by Mark Smiley | Nov 2, 2015 | Glendale City News
by Marco Cummings
Writer for and on behalf of the City of Glendale
Other sports stake their own claim to the title of the “world’s game,” but without a doubt, it’s been Rugby that has captured the attention of eyes throughout the world this fall with the Rugby World Cup returning to the sport’s birth country.
Glendale Raptors head coach Andre Snyman was there to catch an early glimpse of the scene as one of several participants in a charity match hosted by Rugby Aid in London, England. Snyman competed alongside several former rugby world stars and pop culture icons as part of the event, which was held in support of the Rugby for Heroes charity. The charity supports military personnel who are making the transition back to civilian life.
“It was a great experience and for a great cause: It helps military folks with the transition to the normal world,” Snyman said of the experience. “We had more than 10,000 supporters at the game watching us play.”
All in all, the event proved to be a lighthearted and enjoyable affair for the participants, one which supported a noble cause but also provided a glimpse of what London had to offer as the hosting city of the Rugby World Cup.
“The atmosphere is absolutely fabulous,” Snyman said. “Everywhere there are people talking about it. Underground in the trains there are posters. There’s a big vibe and everyone is asking what game you’re going to watch. Everyone is getting their TVs and news set up for rugby. It’s going to be a great World Cup.”
While Snyman got a taste of this year’s World Cup buzz, two of his players were blessed to witness the events firsthand, up close and personally. Raptors Zach Fenoglio and Niku Kruger were among the names selected to the 31-man USA World Cup roster. The USA Eagles were one of 20 nations competing during the six-week tournament.
“Making the World Cup squad truly is a dream come true. It was something I set my sights on five years ago and it is surreal to see those goals met now,” Fenoglio said of his selection. “When you first start playing rugby you always imagine what it would be like to play on the World Cup stage and now to have had this opportunity is something I’ll cherish forever.”
“Zach has been a hard worker since his initial selection onto our A side (lower-level Eagle) three years ago. Despite some disappointing squad omissions, Zach continued to remain positive in his approach, and eventually he became a regular squad member for us,” said USA Eagles head coach Mike Tolkin. “His leadership role with the Raptors has helped him become a confident player with the Eagles.”
International play gave Fenoglio, a Denver native and longtime Raptor, time to mesh with Kruger, who will enter next season as one of Glendale’s newest roster additions when the Raptors look to defend their Pacific Rugby Premiership title in 2016.
“I chose Glendale because of the professionalism and culture the club has. I have followed Glendale for a couple of years and really enjoyed the way they played and presented themselves,” Kruger explained. “Then when I spoke to coach Andre [Snyman] and learned of his love and enthusiasm for the game I knew it was the place I wanted to further my rugby career.”
“It has been great getting to work with Niku, he’s a very talented and knowledgeable player of the game,” Fenoglio added. “It’s been great seeing him develop with the Eagles and I know he’ll bring great value and leadership to Glendale next season. Bringing someone of the talent and rugby background will only help grow and better our team.”
Fenoglio and Kruger also played alongside several other PRP players as teammates for the Eagles.
“It shows there’s a quality of our league,” explained Snyman. “We have these international players playing in the PRP and it shows the quality we’re playing against. It shows well for the U.S. and hopefully there will be more players coming through the ranks.”
The pair were part of a USA team which featured 20 World Cup debutants, but played several international matches in preparation for the Rugby World Cup.
“In terms of Rugby World Cup experience, yes, this is a relatively inexperienced group,” USA Men’s Eagles head coach Tolkin said. “However, while the Rugby World Cup is a whole different kettle of fish, many of these players do have a fair bit of international play under their belts since 2011.”
Drawn in Pool B alongside opposing teams Samoa, Scotland, South Africa and Japan, the Eagles had a rough go in this year’s tournament, a campaign which saw a winless record. But win or lose, representing one’s country at the highest level was a badge of honor for Glendale’s participants.
“As a player, I want to ensure that every time I step into that field I represent my country to the best of my ability and hard top quality rugby,” said Kruger.
It also provided a valuable learning experience; one that Snyman hopes to apply to the upcoming domestic campaign.
