Off To A Great Start

Thanks To Donors, Members, Volunteers

By Sierra Fleenor

Executive Director, GPHC, Inc.

A new year brings with it new energy here at GPHC. We are getting ready to bring our well laid plans to fruition and hopefully, to bring GPHC into this century technologically speaking. We’re investigating better ways of collecting and analyzing data, creating new partnerships and strengthening existing ones, and ensuring the longevity of our programs that serve our most vulnerable neighbors.

Our volunteers have been exceptional. Our Weekend Food Program and Food Pantry volunteers worked diligently the past several weeks to ensure our clients had access to food through the end of the year.

I’d especially like to thank Brandon Scott and Ashley Trainer-Scott from Brandon J Scott Photography for their volunteerism in December. They offered their portraiture skills to our Food Pantry clients at no cost. We’ve heard from many people that they are often forced to decide between buying groceries and paying rent or utilities. Family portraits are frequently low on the list of priorities. Last month 12 families and 60 people had their portraits made in Park Hill, who otherwise likely would have gone without.

I’d also like to thank the volunteers who make our newspaper delivery system so unique every month. Volunteers bundle newspapers and serve as blockworkers delivering papers to neighbors and friends. If you’re holding a newspaper that showed up at your door (and you didn’t deliver it), you have your local volunteer blockworker to thank, too.

And yes, volunteers are needed for many things we do. We need help with the Food Pantry and Weekend Food Program, both of which have ongoing year-round opportunities.

We also need volunteers to serve on our Garden Walk and Home Tour planning committees – both of which, by the way, are also a great way to get to know neighbors and see some amazing gardens and homes. If you’d like to learn more, please email  me at info@greaterparkhill.org or give me a call at 303-388-0918.

Our donors have also been truly wonderful – including those of you who have made an in-kind or financial contributions to GPHC.

Also to be thanked: the employees of Visual Interest, the birthday girls (Saavni Bhatt and Hannah Song), and our neighbors over on the 1700 block of Ivy Street for holding food drives to gather items for the Food Pantry.

Each year, a team of realtors – the Greater Park Hill Cooperating Realtors (GPHCRe) – commits to donating $50 to our Registered Neighborhood Organization for each transaction made in the neighborhood. The realtors come from various companies and all either live in or have strong ties to Park Hill. Over five years they have donated roughly $15,000 to GPHC. Beyond their annual donation, members are deeply involved in the Garden Walk, Home Tour, and other events and projects in our community.

As you all know, Colorado Gives Day was in December. GPHC, alongside with 2,308 other nonprofit groups, fundraised on that very special day. We’re pleased we raised $5,195, nearly doubling the amount contributed last year.

Last, but definitely not least, we’d like to thank our renewing and new members. Your annual membership supports the programming we offer at GPHC. Thank you for getting involved and we hope to see you at our monthly community meetings, which are the first Thursday of each month (see details for upcoming meetings on page 18).

Heading into 2018, we could use some donations of food and household supplies.

For our pantry we currently need hygiene products (including men’s deodorant, body wash, shampoo, conditioner, lotion, toothbrushes, and razors – both regular size and travel size). We also need toilet paper and paper towels.

For food, we continue to need canned fruit, fruit in jars, canned meats (especially tuna), corn, and black-eyed peas. Many of our clients have pets, so we need dry dog food and wet and dry cat food.

For the Weekend Food Program, we need individually wrapped cereal bars, individual servings of instant oatmeal, individual cereal bowls, and regular size boxes of “kid friendly” cereals.

Please remember that we cannot distribute expired items, so please check your cans before bringing them to GPHC, at 2823 Fairfax St. We can only distribute items dated 2018 or later.

If you have any questions, including how to get involved as a volunteer, donor, or member, check out our website at: greaterparkhill.org or give us a call at 303-388-0918.

