Monday, August 29, 2011

Mary Williams Fine Arts Event Photos

The July Mary Williams Fine Arts Quick Draw event was a great success. In all, $4,480 was raised to further Imagine!'s mission.

Thanks so much to Mary Williams for this generous support!

Please enjoy some pictures from the event below.

Imagine! Foundation Board Member David Edwards.


Imagine! Foundation Board Member Colene Van Winkle and her husband Don.

A perfect spot to inspire an artist!

Imagine! staff member Julie Hartman and Imagine! client/sculptor Alonzo Clemons.


Imagine! Foundation Board Memeber Lloyd Streit and his wife Julie.

Mary Williams

Great view, great art!

An artist hard at work.

L-R: Rich Tocher (Julie's husband), Imagine! Foundation Board Members Leona Stoecker and Julie Vlier.

Imagine! Foundation Board Member Rick Nelson and his wife Jackie.

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Thank You Thursday

Here is a roundup of donations made to the Imagine! Foundation in the past week:


• A gift of $2,775 from Mary Williams Fine Arts representing 20% of the proceeds from art sales at the Mary Williams Fine Arts Quick Draw event. The sale of chances on the two antique reproduction posters Mary donated for the event brought in $765, and donations made directly to Imagine! from the invitation mailing brought in $940. Therefore, the total benefit to Imagine! from the Quick Draw event was $4,480. Thanks so much to Mary Williams for this generous support!


We would also like to acknowledge those friends of the Foundation who provided in-kind gifts for the Quick Draw event:


West End Tavern (part of former Imagine! Foundation Board member and longtime Imagine! supporter Dave Query’s Big Red F Restaurant Group) for donating all of the food

Liquor Mart for arranging the donation of seven cases of wine

Republic National Distributing Company's Bacchus Wine Division for donating the wine

Left Hand Brewing Company for donating ten cases of beer

Sturtz and Copeland for donating all of the flower arrangements

• Kristi Bartleson Stahli for reducing her fee as the harpist for the event

Morrell Printing Solutions for discounts on the printing of the invitation

Instant Imprints for printing the Save-the-Date card

Other donations this week included:

• A donation from Bob and Judy Charles to fully cover the remaining harpist’s fee for Quick Draw

• Donations in memory of Margaret Wilson, the mother of one of Imagine!’s clients, from:
1. John and Linda Gathman
2. Helen Hanna and Mary Hanna
3. Herminone Clair Montrowe and her family

• A donation from Imagine! Foundation emeritus board member Kathy Coyne

• A donation from Tom Pretto and Linda Doyle at the 29th Street Live Summer Concert Series event
• $10 in anonymous donations at the 29th Street Live Summer Concert Series event

• $4 from IBM employee payroll deduction
As always, we offer our most sincere thanks to all of Imagine!’s generous supporters.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Congratulations, CivilArts

Congratulations are in order for our good friends at CivilArts, recipients of a Community Appreciation Award from the Longmont Area Economic Council because of their contributions to Imagine!’s Charles Family SmartHome in Longmont. In the photo below, Frank and Deb Drexel, owners of CivilArts, show off their award.

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Preparation The Key To Success At Imagine!

There’s a saying among those who work in the field of serving those with developmental disabilities: “If you have met one person with a developmental disability, you have met one person with a developmental disability.”

There is no one single way to serve all the individuals we serve at Imagine!. Every service needs to be flexible enough to meet a wide variety of needs, goals, and desires. Since there is no set template for how services are provided, the real key to success comes from always being prepared.

The story below, originally from Imagine!’s August employee newsletter, about one of Imagine!’s service departments, demonstrates the difference good preparation can make in the lives of some school aged children we serve.

Imagine!’s Out & About department prides itself on providing excellent therapeutic recreation activities to its participants. Therapeutic recreation involves making every opportunity a learning opportunity, so not only are participants encouraged to have fun during an activity, they may also be working on improving their social, communication, safety, or fine and gross motor skills.


At Out & About’s art classes, a large part of the success the participants experience is due to the preparation of staff members before the class. A great example of how to prepare for a class is provided by Alexa Schoeman, the facilitator for art with Out & About’s After School Program and Summer Camp. Alexa is pictured here with Quintin, who receives services from Out & About.

Colette Marie, the Director of Out & About, told us, “I think Alexa's passion for art, and specifically in teaching the kids in our program, is something worth recognizing her for.”

Alexa strives to celebrate what the kids do, and challenges them to develop their talents with new materials, techniques, and subjects. She sends frequent emails to other Out & About staff members so they can be prepared for the classes. Below are some excerpts from one of Alexa’s emails.

“This week we are going to be celebrating the Fourth of July, as well as ourselves and our families with a fun firework activity. The participants will either choose light colored paper and markers or crayons, or dark colored paper and pastels or chalk. Prompt them to first draw a picture of their family celebrating, then add fireworks with glue and glitter, and/or paint blown with straws or squirted from tiny spray bottles. The complete image will look like the participants and their families watching a fireworks display.


