by Mark Smiley | Apr 28, 2017 | Travel
by Mark Smiley
As summer rapidly approaches, you may be digging into your drawer to find your swimsuit. Now is the time to start thinking about how that swimsuit will look and feel on you. The Glendale Sports Center understands these types of considerations so they are running a sale to encourage their members to take advantage of personal training. The Glendale Sports Center has always focused on fitness and health but what many may not know is that they offer fitness assessments and personal training for their members.
The fitness assessments are included in the membership and focus on body-composition analysis, equipment orientation, and mini fitness evaluations. This assessment is a good way to gauge where you are on the fitness spectrum and establish a baseline and future benchmark prior to starting an exercise program.
It is recommended that before beginning an exercise program, you undergo a fitness assessment. It provides key information that can be used to develop realistic goals and design an exercise program that will help meet your personal needs and achieve your goals.
When you have created your blueprint, it is time to consider personal training in your master plan. The Glendale Sports Center offers personal training for its members with four different personal trainers on staff with a varying degree of expertise.
Head trainer Beth Eafanti focuses on 30 minute workouts that cater to the busy professional. Deborah Montour trains the older adults who may be part of the SilverSneakers program, and Paul Hogan is a soccer coach who specializes in sports training. The newest trainer on staff, Dan Roake, will train anybody and is considered the most versatile.
These Certified Personal Trainers provide individualized physical conditioning programs based on their clients’ needs and goals. Members can schedule their appointments any time of the day based on their trainer’s schedule.
If you are not sure you need a p
ersonal trainer or are concerned about the financial investment, consider that a personal trainer helps you define your fitness goals. They also offer a personalized workout, instruction, motivation, accountability, variety and efficiency.
When Sports Center members sign up and pay by May 15, 2017, they will receive 10 percent off their personal training package. “We want to make sure people are still using the gym they are paying for,” said Monica Henrichs, Glendale Sports Center Health and Wellness Director. “The summer months have a lot of activities here in Colorado such as hiking, biking, and climbing, and having a personal trainer gear you up for that in May and the beginning of June is helpful.”
Packages range from $58 for one 1-hour session to $635 for 12 sessions and everything in between. The Sports Center also offers buddy packages where two people can split the cost of a one-hour session and receive even more of a discount.
To learn more, call Monica Henrichs at 303-692-5773 or visit www.sportscenterglendale.com.
by Mark Smiley | Apr 28, 2017 | Glendale City News
by Marco Cummings
Writer for and on behalf of the City of Glendale
The sport of Rugby shares a common DNA with American Football, dating back to the late 1800s when both sports added the aspect of carrying the ball in hand to the laws of the game, branching both sports off from their common ancestor: association football (the sport now known as soccer in the United States).
In the U.S., participants in the two sports often try their hand at both, and one need not look far outside of Glendale to find prime examples. Glendale Mayor Mike Dunafon tried his hand in the NFL with the Denver Broncos in the mid-1970s before becoming enamored with rugby in the British Virgin Islands. Current Glendale Raptors captain Zach Fenoglio played both rugby and football at Regis Jesuit High School in Aurora before moving on to coach both at his alma mater.
The newest addition to the Glendale Raptors’ roster has been forged in a similar mold. Raptors second-row man Ben Landry joins Glendale after a year of pursuing a dream to play in the NFL. The former Seattle Saracens and USA Rugby player earned an invite to a Seattle Seahawks minicamp as both he and the team looked to determine whether his rugby skill set would translate to the biggest stage in American football.
Physically, it was an easy transition to make for the 6-foot-6, 270-pound Landry, who featured at tight-end in the American game.
“As far as running routes and blocking, that was just athleticism that I do every week playing rugby,” Landry explained. “That wasn’t a big change for me at all.”
He also had the benefit of a ringing endorsement from one of the biggest names in the NFL, his longtime friend and former high school teammate, J.J. Watt of the Houston Texans.
“Ben is such a hard worker, and he’s extremely, extremely mentally tough,” Watt said in an interview with ESPN, adding, “He’s a brute force kind of guy.”
Work hard is what Landry did, but he faced numerous challenges along the way in pursuit of his NFL dream.
“The biggest challenge was basic football I.Q.,” Landry explained. “Learning the playbook and stuff like that. You watch NFL on T.V. and you really don’t see how intricate all the play calling and all the audibles at the line are until you get in that situation.”
In the end, his year-long journey didn’t pay off with a much-coveted NFL contract. But he did reap the rewards of the intense NFL training he underwent during that period.
