Flatirons Habitat for Humanity Bowling Event Aims to Strike Out Poverty Housing

Flatirons Habitat for Humanity will hold its first Bowl-n-Build Event on Sunday, January 16, 2011, to excite and motivate the Broomfield and East Boulder County communities about its local projects for the new year.

The event is from 3 to 5:30 pm at Chippers Lane in Broomfield. All team registrations are sold out but guest tickets (for non-bowlers) are available at $5 per person and can be purchased at the door.

A ticket price includes delicious food from Carrabba’s Italian Grill plus a chance to win fun prizes. The event is sponsored by Carrabba’s Italian Grill and the Millstone Evans Group of Raymond James & Associates. “We are proud to team up with Carrabba’s and Flatirons Habitat for Humanity to help strike out poverty housing. Everyone involved with Habitat works very hard during the week and it will be fun to take a day off to raise money and bowl for a great cause,” Greg Evans, Millstone Evans Group of Raymond James and Associates.

Proceeds from the event will go towards helping Flatirons Habitat continue to build decent affordable homes for low-income families in need of housing and stability. Flatirons Habitat returns to Broomfield after four years and returns to Lafayette after fifteen years with two new housing projects. Thanks to a partnership with the City and County of Broomfield, Flatirons Habitat is rehabilitating two previously foreclosed homes in Broomfield. In addition, construction will start in March on the first four homes of an eight home project in Lafayette’s Coal Creek Village. Volunteers are needed for both projects and can sign up to volunteer on the Flatirons Habitat website (www.flatironshabitat.org) by hitting Volunteer Now.


The community has come forth with support for this new event. In addition to the event sponsors Carrabba’s Italian Grill and the Millstone Evans Group of Raymond James & Associates, many other businesses and groups have come forward as lane sponsors, gift donors and/or in registering a team. Just some of the event partners are Citywide Bank; Donaldson, Chiancio and Goodwin; Composite Technology Development; FISH of Broomfield; Flatirons Crossing Mall; Hunter Douglas; Prime Industry; Restoration Specialists and Sill-Terhar Motors.

About Flatirons Habitat for Humanity:
Flatirons Habitat for Humanity is the local affiliate of Habitat for Humanity International. Its goal is to transform lives and communities by building simple, energy-efficient, affordable homes for low-income families living in Boulder Valley and Broomfield communities. The affiliate, founded in 1993, has built 57 homes in Boulder, Broomfield, Lafayette, Louisville, Nederland, and Superior, directly impacting 248 individuals. It has also funded 102 homes internationally, in South Africa, Mexico and Guatemala, through its tithe to Habitat for Humanity International.

Habitat believes in a “hand up, not a hand out” philosophy. Habitat homeowners invest 225 hours per adult family member of their own labor — called sweat equity — into building their Habitat home and the homes of others. Habitat houses are sold to partner families at zero profit with a zero percent interest mortgage. The families also receive training in homeownership, financial planning, and home maintenance. In addition, the “Getting Ahead” program offered by the Flatirons affiliate helps break the cycle of poverty by working with families to develop a plan for sustainable change. Graduates are then surrounded by community volunteer mentors trained by Habitat.

Habitat has built more than 350,000 houses around the world, providing more than 1.7 million people in more than 3,000 communities with safe, decent, affordable shelter. The most recent City of Boulder housing needs assessment indicates 10,734 families have unmet housing needs in Boulder. These families are often paying more than 50% of their income on housing expenses, living in overcrowded conditions or living in substandard housing.

Photo by Mike Neville

"Imitation of Wife" ENCORE performance for the Boulder County AIDS Project

“Gender Illusion Technician” brings her “one-woman” show back, by popular demand, on January 21 & 22, 2011 to benefit the Boulder County AIDS Project.

Gender Illusion Technician, Jeffrey A. Kash (aka “Ms. Eda Bagel”) returns to the Dairy Center for the Arts for two performances of “Imitation of Wife.” Kash splices together film dialogue, show tunes and comedy routines – drawing heavily from sources from the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s – to tell the story of Eda Bagel, a repressed housewife with no domestic skills. Kash’s lip-synching is spot-on, with facial expressions used to great comic effect.

