Thank You Thursday!

This week’s roundup of donations to the Imagine! Foundation include:

Cash Donations This Week

Platinum ($10,000+)
Bob & Judy Charles and Family – for both of Imagine!’s SmartHomes

Silver ($2,500-$4,999)
Kimberly Koester Trust

Bronze ($1000-$2,499)
Imagine! Employee Payroll Deductions

As always, we thank all of our generous donors.

Thank You, Lynn and Helen Clark Fund!

Today, we’d like to say “thank you” to the Lynn and Helen Clark Fund for their recent grant of $1,000 for the Charles Family SmartHome in Longmont.

The Lynn and Helen Clark Fund is Fund is administered by Guaranty Bank in Longmont, and was created to benefit individuals living in the St. Vrain Valley School District.

The Lynn and Helen Clark Fund grant will support one of Imagine!’s most ambitious projects. Over the past five years, Imagine! has built, and is currently operating, two SmartHomes. Imagine!’s SmartHomes provide permanent affordable housing for individuals with physical and developmental disabilities, and they incorporate cutting edge technologies to improve the quality and efficiency of services and supports for the residents.

As the first such homes in the nation, Imagine!’s SmartHomes are serving as a model for the future of residential care for people with developmental disabilities. They enhance the lives and independence of residents, augment the effectiveness of staff as caregivers, and provide cost and energy savings to Imagine!.

In addition, the SmartHome model has enormous potential to impact groups of people with related concerns (dementia, autism, chronic mental illness, and Alzheimer’s), as the homes are serving as living laboratories to create and test “SmartSupports” – assistive technologies that can be used in family homes to keep individuals with any kind of cognitive impairment living in their own homes for as long as possible.

Residents of the Bob and Judy Charles SmartHome sign “thank you” using American Sign Language.

This is the third grant the Lynn and Helen Clark Fund has given to the Imagine! Foundation for a total of $4,000 in support of our SmartHomes over the years. We are so grateful for their continued generosity.

Awards Season

Imagine! continues to be recognized for excellence in many ways. Check out the latest:

Imagine!’s CORE/Labor Source department has been nominated for a Colorado Developmental Disabilities Council (CDDC) Dan B. Davidson “Excellence in Inclusion” Award! The award ceremony will take place July 25 in Denver.

The Awards honor Dan B. Davidson, who died in 1996 at the age of 41. Defying the odds, Davidson had followed his dream of living independently in the community. CDDC celebrates Dan's spirit and memory by recognizing individuals, agencies, and organizations that exemplify visionary practices regarding inclusion in the categories of education, employment, and community.

Congrats, CORE/Labor Source, on this well deserved honor, and good luck!

Also, Imagine!’s Bob and Judy Charles SmartHome in Boulder is a finalist in the Colorado Green Building Guild (CGBG) and the Boulder County Business Report (BCBR) Best of Boulder Valley Green Buildings awards. The SmartHome is a finalist in the Best Green Multi-Residential Building category.

What a great recognition of the efforts we put into making the home environmentally friendly and to meeting our commitment to our community!

Thanks CGBG and BCBR!

Read more about the Best of Boulder Valley Green Awards here.

Thank You Thursday!

This week’s roundup of generous donations to the Imagine! Foundation includes:

Cash Donations This Week

Platinum ($10,000+)
AEC Trust - $10,000 grant for Dayspring’s Community Calendar Activities Program

Gold ($5,000-$9,999)
Micro Motion/Emerson Electric Co -- $5000 Gold Sponsorship of 2012 Imagine! Celebration

Bronze ($1000-$2,499)
Lynn & Helen Clark Fund/Guaranty Bank and Trust Company – Grant for Charles Family SmartHome

Supporter ($250-$499)
Amgen Foundation - Matching Gift for Rick Burdick

Friend ($1-$249)
Tim Hilden & Natalie Smutzler

In-Kind Donations This Week

In-Kind Bronze ($1,000-$2,499)
Jennifer Caracciolo – Emergenetics Training for Imagine!’s Executive Team

In-Kind Supporter ($250-$499)
Cary & Debbie Graus – sofa

As always, we say thank you to all of our donors. 