“I’d have to say the physicality is an interesting take,” said Landry. “When I trained for the NFL I really trained for strength, speed, and acceleration. In rugby, you train for aerobic capacity and conditioning. As I’m sitting right now, I’m bigger, faster and stronger than I’ve ever been in my entire life and I’d have to contribute that to a year of trying to prep for the NFL.”
In Glendale, Landry has been reunited with his first love and passion in sport. A rugby player since the age of seven, the Pewaukee, Wis., native was first introduced to the game by his father and uncle, who both played for Milwaukee Rugby Club back home.
“For me it’s always been football in the fall, basketball in the winter and rugby in the spring,” he said. “Rugby is my first passion. [The NFL] was an awesome experience, but going in to that, I put a timeline on that opportunity. I said, I’m going to devote a year to this to give it an actual shot, a solid go, a good effort. If nothing accumulates, then I’m going to head back to rugby. That was always kind of my plan.”
In Glendale, he’s been reunited with a sport he loves but also a familiar head coach in Glendale’s David Williams. The pair developed a rapport while both part of the USA Eagles and members of Denver’s PRO Rugby team, the Denver Stampede, during its inaugural season last year.
“He’s your head strength coach, he’s your head skills coach and the head coach during trainings at night,” Landry said of Williams. “So, you really work with one man and his all-encompassing idea of the entire program. One guy being able to do it all really builds a team atmosphere.”
Williams has likewise welcomed Landry as an important addition to the Raptors.
“The team and I are only too happy he chose to come back to Denver,” said Williams. “Lando brings a lot to the daily training environment with his training attitude and just being a top bloke that strives to be the best he can be. He has gotten straight back into rugby training and analysis, which is a testament to owning his role within the team and doing his job.”
While Landry’s long-term goal is to make it back into the mix in the USA Eagles player selection pool, his job with the Raptors maintains a singular focus: bringing a Major Rugby Championship to Glendale.
“We’re finishing up this season and we have a championship game in June that we’re planning on playing in, and we’d love to win.”
by Mark Smiley | Apr 28, 2017 | Editorials
There has perhaps never been as contentious administrative law case as that brought by Matt Arnold’s Campaign Integrity Watchdog against Colorado Pioneer Action for campaign finance
violations. Pioneer Action is run by former Congressman Bob Beauprez best known by the sobriquet “Both Ways Bob” for always trying to appear to support both sides of any political argument.
Beauprez set up Pioneer Action as a 501(c)(4) social welfare nonprofit which raised almost $700,000 in money for political races in 2016. He gave the money to an independent expenditure committee he also set up called Colorado Right Now (CRN) which engaged in an incredibly dirty tricks operation largely against highly conservative Republicans in primaries for the State Legislature. Beauprez backs business friendly moderate Republicans as opposed to what he sees as nasty movement conservatives and Tea Party types.
Beauprez claimed that under Colorado campaign finance law he only needed to report that the Pioneer Action had given the $700,000 to the independent expenditure committee and not who had given Pioneer Action the money in the first place. He claimed it was a perfect “dark money” operation in which no one would ever know who funds him. But Administrative Law Judge Robert Spencer found that Pioneer Action was itself a political committee and did have to disclose its donors. He fined Pioneer Action $17,000. Beauprez was lucky as Spencer could have levied the full $770,000 in fines.
But now comes the big question of will Beauprez finally have to disclose his true dark money sources? In a gubernatorial primary against Tom Tancredo in 2014 money was laundered for Beauprez for last-minute attack ads. First, the money was put through the Republicans Governors Association and then through the Republican Attorneys General Association to a Mitt Romney related political association in Colorado. Beauprez successfully avoided having to disclose who was behind that serpentine dark money scheme.
Beauprez has always been an empty suit and tool of more powerful people. Exactly who is pulling his strings has never been discovered, but perhaps now it will. Of course, this is just the beginning of the battle. Spencer’s ruling will be appealed all the way up the line. The $17,000 fine is just chump change for Beauprez’s backers. He has spent into six figures with his attorney Douglas Abbott of the highly expensive big blue-chip law firm Holland & Hart. Abbott and Holland & Hart undoubtedly came up with the dark money scheme in the first place.
In this litigation Matt Arnold has scored an incredible victory against overwhelming odds. It is truly a David versus Goliath matchup. Arnold is not an attorney yet he bested one of the best law firms in the state. Beauprez has millions at his disposal from people who will do anything to prevent from having to come out of the shadows.
There are two likely suspects for the dark money source behind Beauprez — Phil Anschutz or the Koch brothers. In January 2017, Reason Magazine released an out-of-the-blue attack piece against Matt Arnold by Nick Sibilla and John Kerr. Why would a national magazine come out against a highly parochial figure like Matt Arnold? Perhaps it is because Reason Magazine is funded by the Koch brothers. If they were the source behind Beauprez, they would have strong reason to dislike Arnold and want to stop his money inquiry.
