Reminders Of Our History
Volunteers, Justice – And Coffee – Keep Us Going
By Sierra Fleenor, Executive Director, GPHC, Inc.

One of the biggest tasks I’ve been engaged in since my arrival in January, beyond the day-to-day of keeping our doors open, has been going through files and old paperwork that has accumulated over the years.
I won’t lie: At first, I was so overwhelmed I didn’t know if I’d ever make it through. But as I reviewed each file with the help of a volunteer, Janey Alpert, I was inspired and moved by what I found. Yellowing typewritten letters and newspaper clippings tell the story of how GPHC fought segregation in housing and in schools. A telegram that was sent to President Kennedy in 1961 ends with a powerful call to action, “We urge you [to] issue immediately [an] executive order prohibiting racial discrimination in all federally related housing activities with provision for strong enforcement and some supervision by citizens’ committees.”
I won’t sugarcoat it. There are equally intense letters detailing why we will never be able to live in desegregated communities due to “black violence.” Upon reading one particularly vehement letter (which really could have benefitted from the advent of emojis), I toyed with the idea of recycling the document. Who needs more hate? My hand hovered over the recycling bin and at the last moment, I decided to keep it, not because I want to remember this person’s vitriol, but because we need to remember it.
This deeply devoted community fought white flight and the segregation of schools boldly. As we face an uncertain future as a country, I take strength from our history. Greater Park Hill was never perfect and we never will be, but perhaps we can together strive to create the beloved community Martin Luther King, Jr often spoke of. For a more complete history, please visit our website: greaterparkhill.org.
If there are any aspiring or existing historians that would like to have a poke around our archives, please be in touch. Meanwhile, I’ll keep making my way through the files here and will share something from the 1970’s in my next column.
Coming back to 2017, our offices have been a hub of activity, from providing nutritional support to our food pantry clients, to filling our weekend food program bags, to bundling newspapers, to hosting our monthly community meeting, to offering a seed starting workshop. The year has started out beautifully and among the many requests I’m receiving has been a resounding desire to volunteer at GPHC. To that end, we will be having a new volunteer orientation training on March 21 starting at 10:30 a.m at our office at 2823 Fairfax Street. If you’d like to volunteer, this is a great place to start.
We will also be hosting a DIY Pest Reduction workshop on March 23 at 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. at our office as part of our Garden-in-a-Box educational workshop series. Join us to learn how you can fight pests without using artificial pesticides and walk away with all the ingredients to fight pests of many varieties.
If you’re interested in donating items for our food programs, we have some specific requests. We need cans of ravioli (16 oz), beef stew (16 oz), tuna (7 oz), boxes of mac and cheese, boxes of individual instant oatmeal packets, cans of condensed chicken noodle soup, other canned meats (such as salmon, spam, chicken), canned fruit, black eyed peas, flour, jelly, kitchen condiments (olive oil, vegetable oil, salt, pepper, mustard, ketchup), hygiene products (including chapstick, toothbrushes, travel-size toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner), baby wipes, pet food and tissues. And, we always need reusable, paper, and plastic grocery bags for our clients to use.
If you’re replacing your vacuum, but your old one is still kicking, we would love to give it a new home. Our vacuum finally died and is now depositing more dirt than it’s picking up. Other items we can use here at the office include: liquid hand soap, Clorox wipes and coffee (our volunteers run on the stuff). Finally, if you have a storage cabinet lying around without a purpose, give us a call.
We accept food pantry donations Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at our office at 2823 Fairfax St. If those hours do not work for you, you can also donate items at the Park Hill Branch of Denver Public Library (at Montview and Dexter) or at Cake Crumbs (23rd and Kearney) during their business hours.
Thank you for all you do to support GPHC. Follow us on Facebook to keep up with community announcements and event @GPHCDenver.