works directly with property owners to build vibrant, large planting areas to provide a supportive environment for downtown trees. For membership information, visit downtowndenver.com.

6 Washington Park Profile

October 1, 2021

Denver Art Museum’s Martin Building reopens Tickets to the renovated north campus available Sept. 17

By Maggie Donahue Denverite

For more than three years, the north side of the Denver Art Museum campus has been closed for renovation. But soon, just in time for what is now known as the Lanny and Sharon Martin Building’s 50th anniversary, visitors will finally get to see inside the eight-floor structure designed by Gio Ponti, as well as the new Anna and John J. Sie Welcome Center.

The reimagined campus will reopen to the public with a free admission day on Oct. 24.

The newly restored Martin Building offers 33,328 square feet of new gallery and public space, educational programming, artist interactions, expanded outdoor spaces, and sweeping views of the city and mountains.

It also features the new Jana & Fred Bartlit Learning and Engagement Center, which offers more than 17,600 square feet of programming space, workshop rooms, community galleries and interactive gathering spaces, including activations by artists Frankie Toan and Moe Gram.

The 50,000-square-foot Welcome Center, which connects the Martin Building to the museum’s Frederic C. Hamilton Building to the south, will offer ticketing guest services, programming spaces, an art conservation and technical studies laboratory, and two new dining spaces, including the quickservice Café Gio and the Ponti Restaurant, which features a locally sourced menu by James Beard Award-winning Denver chef

The Denver Art Museum’s new Sie Welcome Center.

Jennifer Jasinski “We are looking forward to being open for creativity, joy and wonder – welcoming our community into new, dynamic spaces this fall, to explore art, world cultures and their own creativity,” museum director Christoph Heinrich said in a press release.

Press materials also say that as part of the Martin Building’s redesign, its galleries have been updated with a commitment to inclusion. Some of those initiatives include highlighting more contemporary and community artists, as well as including bilingual art labels in both English and Spanish throughout the entire museum campus.

Some of the updated or new collection galleries include the Northwest Coast and Alaska Native galleries, Indigenous Arts of North America galleries, Latin American

PHOTO BY FAINA GUREVICH/SHUTTERSTOCK

Art and Art of the Ancient Americas galleries, Asian Art galleries, European Art Before 1800, Textile Art and Fashion and Photography galleries, and Western American Art galleries.

The first floor of the Martin Building, which once was used primarily as art storage, will operate as the 6,500-square-foot Bonfils-Stanton Foundation Gallery. The space will open with “ReVisión: Art in the Americas,” an exhibition highlighting about 180 works from the DAM’s Latin American and Art of the Ancient Americas collections.

The renovations cost $150 million to build. Denver Art Museum Board Chairman Lanny Martin and his wife Sharon Martin, for whom the Martin Building is named, contributed the first $25 million.

Voter-approved Elevate Denver Bonds

H covered an additional $35.5 million, and the b museum helped cover the rest by matching w public investment dollars at a three-to-one p ratio.

The renovated campus will reopen to the t public Oct. 24 with an opening day celebra- e tion from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. While it’s free to o attend, guests must reserve tickets, which t will be available starting Sept. 17. And if you’re a member and you want to check out t the campus early, you can attend a Member s Preview on Oct. 21, 22 or 23.

You can find more information on muse- G um admission online at denverartmuseum. a a org. t This story is from Denverite, a nonprofit Den- w ver news source affiliated with CPR News.

Used by permission. For more, and to support a m Denverite, visit denverite.com. p w FATHER O i

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Washington Park Profile 7

October 1, 2021

Saint Joseph Hospital parent to merge with Utah-based group SCL Health will give up its corporate name and leadership

By Steve Smith ssmith@coloradocommunitymedia.com

SCL Health, which runs Denver’s Saint Joseph Hospital, and Utah-based Intermountain Health announced their intent to merge on Sept. 16.

When complete — perhaps early next year — the combined nonprofit system will employ more than 58,000 caregivers and operate 33 hospitals, and it will operate 385 clinics across six states, according to a statement.

Linda Jumonville, president and CEO of Broomfield-based SCL Health, and Dr. Marc Harrison, CEO of Intermountain Health, based in Salt Lake City, said the merger wouldn’t mean layoffs or changes in available products/services.

“This merger wasn’t done with a need to cut costs,” Jumonville said. “We operate efficiently because there is no geographic overlap. I expect very little change, other than to accelerate innovative approaches faster.”

“Day to day, we’re going to work to get better with the tools we bring to bear,” Harrison said.

Lutheran Medical Center in Wheat Ridge, Good Samaritan Medical Center in Lafayette and Platte Valley Medical Center in Brighton, among other hospitals in Colorado and Montana. It is a faith-based organization affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church.

SCL Health will give up its corporate name and overall leadership to the larger Intermountain, but the individual Colorado hospitals such as St. Joseph and Good Samaritan will retain their names and their religious identity.

Harrison and Jumonville didn’t promise an absence of increased health care costs once the new organization is in place.

The emergency room entrance to Saint Joseph Hospital in Denver, photographed in 2019.

“If you go and look at our track record, objectively speaking, we provide high-quality care at low cost,” Harrison said. “The future is bright. We are getting interest from insurers.”

“We have great relations with our payers,” Jumonville added. “They believe we are committed to affordable health care. They are going to think this (the merger) is a good thing.”

SCL requires COVID vaccinations of its employees. Intermountain Health does not.

Harrison said the vaccination rate was “north of 80%.”

“The public health emergency is over the thousands of people who are not vaccinated,” he said. “Intermountain complies with federal regulations. We would never leave our patients in a lurch.”

2021 JAAMM Festival features in-person, virtual, hybrid events Staff report The 14th annual Neustadt Jewish Arts, Authors, Movies and Music (JAAMM) Festival takes place Oct. 6-Dec. 21 with in-person, virtual and hybrid offerings.

The JAAMM Festival is a program of Denver’s JCC Mizel Arts and Culture Center. It is the organization’s flagship cultural arts program, and focuses on literary arts and Jewish-interest entertainment.

“The Mizel Arts and Culture staff continue to program the most diverse and exciting programs,” said Kathy Neustadt in the news release. Neustadt’s Piñon Trail Foundation is the title sponsor of the festival. “This year’s lineup is no exception and may be the best yet.”

This year’s JAAMM Festival features nearly 20 events including stand-up comedians, workshops, music, movies, author lectures and more. A full festival lineup can be found online at jccdenver.org/jaamm.

“The goal of the JAAMM Festival is to bring diverse and unique cultural content to our community,” said Rich Cowden, general manager of the JCC Mizel Arts and Culture Center, in a news release. “Perhaps no festival in the state offers such a wide range

of offerings as JAAMM, and we’re working hand-in-hand with the artists to guarantee superb experiences for both our existing and new audiences.”

Ticket prices vary per event. Tickets can be purchased with a variety of options through a virtual and cashless box office.

Tickets can be purchased by visiting https:// jaamm.eventive.org/welcome, sending an email to boxoffice@jccdenver.org or calling the JCC Mizel Arts and Culture Center Box Office at 303-316-6360.

Tickets can also be purchased in person at ticket kiosks at the StaenbergLoup Jewish Community Center (JCC Denver), 350 S. Dahlia St. which is in the northwest corner of the Washington Virginia Vale neighborhood. Ticket kiosks will be inside the lobby of the JCC during the week, and in the lobby of the JCC Mizel Arts and Culture Center, which is located on the JCC’s campus, one hour prior to events.

The JCC Mizel Arts and Culture Center has enacted a vaccination and mask policy for in-person events. To learn more, visit jccdenver.org/jaamm. Information on how to attend virtual and hybrid JAAMM events can also be found on that website.

“We’re evaluating what we need to do with respect to the order of the administration” requiring vaccines of businesses with more than 100 employees, Jumonville said.

The announcement said the merged organization will create a model health system to provide high-quality, accessible, and affordable health care to more patients and communities in Colorado, “There aren’t too many times when you can create something so special,” Jumonville

PHOTO BY JOHN INGOLD/THE COLORADO SUN

said. “Our teams are so aligned. We chose to do this. This is the right thing for our health communities.”

“The pay-provider model, when done right, makes health care affordable,” Harrison said.

“Together, we can do more of this.”

Jumonville said there are better ways to deliver health care.

“We need to move more into homes, more into telehealth,” she said. “We need to accelerate it.”

8 Washington Park Profile

October 1, 2021

Denver Hospice provides ‘a Chaplain Keith Swingle is celebrated for 25 years of service

By Christy Steadman csteadman@coloradocommunitymedia.com

D

enver Hospice Chaplain Keith Swingle said he attended seminary school because he knew he wanted to serve in ministry in some capacity.

He had a friend who did an internship with hospice care, but Swingle didn’t figure that end-of-life care was for him.

But upon finishing seminary school, Swingle realized he was cut out to be a hospice chaplain.

“It is everything I wanted, in terms of one-on-one — meeting with families on their own turf during a vulnerable and helpful time,” Swingle said, adding it gives him “a chance to make a real difference.”

And more than a quarter of a century later, Swingle is still making a difference in peoples’ lives when they need it the most.

Twenty-five years with Denver Hospice Swingle has been serving people and families as a hospice chaplain for 28 years this October. Twenty-five of those years have been spent with The Denver Hospice.

“His commitment to patients and families goes above and beyond, with how he supports, listens and cares for our patients and their families,” said Melinda Egging, president of the nonprofit provider of hospice and palliative care. “Keith can be counted on for his smile and his sense of humor - yes, sense of humor during hospice care. Finding grace and humor is important as we walk this journey.”

Egging added that Swingle was the chaplain for her family when her motherin-law was in hospice.

“He was so gracious and kind. He connected with our family and was a great support,” Egging said. “I know first-hand the important role chaplains like Keith contribute during this important time.”

Swingle, 54, was born and raised in Ohio. He spent 2-1/2 years serving as a hospice chaplain in Ohio before moving to Colorado. He had friends moving to Colorado, and found the job with The Denver Hospice before making the move.

Swingle now lives on Lookout Mountain near Golden. He is married and raising a 14-year-old.

group hug’

LEARN MORE To learn more about The Denver Hospice, visit https://thedenverhospice.org.

With The Denver Hospice, Swingle serves the north metro area out of The Denver Hospice’s Westminster location.

