food giveaway. Certainly, people knew it was a nice holiday story but very few people understood his true legacy. This is a perfect example of why diversity in newsrooms is so important.�
Metro Cab has been the longest (sponsor) to deliver to seniors and disabled. They volunteer their time, their gas and use their automobiles. Volunteers do ride with taxi drivers to help them make the deliveries.�
With shopping carts and boxes on the ground, Harris, his congregation at Epworth United Methodist Church and volunteers filled used shopping carts and disbursed food from box to box. They handed out 2,000 baskets the first year. Harris says, “It would have been bad for the legacy to disappear and for families not to have. It is the most amazing project personally I have ever been involved with. We have to turn people away. Never had to do that. The giveaway is now part of the fabric of this community. It ties together the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’ - those who need and those who have donated working side by side.� Interestingly, the fundraising has been a year-by-year challenge, says Harris. In the early days it was nervewracking. One year he was deep in a fundraising campaign and needed to raise $134,000 but he had to leave town on a church assignment. While away, he received an unexpected call from a Sam’s Club representative saying they didn’t have $134,000, but they did have $124,000. The church still had to write a check for $10,000.� As of October this year, the need is at $234,000, but Harris has learned not to worry, “God’s got it. I just got to wait for him to work it out. It’s amazing a little church congregation like ours can raise in excess of $200,000 in the past; $300,000 is expected to be raised this year.� Even with the work the church has done over the years, he finds it funny that most people don’t know their name. “That church at the corner of Randolph and High Street is where you go. That’s what people know,� says Harris, who is scheduled to retire June 30, 2015. “I salute Gill Ford for what he did and the legacy he created. If he hadn’t done what he did, there wouldn’t be anything for Epworth to take over.� Wooding believes everyone can keep the tradition going from corporate sponsors to individuals and cautions everyday people “not to forget that it is your financial donations and volunteer support that makes this the event that the community, the city and this country can be proud of.� He notes one of the long-term partnerships as being very necessary. “Denver is one city where no one should go hungry. But people slip through the cracks, especially seniors.
“A lot of people are not interested in history of Daddy Bruce, just a basket,� says Wooding, who teaches Randolph’s model of giving at Iliff School of Theology and whose personal mission is for new generations to know about the man. He is helping to produce a documentary scheduled to be screened in Denver in February 2015, titled “Keep A Light In Your Window.� More than 50 people will present their perspective of Daddy Bruce, down to his fatherly habit of standing at the corner making sure children got safely across the street when going to and from school. An estimated 12,000 volunteers sign up annually, but mostly to volunteer on that day. Wooding says they also need people ahead of time. They are getting help from Project Management Institute (PMI), which over time will document the process for others to use. Bob Kois, a PMI-certified lecturer with the University of Colorado at Boulder and Denver, as well as the Denver Institute for Urban Studies and American Pathways University, teaches the PMI class in the Five Points neighborhood. “We’ve been active in the neighborhood for about five years. Ronald has been a guest speaker for about four years talking about the Daddy Bruce event,� says Kois, who grew up in the Five Points neighborhood, eating Bruce’s BBQ. “We would help him brainstorm. Daddy Bruce is probably the biggest one we’ve done in Colorado. People who live to serve like to serve. If they are trained better, they work better. If we can help you do something better, we do it.� Kois adds, “Everybody has ownership in the success (of Daddy Bruce)� and referred to a time when Daddy Bruce’s restaurant was closed because of unpaid taxes. Once people learned they came down and provided enough money to pay the taxes. It was an experience Bruce Randolph, Jr. recalled during the February 2014 birthday celebration. He credits Jim “Dr. Daddio� Walker, at the time owner of KDKO Radio, for making that happen by getting on the radio and telling people to come down. Everyone from neighborhood residents to Denver Bronco’s members made donations. Dr. Daddio continues to shed light on community happenings on KOA 760 Talk Radio. Editor’s note: For more information, call Ronald Wooding at 720-319-1491 or email RWooding1@Yahoo.com.
Epworth: That Church on Bruce Randolph & High St.
More Than a Basket
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Denver Urban Spectrum — www.denverurbanspectrum.com – November 2014
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