Community
Development

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.

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!

Last Tuesday proved to be another special holiday moment as we had our annual holiday party with the Denver Rescue Mission Crossing facility.  We adopted every room currently occupied at the Crossing and approximately 40 families were treated to an old fashioned Christmas experience–gifts, dinner and cheer!!!

My favorite moment of the evening came when a young child about 3 yrs. old all dressed up in a Christmas sweater vest was so taken with the excitment that he literally began jumping up and down with joy–to see the holiday spirit through the eyes of a child is something every adult should make a point of doing each and every year.  That is where true inspiration is born.

Last night at Dick’s Sporting Goods at Park Meadows, the Denver Broncos formally kicked off the holiday season.  Dick’s was very gracious to give $100 gift cards to each of 40 children from the Boys and Girls Clubs of Metro Denver and they enjoyed a festive dinner and shopping spree with Miles and four members of the team:  Steve Cargile, Domonique Foxworth, Chad Mustard and Brandon Stokley.

What really warmed my heart was the special spirit of the kids.  They were really neat, wonderful young people who were so very appreciative of the evening and the opportunity.  One young man, Brandon, from the Denver Broncos Boys and Girls Club is a Hurricane Katrina evacuee who fled to Houston and ultimately ended up in Denver.  He was so gracious and personable and I marvelled at the thought of what he has gone through and how he is persevering…

On Tuesday, Nov. 20th, Dre’ Bly joined by teammates Rod Smith and Ian Gold wanted to ensure that the families of Place Middle School (The Dre’ Bly Foundation has adopted Place for the year) had plenty to be thankful for.  Keeping up with a tradition he began in Detroit, Dre’ worked with King Soopers to provide a turkey and holiday meal items for 165 families.  Students and their families arrived at the school Tuesday evening and were thrilled to be greeted by Bly, Smith and Gold who signed autographs as they helped hand out goodies.

The neat thing about this program and Dre’ is that he started working on in back in August.  Dre’ contacted our community development department during the summer and begand figuring out how he could continue his community work here in Denver.  He hired a director for his foundation and got right to work selecting a middle school (because as he said they are often overlooked becuase they are at an in-between age) that served students that may need a little extra help from time to time.  Dre’s Foundation set up a metoring/tutoring program and he visists regularly.  He bought 25 game tickets for each Broncos home game to reward kids doing well in their mentoring/tutoring programs.  When you consider how busy these guys are (Dre’ has four children of his own!) and the weekly demands put upon them with a big game looming each Sunday…it is special to see a guy but a lot of heart, thought and planning into a great event that helped an entire community.

 The event on Tuesday was definitely a success but the bigger impact Dre’ has made on these kids–letting them know that he is there to support and encourage them–that is something the students and their families will remember and benefit from long after Tuesday.  Isn’t that what the holiday season is there to remind us of each and every year?  Lending a hand to help one another can continue beyond November and December..thanks for being such a wonderful example of that Dre’!

As exciting as the win was for us last evening, there was an equal excitment running through Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse in LoDo at the noon hour as the Monday Night ESPN crew hosted a special Chalk Talk luncheon to get the fans geared up. 

Denver Broncos alumni David Diaz-Infante, Karl Mecklenburg and Ed McCaffrey joined in on a panel discussion moderated by ESPN’s John Seibel who asked them about special Monday night memories in their playing days.  It was no surprise that Ed McCaffrey highlighted the first Monday night home opener at INVESCO Field at Mile High against the Giants and he described feeling on top of the world and really connecting with the fans early on, only to have his season end with a broken leg.  That, he claimed, paled in comparison the following morning when he learned of the world changing events of September 11th . . . powerful memories. 

Overall, the guys all talked about the excitement of a Monday night game and the thrill of truly being the “only game in town that night” and playing in front of their peers. 

Hall of Fame great Steve Young ended the panel discussion with some candid commentary on Broncos’ quarterback Jay Cutler, saying that Cutler has done all he personally could have asked of a young quarterback so early in his career.

It was a neat day shared by our Broncos’ corporate partners and the ESPN local administration that was capped off by a very special “Fans Helping Fans” community award given by TEAM ESPN, Dick’s Sporting Goods and the Denver Broncos to long-time community partner Boys and Girls Clubs of Metro Denver–a well deserving community recipient. 

Have a great Thanksgiving in Broncos Country

It’s an exciting time of the year for the high school community as the state high school football tournament is underway at stadiums throughout Colorado.  The Broncos are thrilled to partner with the NFL in support of high school football each year, and at this particular time we have made our Coach of the Week selctions final for 2007.  We salute the following:

Rocky Whitworth, Glenwood Springs High School
Todd Matkin, Highland High School
Paul Griese, Woodlin High School
Doug Johnson, Longmont High School
Jason Catron, Falcon High School
Mike Woolford, Regis High School
Mike Griebel, Heritage High School
George Purnell, Holyoke High School
Bret McGatlin, Chatfield High School
Tim Owens, Thomas Jefferson High School

As the high school state football championships come to a close in early December, we will also look forward to naming our 2007 High School Coach of the Year.  All of these great leaders will be recognized during a special half-time presentation on field at our home game against the Vikings on December 30th.  As part of their recognition, the Broncos, in collaboration with NFL Charities, will award $1,000 to each of the aformentioned coach’s schools and then $2,000 to the school of the Coach of the Year winner.

It really is a privilege to be able to support high school football in this manner and to truly celebrate the fine leaders that are mentoring our children on high school fields all over the state.  We salute them.

Until next time, have a great week in Broncos Country. 

We are so happy to share with you that the Darrent Williams Memorial Teen Center is officially underway.  Work on prepping the interior of the building for the renovations began over the past week.  Boys and Girls Clubs of Metro Denver has started searching for a Center director.  Ed Dwight, the world-renowned artist who is creating the life-size bronze of Darrent that will be in the courtyard of the Center, has also had his initial meeting with our Teen Center members who will be helping him with the sculpture. 

We are thrilled to be at this point and continue to raise the funds for completion. . . .if all goes according to planned, we should have the doors open in March of 2008.  It really does feel good to be able to give you this update.

As I have mentioned before, phase 2 of our dream to honor Darrent’s legacy is to build a gymnasium as part of the Teen Center.  NFL Charities has agreed to grant to this project under their new Fitness Zone campaign.  Last week, we received a start-up grant from them for $55,000 with the promise for the same in 2008.  We are definitely on our way with the gym as well.

On a different note, our department had a wonderful experience this year facilitating our annual Walter Payton Man of the Year selection process.  We had four great candidates from our team whom we put before a highly respected selection committee comprised of community and business leaders.  These guys were evaluated on their on- and off-field leadership and community involvement.  We will announce their nominations and the winner later this month.  I think we were all very proud of the community work these guys did and very honored to put them before the selection committee…stay tuned for the winner. 

Until next time, have a great week in Broncos Country!