At the same time Arnold came under attack from the Colorado Springs Gazette which reclusive Colorado billionaire Phil Anschutz is pouring money into as an alternative to The Denver Post. Incredibly, Arnold discovered that the dirt digging for the Pioneer Action/CRN political smear pieces were performed by none other than Dede Laugesen, the wife of the Gazette’s editorial page editor Wayne Laugesen and the newly hired Gazette political blogger Dan Njegomir.
When the Gazette’s editorial page was lambasting Arnold on behalf of Beauprez, and Njegomir was attacking Arnold in the Gazette’s ColoradoPolitics.com they failed to mention they were or had been on the payroll of Beauprez and Pioneer Action. Reporter Megan Schrader in a story in The Denver Post on April 4 said that this lack of disclosure “looks really bad.”
So who owns Bob Beauprez and the Colorado Republican establishment? Is it the Koch Brothers or Phil Anschutz? Of course, it could always be both in tandem.
If there is anyone in Colorado who will find out who the dark money source is, it will be watchdog Matt Arnold. It is not easy to fight alone against some of the richest and most powerful people in the state. Incredibly he seems to not be deterred. We can’t wait to see what he discovers next.
— Editorial Board
by Mark Smiley | Apr 28, 2017 | General Featured
by Ruthy Wexler
Residents of Virginia Village treasure the “back in time” feeling of their neighborhood, which was built in the 1950s. Ranch and split level-style homes, typical of that period, dot the quiet streets. There’s even a neighborhood school set back upon a wide lawn: Ellis Elementary.
Ellis, however, is not typical of the 1950s.
While that decade was marked by conformity, roughly half the students at Ellis hail from countries other than the U.S.
In the 1950s, differences were kept under wraps. Not so at Ellis, where even as staff welcome newcomers to the American way of life, they encourage them to remember their own.
“We feel diversity is what made America strong. We know it is what makes Ellis stronger,” declares principal Nichole Whiteman, whose students hail from the nearby neighborhood — and from China, Mexico, Thailand, Ethiopia, Iraq, and a host of other far-flung places. “Our community is smarter, richer, more joyful and simply better because of our diversity,” Whiteman insists.
Some months ago, absorbing news of travel bans, Whiteman sat down with a few of her teachers and pondered how they could honor the school’s population. Ideas became a vision. Shortly thereafter — at 5:30 p.m. on March 22 — Ellis’s front doors opened to eager crowds. Ellis Elementary Celebrates our Diversity: A School without Borders Event had begun.
An Amazing Night
Ellis parent Mark Ginkel arrived in a kilt that bespoke his Irish ancestry. Baidan Alameri, in a fuchsia hijab, carried in a strawberry pink dessert. Other delicacies brought by parents — flan, magrud, kunata — made the cafeteria one of the evening’s most popular stops, beside the art exhibit, the Family Portraits and the resource fair, complete with immigration attorneys, healthcare workers 
and representatives from the Denver Art Museum.
In the lobby, Ellis students introduced themselves on a video. “My name is Ibrahim; I speak English and Arabic because my family is from Morocco.” “My name is Alex, I speak Burmese because my family is from Burma.” The tag line was what each child wished others knew about their culture; e.g., “I wish you knew that in our culture, we ride elephants.” One little girl said, “I wish you knew that Mongolia is similar to America.”
In the auditorium, young authors read original compositions. A rapt audience heard 10-year-old Jadea Swindler proclaim, “I want to be a singer and a dancer … Never give up, what you want and what you dream for!”; Karla Lozano and Ruth Rosas ask, “Promise me something, never judge someone by their color or the language they speak” and two high school boys recite earnest poetry: “This is not a revolution of hate and revenge/ It’s a revolution of love, of justice. … This is my American dream.”
Giddy with goodwill, attendees beamed at each other in the halls. “It was an amazing night,” Whiteman recalls. “There was such a feeling of hopefulness and togetherness. I hope to fill the halls of our school with that feeling every single day.”
The Whole Picture
Whiteman has her work cut out for her. Besides endeavoring to create a veritable Peaceable Kingdom, she’s got to worry about test scores.
In the Denver school system (DPS), children take annual tests which compare their academic knowledge with same-age peers across the state. Schools are given a numerical rating based on the average of all their students’ scores. When educators speak of “high” or “low performing” schools, this rating is what they mean. But how can Ellis — with many students fresh from traumas like poverty and a sudden absence of the familiar, with a good chunk of them grappling with English as their new language — be rated accurately?