The Denver Hospice was established in 1978. As a nonprofit, nobody who needs hospice care will be turned away, Swingle said.

The agency serves the entire metro area, with its Inpatient Care Center located at 8299 E. Lowry Blvd. in Denver’s Lowry Field neighborhood.

A minister without a church A chaplain is a “minister without a church,” someone who doesn’t represent a specific denomination or particular church, Swingle said.

What chaplains do is help people cope with losses, Swingle said. In addition to the loss of a loved one, losses can include a person’s independence, control and role — or, purpose and meaning of life, Swingle said.

“Sometimes, the immediate family can’t, or doesn’t know how to, talk about it with their loved one,” Swingle said.

That’s where a chaplain can help.

Swingle’s visits to patients run the gamut, but the underlying role is to provide a comforting presence. Sometimes, visits are a friendly check-in just to see how the patient doing. Other times, it’s to pray with them. Or, if needed, Swingle will also help with arranging memorial services or connecting a person or their loved ones to a rabbi or Catholic priest.

No matter the reason for Swingle’s visit to a particular patient, it’s always a meaningful visit, he said. His goal: to ensure that all hospice patients “feel wellsupported, cared for and that we always have time for them.”

When people are at end-of-life, they need to feel that they have someone to talk to, said LeRoy Baker, administrator of Broomfield Skilled Nursing & Rehabilitation Center.

“When people are transitioning, spiritual needs are just as important as physical needs,” Baker added.

Hospice care is a team effort, Swingle said. He works in a team setting with Registered Nurse (RN) case workers, Certified Nursing Assistants (CNA), social workers and others.

“Keith has always been someone we look up to,” said Rachel Phillips, an RN

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The Denver Hospice Chaplain Keith Swingle, right, holds the phone up for David Newman, a 34-year-old Army veteran with terminal brain cancer, during a video-chat PHOTOS BY CHRISTY STEADMAN call in September with Newman’s wife, Alissa.

case manager with The Denver Hospice.

“He’s genuine and caring. That’s comforting for the families, but also for us. It’s very calming to have him here.”

‘He does way more than expected’ During the COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns, Villagio Senior Living — a memory care community in Broomfield — worked with The Denver Hospice to have a dedicated team provide hospice care for its patients.

“They acted as if they were our own inhouse staff,” said Carisa Brown, the community’s executive director. “The Denver Hospice has been vital to our success.”

In addition to tending to patients’ needs, Swingle was sometimes called on to support staff who were struggling or otherwise having a hard time coping, Brown said.

But he also helped in ways well beyond the typical roles of a chaplain.

A while back, a patient who was in clinical isolation at Villagio received a new bed. It was a hospital bed, with all the gadgets, said Tia Abeyta, the wellness director for Villagio.

“This was during the period of time (of the pandemic) when only nurses and CNAs were allowed in,” Abeyta said. “So the equipment company couldn’t come in to assemble it.”

Swingle happened to be there that day, so he geared up in full personal protective equipment to help Abeyta assemble the bed, and they were able to get it put together for the patient.

“He does way more than expected,” Abeyta said.

‘Our dog approved’ David and Alissa Newman of Lakewood had a large Husky dog named Dazbog when David, who was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer in August 2017, started hospice care.

While friendly, the dog was never into cuddling. But, on Swingle’s first home visit with the couple, Dazbog went right up to Swingle and greeted him.

And the next thing you knew, David said, Swingle had a 70-pound dog sitting on his lap.

“That’s how we knew we liked Keith,” Alissa said. “Our dog approved.”

David Newman is a 34-year-old Army

Keith Swingle has been serving the community as a chaplain for The Denver Hospice for 25 years.

veteran. He enlisted in October 2005, and did two tours in Afghanistan. He grew up in the Lakewood area, and upon return from the Army, he decided to study engineering at Colorado State University in Fort Collins.

He and Alissa met at a CrossFit gym while she was also attending CSU. David’s original prognosis was 14 months, “so we’ve had much more time,” Alissa said, adding they take every day one at a time. David emphasized how fortunate he feels to have Alissa as his wife.

Alissa cared for her husband at home until the recent COVID-19 restrictions on visitations to care facilities eased.

“It’s been different than getting to see him every day,” she said. But the two video-chat frequently, and Alissa visits inperson as often as she can, between work and her graduate studies. “Dave and I are fortunate to have support groups.”

However, while grateful for it, with all that support comes something that has been particularly challenging for Alissa — the management of everyone who has offered to help, she said.

The Denver Hospice treats people like people, not patients, Alissa said. David’s care team relieves her from what she calls the “mental gymnastics” of managing all of her husband’s needs.

“It’s such a resource to have someone to talk with about spiritual stuff, (and) a hospice team taking care of him,” Alissa said.

“It’s like a group hug. I felt, and continue to feel, so supported.”

Washington Park Profile 9

October 1, 2021

Newman Center returns as community hub New season offers 16 shows by creative greats

By Clarke Reader Special to Colorado Community Media

For so many communities, arts centers are hubs of connection and creativity — places where people can go for entertainment and education. Which made the COVID-19 pandemic especially damaging, since so many arts centers were shut down to keep performers, staff and audiences safe.

That’s the story with the University of Denver’s Robert and Judi Newman Center, 2344 E. Iliff Ave. in Denver, which went quiet for the bulk of the pandemic.

But the center is returning to life, and by announcing its 2021-22 season, is signaling it’s ready to be a hub for the community again.

“The great thing about the Newman Center and places like it is the cultural infusion of ideas from elsewhere and the sharing of ideas,” said Aisha Ahmad-Post, executive director of the center. “This is a community home for so many different groups.”

The returning season will feature 16 performances from a range of artists, including the debut of Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with the legendary Wynton Marsalis, the Nashville Ballet with Rhiannon Giddens and flamenco greats Soledad Barrio and Noche Flamenca.

Putting seasons together take months — even years — of effort, so many of the performers who are part of this year’s program were scheduled during the pandemic shut down, and now are finally getting the chance to connect with audiences.

“A lot of these folks will be somewhat familiar to our audiences,” Ahmad-Post said. “These artists really revel in the ability to engage with each other, not just the audiences.”

In addition to a source of high-quality professional performance, the Newman Center is also ready to provide opportunities for children and young adults to immerse themselves in the arts through its Student Matinee Series and Musical Explorers.

“When the pandemic started, we were working on reshaping the model of what we offered, and we were able to do what we could with things like virtual curriculum models,” said Luke Wachter, associate director of educational initiatives. “The direction we want to try to go in is to create really meaningful community part-

The University of Denver’s Robert and Judi Newman Center went quiet for the bulk of the pandemic, but is now returning to its place WAYNE ARMSTRONG/ COURTESY OF THE NEWMAN PERFORMING ARTS CENTER in the community and will be hosting events again.

nerships. In the past, we existed as our own organization and entity, but we want to move our programing out-of-building and into the community.”

As these efforts move forward, one of the key areas of focus is increasing equity and access for all those who want to participate. For Wachter, that means diversifying the center’s offerings, establishing new relationships and partnerships and reshaping its programs into more engaging forms.

“A fundamental part of any education is providing a window into the world, and it’s equally as important for children to see themselves and their community reflected on the stage,” Wachter said. “Pairing windows and mirrors together make for a really equitable education.”

As people re-enter the wider world, a lot has changed, and it will continue to change. But arts centers can still be a place to build something. And Ahmad-Post wants the community to take that chance again at the Newman Center.

“The same way people showed up for restaurants, they should show up for the arts,” she said. “Take a chance, buy your-

self a ticket, take a partner out on a date night. When people do give us a chance, they come back over and over again.”

Dr. Stratil and Dr. Wright

2021-2022 NEWMAN CENTER PRESENTS SEASON • Veronica Swift — 7:30 p.m. Nov. 19 • Soledad Barrio and Noche Flamenca: Entre Tú y Yo — 2 p.m. Nov. 21 • Fiestas Navideñas with Fiesta Colorado, Mariachi Sol de Mi Tierra and ArtistiCO — 7:30 p.m. Nov. 30 • Christmas with The King’s Singers: Finding Harmony — 7:30 p.m. Dec. 9 • Potted Potter: The Unauthorized Harry Experience — Jan. 4-9 • Kronos Quartet — 7:30 p.m. Jan. 12 • Dance Theatre of Harlem — 7:30 p.m.

Jan. 14-15 • Joey Alexander — 7:30 p.m. Feb. 2 • Nat Geo Live: Spinosaurus, Lost Giant of the Cretaceous with Nizar Ibrahim — 7:30 p.m. Feb. 9

• Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis — 7:30 p.m. Feb. 19 and 2 p.m. Feb. 20 • Nat Geo Live: When Women Ruled the World with Kara Cooney — 2 p.m. March 6 • Mrs. Krishnan’s Party — 7:30 p.m.

March 22-23 • Nashville Ballet with Rhiannon Giddens: Lucy Negro Redux — 7:30 p.m. March 29-30 • B-The Underwater Bubble Show — 7:30 p.m. March 31 • Nat Geo Live: Secrets of the Whales with Brian Skerry — 7:30 p.m. April 5 • New Morse Code — 7:30 p.m. April 8 Get tickets at 303-871-7720 or https:// newmancenterpresents.com/.

Dr. Stratil and Dr. Wright Dr. Stratil and Dr. Wright

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10 Washington Park Profile

October 1, 2021

LOCAL

VOICES

Celebrate Día de los Muertos in Denver

O

ne of my favorite movies is Disney/Pixar’s “Coco.”

I love that it’s all about music and family — and Día de los Muertos.

I can’t pinpoint FROM THE an exact timeframe EDITOR in my past when I started getting interested in learning about Día de los Muertos, but it was likely when I was in college, during the peak of my travels to and studChristy Steadman Mexico ies of ancient and indigenous Mesoamerican cultures.

I’m not going to date myself, but this was before one could find Día de los Muertos apparatus in general-merchandise big box stores.

Día de los Muertos is a beautiful holiday. It’s not a Mexican version of Halloween and it’s not about celebrating corpses. Instead, it’s a celebration of life, and a way to honor ancestors who have passed on.

And it’s got such a rich history, dating back more than 3,000 years.

Its roots belong to the indigenous cultures of Mexico (Aztecs and other Nahua people) who observed harvest season with rituals that embraced mortality and celebrated life after death.

