Ways To Support Imagine! In October

The month of October will feature several opportunities for our community members to support Imagine! and the individuals who accept services from us.

Artists from Imagine! CORE/Labor Source art classes will be exhibiting their artwork for sale at the 8th Annual Handmade in Colorado Expo in Boulder this weekend, October 1 and 2. This event takes place in Boulder’s Central Park, 1236 Canyon Blvd, across from the Dushanbe Tea House, from 9AM to 6PM on Saturday and 11AM to 6PM on Sunday.

Please join us in supporting some talented and creative folks!

In addition to offering booth space for Imagine! artists, the good folks at Handmade in Colorado are also donating 10% of exhibitor fees to Imagine!. We are so grateful for their continued support of Imagine! and our community.

On Saturday, October 15, you are invited to join some generous ghosts and ghouls for a spooky way to help Imagine!.

RSVP and get more information here. 

Many thanks to our good friends at First Summit Realty for supporting our mission through this fun event.

On October 22, you are invited to visit Alex and Ani Boulder for a “Charmed By Charity Soiree.” Come sip refreshments, snack on small bites, and shop with others who share your passion for giving back. 15% of all proceeds will be donated to support Imagine!. The event will be held Saturday, October 22, 10AM – 12PM, at Alex and Ani Boulder, 1505 Pearl St. To RSVP contact Imagine! Foundation Executive Director Patti Micklin at pmicklin@imaginecolorado.org.

And one last reminder - today is the final day of the BCinteriors Inventory Clearance Sale. The fine folks there will be donating a percentage of sales from this special event to Imagine!. So if you are looking to spruce up your workspace or home office, now is the time to do so! There will be a raffle for CU Football tickets and free hot dogs from 11-2.

We are so appreciative of BCinteriors for this support. Check out the video for more details, and please thank the staff there for their support of their community and all of its members!



Here’s a few pictures from the first day of sale at BCinteriors.

Thank You Thursday

Recent generous donors to the Imagine! Foundation include:

Silver ($2,500-$4,999)
PDC Pharmacy - Imagine! Celebration Silver Sponsor

Bronze ($1,000-$2,499)
Chase Bank - Imagine! Celebration Table Sponsor

Friend ($1-$249)
IBM
Bonnie and Shelly Sebel

As always, we thank all of our generous donors.

Wish List Wednesday

Welcome to the latest edition of The Wish List. Included below are items that would augment and enhance Imagine! programs and services for the individuals we serve and would be much appreciated. If you are able to provide an item, please contact Patti Micklin at pmicklin@imaginecolorado.org or 303-926-6443. Pick-up for large items can be provided, and your contribution is tax deductible. If you prefer to provide a cash gift to be used for the purchase of one of the items below, that would also be most welcome. Please check out this blog every Wednesday to see new Wish List Items.

This week's Wish List:

Personal Items for Those We Serve (Adults) in Our Residential Homes 

• Books – any kind, but especially books about animals and romance novels 
• Jigsaw puzzles of all levels of difficulty 
• Board games: Trouble, Candy Land, Chutes and Ladders, Connect 4, Hi Ho Cherry O, Go Fish, Operation, Guess Who, Quirkie, matching games 
• Sports gear – especially New York Yankees 
• Sports posters 
• Latch hook kits 
• Music CDs – especially country 
• Make-up/cosmetics (perfume, light beige foundation, eye shadow, mascara, lipstick) 
• iPads; heavy duty iPad covers 
• Rockies tickets for groups 
• Arts and craft supplies OR gift certificates to Michaels’ or Hobby Lobby 
• Computer games 
• Essential Tremor adaptive utensils, clothing, computer aids, writing devices, etc. for individuals with hand tremors (http://essentialtremor.org/treatments/assistive-devices/) 
• Games/activities made especially for those with Alzheimer’s/dementia Recreation center passes or punch cards Gift Cards to educational stores: www.beyondtheblackboard.com; www.lakeshorelearning.com; www.reallygoodstuff.com; www.educatorsoutlet.com; www.banksschoolsupply.com 
• DVD player 
• Stationary bike 

Imagine!’s Innovations department offers customized residential and community access options to people of all ages with physical, developmental, and cognitive disabilities. Innovations strives to ensure that the lives of the people they serve reflect the diversity of lifestyle choices that are available to all citizens.