“From a coaching point of view, I’ll be looking at these games for new ideas, new structures and the way they do things,” He said. “As a coach you always look to find ways to improve and be different.”
by Mark Smiley | Nov 2, 2015 | Travel
by Mark Smiley
Cherry Creek Valley resident Elizabeth (Biz) Erickson, age 31, watched as her sister Emily, age 36, slowly wasted away and began to die from the liver disease Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis (PSC) as she waited for a transplanted liver from a cadaver. Football legend Walter Payton died from PSC at age 45 and now his football coach Mike Ditka has the very same disease.
Every year thousands die while waiting for a cadaver liver which never comes. Emily’s dilemma was made even more acute from the fact that she has a relatively rare blood type, AB+. Elizabeth could no longer watch her sister suffer and volunteered to help try to save her sister’s life by offering the gift of her own liver or more accurately, 65% of her liver. Luckily livers are one of the most regenerative portions of the human anatomy and if the operation is successful, both women will eventually have full livers. But the operation is not without serious risks for both the donee and the donor.
Out of every 100 people who receive a liver transplant using a living donor, 78 will live for five years or more and 22 will die from the transplant. The odds for the donor are better with approximately one in five hundred dying from the operation.
Transplant
On December 8, 2015, University of Colorado Hospital (UCH) surgeons will transplant a portion of Elizabeth’s liver in Emily’s body. The sisters will spend 5-10 days at UCH and once they are stable, they will be taken to a transplant recovery area to continue recuperating. It takes about 2-4 months of rest, rejuvenation, and regeneration at home. The liver will regenerate in Biz’s body within months and there is a chance that Emily may be close to feeling 100% in six weeks, a feeling that she has not had in over 13 years.
The sisters’ mother, Kathy Barrett, stated, “This is an unbelievable gift Elizabeth is giving to her sister. Elizabeth is my hero too. This is the kind of person she is. This is what she is supposed to do. I’m not even that scared.”
PSC is a chronic disorder of the liver in which the bile ducts outside the liver (the extrahepatic bile ducts) and often the bile ducts inside the liver become inflamed, thickened (sclerotic), narrowed, and finally obstructed. This is a progressive process that can in time destroy the bile ducts.
Thirteen years ago after Emily gave birth to her son she had severe itching which created painful scabs. Her liver enzymes were evaluated and she was initially diagnosed with hepatitis. But after a visit to the Mayo Clinic, her diagnosis was changed to PSC. Her mother Kathy remembers these days vividly. “For me, this has been such a long journey. In the beginning, I was mamma bear and I wanted to fight for the whole thing,” said Kathy. “The first time she got sick, I was off the charts crazy. But then a calm came over me and I said, ‘I can’t control this.’”
The symptoms that Emily currently deals with are extreme fatigue, itching, and a reversed sleep cycle. Her two children are now 13 and 9 years of age. They struggle to understand why their mom is always tired. This transplant is necessary to give her children the childhood she feels they deserve. “I feel like I am living someone else’s life,” said Emily. “I have a lot of guilt associated with it [being tired around her children]. I have no energy to do anything. But if this operation is successful my children will see for the first time the energetic and joyful person that their mother was before PSC struck.”
Support Group
Emily relies heavily on a support group based in Colorado. She attends regular conferences and gets advice from experts. PSC Partners Seeking a Cure, headquartered in Englewood, Colo., is a volunteer organization that was formed in 2005 to provide PSC patients and their caregivers education and support and to raise funds to research the origins of and a cure for the disease.
Donor Alliance
While Emily will be receiving a live transplant from her sister most individuals with PSC must depend upon a liver from a cadaver. Sixty-seven percent of adult Coloradans have registered to be an organ and tissue donor which is a much higher percent than most states.
The registration process is through an organization called Donor Alliance, headquartered in Glendale, Colo. Donor Alliance is an organization that facilitates the donation and recovery of transplantable organs and tissues; the mission is to save lives through organ and tissue donation and transplantation. Every 10 minutes, another person is added to the waiting list.
