RICH LEVINE

position for a Special Olympics athlete.

“ e organization serves more than 20,000 athletes annually,” Rich points out, focusing on diversity, equity, and inclusion. “What most people don’t know is that Special Olympics is also involved with providing screenings for vision, dental, hearing, and foot care … reducing bullying, building bridges of trust, building opportunities for employment and nutrition.” the funds to build Evergreen’s synagogue – Congregation Beth Evergreen – and brought in Evergreen’s rst full-time rabbi, Jamie Arnold. Rich served as president of the synagogue for a year and taught seventh graders in Hebrew School. Part of his responsibility was to speak at each bar mitzvah and bat mitzvah – comingof-age rituals in the Jewish faith.

“We learned about beekeeping,” Rich says of his teaching seventh graders, “and the richness of honey,” incorporating the aspects of wax and the bees’ life in communities. His students decorated the hives and installed the bees into their hives. He led river ra ing trips and built stained glass windows with his class.

In 2016 when Rocky Mountain Academy of Evergreen (RMAE) made the decision to end its preschool, Rich was instrumental in forming a nonpro t organization and re-establishing it as the Learning Center Preschool administered by Congregation Beth Evergreen. “We retained all the teachers and rebuilt the school for 30-some preschoolers.”

One of the associations he holds near and dear is his Emeritus Board Member status with Special Olympics Colorado where he rewrote the bylaws, making Colorado the rst chapter in the world to create a co-chair

Special Olympics Colorado is responsible for contracts with local grocery stores, for instance, in hiring people with intellectual disabilities.

Rich also serves on the board for Mountain Resource Center (MRC), based in Conifer but serving residents in rural Je erson and Park Counties to promote self-su ciency and economic stability. “I’m proud of the work MRC does in providing vital, needs-based assistance to people,” Rich says. “In order for a community to thrive, we need to take care of people.”

Explaining that an organization needs a sta yearround, in between the times people volunteer, Rich expounds on why he works to stimulate private donations to the nonpro t that serves as a focal point for children, single women, veterans, people with mental health issues. Je erson County provides services and funnels that support through MRC.

During his short time on the board, he’s been instrumental in retiring the entire debt so all donations now support programming.

And, coupled with his quiet tendency to mold and cra , create and polish, Rich has o cially dabbled in the arts by providing legal support for the recent merger of Center for the Arts Evergreen and Sculpture Evergreen, producing a more viable and sustainable arts community.

Simply put, what he does matters.