Thank You, AEC Trust!

Today, we’d like to say “thank you” to the AEC Trust for its recent grant of $10,000 to Imagine! to be directed toward the Imagine! Dayspring Community Calendar Activities Program.

The AEC Trust is a private foundation established in 1980 as a philanthropic, grantmaking organization. It is governed by an Advisory Board that sets policy and is responsible for the review of grants.

Imagine!’s Dayspring Community Calendar Activities Program introduces local families to places in our community that offer great activities and opportunities for children to meet their goals through fun and play. All activities encourage motor, sensory, social-emotional, cognitive, and speech-language development.

Each location has activities that are age and developmentally appropriate. Activities are centered around play, because play is the primary vehicle for a child’s mental and physical growth. Play has a vital role in cognitive, speech-language, physical, emotional and social development.

Much of young children’s learning takes place when they direct their own play. Learning occurs as children touch, manipulate, experiment and talk about things, while interacting with people who facilitate without directing. During play, children are provided with sensory experiences and opportunities to move. Young children need to climb, run, jump and challenge themselves motorically. Children are natural explorers and instinctively touch, taste, hear and observe the world around them.

Thank you, AEC Trust, for your support of some of the youngest individuals served by Imagine!.

Thank You Thursday!

This week’s roundup of donors to the Imagine! Foundation includes:

Cash Donations This Week

 

Supporter ($250-$499)

Young Americans Center for Financial Education

Friend ($1-$249)

The GE Foundation -- Match for Alfred LeBlang contribution

Arthur & Maria Richmond

Morgan Stanley – Match for Bryan Pieper contribution

In-Kind Donations This Week

In-Kind Associate ($500-$999)

Rick & Jackie Nelson – piano and couch for Labor Source

As always, we offer a hearty “thank you” to all of our generous donors.

Join Imagine! at Millennium Harvest House FAC This Friday

On June 15, Imagine! will be the featured non-profit at the Millennium Harvest House Hotel Friday Afternoon Club (FAC). This Rockin’ The Gardens concert, featuring the band “Soul School,” will take place from 5:30 - 9:30 PM. This is the fourth year that the Millennium has invited Imagine! to participate in the FAC.

Artists/consumers from Imagine! will be on hand, and attendees of the FAC will have opportunities to learn about Imagine! and are welcome to draw and paint with Imagine! artists. This is a very family-friendly event and a great opportunity to observe the work of the artists, as well as to support the Millennium, a longtime donor to Imagine! and an employer of people with developmental disabilities. The Millennium is located at 1345 28th Street, behind the Safeway store on the southwest corner of Arapahoe and 28th Streets.

Hope to see you there!

Thank You, J.M. McDonald Foundation, Inc.

Today, we’d like to say “thank you” to the J.M. McDonald Foundation, Inc., for its recent grant of $5,000 to Imagine! in support of Imagine!’s Assistive Technology Lab.

Imagine!’s Assistive Technology Laboratory (AT Lab) is Imagine!’s new headquarters for helping individuals served by Imagine! to identify, obtain, and learn to use the specific assistive technology devices that will allow them to reach their full potential. Learn more about Imagine!’s AT Lab here.

The J.M. McDonald Foundation, Inc. was created in 1952 by Mr. J. M. McDonald. Over the past 60 years, Trustees of the Foundation have sought to uphold J. M.'s desire to improve education and social programs.

This is not the first time that the J.M. McDonald Foundation, Inc. has supported Imagine!’s goal of using a variety of technologies to improve the lives of individuals with intellectual disabilities. In past years, the Foundation has made generous grants to support both the Bob and Judy Charles SmartHome in Boulder and the Charles Family SmartHome in Longmont.

Thank you, J.M. McDonald Foundation, Inc. for your continued support of Imagine! and the people we serve!

Thank You Thursday!