However, when the Spanish conquistadors arrived and discovered the Indians practicing a ritual they believed to be sacrilegious and mocking death, the Spaniards tried to put a stop to it.

As a result of conquest, the Spaniards attempted to convert the native people to Catholicism, but the indigenous peoples refused to relinquish their ritual of celebrating life after death. So, the Spaniards moved the dates to co-

incide with the Christian beliefs of All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day, which take place on Nov. 1 and 2, when the spirit of the dead visit their families.

Today, Día de los Muertos is celebrated in Mexico and parts of the south and central Americas, as well as in the U.S. We are lucky here in Denver because we have many opportunities to celebrate modern-day Día de los Muertos and learn more about this ancient tradition. Here are some suggestions: Note: this list only includes events in Denver proper. You will find many more Día de los Muertos events in the metro area with a Google search.

Ofrendas Mercado 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Oct. 9 at Hijos del Sol, 2715 W. Eighth Ave. in Denver Free admission SEE STEADMAN, P11

Three things we can all do to end sexual violence GUEST COLUMN

Megan Carvajal

F

ifty-one per month.

That is the average number of reported sexual assaults that have occurred in Denver so far this year. This number, while staggering, likely does not reflect reality and the number of assaults that have occurred is higher. According to the Department of Justice, only 31% of sexual assaults are reported to law enforcement.

This is a wake-up call. As a community, we must come together and work toward ending sexual violence. Here are three things we can all do to build a more caring community that is safer for everyone.

Make prevention a priority Teaching youth about consent is imperative to preventing sexual violence. Consent education teaches young people what quali-

fies as consent — consent is not the absence of “no,” rather, it is the presence of an enthusiastic, uncoerced “yes.” It also teaches young people to recognize sexually inappropriate and violent behaviors, while promoting healthy, respectful relationships among young people that are in line with their own values and empowers them to communicate these values. These are lessons that young people will carry with them throughout their lives. If you are a parent or caregiver, ask your youth’s school to incorporate consent education.

We can all also harness our own power as active bystanders to prevent sexual violence.

When you hear inappropriate comments or language that normalizes sexual violence, SEE CARVAJAL, P11

LETTER TO THE EDITOR Vote no on bond proposals There are several reasons to vote NO on Denver’s five bond proposals (Questions 2A through 2E).

Your property tax payments will increase: Although the property tax rate for debt repayment may not change, the total property taxes you actually pay will increase (a lot!), given the recent increase in property values.

The city can increase the tax rate for debt repayment up to 30% without your vote.

Taxes now available to the city for spending in 2021 and 2022: $ 77.5 million — new economic recovery taxes. $308.5 million — state and federal taxes transferred to the city for spending. $386 million — TOTAL available for many of the pro-

A publication of

Mailing Address: 750 W. Hampden Ave., Suite 225 Englewood, CO 80110 Phone: 303-566-4100 To subscribe call 303-566-4100 or visit www.washparkprofile.com/subscribe

posed projects to be financed by this debt issue. $450 million — new bond taxes from this and four other bond ballot questions.

Adding the taxes listed above plus the new bond taxes will almost double city spending to $836 million. To paraphrase the late U.S. Sen. Everett McKinley Dirksen: A hundred million here, a hundred million there — sooner or later it adds up to real money.

If you agree the city should wait and prudently spend available taxes before asking for $450 million of new taxes, you should vote NO on this ballot question.

— Douglas Windes of Denver’s Platt Park neighborhood.

Windes is a retired government employee who worked on several bond issues and served as state cash manager in the Colorado State Treasury.

My two nieces, Cassie, left, and Morgan, let me take their picture inside a restaurant while out celebrating Día de los Muertos in Denver one year — circa 2013.

Oppose Measure 2F: it’s a step backward for affordable housing options

Y

our next ballot will arrive soon with more than a dozen measures for you to decide on, some with hidden consequences to our city and residents.

Three of these measures — 2F, 303 and 304 were funded by hundreds of thousands of GUEST dollars in dark money. Measure 2F would limit affordable housing options COLUMN for Denver residents, right when we need them the most by repealing a Council ordinance that was supported by 11 councilmembers and more than 50 organizations including Registered Neighborhood Organizations (RNOs) F like Capitol Hill United Neighbors.

Input from more than 1,000 residents over three years helped to shape the final legislation, including tighter Councilmember limits requested by RNOs like West Robin Kniech Washington Park that were adopted into the law.

The ordinance modernized outdated language and made our city more equitable for all residents. And it enabled people to share housing when they need it the most by increasing the number of non-family members who can live together from two to five. 2F would repeal these changes and make it illegal to have more than one roommate in three-quarters of our city so I’m urging voters to reject it.

Vote No on 2F because it would take away affordable housing options for working people like teachers, nurses, and grocery store clerks. Hardworking Denverites have struggled to pay their bills during the pandemic. With the

K

SEE KNIECH, P11

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Washington Park Profile 11

October 1, 2021

Carvajal FROM PAGE 10

speak up and gently correct the speaker.

Likewise, if you see a potentially risky situation, safely intervene. For instance, if you are out for drinks with friends and notice someone aggressively pursuing another, interrupt that interaction by telling the individual that is being pursued that you need to talk with them in private.

Then, once they are away from the aggressor, ask if everything is alright and if there is anything else you can do to help.

Steadman FROM PAGE 10

Attendees will have an opportunity to shop for high-quality handmade items for an altar, as well as a curated selection of clothing, jewelry & accessories, folk art and more. Those who are unable to attend Ofrendas Mercado, or are immunocompromised, can set-up an appointment by calling Adrianna at 720-353-2233. Some of the collection is for view online at lcacdenver.org/hijosdelsol.

Learn more: www.lcac-denver.org/ ofrendas2021.

Incense Holder Workshop 1-4 p.m. Oct 16 at the Sun Valley Youth Center, 1230 Decatur St. in Denver Free Ages 8+ Copal has been used since ancient times and serves to link us to the past and to our loved ones. To continue this sacred use of copal, we will construct an incense burner and learn how it can be used to welcome the souls of the departed.

Learn more: www.lcac-denver.org/ ofrendas2021 Calaveras Day 2-4 p.m. Oct. 16 at the Corky Gonzales Library, 1498 Irving St. in Denver Free

Kniech

FROM PAGE 10

high cost of living in Denver, our teachers often need to live with others to be able to afford to live in our neighborhoods. 2F would take that ability away from them at a time when we already have a teacher shortage.

Vote No on 2F, because this measure would make it harder to live in Denver than any other city in Colorado. Passing measure 2F would make Denver’s housing laws among the most restrictive in the state. Cities like Colorado Springs, Arvada, and Lakewood all allow people to have more than one roommate - and Denver should too.

Vote No on 2F, because it would take away tools the city needs to shelter and house those experiencing homelessness.

Passing 2F would reduce the capacity of

Always start by believing Sexual assault is the only crime where the victim becomes the accused. It is common for victims to be asked about their attire, level of intoxication and sexual history. According to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN), this victim-blaming contributes to the silencing of survivors of sexual assault, which means they may not seek support from loved ones or centers like The Blue Bench — compounding the trauma from the assault and hindering healing. Moreover, the perpetrator of the assault is not held accountable for their harmful actions.

When we actively support and believe

survivors, this paradigm shifts. When we start by believing survivors, they are more likely to seek systems of support and are more likely to seek justice. Most importantly, the survivor of the sexual assault receives the care that they need to heal from the assault. Additionally, the perpetrator is more likely to be held accountable for their actions. This accountability signifies a community with a zero tolerance for sexually violent behaviors — a message that we must send to would-be perpetrators.

A partnership between the Chicano Humanities and Arts Council (CHAC) Gallery and the Denver Public Library, this family-friendly event includes creating and decorating sugar skulls while learning the history of Día de los Muertos.

Learn more: www.chacgallery.org.

Learn more: www.lcac-denver.org/ ofrendas2021

Family Make and Take: Dia de los Muertos Miniature Ofrendas Various times on Oct. 16, 17, 30 and 31 at the Denver Botanic Gardens $15 per project fee; $12 member project fee Attendees will create a miniature ofrenda in remembrance of a loved one. Families are encouraged to bring a photo copy of loved ones to include in their ofrenda. Materials provided are appropriate for children ages 5 and up.

Preregistration is required.

Learn more: www.botanicgardens.org.

Nichos Workshop 5:30-8:30 Oct. 20 at Raices Brewing Company, 2060 W. Colfax Ave. in Denver Free Ages 8+ Nichos are small “scenes” that bring remembrance into the physical. With these little boxes, we honor the memory of a loved one who has passed. Attendees will construct a nicho in memory of someone to be honored at home or on the community altar. many existing homeless shelters, make it harder for those shelters to renovate to provide the mental health and housing counseling needed to resolve homelessness, and make it much more difficult and expensive to build new transitional housing. By taking away these housing options, unhoused Denver residents will have a harder time getting back on their feet if 2F passes.

As noted by the Denver Post Editorial Board when they supported the ordinance that 2F would take away, there is “considerable misinformation” being spread about this measure. I encourage voters to check any claims they hear at keepdenverhoused. com or the city’s own website, denvergov. org/groupliving “recent misconceptions.”

If we want to build back stronger, we need to ensure that we support affordable housing options for our community. The last thing we should be doing right now is reducing housing options in Denver, which is exactly what 2F would do.

Get involved in the movement to end sexual violence We all play a role in ending sexual vio-

Día de los Muertos Celebration 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Nov. 6 Cost is included with admission, 15 and under free This event marks the 10th anniversary of the Denver Botanic Gardens’ Día de los Muertos Celebration. The event will include craft vendors, entertainment, kids crafts and a display of Nichos. There will not be face painting this year.

Learn more: www.botanicgardens.org.

Ofrendas Documentary Something to look forward to: In 2022, the Ofrendas Documentary will make its way across Colorado, and will be

lence. In addition to making prevention a priority and always starting by believing, you can deepen your involvement by supporting organizations like The Blue Bench.

At The Blue Bench, we envision a future where there are zero assaults per month.

With a strong community by our sides, we know that this vision will one day become a reality.

Megan Carvajal is the executive director of The Blue Bench, metro Denver’s only sexual assault prevention and survivor support center. To learn more about The Blue Bench, including volunteer opportunities, or to donate, visit https://thebluebench.org. unveiled next fall for educators, students and families.