School ratings are posted without comment. For its low score, Ellis wins only a C- from Greatschools.org, only one star from Schooldigger.com. (A more comprehensive analysis on the DPS site ranks Ellis only as “challenged.”)
But if one looks (clicks) further, reviews voicing profound satisfaction stream into view. “My son has attended Ellis since 3rd grade. He is a GT [Gifted/Talented] student … I cannot say enough about the teachers’ abilities and drive to educate … “
“This is a school full of wonderful teachers and committed staff. It is a school for learning ….”
“This school is a GEM!! I have had opportunities to send my son to different schools but elected to keep him at Ellis due to their ability to keep him academically challenged … “
“Unfortunately,” Whiteman observes, “when a school is judged primarily on one standardized assessment and that’s what gets publicized, people are missing a huge piece of the puzzle.”
Building Character As Well As Test Scores
Which is not to say Whiteman doesn’t place importance on testing. “We work hard to increase academic outcomes … Our local data show that our students are improving.
“We soar toward excellence in academics and also in character development,” she emphasizes. “We teach values: integrity, perseverance, curiosity, optimism, respect and compassion.”
“I like how they focus on character development,” says Jim Moody, whose son is in second grade at Ellis. “It permeates every part of the school.”
Former Ellis parent Steve Garcia attests, “My son learned leadership as well as academics.”
Another parent states, “At Ellis, I know [my child’s] emotional well being is taken into account by every adult he comes into contact with.”
A Noble Experiment
It seems almost too great a coincidence that Ellis Elementary shares the name of the famous immigrant gateway in New York. Whiteman notes, “It’s wonderful to see friendships where the color of skin or religion is clearly just not a factor.”
Some parents see how such friendships can shape their child’s future. One writes, “At Ellis, my son has the opportunity to navigate cultural and linguistic differences. The connections he makes because of this cannot be taught, they must be lived and experienced. I feel confident he will leave with a dedication to humanity that will prepare him for the challenges of our global community.”
Brooke Webb, who recently became the Director of Ellis’s Parent Teacher Organization (PTO), agrees that Ellis affords rare opportunities. “A few years ago when our daughter was Kindergarten age, we turned to Ellis because we like supporting our neighborhood school. Then Olivia began and I got really impressed: academic excellence and this amazing celebration of diversity!”
Webb would like more of her neighbors to see Ellis’s 
value. For though the school is located in Virginia Village, families don’t have to send their kids there.
Choosing Ellis
“Within DPS, parents have this thing called choice,” Webb explains. “They can choose any school within the system. Many parents choose schools that have more white faces.”
There are common misconceptions, Webb says. “People say, ‘Don’t you feel funny being the minority?’ But we’re not; there’s like 20 percent of everything represented. The majority/minority paradigm doesn’t have a chance to get started! And, ‘Isn’t your child held back because all the attention goes to the kids who don’t speak English?’ But the truth is, there’s no additional time given to kids learning English. They get that in language development classes.
“Our belief in our choice is reinforced by all the terrific benefits we see Olivia getting.”
Right now, Ellis Elementary is supported by dedicated staff, a recently revived PTO and a population that draws equally from a stable neighborhood and a changing world. The school faces challenges. Gentrification may close affordable housing in the area. Low test scores might dissuade potential parents.
“But we love the school and we’re up to it,” Webb says. “I see strollers on the streets here, so many kids who’ll be school age soon. I want to educate them! I want to tell them just how great their neighborhood school is.”
by Mark Smiley | Apr 28, 2017 | Main Articles
A $7.7 Million Bond Issue Would Widen Sidewalks, Add Public Art, Better Lighting Plus A Pedestrian Plaza
by Glen Richardson
A walk along Denver’s Art District on Santa Fe can be both depressing and refreshingly optimistic. An intermingled blend of debris, flimsy sidewalks and bric-a-brac storefronts, it is the intersection between run-down buildings and a fun, fulfilling wellspring of art. This unfinished strip of street art offers a sketchy peek at the district’s future as the city around it changes. That’s because — as the Santa Fe strip has already proven — art can change things.
The artistic street canvas between 7th and 12th avenues on Santa Fe Drive has emerged as a national standout over the last decade. The initial First Friday art event here in 2003 drew 20 people to two galleries. Last year’s summer edition attracted Friday night crowds of 14,000. But now the district is at a crossroads as sidewalks crumble 
and the street hasn’t seen infrastructure improvements in 30 years.
The district is seeking to get a $7.7 million General Obligation Bond on Denver’s November ballot. The plan would eliminate one lane of traffic to make room for wider, ADA-compliant sidewalks, add upgraded lighting, branded signage and public art. In addition, a pedestrian-only plaza would be built on 9th Ave. between Santa Fe Drive and Inca St.