The encore performance (which sold out in November, 2010) will benefit the Boulder County AIDS Project (BCAP), helping to fund the agency’s crucial services related to HIV/AIDS relief, educational & advocacy efforts.

WHEN: Friday, January 21 and Saturday, January 22. Show begins at 7:30 pm.

WHERE: Dairy Center for the Arts, 2590 Walnut Street, Boulder, CO

TICKETS: $20 (+ service fees) with proceeds to benefit Boulder County AIDS Project, available at the Dairy Box Office, or by calling (303) 444-7328. Ages 18+.

Enjoy this video preview!

Psychosis: The Musical

By Rebecca Jessup

NEXT TO NORMAL

A rock musical, winner of Pulitzer and Tony awards, with book and lyrics by Brian Yorkey and music by Tom Kitt, starring Alice Ripley, Asa Somer, Curt Handsen, Emma Hunton and Preston Sadleir; directed by Michael Greif. Through Jan. 16 at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, 950 13th St., Denver, CO 80204 Performances: Tues-Sat 8pm, Sat 2pm, Sun 1pm & 6:30pm Run time: 2 hours 20 minutes, with one intermission

“Next to Normal” is a musical that takes on challenging and difficult subjects, including the kind of family trauma and toxicity that can trigger mental illness, and the destruction that mental illness can trigger within a family, as well as the toxins that our society uses to treat mental illness. If there is a central theme here, it might be illness, or poison. These are not topics that fit easily into the format of a musical, and the cast and crew expend enormous energy in trying to make it work. The score varies from songs of humor, hope and wit to dark, rattling and discordant hard-rock numbers. The rock songs often contain a dissonance that underscores the dark and deep emotions at play in the plot. It takes courage and strength to tackle this material on stage, in this format; the effort is laudable, but not always entirely successful.

So much of the play is sung that it borders on being a rock opera, and the cast is so small that each character carries a great deal of the weight of the entire show. Every role is a challenge, and every actor brings considerable strengths. The central character, Diana Goodman, is portrayed by Alice Ripley, who won the 2009 Tony for Best Actress for her performance of this role on Broadway. She brings great emotional vigor to the role, as well physical grace, agility and strength. Diana’s loyal and long-suffering husband is played by Asa Somers, her daughter Natalie by Emma Hunton, Natalie’s boyfriend by Preston Sadleir, Diana’s psychiatrist and psychopharmacologist by Jeremy Kushnier, and her somewhat mysterious son by Curt Hansen, who moves with the speed and menace of a panther. Ripley’s singing can be problematic; she slides onto notes with an odd vibrato, and slips into distracting pronunciations that make lyrics more difficult to understand (e.g., the words “in my soul” sound like “in my sewel”).

The high-tech single set is intelligently designed, often representing the traditional floor plan of the family house, upstairs and down, but shifting to signify a doctor’s office, a mental hospital, or even the distance between the mentally ill character and her delusions.

The six musicians are on stage facing the audience, rather than in the pit, and the volume of their electrified instruments is often enough to drown out the actors’ voices. The program warns that “strobe lights are used in this production,” and the final musical number, “Let There Be Light,” is punctuated none too subtly by a mercifully brief use of the blinding lights. Since the central material of the plot is dark and uncertain of resolution, this upbeat last song feels illogical, even manipulative. “Next to Normal” has the courage to present deeply unsettling thematic material – but heaven forbid that anyone should leave the theater on a down note!

Rebecca Jessup, a Latin teacher and freelance writer, contributes regularly to GetBoulder.com and Boulder Magazine.

School Food Project announces community-wide fundraising challenge to help BVSD schools

The School Food Project, a public-private partnership dedicated to healthier school meals throughout Boulder Valley School District, announced this week a community-wide fundraising challenge to continue the positive momentum the three-year long program has initiated to improve school food in every BVSD school. The campaign’s goal is to raise $250,000 by May 15, 2011. A $100,000 fundraising match is already committed by the local nonprofit, Luff Family Foundation. The fundraising efforts, entitled “Healthy Bodies = Healthy Minds” campaign, will be housed online at a special crowd-sourcing site found by visiting www.bvsd.giveo.com.