The Ofrendas Documentary will tell the stories behind Day of the Dead in Denver and across Colorado over the last 50 years. The mini film features the history of Mexican/Chicano Denver, starting with Carlos Frequez’s 1993 screenprint, “Westside Wedding” at St. Cajetan church on what is now the Auraria Campus. Through the lenses of the Denver Catrina Troupe, Rosales Bakery, elders, young people, families and community leaders, we celebrate those who have passed and turn the collective losses into moments of remembrance, resilience and teaching.

Learn more: www.lcac-denver.org/ ofrendas2021.

New Book Reveals Secrets To Keep Active And Free From Pain

By Dr. Brooke Olsen, DPT - a published author & leading Denver PT Are you living with back, knee, or neck pain? Or do you know someone that is fed up of always feeling stiff and achy?

If your answer is yes, there’s never been a more important time to keep active and maintain healthy habits than right now as the summer allows more activity again… and to help, Dr. Brooke is giving away 5 free copies of her book Aging Happily Without Pain (worth $19.99 on Amazon).

If you’re 50 or over, and pain or stiffness affects your job, your ability to keep active, threatens to slow you down or hinders family leisure time… then it’s time to read this book.

There’s no promise that what Brooke reveals will work for you in the same way it has for thousands of her clients.

However, reading this book has to be better than spending another day “resting”, “accepting” pain as normal and thinking “it’s just part of aging”, or worse yet, masking it with pain pills.

• How to get unstuck and get your pain to improve again with just this simple 1 technique.

• And lots of useful health tips!

Amazon review: 5 out of 5 stars “The most important thing about this book is that it presents a new narrative around aging, but also around the type of care we too often receive from mainstream medicine, in particular around orthopedic medicine (which is GREATLY needed). I am a testament to the fact that this works.

AND I am so grateful that I chose not to listen to the surgeon who after seeing me for 5 minutes and only a quick x-ray said I needed knee replacement surgery. This is not a one and done method. But now I can do all of the things I love and more! My hope is that this form of therapy can be given to EVERY person before reaching the age of 60!” - Ann

Inside the book, you’ll discover…

• Why your 50’s & 60’s is the age bracket when things can go wrong and the single best thing to do about it.

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• The biggest mistake women (and sometimes men) make when when it comes to having back pain while walking…

• The easiest way to help calm down your pain when a flare up happens.

This week, Dr. Brooke is giving away 5 FREE copies of this fantastic book (worth $19.99).

To request your free copy of Aging Happily Without Pain, please call (720)-772-1133. You can leave a message 24 hrs.

12 Washington Park Profile

October 1, 2021

Denver breweries honored in 2021 Beer Festival awards Winners chosen from among 9,680 entries

By Mark Harden mharden@coloradocommunitymedia.com

Denver breweries are among the winners of 2021 Great American Beer Festival awards.

The Boulder-based Brewers Association presented gold, silver and bronze medals in 97 categories Sept. 10 as part of the Craft Brewers Conference in Denver.

The prizes usually are presented in conjunction with the annual Great American Beer Festival, which each year draws huge crowds of beer lovers to the Colorado Convention Center, but that event was canceled for the second year in a row because of COVID-19 safety concerns.

Judges sampled 9,680 entries from about 2,200 breweries. Colorado beermakers won 21 medals, Ed Sealover of the Denver Business Journal reports.

Our Mutual Friend Brewing of Denver won two medals in the competition: Gold for Australian Pale Ale for its Inner Light, and silver for Mixed-Culture Brett Beer for its Biere Ovale.

Also: • Ratio Beerworks of Denver took gold in the Golden or Blonde Ale categorty for its Domestica.

• Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project of Denver took a silver medal in the Belgian-Style Sour Ale category for its Stay the Funk In. • Strange Craft Beer Co. of Denver won silver in the category of Historical Beer for its Silverbrick Norwegian Farmhouse.

• Great Divide Brewing Co. of Denver won silver in the category of American Fruit Beer for its Wild Raspberry Ale. • And Amalgam Brewing of Denver took bronze in the category of Experimental Beer for its Skins.

Among other breweries located in areas served by Colorado Community Media newspapers: • Cannonball Creek Brewing Co. of Golden won a gold medal in the category of Experimental India Pale Ale for its Vladimir Brutin.

• Peak View Brewing Co. of Greenwood Village, adjacent to Centennial, was a first-time winner, taking a silver medal in the category of Fruit Wheat Beer for its Blood Orange Wheat.

• Lone Tree Brewing Co. of Lone Tree took bronze in the American Fruit Beer category for its Lone Tree Peach Pale Ale. • And Holidaily Brewing Co. of Golden won a bronze medal in the Gluten-Free Beer category for its Big Henry Hazy IPA. For a full list of winners and to watch a video of the awards ceremony, visit tinyurl. com/2021BeerFestAawards

Lone Tree Brewing Co. took bronze in the American Fruit Beer category for its Lone Tree Peach Pale Ale PHOTO BY JESSICA GIBBS at the 2021 Great American Beer Festival awards.

Students encouraged to enter radon awareness contests Staff report Colorado students are invited to participate in the 2022 National Radon Video and Poster contests.

The contests take place annually through a partnership between the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE), the Conference of Radiation Control Program Directors and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The contests provide students with an opportunity to creatively raise awareness about the importance of radon testing, and to inform people of the dangers of radon in their homes, states a news release.

Students between the ages of 9 and 14

are eligible to participate in the poster contest, and the video contest is open to students between the ages of 14 and 18.

Students must be enrolled in a public, private, territorial, tribal, Department of Defense or home school; or be a member of a sponsoring club such as scouting, art, computer, science or 4-H. Contestants have the option to choose between five radon-awareness topics for their poster or video entries.

Judging criteria for the poster contest includes content accuracy, visual communication of topic, reproducibility and originality. Video entries must also be original, and created as a 30-second public service announcement/ commercial-style video that encourages residents to test and/or mitigate their

homes for radon.

State winners will receive $300 for first place, $200 for second and $100 for third. Teachers of students with winning entries will each receive $100. The first-place poster and first-place video will represent Colorado in the national contest.

Poster and video entries must be received by Nov. 20.

Only one entry per student is allowed.

Contest submission forms, topics, resources, additional guidelines and contest rules are available on CDPHE’s website: https://cdphe.colorado.gov/radon. For additional information about the contests, contact Chrystine Kelley at chrys.kelley@state.co.us.

ABOUT RADON Radon is a naturally occurring radioactive gas that is colorless, odorless and tasteless. It can enter homes through cracks in the foundation or other openings and can accumulate unless properly mitigated.

Long-term radon exposure is the leading cause of lung cancer in nonsmokers and the secondleading cause of lung cancer in smokers.

In Colorado, about half the homes have radon levels higher than the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s recommended action level of 4 picoCuries per liter of indoor air.

Coloradans are encouraged to test their homes for radon. Discount test kits and radon contractors are available on CDPHE’s website or by calling Colorado’s Radon Hotline at 1-800-846-3986.

Information provided by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment

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Washington Park Profile 13

October 1, 2021

Angelbotics’ club members Hailey Sine, a sophomore, and Dmitry Rosnik, a junior, clean The Imperator — the robot that the East High School robotics team competed with in the Kendrick Castillo Memorial Tournament at the Colorado Energy Day Festival on Sept. 25.

Nicholas Kieft, a senior, and Melissa Hermosillo-Nava, a freshman, have their photo taken with the robot that the East High School robotics club competed with in the Kendrick Castillo Memorial Tournament on Sept.

25 at East High School.

PHOTOS BY CHRISTY STEADMAN

By Christy Steadman

T

csteadman@coloradocommunitymedia.com

he Angelbotics — Denver East High School’s robotics club — hosted about 40 middle-and-high school robotics teams for Colorado’s Energy Day Festival on Sept. 25.

The robotics teams came from across the state to participate in the festival’s Kendrick Castillo Memorial Tournament, which pits robot against robot.

The Angelbotics is a year-round extracurricular activity. The team consists of about 40 students, freshman through senior, who are divided into four subteams — public image, which designs the t-shirts and website for the team; strategy; programming; and manufacturing. The subteams make it so that

each student can participate in the club, no matter their talents or skills, said Joel Noble, Angelbotics’ coach and engineering teacher. The team has art and business students, as well as those interested in STEM careers, Noble added.

Colorado’s Energy Day Festival is an annual event and always takes place at East High School, 1600 City Park Esplanade. It could not take place last year because of COVID-19.

Noble said he is extremely proud of the students’ accomplishments, following a year and a half of uncertainty, including not knowing what would happen to teams such as the Angelbotics.

“The kids have done some really amazing stuff,” Noble said. “They kept the team together. They made it happen.”

Angelbotics’ club members Celes Buffard, a junior, and Santiago Andrews, a freshman, build trusses and platforms in preparation for the Colorado Energy Day Festival’s Kendrick Castillo Memorial Tournament, which took place Sept. 25.

A group of East High School students who are part of the school’s robotics team stand with a basketball-playing robot that’s in its early stage of construction. This robot is expected to be able to play basketball against a human by December.

The Imperator throws balls during a practice run prior to the Colorado Energy Day Festival on Sept. 25. This robot is the one the Angelbotics — East High School’s robotics team — competed with in the festival’s Kendrick Castillo Memorial Tournament.

Dresden Friar, a sophomore at East High School in Denver, drives one of the school’s robotics team’s robots in late September. The Angelbotics hosted the Colorado Energy Day Festival, which took place on Sept. 25.

14 Washington Park Profile

October 1, 2021

BREAKING THE ICE

WITH

Washington Park resident shares his maze pieces to combat racial division

By Christy Steadman csteadman@coloradocommunitymedia.com

Warren Stokes loves his neighborhood.

He enjoys his daily six-block walk from his home to Washington Park, where he goes to create his art.

But he has noticed that other pedestrians will often cross the street or step into the alley until he passes.

“It’s not everybody,” Stokes said, “but it’s consistently enough (to notice) — on a daily basis.”

Stokes believes it’s more than keeping a physical distance because of the virus.

He believes people may be avoiding him because they might fear him.

Stokes, who is Black, is a Colorado native, born and raised in Colorado Springs. He moved to Denver in 1997 for a job, after graduating from Colorado State University.

He lived mostly in Denver’s east-side neighborhoods until February, when he moved to the Washington Park area.

“I believe that Black men carry every Black man that’s ever been seen on their shoulders. Whatever they (people) have seen in the media is what they see in me.