This week’s roundup of generous donors to the Imagine! Foundation includes:

Cash Donations This Week

Silver ($2,500-$4,999)
Sandy & Sally Bracken

Supporter ($250-$499)
Bob & Beth Davis

Friend ($1-$249)
Joe Hansen

In-Kind Donations This Week

In-Kind Friend ($1-$249)
Denver Boulder Couriers -- One courier trip

As always, we thank all of the donors whose generosity has made such a positive difference in the lives of individuals with developmental disabilities living in Boulder and Broomfield counties.

Young AmeriTowne Citizens Support Imagine!

This past Monday Imagine! received a donation from a very generous and enterprising group of youngsters: 5th graders taking part in Young Americans Center for Financial Education’s Young AmeriTowne program.

What is Young AmeriTowne? A program that teaches school kids about our country’s economic system in a fun and relevant way. The program begins with several weeks of interactive lessons and activities taught by teachers in the classroom. Students learn important economic and business concepts such as supply and demand, budgeting, banking, government workings, and more. They elect a Mayor and Judge, vote on town laws, and apply and interview for jobs in town.

During the culminating event, students put into practice what they have learned when they attend Young AmeriTowne for the day and earn money running a life-like town of 17 businesses.

Part of the program involves teaching the kids about philanthropy, and that’s where the Imagine! donation comes in. At the beginning of the school year, participants in the program selected six organizations, including Imagine!, to receive funds from the program. Through the generosity of the Community First Foundation, hard earned AmeriTowne dollars donated by the fifth graders are converted to real donations, matching the children’s gifts at ten cents per dollar.

In the picture above, you can see Imagine!’s Director of Public Relations Fred Hobbs receiving a check in the amount of $368 from the AmeriTowne Mayor at Monday’s inspiring check presentation ceremony.

Our thanks to the Young Americans Center for Financial Education, the Community First Foundation, and most importantly, to the many kind and giving children who donated!

Thank You, Louis and Harold Price Foundation!

Today, we’d like to say “thank you” to the Louis and Harold Price Foundation for their recent grant of $5,000 to Imagine! to be used for Family Support Grants.

The Louis and Harold Price Foundation is a private charitable foundation dedicated to communities by supporting organizations in Southern California and Colorado as well as national organizations.

In addition to their support of Imagine!, here’s another thing that’s “cool” about the Price Foundation:

The Price Foundation was established in 1951 through the generosity of Mr. Louis Price and his son, Mr. Harold Price. Louis was a founding partner of the Joe Lowe Corporation, a bakery and ice cream supply business famous for the promotion of the Popsicle. Harold followed his father's footsteps by joining the Joe Lowe Corporation in 1928 upon graduation from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business where he obtained a B.S. degree in Economics. From his original position of purchasing agent at the Joe Lowe Corporation, Harold rose through the ranks to the position of Executive Vice President. As Executive Vice President, Harold was responsible for the successful merger in 1965 of the Joe Lowe Corporation with Consolidated Foods Corporation, now known as Sara Lee Corporation.

Through shareholdings in Sara Lee Corporation, Louis and Harold generously funded their foundation and guided its existence for many years as respective Presidents. Since its inception, The Louis and Harold Price Foundation has distributed millions of dollars to U.S. based charities in the areas of community welfare, health, and education, as well as support of programs in Israel.

Imagine! Family Support Grants help pay for the extraordinary costs of caring for a family member who has a developmental disability. Funds may be used to help pay for respite care, professional services, medical and dental senses, transportation, assistive technology, home modifications, and parent and sibling support.

Anyone who has a family member with a developmental disability knows how difficult it can be to pay for some of these expenses, and these grants can make a huge difference.

As one family told us:

“This grant will help ease the financial stress and burden that comes with having a special needs child. It helps offset costs that insurance does not cover. Each year it seems that insurance covers less to help our child function in the world. We have dealt with that by cutting down on therapies, respite, and recreation activities. This grant helps us keep some of those things in place.”

Thank you, Louis and Harold Price Foundation, for your support of families in Boulder and Broomfield counties!