Consequences Of Change
Despite the district’s success, infrastructure improvement and other proposed changes risk upsetting the tricky balance between art and commerce. Rents have been rising in recent years forcing artists to move out. Furthermore, escalating real estate prices are already a roadblock for up-and-coming artists lo
oking to plant roots in the district.
Moreover, Santa Fe Drive from 1st north to 13th Ave. is emerging as a more mixed-use district. New restaurants and breweries have opened and more are on the way. The influx of new businesses creates a double-edged sword. People want restaurants, bars, nightlife and boutiques. The changes, however, create gentrification, pushing rents higher and forcing art studios out. Growth and transformation is also threatening the district’s historic Latino culture.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, as rents jumped on Broadway and in the Ballpark neighborhood, artists started looking for cheaper studios and galleries. The old buildings on Santa Fe Drive were ideal, and soon there was a critical mass of galleries a mile south of downtown.
Creative Class
Jack Pappalardo bought a building and opened a studio and gallery here in 2003 and became the Art District’s first president. Working from a classic live-work space at 828 Santa Fe Dr., he lowered membership dues, broadened the base and created what he calls the “rise of the creative class.” The tactic work
ed and membership jumped to 70 artists and businesses during his 10-year tenure as president.
During his first five years as president membership grew steadily. Then in 2006 photographer John Fielder relocated his gallery here from Cherry Creek North. That, according to Pappalardo, was the District’s “stamp of approval.” Two more important newcomers followed in 2010: Su Teatro acquired the Denver Civic Theater and Metro State University opened the Center for Visual Art. Then in 2013 Colorado Ballet purchased and renovated a 100-year-old building at 11th and Santa Fe. The renovated 30,000-sq.-ft. structure opened the following year as the Armstrong Center for Dance.
Destination Development
Amy Phare, who took over from Pappalardo as president and also lives in the district, says the remake isn’t just about Friday night art crowds. Changes are being m
ade to further the economic development of the corridor. Like Pappalardo before her, she says the plan will make it a neighborhood street. She says the plaza would serve both as an “art park” and a “community gathering place.”
Actually the plan, according to both, “harks back to the days when Kalamath St. and Santa Fe Drive were two-way streets. That was before the suburban boom of the 1970s-’80s led to development of feeder routes heading downtown.”
The new plan would make Santa Fe a neighborhood street again. That means reinventing the district as a walkable neighborhood that’s an endpoint, not a cut through. We want Santa Fe Drive to be a destination,” emphasizes Phare. “We have kids here and we want this to be a safe destination, not a thoroughfare or a highway. Undeniably the street shouldn’t be a speed zone.”
Artistic Blueprint
Architect Mark Raeburn of Quantum Urban Architecture + Design (QUA+D) designed the proposed changes to the district. They highlight accessibility, safety and sustainability. “The sidewalks don’t meet the Americans with Disabilities Act or the city’s pedestrian plan,” he notes. “They simply aren’t safe right now.”
He points out that at certain bottlenecks, there’s two feet between gas meters mounted on storefronts and streetlights. “Moreover Raeburn says, “The sidewalks are crumbling plus people can’t walk together side by side.”
He adds, “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve walked into a light pole.”
Raeburn’s plan also calls for the elimination of one lane of traffic to make room for wider, ADA-compliant sidewalks, and adding upgraded lighting. Branded signage and public art would motivate excitement and stimulate business. A pedestrian-only plaza is also proposed on 9th Ave. between Santa Fe Drive and Inca St.
Drawing A Bottom Line
First Friday is the one night galleries in the district really make money. Street closures plus a new art film series in the CVA parking lot adds enthusiasm and is creating new sponsorship opportunities. Nevertheless, as attendance has grown the event has become more of a party. The Third Friday Collector’s Preview gives artists and gallery owners a chance to meet art patrons in a subdued setting with a more mature, sober crowd.
Muralist Forrest Morrison who has a gallery in the district says, “I think we all recognize that an art district cannot survive without development that sustains and complements the creative sector and working-class artists.” He believes a united real estate identity would help stabilize rents and ensure they won’t lose the community and culture that has made the neighborhood so valuable.
Ultimately the artists here say it’s about the creative people who work and exhibit on the street. “You can’t start an art district,” says artist Georgia Amar, Pappalardo’s wife. She calls the Art District on Santa Fe a “grassroots, bottom-up” phenomenon. It’s about the artists, their work and their ability to make a living. She believes the quality of art is getting better and better. Her conclusion: “Now we have to focus on the real McCoy.”
