Thank You, Safeway Foundation!

Today, we’d like to send a great big “thank you” to the Safeway Foundation for a donation of $10,000 to the Imagine! Foundation to help support services for individuals with one or more developmental disabilities.

Safeway hosted a check presentation yesterday at the their store located at 28th and Iris in Boulder. The presentation ceremony was attended by members of Imagine!’s Board of Directors, members of the Imagine! Foundation Board of Directors, Safeway employees, and, perhaps most importantly, Joe Hansen.

Joe receives services from Imagine!, is on the Imagine! Board of Directors, and is a longtime Safeway employee (he’s worked there since 2001). In 2010, Joe and his mother wrote letters of support to the Safeway Foundation for a grant to Imagine!. Since that time, the Safeway Foundation has given three donations of $10,000 each to the Imagine! Foundation! Wow!

We are so very grateful for Safeway’s continued support of our community. Please enjoy the photos below from yesterday’s check presentation ceremony.

Thank You Thursday

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

In-Kind Gifts

In-Kind Friend ($1-$249)
Athena West – Ride-on-Toy

As always, we thank all of our generous donors.

Thank You, Herbert Parker Trust

Today, we’d like to say “thank you” to the Herbert Parker Trust for its recent grant of $3,000 to support Imagine!’s Dayspring Community Calendar Activities Program.

The Herbert Parker Trust provides funding for many programs, including program dedicated to the care and education of children with intellectual disabilities. The Trust is administered by Wells Fargo.

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.

This is the fourth time the Herbert Parker Trust has provided a grant to Imagine! for the Community Calendar Activities Program, providing a total of $7,000 to support this vital program.

Thank you, Herbert Parker Trust, for your continued and generous support!

Thank You Thursday!

Thank You Thursday!

Welcome to this week’s roundup of donors to the Imagine! Foundation.

Cash Donations

Friend ($1-$249)

Dan & Sandra Stevens

In Memory of Isabelle Conner from Reed Wahlberg

In-Kind Gifts

In-Kind Friend ($1-$249)

Indulge Bakery – 50% off of cake for retirement of Marianne Nick (34-year Imagine! employee!)

As always, thank you to all of Imagine!’s generous donors.

Imagine! Employees “Transcend $10,000”

Congratulations and many thanks to Imagine! employees for raising $10,492 to help support Imagine! consumers and for reaching the “Transcend $10,000” goal!

“Transcend $10,000" is Imagine!’s Employee Donation program. This year’s total is 75% more than what employees contributed last fiscal year. Wow! The gifts include payroll deductions, donations through Colorado Gives Day and the Imagine! Celebration, and individual checks and credit card payments.

The Imagine! Foundation’s overall goal for FY13 is a 10% increase in revenue, so, applying that to employee donations, we are setting a new goal of $11,500. Considering the generosity and dedication of our employees, we think we will reach that goal.

Thanks to all of the Imagine! employees who participated.

Thank You Thursday!

Thank You Thursday!

Welcome to this week’s roundup of donors to the Imagine! Foundation.

Cash Donations This Week 

Gold ($5,000-$9,999)
Longs Peak Arches, Inc. (McDonald’s Longmont) – for Charles Family SmartHome

Silver ($2,500-$4,999)

Herbert Parker Trust/Wells Fargo – grant of $3000 for Dayspring’s Community Calendar Activities program

Friend ($1-$249)

In Honor of the Bar Mitzvah of Mike Gehr
  from David & Rachel Gehr
  from Keith & Judith Josephson

Mark Zentner

As always, thank you to all of Imagine!’s generous donors.

Dayspring’s Messy Play Day A Hit!

Imagine!’s Dayspring department hosts Community Calendar Activities throughout the year designed to introduce families of children with developmental delays and disabilities to places in our community that offer great activities and opportunities for children to meet their goals through fun and play. All Community Calendar activities encourage motor, sensory, social-emotional, and cognitive and speech-language development.

On June 27th, Dayspring held its annual Messy Play Day at the playground behind Imagine!’s Dixon St. office. It’s one of the most fun Community Calendar Activities, and definitely the most messy! This year, there was painting on a large vinyl sheet, sand, bubbles, water to play in and to “paint” cement with, Jell-O to squish hands in, oobleck (cornstarch & water mixture), and a swimming pool with 20 cans of shaving cream sprayed into it that kids could either just touch or climb into.

Some kids were covered in shaving cream, others were more tentative about the variety of textures and sensations – but everyone seemed to have a good time. In all, 25 children who receive services from Imagine!’s Dayspring department along with 13 of their siblings and their families attended.  

Words can’t truly describe this event. Thanks to the Dayspring crew for creating such a fun and valuable learning experience.

Thank You Thursday!

Welcome to this week’s roundup of donors to the Imagine! Foundation.

This week’s roundup includes the end of the year totals of Imagine! employee gifts through the Payroll Deduction portion of Imagine!’s Employee Donation Program “Transcend $10,000.” A special thanks is needed for all of the Imagine! employees who gave through this program, going above and beyond to demonstrate their commitment to Imagine! and the people we serve.  
Cash Donations This Week

Bronze ($1000-$2,499)
Holland/Ladd Family Foundation

Associate ($500-$999)
Susan LaHoda
John Mehaffy
Mia Sanchez-O’Dell
Jodi Walters
Chuck Wellman

Supporter ($250-$499)
Mark Emery
Erin Fleming
Martha Heimbaugh
Eva Klemens
Caroline Siegfried
Greg Wellems
Sterling Wind

Friend ($1-$249)
Alex Andrews
Rick Brown
Helen Calvo
Carol Chesser
Sandra Crowell
James Faulstich
Lisa Fiero
Susan Gabriel
Trent Gustafson
Fred Hobbs
Kimberly Kane
Maureen Kelly
Bill & Laura Koch
Patrick Krause
Colette Marie
Kevin Nelson
Rebecca Novinger
Elizabeth Reed
Heather Sabo
Gail Scott
Liz Smokowski
Chantelle Tweten
Phyllis Villar

As always, thank you to all of Imagine!’s generous donors.

Thank You, Qualcomm Foundation and QCares Experience

Today we’d like to send a big “thank you” to the Qualcomm Foundation for a recent grant, and more importantly, for supporting Qualcomm employee volunteers who donated their time to Imagine! as part of the QCares Experience.

According to the Qualcomm website:

“Qualcomm's corporate volunteerism program encourages employee involvement in the community, and is our way of connecting our diverse employee base to local volunteer opportunities.

QCares creates many opportunities for its employees, friends and families to participate in charitable events. Serving a wide range of needs, our employees are helping people with disabilities, improving the environment, feeding and clothing the homeless, and caring for animals. QCares organizes volunteer team building projects as special opportunities for internal departments to foster teamwork and celebrate accomplishments, while simultaneously contributing to the improvement of our communities.”

The nine Qualcomm volunteers who visited Imagine!’s CORE/Labor Source Boulder headquarters on May 17 certainly contributed to the improvement of our community. The volunteers helped clean some of Imagine!’s vehicles and did some general maintenance around the CORE/Labor Source building. More importantly, they interacted with participants in various CORE programs, meeting their obligation to community in a very tangible way.

By all reports, the volunteers were a gregarious and fun loving bunch, and their enthusiasm was infectious. We sure appreciated having them around. To make things even better, we recently received a letter from the Qualcomm Foundation informing us that they would be providing us a generous grant of $550 “in honor of our participation in the QCares Experience.” We really appreciate their additional support, especially because we already benefitted so much from the volunteers.

From all of us at Imagine!, thank you Qualcomm to your demonstrated commitment to being a good community partner.

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!