Families can look very different for different kiddos, so please let them guide you as to who they want to include in their pictures (pets, friends, grandparents). In that vein, fireworks can look different from person to person, so help demonstrate a firework pattern, but allow them to pour the glue or paint as independently as possible to create how they see a firework. I often notice the participants will say ‘I can’t, will you do it?’ If I walk them through a couple steps instead of jumping in to do it for them, they are able to complete the task independently!


Please encourage doing both the portrait part and the firework part, but if the participant just wants to focus on one part, that’s fine too. Also please be mindful of the glitter as it is super fun to play with, but it’s also expensive! A little bit goes a long way, and please try and shake the extra back into the containers.


Some great things to work on are discussing their subjects, their families, and what that means to them, scale (dad may or may not be drawn bigger than the dog, either is fine, it’s just something to notice), dexterity in use of materials (especially squeezing and drawing with glue), exploring the look of pastels or chalk on dark paper, and, as always, communication with peers in sharing of materials and works.”


Thank you Alexa for demonstrating such dedication to teaching and helping the art classes to be successful by being so well prepared and for helping your co-workers to be well prepared too.



Thursday, August 11, 2011

Thank You Thursday

We are so thankful for all of our generous donors. Donations for the past week included:

• A donation from former Imagine! employee Matt Bristol designated for art supplies for Out & About’s After School Program this fall.

• $94 from employees at OcĂ© North America’s Denver office from their “Jeans Day,” where once per month employees may wear jeans to work if they donate $2.00 or more to a local non-profit. Imagine! was the designee last December. The company will also match one-half the donation in the coming weeks.

• Donations from James Davis & Jane Cameron and from Frances Evans in response to the Mary Williams Fine Arts Quick Draw event invitation.
• A donation from the Georgia Boys BBQ Inc. as part of the Tetra Tech fundraising event.
• A donation from Rob and Kitty DeKieffer in honor of Reinhardt and Joel Broszat’s 40th wedding anniversary.

• A donation from the IBM employee charitable contribution campaign.
In-kind donations included:

• Electronic equipment (servers, computers, monitors, etc.) valued at nearly $3,000 from Elevations Credit Union arranged last spring through former Foundation Board member Dennis Paul.

• Two courier trips from Denver Boulder Couriers.

•Clothing and toys for Dayspring families from Annie Arnette.

Monday, August 8, 2011

Happy 48th Anniversary, Imagine!

Imagine! was established August 6th, 1963, by a group of parents determined to see that their children with developmental disabilities had opportunities to participate in the community just like any other child.

Forty-eight years later, we continue to use that original goal as the basis for our mission. We believe in the potential of all. We believe that people with developmental disabilities have much to offer their communities, and that providing the tools and supports that allow the individuals we serve to become contributing citizens benefits us all.

Today, we say thanks to all who have been associated with Imagine! over the years – the clients, the families, the employees, the providers, and especially our generous supporters. What we do at Imagine! is a community endeavor, and we are fortunate to operate in such a welcoming community!

Want to see some examples of Imagine!’s positive impact on our local community? Then check out the variety of success stories on our website.

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Thank You Thursday

Here’s the roundup of donations to Imagine! and the Imagine! Foundation from the past week:

• A donation from the Pounds Family Foundation through The Community Foundation Serving Boulder County. Thanks so much to Imagine! Foundation Board Vice President Walt Pounds and his wife, Linda.

• $345 in cash from the Mary Williams Fine Arts Quick Draw event “Buy A Chance on an Antique Reproduction Poster.”

• A donation from Anahid Katchian and Walter Logue in support of Imagine! at the Mary Williams Fine Arts Quick Draw event. Anahid is the person who donated TWO Mediterranean dinners for the Imagine! Celebration this past January.

• Donations from Jayma Jamieson, Elizabeth Barker, Richard and Diane Vandermeer, and  Boulder Stained Glass Studios  in support of Imagine! at the Mary Williams Fine Arts Quick Draw event.

• A donation from CivilArts given to Leona Stoecker by Frank and Debra Drexel, who were unable to attend the Mary Williams Fine Arts Quick Draw event.

• A check from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Inc. representing four additional payments owed to the late Billy Montgomery (an Imagine! client who passed away in 2009 and was the brother of Foundation Board Secretary Jay Montgomery) for his role in “Rain Man” (whenever it airs, he receives a check). Jay recently designated that all future checks be sent directly to the Foundation. Thanks again, Jay!
Thanks as always to all of our generous donors!

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Congratulations, Leona!

Leona Stoecker, past president of the Imagine! Foundation Board of Directors and one of the most tireless ambassadors for Imagine! and the people we serve, was recently recognized as an icon of Boulder County by the Boulder County Business Report in a special publication called “Milestones: Icons and History of the Boulder Valley.”

You can see the story below (click on the story to make it bigger).

Congratulations, Leona. We absolutely agree that you are an icon of Boulder County, and the contributions you have made to your community are invaluable!