Community
Development

Happy Friday, Broncos Country.

We have learned some exciting news this week. Oprah Winfrey’s new show, The Big Give, will air a segment Sunday evening on the Denver Broncos Boys and Girls Club in Montbello.

Last year, Denver Broncos quarterback Jay Cutler (along with teammate Tony Scheffler and former Broncos quarterback Preston Parsons) was contacted by one of The Big Give contestants who was challenged to spend some serious money in our community for worthy causes and people in need. Cutler took on the challenge and rallied his teammates to join him on a special delivery run to the Broncos Boys and Girls Club.

What was that special delivery about? Who actually benefited? Tune into The Big Give Sunday evening to find out. The segment will air on ABC at 8 p.m. MDT.

Have a great weekend in Broncos Country.

 Hi Broncos Country.

We thought we’d pass along some more photos of the construction progress underway at the future Darrent Williams Memorial Teen Center.  Unfortunately we had a few construction setbacks that will push the grand opening back to May 29, 2008.  Although the delay isn’t ideal, we are now more than ever focused on making sure when the Teen Center does open, it is just as fabulous and wonderful as the teens had imagined it would be.  We look forward to continuing to post photos and more updates as we have them throughout the spring!  We’ll chat again soon!

As I was returning from lunch today I was pleasantly surprised to find Domonique Foxworth (our 2007 Denver Broncos Man of the Year) at our office–just stopping by to say hi.  Domonique has been such a wonderful player ambassador for our department and the Broncos Boys and Girls Club.  It is always great to see him and get a chance to catch up–especially in the off season.  Otherwise, we have to be satisfied reading his entertaining blog just like everyone else to find out what he is up to.

 We chatted for a good while about the team, the teens at the Club and went over some designs from a local company–Performance Graphics–that will be painting a special mural featuring Darrent Williams at the new Darrent Williams Memorial Teen Center.  Our entire department, along with Domonique and fellow teammate Nate Jackson have been working with the teens and Rick of Performance Graphics to come up with a very inspiring piece of art.

So Domonique and I chatted a bit as we looked everything over, he ran a couple of things by Champ over the phone (Champ was in Hawaii preparing for the Pro Bowl) and incorporated Nate’s imput through a few emails and now are all set to move forward with the mural.

What an exciting and productive Thursday afternoon!  Anyways, Domonique says hi to Broncos Country…looking forward to updating you again soon!

This week, Kelly Woodward and I had the opportunity to be part of the judging committee for the annual Youth of the Year program for Boys and Girls Clubs of Metro Denver.  I was part of the team that met with the young people at the Wilfley Branch and Kelly was part of the Boettcher Branch team.

This experience is always an inspiring one as it enables us to come face to face with some of the community’s most amazing young people and all that they are doing to make our world a better place.  It was a difficult decision, as it always is, to select the junior and the senior youth of the year winners respectively. 

Nash Hahn (junior winner) and Shonnetta Henry (senior winner) were our recipients at Wilfley, which is located at I-70 and Pecos.

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Hi Broncos Country!

How cool is this!?  We have some pictures of the construction site at the future Darrent Williams Memorial Teen Center that we thought you all would enjoy.  We’ll keep posting them throughout the construction process so you all can view the project’s progress.  Definitely let us know if you have any specific questions about what is what in these photos…we’ll do our best to describe what you are looking at.  The exciting part is by mid-April, the DWMTC will be completed and already packed full of teens!

Wednesday, Miles, and Denver Broncos Cheerleader Melissa Aust and I were at Colfax Elementary to help the school kickoff their Reading is Fundamental (RIF) program.

The RIF program is designed to show children that reading isn’t just another subject at school and that reading can provide a child endless hours of fun and entertainment. With that concept in mind for our visit, Miles and Melissa did an interactive reading with the Miles Grand Adventure A to Z book for each grade level in the school.

The reading gives the students the opportunity to interact with Miles and Melissa and demonstrates the fun you can have with a book!

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Hi Broncos Country.

A couple of quick updates for everyone that we were excited to share.

First and foremost…construction is underway for the Darrent Williams Memorial Teen Center adjacent to the Denver Broncos Boys and Girls Club in Montbello and we couldn’t be more thrilled.  We were just out at the Club on Monday to meet with local artist Jenny West, our own Nate Jackson, Teen Center Director Guy Johnson and Broncos Boys and Girls Club Director Rich Barrows to scope out a wall and brainstorm about a mural honoring Darrent for the Teen Center.  You could absolutely feel the buzz from the kids as they have seen construction begin and we have recently confirmed a grand opening date:  April 22, 2008!  It is amazing to see the dream of these teens finally being realized and know we are just months away from a completed teen center–time to get busy making plans for that big celebration! 

Our next update is not nearly as exciting but nevertheless a symbolic step for our Community Development Department.  We spent most of Monday (and numerous days prior pre-packing and sorting) moving into a beautiful new office space at INVESCO Field at Mile High.  Just down the hall from our previous office, the new one allows us all to be together as we were previous split up between two separate spaces.  Amidst boxes, dust and a lot of discovering forgotten files we have settled into our new space feeling rejuvenated and looking forward to transferring all of that new energy into our community efforts in 2008.

Hope the New Year has been great so far for all of you as well…we’ll chat again soon!

Good morning, Broncos Country.

Thank you for following our organization’s community work over the season.  We will have some exciting offseason projects on the horizon.  Though we will not have weekly posts, please check in periodically to get a feel for where we are headed in the new year.  All the best to you all. 

Upon opening my e-mail this morning, I was very excited to see the construction bids come in for the Darrent Williams Memorial Teen Center (thank you Will Bussard of OZ Architecture for your hand in this) and to know that as of January 9th, 2008, we will have our construction partner in place and the work will begin . . . . bring in the New Year.

As you all know from past blogs, this project means so much to all of us in the organization and to the Williams’ family and we certainly know it will have an amazingly positive impact on the young people who will be members of the Center.  Particulary in the week leading up to the anniversary of Darrent’s death, it is extremely important for us to have this positive outlet to focus on and to know that something truly positive will happen in our community from a place of tragedy.

Ed Dwight, the sculptor who is working on the bronze of Darrent to be displayed outside the Teen Center entrance, has started the first casting and some of our kids from the Broncos Boys and Girls Club have been over to his studio to learn about the process.  This is also very exciting.

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With the holidays upon us and the New Year just around the corner, more Broncos are helping those less fortunate celebrate the season.

John and Linda Lynch hosted the 11th Annual John Lynch Foundation Christmas Party for Boys and Girls Clubs of Metro Denver last night.  The party for 35 children included a surprise visit from Santa to deliver gifts courtesy of Wal-Mart, a holiday dinner and attendance at the musical White Christmas courtesy of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.  The program originated in Tampa, Florida and each year participating Boys and Girls Clubs directors nominate children from each club to attend.  The children’s wish lists were secretly collected and then granted by the John Lynch Foundation and Wal-Mart.  The Lynch Foundation was established in 2000 and is committed to developing leaders by encouraging dreams, providing programs that assist and motivate and recognizing achievement and excellence.

In a similar holiday spirit, Daniel Graham hosted 30 children from Young Life and Denver Kids at the Target store in Glendale last night as well.  Graham and several teammates helped the kids spend a gift card provided by Target for their families and themselves on holiday gifts.   Kids also had the opportunity to have photos taken with each of the players attending.  What a fun way to spend the holidays!