9:30 am, Nov 21, 2012
If there's one thing I've learned about snowboarding, it's that the sport is a lot like life. You fall down—a lot. You get up, brush yourself off, and keep going. When you're learning, you get bruised up and banged around. You heal. With persistence and determination, you eventually reap big awards—like swooshing down a mountain on a bluebird day—...
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9:30 am, Nov 14, 2012
Many people think of volunteering as a one-time deal: cleaning up a highway, serving food at a shelter, or investing sweat equity building a home. These are all fantastic opportunities to help, but many nonprofits could use your professional skills, too. Metro Volunteers offers skills-based volunteer programs, and it's super easy to get...
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9:30 am, Oct 31, 2012
It's easy to be green in an environmentally conscious city like Denver. With our numerous farm-to-table restaurants, free recycling, and bike-friendly thoroughfares, it's actually hard not to. One little thing that makes a big difference is switching to reusable shopping bags (but you already knew that). If you're like me, you have a stack of...
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9:27 am, Oct 24, 2012
Some people don't like raking leaves, but personally—I enjoy it. It reminds me of childhood, when your parents would laboriously gather up a huge pile, then you'd come along and jump gleefully into the center of the multicolored leaves. It's one of those simple pleasures in life. You can get a grownup version of that blissful feeling during...
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9:40 am, Oct 17, 2012
Judging from Colorado's number of dog parks, pet groomers, and doggie spas, our animals are spoiled. But not all of our four-legged friends are pampered. According to the Colorado Department of Agriculture, more than 16,000 dogs and cats were euthanized in Colorado last year. Colorado Springs' Chihuahua &...
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8:10 am, Oct 10, 2012
A box of juicy raspberries reaches its sell-by date, and off the grocery store shelves it goes—right into the trash. The same is true for all perishable products that linger a bit too long: They're marked as waste and discarded. And yet, just as those raspberries are being tossed aside, members of our community go hungry for lack of nutritious...
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9:30 am, Oct 2, 2012
Ten little pairs of feet pitter-patter to the stage and fidget with anticipation. As the first note of music sounds, the feet take off and carry the dancers around the room in a flurry of leaps and twirls. Weeks of practice have culminated in pliés, tiptoes, and turns, but these movements only tell part of the story.The dancers are a part of the...
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7:40 pm, Sep 28, 2012
Meet Staci Unrau, a precocious six-year-old who spends her time playing on a swing set, rearranging her books, and—of course—taking dance classes. But as a child with Down syndrome, a chromosomal condition that causes physical and mental developmental delays, Unrau’s ballet lessons are all the more important: These classes combine learning pliés...
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9:00 am, Sep 26, 2012
When Linda Holloway’s grandmother, Bessie, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, Holloway visited her Texas nursing home every month. And while she was able to provide companionship and support, she couldn’t help but notice that a majority of the patients often sat alone. What’s even worse, says Holloway, is that nursing home staff did little to...
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9:24 am, Sep 24, 2012
Coloradans love the outdoors. We love our hiking routes and recreational spaces so much, we practically love them to death. Some of our state’s most beautiful, and popular, trails incur such overuse that the natural habitat suffers from deterioration. That’s where Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado comes in. Founded nearly 30 years ago, the Denver-...
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3:20 pm, Sep 20, 2012
When he was just 19, Denver resident Brad Ludden became Nike’s first sponsored kayaker. That same year, 2001, he founded a nonprofit called First Descents to offer a free kayaking camp as therapy for young adults fighting cancer. More than a decade later, First Descents employs 13 people, three interns, and 22 contract workers at its...
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9:30 am, Sep 19, 2012
For Iraq veteran Shane Schmutz, the epiphany came during a routine run through Central Park last year. “It suddenly dawned on me: ‘I’m not getting shot at and I don’t have deployment looming over my head,’ ” explains Schmutz, whose service in the U.S. Army totaled more than 11 years. “I felt guilty that all of the soldiers who I'd served with in...
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12:50 pm, Sep 18, 2012
You want—no, need—your morning cup of Joe. But did you know your habit could help others? There are a number of cafes in the city that use business proceeds to do good, like Cafe Options, where your java will help train women in the culinary field. SAME Cafe (which stands for "So All May Eat") and Cafe 180 have menus without prices and...
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10:17 am, Sep 17, 2012
A 2010 U.S. National Wildlife Federation study found that by the time an American child has reached kindergarten they have watched, on average, 5,000 hours of television. That terrifying number is why the nonprofit SOS Outreach is bridging the digital-outdoor gap for kids who could use some time on the slopes.By bringing kids outside to snowboard...
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9:00 am, Sep 5, 2012
Kathy Lee of Modern Gingham Preserves relies heavily on CSA surplus and donated fruit to make her locally sourced jams and marmalades. Throughout the year, Lee meets with local residents and schedule a harvest of their fruit once it's ripe and ready for use. If you have a berry bush or fruit tree on your property and just can't use...
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