Funds will support two projects that were already implemented in the current school year: completing the funding of the five new regional kitchens which make and distribute cooked-from-scratch meals and new green practices which replaced disposable serving items to 100 percent reusable plates, utensils, and trays in the cafeterias of all elementary schools plus one middle and one high school. To date, 50 percent of the funds necessary for these major improvements have been raised from community donations.

“We’ve made really good progress in our first 18 months of change,” said Chef Ann Cooper, BVSD director of nutrition services. “But we still have a lot of work to do to fulfill our goal of healthy, delicious food creating healthier bodies and minds for all BVSD school kids.”

Cooper, whose nonprofit, Food, Family, Farming (F3) foundation, just partnered with First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools” Coalition, has a vision for healthy school food across the nation. She believes Boulder Valley is a major case study for other school districts to follow in their own transition from highly-processed and unhealthy food to wholesome, more appetizing made-from-scratch food.

“Boulder is a bellwether community for the nation on so many levels – especially healthy lifestyle. We need to continue to invest in improvements so we can fulfill our three-year plan for healthier school food throughout BVSD,” said Cooper.

Parents might consider giving the value of a week’s worth of school lunches to the School Food Project at $15, a month’s worth of lunches at $60 or a year’s worth of lunches at $500.

“Every donation helps us meet our goal, and allows for continued improvement,” said Robin Luff, chair for the School Food Project and a long time community activist for educational initiatives.

To date BVSD transitioned every meal from highly-processed heat and serve to made-from-scratch recipes using fresh ingredients from local sources when possible. Every school in BVSD has a healthy salad bar and all cafeterias now serve organic, rBGH-free milk in bulk. Unhealthy ingredients such as, trans-fats and other hydrogenated oils, high fructose corn syrup, artificial preservatives and coloring agents, and pre-fried, processed foods, have been eliminated from the BVSD lunch menu.

Individuals and businesses interested in making a donation to School Food Project can visit www.bvsd.giveo.com.

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About the School Food Project

Vision: All children of Boulder Valley School District will have daily access to fresh, flavorful and nutritious food made with wholesome and, when possible, local ingredients, so that every child may thrive.

Path of Beauty: Singing the Grand Canyon Collaborative Performance Experience

Song, soundscape, and visual imagery combine to offer audiences a
contemplative journey through the Grand Canyon

"Path of Beauty: Singing the Grand Canyon" with Sound Circle,
photographer Christopher Brown and guest artists
St. John's Episcopal Church, 1419 Pine St., Boulder
Dec. 10-12
7pm

"Path of Beauty: Singing the Grand Canyon" is a colloboration between Sound Circle, the 16-voice Boulder-based women's a cappella ensemble, photographer Christopher Brown and guest artists including Bonnie Carol playing hammered dulcimer, Southwestern singer/songwriter Becky Reardon, harpist Christine Tulis with percussionist Kem Stralka, and Tree Andrew playing Native American flute.



The program was premiered last May at the Broomfield Auditorium and is being repeated as a Solstice season offering based on the strength of audience response to the premiere. The goal of the performance, which is a continuous flow of song, soundscape, and visual imagery, is to offer the audience a contemplative journey through the Grand Canyon.

Christopher Brown's book, Path of Beauty: Photographic Adventures in the Grand Canyon, has just been published by St. Martin's Press. Many of the photos in the book are included in the performance.

Music by composers including Malcolm Dalglish, Bobby McFerrin, Bill Douglas, Kimmerjae Makarus, and Mary Ellen Childs, Becky Reardon, Joan Szymko, with poetry by Joy Harjo and others, will intertwine with improvisational material and soundscape.

Tickets are $20 for general admission, and $15 for seniors and children. To purchase tickets, gotobrownpapertickets.com/event/133234 or call 1-800-838-3006; or purchase at Boulder Body Wear, 2660 Canyon Blvd. in Boulder. Advance purchase is recommended.

For more information, contact Sound Circle at (303) 473-4525 or visit the Sound Circle website.