 

Volunteers

Jason Barth

Barbara Cavender

Jack Farrar

Claudia Fields

Harold Fields

Tas Frashure

Adrienne Hill

Noni Horwitz

Erika Hutyra

Megan  Jamison

Rod Leman

Debra Lovell

Shannon McCure

Jasper Mueller

Chuck Nelson

Alison Rabinoff

Peggy Roberts

Mary Salsich

Tammi Scroggins

Suzanne Stemmler

Emily Straka

Shane Sutherland

Sue Weinstein

Donna Westmoreland

Jeannie Willis

Donors

Karen Adkins

Dan Ambruso

Kathy Ambruso

C Benoit

Saanvi Bhatt

Deborah Brackney

Keith Combs

JoAnn Congdon

John Congdon

Lana Cordes

Tom Creighton

Michael Day

Bill Drummond

Elizabeth Drummond

Diane DuBois

Wayne DuBois

Anne Duncan

Beth Duncan

Robert  Duncan

Jennifer Dyer

Marcy Eastman

Daniel  Esquibel

Larry Feinberg

Margie Feinberg

Sierra Fleenor

Meg Freedman

Theodore Gaensbauer

Georgia Garnsey

Aimee Geurts

Geneva Goldsby

Carrie Goodman

Josh Goodman

Andrea Gordon

Phil  Gordon

Diane Hergott

William Hobbs

Jane Hultin

Jody Igo

David Johnson

Sue Joralemon

Bernadette Kelly

Scott Kinnamon

Sheri Lockhart

Lucy  Loomis

Amy Malecka

Fred Merten

Brian Moore

Harriet Mullaney

Manuelita Mullins

Rodger Naylor

Ellen Reath

Kurt Reisser

Robert Rosenzweig

Shelly Scales

Stu Scales

Karen Sercey

Cheryl Solko

Dan Solko

Hannah Song

Michele Sorensen

Marekah Stewart

Pamela Tarquin

Jana Tompkins

Ken Tompkins

Gloria Valdez

Sue Weinstein

Joel Witter

Roxana Witter

John Wyszynski

Marty and Patti

1700 Block of Ivy Stree Neighbors

AARP #995 – Queen City of the Rockies

Blessed Sacrament

Brandon J Scott Photography

Cake Crumbs and Patrons

Clients of DANK Dispensary

Cure D’ Ars

Denver Food Rescue

Employees of Visual Interest

Food Bank of the Rockies

Gerretson Realty

Hampton Inn Speer and Zuni

Messiah Community Church

Montview Boulevard Presbyterian Church

Park Hill Congregational

Park Hill Elementary School

Park Hill Library and Patrons

Park Hill United Methodist

RK Foundation

Roet Realty

St Thomas Episcopal Church

Members

Dan Ambruso

Kathy Ambruso

Barbara Armendariz

David Baker

Fred Bender

Yvonne Bokelman

Zana  Brown

Barbara Cavender

Cherie  Clark

John Clark

JoAnn Congdon

John Congdon

Asa Darrow

Jennifer Darrow

Casey Dinger

Jared Erwin

Breckinridge Grover

Mary Lynn Grover

Doug Hazlett

Jan  Hazlett

Pamela Hennessey

Richard Hennessey

Margerie  Hicks

Bill Hobbs

Grace B. Horvat

Jane Hultin

James Jacobs

Jon Kinning

Jane Klever

Frances Koehn

Carolyn Laetz

Thomas Laetz

Lynn Maedel

Carolyn Martyn

Gary Martyn

P Maureen McDonald

Terri Morrison

Dominic Paolucci

Marilyn Paolucci

Sean Pawlowski

Susan Rein

Mary C. Robinson

Nancy  Schoyer

Doug Schuler

Bob Smith

Jody Allen Smith

Andrew  Sweet

Jana Tompkins

Ken Tompkins

Aimee Truesdale

Robert Vanderberg

JP  Young

Susan Young

Park Hill Community Bookstore

RK Foundation