However, you’ve got to push those stereotypes,” Stokes said. “So, I could be a Michael Jordan who can ball, possibly. But they probably see more criminals in the news, so they think I’m a threat.”

What Stokes feels is not uncommon, said Apryl Alexander, an associate professor at the University of Denver’s Graduate School of Professional Psychology.

In fact, “a lot of Black people feel this way,” Alexander said. Black men being depicted as violent is embedded in some people’s cognitive thoughts, she added.

And “there’s nothing to debunk that if (a person) does not have a lot of experience with Black men,” Alexander said.

There are days when Stokes is able to not think about the issue, he said. But it happens on such a scale that he started sharing his art in postcard form to “break the ice,” he said.

Stokes, 45, is an artrepreneur/mazeologist, a father of three and a teacher.

Stokes’ forte is his maze art. He describes his creative process as “drawing a way out” of life’s difficulties. But along with using art

Warren Stokes of Denver’s Washington Park neighborhood holds up one of his mazes titled “Dukellington Elephant.”

Stokes, an artrepreneur/ mazeologist, has created about 1,300 mazes to date. PHOTO

LEARN MORE To learn more about Warren Stokes, his Mazing Kids line or to purchase his maze art, visit www.8ighthwonder. com. For more, visit Stokes’ maze art Facebook page: www.facebook.com/StokesGriot.

The Facebook page provides access to the maze art that is part of Stokes’ latest work, his Olympic Maze Exhibition; an Amazon link to purchase his children’s book, “The Day Peanut Butter Met Jelly;” and links to learn more about his storytimes and teaching through the platform, Outschool. as a healing mechanism, Stokes also uses his art to teach and for activism.

Man of many mazes Stokes began creating his maze art in 2008, and in 2012, he challenged himself to draw a piece every day for a year. As of now, Stokes has created about 1,300 mazes.

Each of Stokes’ maze art pieces is unique and varies in size. Being a dumpster diver, Stokes uses discarded materials — a brokenup dresser drawer or shelf, for example — as his canvas.

“I’m unforgivingly going to be me,” Stokes said. “But what does that mean? That means sharing my art.”

Stokes added that people’s fear of him could be because there aren’t many people of color in his neighborhood.

According to the American Community Survey by the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2019, the estimated population of the 80209 zip code, which includes most of the Washington Park neighborhood, was 25,367. Of that, 1.3% identified as Black or African American. For comparison, Denver’s estimated

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population in 2019 was 727,211, with 9.2% identifying as Black or African American.

There are still many places where there’s not a lot of racial diversity, Alexander said.

Leadership roles in corporate institutions are one example. In February, Fortune magazine reported that in the history of the Fortune 500 list — first published in 1955 — there have only been 19 Black CEOs, of the 1,800 total.

Alexander added that only a few of her students had a Black teacher or professor in their K-12 education or higher-ed studies prior to taking her class.

More institutions and organizations are incorporating diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in their policies. But Alexander urges people to consider what they are doing as individuals in their day-to-day life to stand up for Black people.

People can put up Black Lives Matters yard signs, but, Alexander asked, are they valuing their Black coworkers’ thoughts and ideas as much as those that come from their white colleagues?

“It’s not just police brutality that we’re highlighting in discussing racial injustice,” Alexander said. “It’s the everyday occurrences of Black people.”

She points to a December incident in a New York hotel during which a 22-yearold white woman falsely accused a Black 14-year-old of stealing her phone. Her phone was found soon after in a ride-share vehicle. However, the woman reportedly lunged and yelled at the teen during the confrontation. She has since been indicted on hate crime charges.

Incidents like this transcend across neighborhoods, Alexander said.

“Everybody should feel welcome,” she said. But, “how are white people communicating that to marginalized groups?”

Deeper meaning Stokes likes to think of his mazes as a metaphor for life.

“The maze is beautiful as a whole, but it’s created from several different pieces that form a journey,” Stokes said. “A journey

similar to life is full of obstacles and dead ends, but contains a solution.”

Stokes has held a variety of different jobs since moving to Denver, ranging from sales and telemarketing to substitute-teaching for Denver Public Schools. He has written many children’s books and coached various athletics.

Teaching is a skill that he has, Stokes said, but art is a passion.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Stokes started a subscription service business for daycare and assisted living facilities to purchase his mazes. He refers to them as brain gyms, inspired by his late grandmothers, who suffered from dementia.

Stokes now teaches on the online platform Outschool. His classes are geared toward preschoolers, and he uses his mazes to teach the alphabet. For example, solving a maze that is created inside the letter helps children with hand-eye coordination, all the while keeping the letter in mind and, thus, learning the letters of the alphabet, he said.

“My goal is to be an example of what I want America to be,” Stokes said. “I’m going to show you that through my art, my stories, through the way that I treat you, through the way I walk through this neighborhood and represent.”

Alexander added that “we all have biases.”

They come from experiences, or commonly, the lack of experiences, with people who are different than us, Alexander said.

Though it sounds easy to do, it’s hard for people to challenge those biases. Alexander encourages people to think about how they can be a better ally to those who are different from them.

“What are you doing in your everyday environment to challenge your biases?” she said.

Stokes uses his art.

And he wants people to not feel fear when passing him.

“Maybe a story like this can help make everyone feel better and safer,” Stokes said.

“I value our community and want to make this neighborhood as open and accepting as possible.”

Washington Park Profile 15

October 1, 2021

Support reliable, local news

Voluntary Contribution

PROGRAM

SCAN TO CONTRIBUTE!

To say that our last year was eventful is more than a bit of an understatement. After surviving the economic upheaval brought on by COVID-19, we were excited to get back to our core job of delivering your local news. And then in May, we were purchased by the Colorado News Conservancy, made up of groups dedicated to keeping local news thriving.

In August, I came on as Publisher with a mission to strengthen our commitment to each of our local communities, including for those of you reading the Washington Park Profile.

Linda Shapley Publisher

Quality journalism is not free, and there was a reason why, during the height of the pandemic, the work that we did was deemed essential. But we still face peril – more than 60% of all advertising buys in Colorado are spent with Facebook or Google. You might wonder how the Washington Park Profile survives, and we have you, our readers, to thank for that.

There’s a trend in the newspaper industry to emphasize “reader-driven revenue,” where readers pay more of the share of the cost, through subscriptions, contributions and memberships, to offset the decline in advertising.

So we ask you, our readers, to contribute to support the cost of reporters, staff and printing/delivery, in our campaign to Support Reliable, Local News.

When you contribute to our voluntary pay program, you are supporting our journalists and the vital work they do to keep you informed about your community: news about your children’s and neighbors’ accomplishments and endeavors, how government decisions affect you – including local election information – fun things to do in your community and metro area. The Washington Park area has a great community newspaper because of your hometown journalists.

You can contribute whatever you wish. This year, as a bonus, any contribution of $40 or more will allow you unlimited access to the Washington Park Profile website for a year.

We have several ways to make your contribution: 1. Online at ColoradoCommunityMedia.com/ReadersCare 2. Use the form below to contribute via mail 3. Phone us directly at 303-566-4100 4. Scan the QR code with your smartphone Thank you for being a loyal reader, and we wish you well.

Linda Shapley Publisher, Washington Park Profile Linda Shapley is the publisher of Colorado Community Media and can be reached at lshapley@coloradocommunitymedia.com.

A publication of:

Help us keep your hometown newspaper thriving by making a Voluntary Contribution this fall.

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16 Washington Park Profile

October 1, 2021

Mount Vernon Garden’s new look

By Kirsten Dahl Collins Special to Colorado Community Media

O Native flowers and grasses surround horticulturalist Michelle Simpson in Washington Park’s Mount Vernon Garden PHOTOS BY TIM COLLINS near Grasmere Lake.

The drooping crimson flowers of amaranth produce a high-protein grain that has been cultivated for the past 8,000 years.

Vote November 2nd ballots arriving soon!

ur nation’s first president might not recognize the Mount Vernon Garden in Washington Park, created in 1926 to replicate a garden at his Virginia estate. All summer, Denver Parks and Recreation horticulturalist Michelle Simpson and her team of volunteers, worked to transform the formal garden near Grasmere Lake by planting, in her words, “what’s supposed to be here.” Instead of neat rows of begonias and geraniums marching across bare soil, Simpson’s lush new plantings teem with prairie grasses such as blue gramma and turkey foot alongside many native flowers. Unusual grains such as amaranth and sorghum now flourish in beds that have lain fallow during the pandemic. The new approach attracts hordes of hummingbirds, butterflies and bees, crowds out weeds, and requires fewer pesticides and less water — while returning nutrients to the soil.

George Washington might approve of that.

Datura, also known as jimsonweed, thrives in the sandy soil of the Southwest — and the Mount Vernon garden.

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Washington Park Profile 17

October 1, 2021

Boosters praise promise of 5280 Trail

By Kyle Cooke Rocky Mountain PBS

The final stretch of the walk from Denver Union Station to the Buell Public Media Center on 21st and Arapahoe has become a lot shadier ... in a good way.

More than 30 Shumard oak trees line the sidewalk on 21st Street from Lawrence to Larimer. And although they are currently in above-ground tree boxes (i.e., not there permanently ... yet), they are a small part of what city leaders believe will be an enduring, “transformational” addition to Denver: The 5280 Trail.

A project of the Downtown Denver Partnership (DDP), the 5280 Trail is a 5.280-mile trail that, once complete, will encircle downtown Denver, connecting neighborhoods and landmarks.

When the design process for the trail began in 2019, it drew comparisons to New York City’s High Line. In an interview with Rocky Mountain PBS last month, officials with the DDP said the project that most inspired them was the Cultural Trail in Indianapolis.

The 5280 Trail is designed to connect high-traffic neighborhoods like La Alma/ Lincoln Park, Capitol Hill and LoDo, to name a few, while also making stops at popular destinations like Union Station, Coors Field and the Colorado state Capitol.

“We’re in desperate need of open space and park space in our city and near our neighborhoods, and this is really meant to provide that space,” said Andrew Iltis, the director of economic development at DDP. “We began to look around the country to see some really great examples of how these types of trails were being integrated into urban environments,” said Tami Door, DDP’s president and CEO (Door is leaving her post in November).