Check out the entire Wish List here. 

Imagine! Artists Exhibiting At Handmade In Colorado Expo

Artists from Imagine! CORE/Labor Source art classes will be exhibiting their artwork for sale at the 8th Annual Handmade in Colorado Expo in Boulder this weekend, October 1 and 2. This event takes place in Boulder’s Central Park, 1236 Canyon Blvd, across from the Dushanbe Tea House, from 9AM to 6PM on Saturday and 11AM to 6PM on Sunday.

Please join us in supporting some talented and creative folks!

In addition to offering booth space for Imagine! artists, the good folks at Handmade in Colorado are also donating 10% of exhibitor fees to Imagine!. We are so grateful for their continued support of Imagine! and our community.

A Spooky Way To Support Imagine!

On Saturday, October 15, you are invited to join some generous ghosts and ghouls for a spooky way to help Imagine!.

RSVP and get more information here. 

Many thanks to our good friends at First Summit Realty for supporting our mission through this fun event.

Thank You, UPS Foundation

Imagine! recently received a $5,500 grant from the UPS Foundation, which drives global corporate citizenship and philanthropic programs for UPS.

The grant will be used to retrofit the ramp on a wheelchair accessible van used by Imagine!’s Out & About department. This van is used daily to transport individuals served by Imagine! to activities in the community, helping us to meet our mission of creating a world of opportunity for all abilities. The retrofit will make the ramp easier for employees to use and more comfortable for disembarking passengers.

Established in 1951 and based in Atlanta, GA., The UPS Foundation identifies specific areas where its backing clearly impacts social issues. In support of this strategic approach, The UPS Foundation has identified the following focus areas for giving: volunteerism, diversity, community safety, and the environment.

In 2015, UPS and its employees, active and retired, invested more than $110 million in charitable giving around the world. Closer to home, UPS employees have become regular volunteers at Imagine! activities.

“The UPS Foundation is honored to support the Imagine! Foundation’s efforts to support individuals with intellectual disabilities,” said Eduardo Martinez, president of the UPS Foundation and chief diversity and inclusion officer at UPS. “Our goal is to fund powerful programs that make a lasting difference to the global community.”

Thank you, UPS. We greatly appreciate your continued support.

Thank You Thursday

Recent generous donors to the Imagine! Foundation include:

Gold ($5,000-$9,000)
Leslie and Sandy Brown
UPS Foundation - grant to retrofit a wheelchair-accessible vehicle - for Out & About

Supporter ($250-$499)
Proceeds from Innovations Advisory Council Hot Dog Fundraiser – for Innovations Fall Formal

Friend ($1-$249)
Lu Walters and Ken Arnold
Ken Hackbarth
IBM
In Honor of Hannah Bozzay 
  Deb and Doug Sandersen

As always, we thank all of our generous donors.

Wish List Wednesday

Welcome to the latest edition of The Wish List. Included below are items that would augment and enhance Imagine! programs and services for the individuals we serve and would be much appreciated. If you are able to provide an item, please contact Patti Micklin at pmicklin@imaginecolorado.org or 303-926-6443. Pick-up for large items can be provided, and your contribution is tax deductible. If you prefer to provide a cash gift to be used for the purchase of one of the items below, that would also be most welcome. Please check out this blog every Wednesday to see new Wish List Items.

This week's Wish List:

Items under $50 

For Imagine!'s Innovations program

• Books – any kind, but especially books about animals and romance novels 
• Jigsaw puzzles of all levels of difficulty 
• Board games: Trouble, Candy Land, Chutes and Ladders, Connect 4, Hi Ho Cherry O, Go Fish, Operation, Guess Who, Quirkie, matching games 
• Sports posters 
• Latch hook kits 
• Music CDs – especially country 
• Make-up/cosmetics (perfume, light beige foundation, eye shadow, mascara, lipstick) 
• Toys and birthday presents for children in foster care 
• Garden supplies and plants 
• Dart board 
• Puzzle glue 

For Imagine!’s Out & About Program 

• Camping lantern 

For Imagine!'s Dayspring program

• Nuk Brushes 
• Pop Toobs 
• Therapressure Brushes 
• Mr. Juice Bears 
• Chunky Bare Books 
• Pop Up Tunnels 
• Knobby Balls 
• Kickballs 
• Bubble Oodles 
• Blow Up Pools 

Check out the entire Wish List here. 

