Lutheran Foundation Announces Committee For The Legacy Continues Campaign
The Lutheran Medical Center Foundation has announced members of The Legacy Continues Comprehensive Campaign Committee, according to Sarah Ellis, Lutheran Medical Center’s Manager of Communications. The campaign, approved by the Foundation’s board of directors last July, supports the new, replacement Lutheran Medical Center, now being built. The committee will oversee the campaign process including recruitment of donors and committing financial support to the campaign, among other responsibilities.
Leading the group are co-chairs Zachary Urban and Dr. Jennifer Caskey. Urban, who was a recent member of the Wheat Ridge City Council, has served on the Lutheran Foundation Board for six years. He currently serves as Director of the Office of Public Housing for Region 8 with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Dr. Caskey is a devoted supporter of Lutheran and the Foundation. She is a retired Lutheran oncologist and has been a member of the Foundation board since 2017.
Other members of the committee include:
• Dr. Betsy Brew, who is a surgeon, has served on the Lutheran Foundation for six years, including two years as chair.
• Dr. Steve Brown has served on the Foundation board for six years, and is the Chief Medical Officer at Lutheran.
• Dr. Doug Hunter, is a retired radiologist who joined the Lutheran Foundation Board of Directors in 2020.
• John O’Dorisio has been a Lutheran Foundation Board member since 2020. He is an attorney and co-managing shareholder and director with Robinson, Waters & O’Dorisio, P.C.
• Guy Nahmiach is a senior broker with KellerWilliams. He has served on numerous boards and commissions within Jefferson County, and recently acquired the Neighborhood Gazette.
• Diane Nyberg Ericsson recently retired from Xerox and has volunteered with the Foundation for three years. Diane and her sister established a Lutheran junior volunteer scholarship endowment, and have also funded the refurbishment of the gardens at Collier Hospice.
Maypole Dancing And More At Historical Society’s Second Saturday, May 14
The arrival of May means one thing to folks at the Wheat Ridge Historical Society: the annual May Festival, planned for Saturday, May 14, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Historical Park, 4610 Robb St.
This year the festival brings with it the grand opening of the first nearly completed, re-imagined building in a massive project started well over a year ago. The Century-long Story begins with the Johnson Cabin, now re-imagined as a settlers’ home in the 1860s. It will ask visitors to step back to a time when the only furnishings and utensils were those that were important enough to travel hundreds of miles in a single covered wagon or be constructed upon arrival.
The May celebration of spring will be complete with live music provided by Golden Strings featuring Henry the fiddler, Maypole dances (at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.), strolling Victorian ladies and gents, antique cars, food trucks and games galore, as well as crafts and conversation. Join us for a trip back in time to when life was a little simpler.
Please pardon our mess! The storage unit parked in the driveway to the north of the Red Brick House is merely a temporary inconvenience. We need a few hundred square feet of additional storage space until a new permanent storage shed is erected east of the implement shed sometime this summer.
The Historical Park museums are open on Fridays, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. We are happy to accommodate your needs and glad to make appointments for tours on other days; just call or email us at the contact information below. Although the Soddy is in the process of undergoing repairs to the interior walls, guests are welcome to walk through it to get an idea of how “sodbusters” of the plains lived after building their own homes out of huge sod bricks. The other museums in the park are also open for tours.
For more information visit wheatridgehistoricalsociety.org, email wrhistorical@gmail.com, call 303-421-9111, or stop by the Red Brick House on Fridays at 4610 Robb St. Be sure to follow us on Facebook.
Benchmark Theatre Stages ‘You Will Get Sick’ Through May 14
Benchmark Theatre Company is performing Noah Diaz’ “You Will Get Sick” through mid-May. The premiere workshop production is the fourth show in the local theater company’s 2021/2022 season, a return to live programming after a year and a half of dormancy due to COVID-19.
Directed by the group’s Resident Guest Director Christy Montour-Larson (a Wheat Ridge resident), it is about debilitating illness, learning to live in your own body as you find your way home, told in the second person (“What do you do if you get sick but don’t know how to tell your friends and family? Maybe you could hire a stranger and tell them everything instead.”) The cast features Peter Trinh, Edith Weiss, Sonsharae Tull, Brian Kusic and Josue Miranda.
Performances are Thursday through Saturday, 8 p.m. (except May 6), and Sundays, 2 p.m., through May 14, at The Bench at 40West, 1560 Teller St., Lakewood. Tickets are $25 ($18 Thursdays), and $22 seniors/military/students. Monday, May 9 Industry Night performance is $15.
Visit www.benchmarktheatre.com for more information.
What’s Up With The Old Drumstick Restaurant On Colfax?
40 West Arts District, in partnership with the Lakewood-West Colfax Business Improvement District, is set to open a recently purchased and newly renovated 11,000-square-foot building in the heart of the district, at 6501 W. Colfax Ave., in Lakewood.
The building, formerly the much-beloved Denver Drumstick but shuttered for decades, will serve as the new headquarters for 40 West Arts District, Lakewood’s only state-certified creative district, and will be the new home to galleries relocating there, including 40 West Gallery, Core New Art Space, EDGE Gallery, Kanon Collective, Lakewood Arts (Lakewood’s longest continuously operating arts organization), Next Gallery and Red Herring Art & Supply.
The Lakewood-West Colfax Business Improvement District (BID) partnered with First Bank, headquartered in Lakewood’s West Colfax corridor, on the loan to purchase the property.
As a 501(c)3 nonprofit, 40 West Arts was responsible for raising the funds needed for the building renovations, slated to be completed in April, with a soft opening scheduled for May’s First Friday (May 6) and an official grand opening to occur on the following First Friday (June 3) in conjunction with one of the district’s signature events, a Colfax Art Crawl.
Visitors to 40 West Arts and the new building should look for a slate of programming to kick off early this summer and continue throughout the year.
Learn more by visiting 40westarts.org or Facebook (@40westarts).