Door cited four goals that implementing the 5280 Trail would meet: “Creating a mosaic of districts, increasing bike mobility, connecting neighborhoods, (and) creating an outdoor downtown.”

“This is a very big vision,” Door added.

“This is the type of infrastructure project that will transform our city and the way our neighborhoods and people connect with each other.”

In terms of the size of the project and how it would change the city’s urban landscape, the 5280 Trail, Door said, is “on par” with the 16th Street Mall.

Projects of this size come with a big price tag and a long timeline. Though the tree boxes on 21st are emblazoned with “Coming Soon!,” Door told Rocky Mountain PBS the goal is to have the trail totally completed in 10 years, adding that certain sections, including the one on 21st Street, will be

The proposed path of the 5280 Trail around downtown Denver.

entirely built out before then.

As for funding, DDP officials said the 5280 Trail will come to fruition through a combination of public and private dollars. Door said that “hundreds of thousands of dollars” from the private sector have already been put forward for early planning and exploratory trips to other cities like Indianapolis.

When it comes to public funds, the DDP is banking on $7 million earmarked for the 5280 Trail in the City of Denver’s $450 million General Obligation bond package. The package, which also includes about $37 million for purchasing and improving homeless shelters, as well as plans for a new arena at the National Western Center, goes before Denver voters in November.

If passed, that $7 million will go toward building out the 5280 Trail on Acoma Street from 10th Avenue to 12th Avenue. The city has already committed $850,000 to the planning of the 21st Street segment — which will extend from Benedict Fountain Park to Coors Field — and that will be the first part of the trail to be developed.

“Here’s the power of that: Once the public starts to see what something really looks like, the private dollars start to come faster and faster,” Door said. “Especially people who have investments in different neighborhoods and they’re excited to bring the trail to their neighborhood.”

Presently, no money has been identified for the actual construction of the 21st Street

segment, but Door isn’t worried.

“We have 100% no concerns that we will get the money,” she said. “This vision is very powerful. It’s transformational. It supports so many varied aspects of our community: visitors, employees, residents.”

People who live and work on this particular section of 21st are used to these types of transformations: For two months in the summer of 2017, 21st between Larimer and Lawrence closed to traffic and became “The Square on 21st,” another one of DDP’s projects. The Square on 21st was designed to show the potential of the 5280 Trail.

Since then, the same section of 21st was closed to traffic in order to create a pop-up park during the MLB All-Star Game in 2021, and it also hosted this year’s Oktoberfest.

What the 21st Street section of the 5280 Trail will look like is still to be determined.

There are currently two options for the trail’s 21st Street segment. The first option is a “trail” design, which would close the street to motorists (excluding emergency vehicles) and create a shared trail for cyclists and pedestrians. The second option is called a “shared street” in which cars would be allowed.

Brett Boncore is a senior engineer with the city’s Department of Transportation and Infrastructure and the project manager of the 5280 Trail on 21st Street. He told Rocky Mountain PBS that reintroducing a tree canopy to downtown Denver will be a “huge

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piece” of the 5280 Trail.

And, Boncore added, the 21st Street segment of the 5280 Trail will help inform the design of the remaining parts of the trail.

“Whatever is designed on 21st, we can learn from and apply to the rest of the 5280 Trail,” Boncore said.

But that doesn’t mean the design for the 21st Street section of the trail will extend for all 5.28 miles. Some sections could have the shared street design, while others could have car-free trails, Boncore explained.

“It won’t look the same along the entire route,” added Iltis. “It will definitely relate to the place and that’s really important. That’s important to make it interesting as you move around the trail, but it’s also important to make sure that the community feels that value.”

In La Alma Lincoln Park, for example, the hope is to commission new artwork that fits in with the culture and history of the neighborhood.

“Every place should feel special and have its own distinct identity,” Door said, “but yet still be threaded together with a commonality of what it means to be Denver.”

This story is from Rocky Mountain PBS, a nonprofit public broadcaster providing community stories across Colorado over the air and online. Used by permission. For more, and to support Rocky Mountain PBS, visit rmpbs.org.

18 Washington Park Profile

October 1, 2021

Denver has many Halloween happenings for all ages prices that do not include the Monster to Midnight experience are available seven days a week.

Distortions Monster World is located in the Denver Pavilions, 500 16th Street Mall, on the first floor in Suite #180.

Tickets for Monster to Midnight cost up to $35 for adults and youth age 12 and older.

Tickets are limited for the Monster to Midnight experience and a timed ticket should be reserved in advance.

To learn more about Distortions Monster World, visit www.distortionsmonsterworld. com.

By Christy Steadman csteadman@coloradocommunitymedia.com

W

hether you’re looking for tricks or treats, haunting entertainment, family fun time or simply somewhere to go decked out in your favorite Halloween costume that you didn’t get to wear last year, Denver is the place to be this year.

13th Floor Haunted House The 13th Floor Haunted House has opened for the season, featuring three attractions: Frostbite, The Doll Maker and Bad Blood.

Additional on-site attractions include Class Axe Throwing, Blitz Bowl: Football Bowling and the Shriekeasy Bar for patrons age 21 and older. Add-on options for additional cost include Mini Escape Rooms and the Sensory Overload maze.

There is no minimum age requirement for the 13th Floor, though the event is graphic and meant to be scary. It is not recommended for children age 12 and younger.

Ticket prices begin at $19.99 per person, with Fast Pass, Skip the Line and VIP ticketing options available.

13th Floor is located at 3400 East 52nd Ave. in Denver’s Elyria Swansea neighborhood.

For more information or to purchase tickets, visit www.13thfloorhauntedhouse.com.

Adams Mystery Playhouse Adams Mystery Playhouse offers mystery dinner shows in a Denver mansion that once served as a mortuary.

The playhouse is offering shows every weekend throughout October, with select Thursday evenings and Sunday matinees also available.

All shows are rated PG and are familyfriendly, unless noted as suitable for age 12 and older.

Tickets cost between $44 and $64 per person depending on day and time of the selected show. Tickets include dinner.

Show descriptions and the dinner menu is available on Adams Mystery Playhouse’s website.

Adams Mystery Playhouse is located at 2406 Federal Blvd. in Denver’s Jefferson Park neighborhood. To learn more about the playhouse or to purchase tickets, visit www. adamsmysteryplayhouse.com.

Broadway Halloween Parade The Broadway Halloween Parade is back this year after taking 2020 off because of COVID-19.

It will take place beginning at 6 p.m. Oct. 23 on Broadway between Fifth and Alameda avenues.

The parade features Halloween-themed floats, bands and marchers. Attendees are encouraged to dress in costume.

Getting its start in 2017, the Broadway Halloween Parade is hosted by the Broadway Merchants Association and City Council Lucky District 7. The event is family-friendly and free to attend. Learn more at www. thebroadwayhalloweenparade.com.

Broncos Trick or Treat Broncos Trick or Treat is a family-friendly event that offers kid-friendly activities and trick-or-treating at Empower Field at Mile High.

The event takes place beginning at 10 a.m.

Oct. 23, at the Broncos’ stadium, 1701 Bryant St. in Denver. The stadium will be decorated and attendees are encouraged to wear costumes.

Tickets cost $5 plus fees per person. A ticket is required for all attendees, regardless

Monster to Midnight is a special afterhours attraction at Distortions Monster World, an immersive artainment monster museum located in the Denver Pavilions on the 16th Street Mall.

PHOTO COURTESY OF DISTORTIONS MONSTER WORLD

of age. A ticket includes access to Broncos Trick-or-Treat and Miles Fall Fest. Tickets can be purchased through Ticketmaster: tinyurl. com/broncostrickortreat.

Denver walking tours — Ghosts of Capitol Hill This guided walking tour at twilight invites participants to learn some of the history and mystery of Denver’s Capitol Hill area, including a visit to the haunted Cheesman Park.

The tour is suitable for all ages, though recommended for ages 10 and older. Youth ages 16 and younger must be accompanied by an adult.

Meeting location is at the southeast corner of West 13th Avenue and North Gilpin Street.

The approximate 1.7-mile walk will take about two-to-two and a half hours, ending at the Molly Brown House, 1340 Pennsylvania St. Tours are available at 7 p.m. and 8 p.m.

Thursday through Sunday throughout October. Private ghost tours are also available.

Cost is $25 per person and tours should be booked online in advance. To book a tour, visit www.walkingtoursdenver.com.

Distortions Monster World Distortions Monster World is offering a special after-hours attraction through October that enhances the monster museum.

Distortions Monster World is an immersive artainment museum created by Greeley’s Distortions Unlimited. Special effects, props, theatrical lighting and sound design by Loveland’s Blazen Illuminations accompany the exhibit.

The special after-hours experience is called Monster to Midnight. In addition to experiencing the museum, Monster to Midnight features interactive characters; entertainment; special guests, including the artists behind the exhibit on select nights; limited-edition collectible merchandise for purchase; and more.

Monster to Midnight is family-friendly and appropriate for all ages. A Monster Repellent sticker is available for those who do not wish to be spooked.

Monster to Midnight is offered from 6 p.m. to midnight Thursday through Saturday throughout October, plus Halloween night. General admission hours and ticket

Ghosts in the Gardens Tour Ghosts in the Gardens Tour is an opportunity to explore the Denver Botanic Gardens at night on a self-guided tour.

Storytellers along the way will share haunting stories of the Gardens’ 100 years of history — inside and outside of what used to be called The Boneyard. The event also includes access to the haunted Waring House that is not open to the public.

This event is not recommended for young children, and children age 12 and older must remain with an accompanying adult at all times.

Ghosts in the Gardens takes place at various times on Oct. 14-16 and Oct. 28-30 at the gardens’ York Street location, 1007 York St. in Denver.

Cost is $34 for non-members and $29 for members.

Reservations must be done in advance online. Visit www.botanicgardens.org to learn more or make a reservation.

Glow at the Gardens Glow at the Gardens offers attendees an opportunity to wander through a spooky, illuminated landscape at the Denver Botanic Gardens.

Glow at the Gardens takes place from 6-9:45 p.m. Oct. 19-24 at the gardens’ York Street location, 1007 York St. in Denver.

The experience includes larger-than-life pumpkin sculptures and dense displays of jack-o’-lanterns, performing artists and additional activities.

A timed ticket must be purchased in advance. Cost ranges up to $23 for nonmember adults. To purchase tickets, visit www.botanicgardens.org.