Thank You, Atonement Lutheran Church

This past Sunday, members from Boulder's Atonement Lutheran Church volunteered their time cleaning Imagine! vehicles. We are so appreciative of their support!

Special thanks to one of our volunteers, Andreas Beuschel, for taking and sharing the awesome photos below.

Whimsy Farm's Farm To Table Dinner Supports Imagine!

On Saturday evening, a group of Imagine! supporters gathered at Boulder’s Whimsy Farm for a Farm to Table Dinner event. The evening featured a meal of hand-selected seasonal ingredients from local farms and purveyors, enjoyed in a beautiful outdoor setting, and was capped off by a spectacular night launch of sky lanterns.

The attendees purchased the opportunity to attend the dinner at the 2016 Imagine! Celebration – and if you’d like to have the chance to do the same next year, please save the date of Friday, January 27, 2017, for the 16th Annual Imagine! Celebration.

In the meantime, enjoy the pictures from the event below. Special thanks to Imagine! Foundation https://imaginecolorado.org/imagine-foundation Board of Directors member Sandy Brown for funding, arranging, and hosting this fabulous affair.

Thank You, Samples World Bistro

 

Today, we’d like to offer our sincere gratitude to Samples World Bistro. On Tuesday night, they donated 30% of their dinner sales to support Imagine!’s mission of creating a world of opportunity for all abilities. The event was a huge success, bringing in $400!

Samples World Bistro supports individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities in many ways, and we are honored and grateful that they included us in their efforts. Thank you, Samples World Bistro!

Enjoy some pictures from Tuesday night below.

Thank You Thursday

Today’s “Thank You Thursday” is both an offering of gratitude and a celebration.

At Tuesday’s meeting of the Imagine! Foundation’s Board of Directors, the assembled Board celebrated the fact that the mortgage for Imagine!’s Bob and Judy Charles SmartHome had been paid in full!

 

Imagine! began planning for this home in the early 2000s. The strategy was to create a home that demonstrated how a variety of technologies could be used to increase self-reliance among individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD), and to act as a living laboratory for testing and refining new technologies and to promote the use of those technologies for service for people with I/DD across Imagine!, our state, our nation, and even internationally.

This was the first such home in the nation, and the Imagine! Foundation Board of Directors committed itself to ensuring that the home was paid for entirely through donations and grants. An ambitious fundraising campaign was launched in 2005, and now, a little more than a decade later, that promise from the Board to fully support the project has come to fruition, and the home is completely paid off.

The promise of the SmartHome is being realized as well. Early studies demonstrated that the use of technology at the Bob and Judy Charles SmartHome resulted in a large increase in residents’ perception of their control over their own lives and positive increases among residents including: feeling safer in their new home, feeling respected by others around them, number of personal relationships, and access to resources the residents felt they needed. 

Can’t see the video? Click here.

Though the home was proven to be a successful first step in bringing technology to the forefront of services for people with I/DD, it was only the first step in Imagine!'s strategy. In addition to building a second SmartHome in Longmont, the Charles Family SmartHome, Imagine! has also continually moved forward with the second phase of the project – acting as “tech evangelists” for our field. Thousands of individuals have toured both of Imagine!’s SmartHomes to see first-hand how technology is changing the lives of people with a variety of disabilities. Imagine! staff members have presented on the SmartHomes and technology use across the country. We are constantly embracing new opportunities to demonstrate technology use and the possibilities it has for creating a world of opportunity for all abilities.

None of this would have been possible without the generous support and commitment of the many individual donors, corporate donors, grant organizations, and government entities that provided the funding for the creation of our first SmartHome.

We thank you all for your demonstrated belief in the potential of all. 

Wish List Wednesday

Welcome to the latest edition of The Wish List. Included below are items that would augment and enhance Imagine! programs and services for the individuals we serve and would be much appreciated. If you are able to provide an item, please contact Patti Micklin at pmicklin@imaginecolorado.org or 303-926-6443. Pick-up for large items can be provided, and your contribution is tax deductible. If you prefer to provide a cash gift to be used for the purchase of one of the items below, that would also be most welcome. Please check out this blog every Wednesday to see new Wish List Items.