After waiting on the list, Emily grew increasingly more frustrated. “I made myself inactive because I was scared. I had gotten sicker and sicker. I was in the hospital in early September with fluid buildup.” That fluid buildup became infected which made Emily’s disease more life threatening and Biz’s donation all the more vital.
As children growing up, Emily and Elizabeth, along with their sister Kate (who will be flying into Denver to be with her mom during the operation), were normal, everyday sisters. “Emily was the boss as the older child,” said Kathy Barrett. For example, she would have them pay her to go into her room.”
Now, Elizabeth has the ability to give her sister Emily the greatest payment anyone could ask for. “You get to give the most beautiful gift that anyone can give, which is the gift of life,” said Elizabeth.
For more information about organ and tissue donation, visit DonorAlliance.org. To register to be an organ and tissue donor, visit DonateLifeColorado.org or call 303-329-4747 for more information. For help or support, visit the PSC Partners website at www.pscpartners.org.
by Mark Smiley | Nov 2, 2015 | Featured Stories & Advertisers
by Mark Smiley | Nov 2, 2015 | Featured Stories & Advertisers
by Mark Smiley | Nov 2, 2015 | Main Articles
by John T. Edwards
There has never been a department store opening in Denver quite like that RH Denver (f/n/a Restoration Hardware) had on the evening October 15. Getting an invitation to the event was the hottest ticket in town and the elaborate and costly invitation itself made it clear that the “invitation was nontransferable.” There were doormen and others outside who made sure that no gatecrashers were permitted into the festivities.
All of Denver’s “A” listers and others were there including Hockey Hall of Fame member Wayne Gretzky; Westword’s Patty Calhoun; Barry Hirschfeld Jr. and his wife Arlene fresh from a talk by former MSNBC host Soledad O’Brien at a Women’s Foundation of Colorado event; former Denver City Councilman Charlie Brown and his wife Suzanne, senior features editor for The Denver Post; Babs Bosworth and her husband attorney Arthur Bosworth, a former Assistant United States Attorney who is with the law firm of Dill Dill Carr Stonbraker & Hutchings; Justin Joseph of Fox 31 News; Brian Maass of CBS4; and, of course, attorney and lobbyist Steve Farber of the
firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck.
Mr. Farber, called Denver’s own “Prince of Darkness” for his perceived baneful influence on the municipality, did not inter mix with the hoi polloi at the event but instead, as is his modus operandi, stood at a prominent place (in this case in front of the bandstand on the first floor) and waited for others to come to him; and they did so in scores.
RH Denver store at 2900 East 1st Avenue was constructed to look like an enormous four story mansion. As is all the rage in Denver, and permitted by a Planning Board and City Council where anything goes, the building is built only a few feet from 1st Avenue and is part of the ongoing canonization of Cherry Creek and Cherry Creek North. The building is an enormous 70,000 square feet and replaces the old Saks Fifth Avenue store which closed in 2011 and subsequently was torn down in 2014.
Music was supplied by the DJ Collective, elegant hors d’oeuvres by the Epicurean Group and first class wines by Ma(i)sonry. On the top floor is a rooftop park and conservatory which should become a hot spo
t in the not too distant future. RH hired good looking models as greeters. Also attending the event were wealthy, single (or soon to be single) businessmen who were escorted by highly attractive females half their age who were sometimes introduced as “nieces” or “friends of their daughters.”
It seemed appropriate as the company’s Chairman and CEO Gary Friedman had been fired in 2012 for an affair with a female employee less than half his age, but was reappointed in July 2013, even though he continued the relationship with the woman.
Nick LeMasters, the manager of the Cherry Creek Shopping Center, told Fox 31 News that, “This is the kind of store that people will get in their car to come visit. They’ll come from the mountain communities, from the north suburbs, certainly from the southern suburbs and on a larger scale; they’ll be coming from a six-state region.”
RH Denver is owned by Restoration 
Hardware Holdings Inc. based in Corte Madera, California, which is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol RH. RH Denver is the company’s 7th full line design gallery and it also has 59 smaller galleries as well as 18 outlet stores in the United States and Canada, including one in the Outlets at Castle Rock.