HD Escape Rooms — Haunted Mansion The Haunted Mansion at the Denver location of HD Escape Rooms, 1509 N. Marion St. in the City Park West neighborhood, is set in a late-1880’s mansion.

Participants serve as a paranormal investigative team. Partnering with Frightmare — the creators of the Frightmare Compound in Westminster — this puzzle room makes use of special effects and electronic puzzles to create a frightening and complex escape room experience.

This experience is recommended for attendees age 12 and older, any youth between age 8 and 17 are permitted only with an adult.

Each player younger than 18 must have a parent or legal guardian sign a waiver on their behalf.

A booking fee is $30 per person and should be done in advance. To book a date and time or to learn more about HD Escape Rooms, visit www.hdescaperooms.com.

Paranormal Palace The 12th annual Paranormal Palace takes place from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. Oct. 30 at McNichols Civic Center Building, 144 W. Colfax Ave. in Denver.

The Paranormal Palace is a dress-to-

impress Halloween gala and charity event, benefitting the Humankindness Project. The event features a costume contest, dance floor, open bar, full art installations, food trucks, performers and deejays.

This event is for attendees age 21+. A valid ID must be presented for entry.

Tickets range in cost from $75 - $240, according to Eventbrite. Visit https:// denverhalloween.org to learn more about the event or to link to the event on Eventbrite to purchase tickets.

Victorian Horrors Victorian Horrors at the Molly Brown House Museum offers attendees the opportunity to hear Gothic horror tales portrayed by acclaimed local actors and explore the historic Molly Brown House Museum, 1340 Pennsylvania St. in Denver, which will be decorated with spooky curiosities.

Stories this year will include those by Charles Dickens and Nathanial Hawthorne, and “Frankenstein” will be presented in both Spanish and English.

Victorian Horrors is advised for ages 12 and older, per parental discretion.

Admission to Victorian Horrors is offered every 15 minutes from 6-9 p.m. Oct. 14, 16, 21-23, and 28-30. Accessible in-person performances will be offered at 6 p.m. Oct. 21-22.

Attendees will stay in one, mobility-accessible room of the house, and the actors and sign language interpreters will come to perform six chilling tales.

Masks must be worn at all times while at the Molly Brown House Museum, and all guests age 12 and older must be fully vaccinated before attending Victorian Horrors.

Attendees younger than 12 who are ineligible to receive the vaccine or those with medical exemptions, must instead provide proof of a negative COVID-19 PCR test taken within 72 hours of the event start time, or a negative COVID-19 antigen test taken within six hours of the event start time.

Advance ticket purchase is required for Victorian Horrors. Tickets for in-person Victorian Horrors cost $20 for non-members and $18 for members. A virtual event is also being offered. Tickets for at-home watch party access cost $20 per link.

To purchase tickets or to learn more about the event, visit www.mollybrown.org.

Wild Fall Will Fall is new autumn event at the Denver Zoo. Wild Fall features the family-fun of the former Boo at the Zoo, with a stronger focus on education and connecting people to wildlife.

Highlights include costumes and characters, creature-carved pumpkins, festive food and drink, and special animal demonstrations that link supernatural beings — such as Bigfoot and the Kraken — to wildlife around the world.

Attendees are encouraged to wear costumes — particularly animal costumes — but are asked to refrain from wearing Halloween masks that cover eyes or outfits that are scary or gory.

The zoo will not be offering trick-or-treating and candy during Wild Fall.

Wild Fall takes places throughout October and its activities are included with regular admission. The zoo opens at 8:30 a.m. for members and 10 a.m. for the general public.

It is recommended to purchase timed tickets in advance as timeslots may sell out.

Tickets range in price up to $20 per adult for the general public.

For more information about Wild Fall and to purchase tickets, visit DenverZoo.org/ Events/WildFall.

Washington Park Profile 19

October 1, 2021

13 candidates seek 4 open seats on Denver school board Election is unlikely to shift power on the board

By Melanie Asmar Chalkbeat Colorado

Thirteen candidates have filed to run for four open seats on the Denver school board in November.

Though a majority of the seven board seats are up for grabs, the election is unlikely to shift the balance of power away from members backed by the teachers union.

The candidates include Denver Public Schools parents, graduates, and educators.

Several are former Denver teachers or administrators. One candidate is the executive director of a group of autonomous schools in the district, and another works as a community liaison at a high school.

Board policy does not allow district employees to serve on the board. In the past, district employees elected to the board have resigned from their jobs to serve.

Of the four open seats, one is sought by an incumbent running for re-election: Carrie Olson, a former Denver teacher and current president of the board. Two other seats are vacant because board members Jennifer Bacon and Angela Cobián declined to run for a second term.

The fourth seat is open because Barbara O’Brien is ineligible to run again due to term limits.

School board elections are held every two years, with the number of open seats each election varying from three to four.

Since a historic “flip” in 2019, when three union-backed candidates won, members aligned with the union have held a 5-2 majority.

The two board members not backed by the union, Cobián and O’Brien, will be leaving this year. The three unionbacked members elected in 2019 — Tay Anderson, Scott Baldermann, and Brad Laurvick — will remain on the board for another two years.

If even just one of four open seats this year is won by a union-endorsed candidate, union-backed members will retain their majority. In past elections, unionbacked candidates have faced off against candidates favored by education reform organizations, which are more supportive of independent charter schools and school choice than the union.

Board members are elected to four-year

Chalkbeat Colorado The candidates who filed with the Denver Office of the Clerk and Recorder to run are: At-large, representing the entire city Marla Benavides describes herself in a campaign video as a homeschool mom concerned about literacy rates in the district. She sells books as an independent contractor.

Scott Esserman is a Denver Public Schools parent who previously worked as a teacher in public and private schools. He currently volunteers as the chair of the district’s accountability committee.

Vernon Jones Jr. is a Denver Public Schools parent and executive director of the Northeast Denver Innovation Zone, a group of autonomous schools in the district. He previously ran for a school board seat in 2009 but did not win.

Jane Shirley is a former teacher and principal in neighboring Aurora Public Schools and the former head of a school leadership program. She now works at a

terms, and the next four years in Denver Public Schools will be important. The new board members will oversee a relatively new superintendent, Alex Marrero, who took the top job in July. The board will also write a new strategic plan for the district after the previous one, the Denver Plan 2020, expired last year.

The board will make decisions on critical issues facing the district, including whether to close or consolidate small schools as enrollment continues to decline. And it will oversee ongoing efforts to improve education for Black students in Denver and to redefine school safety and discipline after the removal of police officers from some middle and high schools.

In addition, the board will be responsible for signing off on how to spend millions of dollars in federal coronavirus relief money, approving new autonomous charter or innovation schools, and reviewing existing ones. Decisions about charter and innovation schools have long been controversial. That’s likely to continue, though charter expansion has slowed in recent years.

Denver Public Schools is Colorado’s largest school district, serving about 90,000 students. About 52% of students

Denver school board, in 2003 and 2007.

District 3, representing east-central Denver Mike DeGuire is a former teacher and principal at schools in Denver and other local districts. He now coaches school principals in Denver and elsewhere and works as a realtor.

Carrie Olson worked for decades as a Denver teacher and was first elected to the school board in 2017. She has been president of the board for the past two years.

District 2, representing southwest Denver Xóchitl Gaytán is a Denver Public Schools graduate and current parent.

She works as a Realtor and previously ran for the school board in 2017 but did not win.

Karolina Villagrana has worked as a teacher and administrator in districtrun and charter schools in Colorado and other states. She now works for Camelback Ventures, an organization that supports women entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs of color.

management consulting firm.

Nicky Yollick is a community activist who has worked on Democratic political campaigns and helped found several Denver-based education advocacy groups.

District 4, representing northeast Denver Gene Fashaw is a Denver Public Schools graduate who worked until recently as a math teacher at a Denver charter school. He now teaches at a charter school outside Denver.

Andrea Mosby Jones — Chalkbeat could not find a campaign website or social media page for Mosby Jones.

Attempts to contact her were unsuccessful.

Michelle Quattlebaum is a Denver Public Schools graduate whose three children graduated from George Washington High School. She works as the family and community liaison there.

Jose Silva is a Denver Public Schools graduate and executive director of the Colorado Association of Infant Mental Health. He twice ran unsuccessfully for

are Hispanic, 25% are white, 14% are Black, and 3% are Asian. More than 60% qualify for subsidized meals, and 36% are learning English as a second language.

The district’s annual budget is about $1.2 billion, and it employs about 15,000 people.

Past Denver school board elections have been contentious and expensive, even though serving on the board is a volunteer position. Spending by candidates and

outside groups in the last Denver school board election, in 2019, topped $2 million.

Ballots will be mailed to voters Oct. 8.

The deadline for voting is Nov. 2.

This story is from Chalkbeat Colorado, a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools. Used by permission. For more, and to support Chalkbeat, visit co.chalkbeat.org.

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Washington Park Profile 21

October 1, 2021

Oil & gas firm slapped with Colo.’s 2nd-largest state fine ever KP Kauffman has wells in Weld, Adams, Arapahoe counties

By Mark Jaffe The Colorado Sun

After concluding that oil and gas operator KP Kauffman Co. had engaged in “a pattern of violations,” fines for the company were boosted to $2 million, the second-largest penalty ever issued by the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.

In August, the commission levied a $1.8 million fine on the Denver-based company, known as KPK, for 22 violations at seven sites, but at a recent hearing the COGCC staff argued that the company’s failures were not isolated incidents and that an “aggravating” multiplier should be applied.

The largest fine, $18.25 million, was issued in 2020 to Occidental Petroleum Corp., the state’s largest operator, for a 2017 house explosion in Firestone that killed two people.

Jeremy Ferrin, the commission’s enforcement supervisor, said KPK was “a poster child” for the use of additional enforcement tools such as the multiplier or suspension of operating certificates.

“This is a situation where we need to do something.”

The five members of the commission unanimously agreed, boosting the fine Sept. 21.

“There was persistent disregard for the commission’s authority on multiple occasions,” Commissioner Priya Nanjappa said. “There was a pattern of violations.”

Commissioner John Messner said he “found many of the facts around this hearing to be very disturbing … there were systematic deficiencies.”

KPK operates low-producing oil and gas wells on the Front Range, wells mainly acquired from other companies.

According to DrillingEdge, KPK has 1,250 wells in Weld County, 125 in Adams County, 53 in Arapahoe County and seven in Elbert County, among others. It has a field office in Fort Lupton.