This week's Wish List:

Furniture and Housing Needs for Imagine! Residential Homes

Bob and Judy Charles SmartHome in Boulder

• New barrier free lifts for moving individuals from wheelchair to bed or bath (being safer for clients and for staff) 

Charles Family SmartHome in Longmont

• Dining table and chairs for 8 

Garden Place Group Home in Longmont

• New area rug 4 x 3 
• Small book shelves 
• Several cushioned chairs for the “Book Nook” 
• Set of four kitchen chairs 
• New oven 
• New carpet for two bedrooms 
• New set of silverware and a new dish set 

Manhattan Group Home in Boulder

• Non-fabric couch (6’), loveseat (5’), and chairs
• Basketball goal 
• Picnic table 
• Two small raised garden beds (3 ft tall, 4 ft long, and 3 ft wide) for vegetable gardening 

Santa Fe Group Home in Broomfield

• Winter holiday decorations: a very large tree, a star or angel to put on top, many lights, boughs of holly, ornaments, statue types of decorations that can be placed on tables or mantles (no candles or candle holders), a wreath 
• Dart board 
• Puzzle glue 
• Bread machine 
• Clip on umbrellas for wheelchairs 
• Canisters for storing 
• Placemats 
• Electric carving knife 
• Standing Mixer 
• Waffle Iron 

All

• American Furniture Warehouse gift certificates for upgrades to furniture in several homes 

Imagine!’s Innovations department offers customized residential and community access options to people of all ages with physical, developmental, and cognitive disabilities. Innovations strives to ensure that the lives of the people they serve reflect the diversity of lifestyle choices that are available to all citizens.

Check out the entire Wish List here. 

Tonight! Dine At Samples World Bistro And Support Imagine!

Tonight, from 6-10 PM, Samples World Bistro, 370 Main Street in Longmont, will donate 30% of their dinner sales to Imagine!.

Samples World Bistro was founded through a love of great food and awesome beer, and on the belief that exciting employment options should exist for everyone. They provide employment opportunities for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

So please join us tonight for some great food and to support our mission of creating a world of opportunity for all abilities. Be sure to tell your server you are there to support Imagine!.

BCinteriors Inventory Clearance Sale Supports Imagine!

The good folks at BCinteriors will be donating a percentage of sales from their Inventory Clearance Sale (Sept. 23-30) to Imagine!. We are so appreciative of their support. Check out the video for more details, and please thank the staff there for their support of their community and all of its members!

Thank You Thursday

Recent generous donors to the Imagine! Foundation include:

Associate - $500-$999
Jane Brennan

Friend - $1-$249
Amy Callahan
Thelma Whitaker

As always, we thank all of our generous donors.

Wish List Wednesday

Welcome to the latest edition of The Wish List. Included below are items that would augment and enhance Imagine! programs and services for the individuals we serve and would be much appreciated. If you are able to provide an item, please contact Patti Micklin at pmicklin@imaginecolorado.org or 303-926-6443. Pick-up for large items can be provided, and your contribution is tax deductible. If you prefer to provide a cash gift to be used for the purchase of one of the items below, that would also be most welcome. Please check out this blog every Wednesday to see new Wish List Items.

This week's Wish List:

Personal items for Those We Serve (Children) in Foster Care Services

• Backpacks, toys, and birthday presents for children in foster care 
• Welcome bags for children entering a new foster care placement (blankets, PJs, stuffed animals, etc.) 
• iPads; heavy duty iPad covers  

Imagine!'s Innovations for Children program is a specialized Child Placement Agency composed of community-based therapeutic foster homes service foster children with developmental disabilities and high needs. 

Check out the entire Wish List here. 

Thank You Thursday

Recent generous donors to the Imagine! Foundation include:

Supporter - $250-$499
The Kitchen Next Door

Friend - $1-$249
Renate Alpert

In-Kind Silver - $2,500-$4,999
Luann Billings - wheelchair

In-Kind Friend - $1-$249
Chris Iiams - iPad
JLounge - manicures for Imagine! clients in Innovations
Illegal Pete's - Out & About
Safeway - Out & About
Vitamin Cottage - Out & About
Sprouts - Out & About
Old Chicago - Out & About

As always, we thank all of our generous donors.