The majority of the wells produce the equivalent of less than a barrel of oil a day, and only five of the company’s wells produce more than 10 barrels a day, according to an analysis by the League of Oil and Gas Impacted Coloradans, or LOGIC, a nonprofit community group.

Some of the violations centered on flow lines, which carry oil, gas and water to collection tanks and have been a source of leaks and spills, according to COGCC inspections.

One of the violations was for trucking contaminated soil away from a well site and spreading it on a field behind a company office without a permit.

The notice of alleged violations, referred to in testimony as NOAVs, for the seven sites followed an order in April to shut 87 wells and clean up 29 sites for violations that included fouling farm fields and covering a road with oily waste.

Those earlier infractions were not part of the case before the commission this week.

In commission testimony over Zoom, Kevin P. Kauffman, 65, KPK’s founder and CEO, said that the collapse of oil prices and the pandemic had hobbled the company’s ability to operate and deal with compliance issues.

“We have not performed as well as we might have under these difficult situations,” Kaufman said. He also conceded that relations between KPK and the commission staff have deteriorated. “I am

An oil well pumpjack at sunrise in eastern Colorado.

truly sorry.”

“We are committed to improving,” Kauffman said. “I hope you will give me a chance to show what an excellent operator KPK can be.”

Over the course of the hearing Kauffman and other KPK staff gave a litany of reasons for problems at their sites, including historic contamination that was there when they took over the properties, other oil and gas operators damaging their flowlines, COGCC not getting back to company requests in a timely manner, and landowners not letting the company onto to their property to correct violations.

“It seems that a lot of these situations were somebody else’s problem,” Messner said. “Are you trying to insinuate that the majority of the NOAVs, the spills, these situations are not KPK’s responsibility?”

“Without breaking it down,” Kauffman replied, “it is difficult to answer your question.”

The commission still has to decide whether to impose other penalties, such as suspending KPK’s certificates of clearance, which allow it to sell its oil and natural gas, and to determine the company’s ability to pay the $2 million fine.

In testimony, company officials said KPK could not even pay half of the proposed fine. KPK is already dealing with a a $3.5 million settlement with federal and state air quality regulators over emission violations from its tanks that included $2.5 million in equipment upgrades and a $1 million civil penalty.

“Enhancing already steep penalties will not achieve the [goals] we want to achieve,” Kirk Mueller, an attorney for KPK told the commission.

A majority of the commission appeared to agree. “I want to see compliance, this is more important to me than the penalties,” Commissioner Bill Gonzalez said.

Messner proposed suspending part of the penalty pending completion of a remediation plan with tight deadlines.

The hearing was adjourned until October to give KPK and COGCC staff time to work out a proposed remediation plan.

Commission Chairman Jeff Robbins will

PHOTO BY DARIN ECHELBERGER/SHUTTERSTOCK

oversee the negotiations.

“We have a very bright future,” Kauffman said, “if the commission will allow.”

This story is from The Colorado Sun, a journalist-owned news outlet based in

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October 1, 2021

Washington Park Profile 23

Fashion rocks in rocky times

By Jessica Gibbs

jgibbs@coloradocommunitymedia.com

Momentous events are often a force in shaping fashion trends and industry standards.

Locally, Denver metro area fashion gurus say they are seeing new trends amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and as environmental sustainability is increasingly grabbing consumers’ attention.

A resurgence of ‘90s style, and retro vibes.

Sparkles and sequins. Bold colors, and patterns galore. Also, an emphasis on individual style rather than fitting in a box, body positivity and sustainable fashion.

Genesis Gomez, a Westminster-based model, like many accrued a collection of loungewear when the pandemic first struck.

“I had my daytime pajamas, and my nighttime pajamas,” she said. “I have a whole slipper collection now.”

More recently, she switches it up. Some days she’s back to wearing professional clothing — a blazer and nice shirt — but not every day. With a longtime penchant for ‘70s style, Gomez is also embracing that trend lately, throwing on oversized sunglasses and bellbottom jeans, styled with a sleek middle part and natural makeup.

“Embracing the oranges, greens, blues, tiedye,” she said. “I’m big on the ‘70s look these days.”

Interviewed as the model prepared to walk shows in New York Fashion Week, Sept. 8-12, she said she was most heartened to see people focusing on being themselves,.

“I think that that is truly beautiful, how we are kind of coming into a world where people are just really embracing what fits them best,” she said.

Amanda Crazybear is another model who

works throughout the Denver metro area.

She’s studied fashion history and worked in the industry for 10 years.

“I feel like everybody has had just a rough time and kind of got lost,” Crazybear said of the pandemic. “Now everybody is kind of emerging.”

She’s watching her two teenage daughters join the revival of ‘90s trends, picking up styles she once wore herself, she said, and mixing in goth and urban streetwear inspiration too.

“I think the ‘90s were just a fun, funky time of freedom of expression for people,” she said.

Like her daughters, Crazybear said she’s observing people mesh multiple styles, not just settling for one. Dressing up also helps a person feel good, she said, complimenting

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Darlene C. Ritz is the Denver-based fashion designer behind DCR Studios. She has a doctorate in education and a passion for designing for every body type.

For several years there has been a shift away from homogenous trends throughout society toward more individual expression, she said, and the pandemic’s onset expedited that.

People were home more, browsing the internet, on their phones and online shopping.

For many, shopping became a pastime.

Anything they wanted was available with the click of a button, and so too was fashion information, she said.

That’s helped lead to consumers becoming

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more educated, and as a result making a return to slow fashion and sustainable fashion, she said. They’re deciding to waste less, as are designers. They are purchasing higher-quality items in order to keep them longer, instead of throwing items away after little use.

Ritz took her collection to New York Fashion Week, where she also focused on less waste and including all body types and genders. She gathered inspiration on a trip to Mexico, taking in the many colors, and on a trip to Las Vegas, where she saw an exhibit that featured a phoenix.

Rising from the ashes plays a theme in here collection, she said, as are a flourish of prints.

“Fashion is a celebration, and we are seeing that people are coming out of this wanting to celebrate,” Ritz said.

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24 Washington Park Profile

October 1, 2021

Re-imagining the classical music experience Denver Philharmonic Orchestra announces 2021-2022 season concerts

By Christy Steadman csteadman@coloradocommunitymedia.com

W

hen Kwami Barnett was 9 years old, a clarinet was donated to him.

He grew up in a family that believed in the value of donated gifts, so he was expected to make use of it.

“I ended up picking it up and loving it,” Barnett said.

Today, more than 32 years later, Barnett still loves the instrument.

“It’s been such a commodity in my life,” he said.

Barnett is a fulltime music teacher and principal clarinetist for the Denver Philharmonic Orchestra, which recently announced its 2021-2022 season concert lineup.

The season will open with a free community concert in Cheesman Park featuring a solo by Barnett performing Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto. The season finale will be a celebration of Beethoven, to include a performance of Symphony No. 9 “Ode to Joy.” While these two concerts are certainly highlights of the season, Barnett believes people will enjoy the entire six-concert season.

“All of our concerts are going to be special,” he said. “We’re excited to get back into bringing music to Denver, and Colorado.”

Attending a Denver Philharmonic Or-

chestra concert is more than just the music — it’s the experience as well, said Valerie Clausen, a violinist who also serves as the orchestra’s executive director.

The orchestra prides itself on re-imagining the classical music experience, Clausen said.

For the 2013-2014 season, the orchestra started its More than Music, which features pre-concert activities that tie into the theme of the concert. For example, a concert by an Italian composer might feature a food truck serving traditional Italian food. The orchestra will commonly offer pre-concert lectures — at no extra cost — to inform audiences about the historical background and other interesting details about the piece or composer, and postconcert mingling with the musicians.

“We try to make the environment relaxed,” Clausen said, “and make sure nobody feels excluded from the classical music experience.”

The orchestra offers its tickets at affordable price points, and will not turn anyone away. Those who do not have the means to pay for a ticket are welcome to reach out ahead of time and request a complimentary ticket, Clausen said.

All of these experiences allow the Denver Philharmonic Orchestra to break down the barriers between stage and audience, said Lawrence Golan, music director and conductor.

“It is so gratifying to see the enjoyment the audience gets from our performances,” Golan said.

Classical music can include about 300 years of music and thousands of pieces, ranging from well-known work such as Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 to lesser known, but equally fantastic, work, Golan

DENVER PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA’S 2021-2022 CONCERT SEASON

Lawrence Golan conducts the Denver Philharmonic Orchestra during the orchestra’s November 2019 performance of The Mozart Requiem at Central Presbyterian Church.

The Denver Philharmonic Orchestra’s 20212022 concert season begins in October and concludes in late May. COURTESY OF AMANDA TIPTON PHOTOGRAPHY

said.

“And there’s new pieces being written every day,” he added.

The Denver Philharmonic Orchestra specializes in providing a cross-section of it all, Golan said. People who are familiar with classical music will still get to experience something new, and those who aren’t familiar with it will be pleasantly surprised at how exciting and entertaining classical music can be, Golan said.

“Our passion is orchestral,” Golan said.

“There are very few things more rewarding than sharing one’s passion with others.”

The Denver Philharmonic Orchestra’s home venue — the Central Presbyterian Church at 1660 Sherman St. in Denver’s Uptown neighborhood — is undergoing renovations, so the orchestra’s concerts may take place in different venues this season.

Season passes are now available for purchase, and tickets to individual concerts will become available as venues are finalized. Venues will be announced on the Denver Philharmonic Orchestra’s website: https:// denverphilharmonic.org.

Clash of the Titans, a free community concert in Cheesman Park • 7-9 p.m. Oct. 8 at The Pavilion at Cheesman Park, 1900 E. 11th Ave., in Denver “The Elixir of Love” in Concert, a special collaboration with Central City Opera • 7:30 p.m. Nov. 4 and 3 p.m. Nov. 6 Holiday Cheer! concert • 7:30 p.m. Dec. 17 and 3 p.m. Dec. 18 World’s Fair: The Maestros of Tomorrow • 7:30 p.m. March 5 U.S. premiere of Sergiu Celibidache’s “The Pocket Garden” • 7:30 p.m. April 9 Beethoven Celebration, to include a performance of Symphony No. 9 “Ode to Joy” • 7:30 p.m. May 25 and 26

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