by Mark Smiley | Dec 17, 2017 | Feature Story Middle Left
Are You Setting The Wrong New Year’s Resolution?
by Monica Heinrichs
New Year’s Resolutions seem like a good idea, but most people can only stick to them for the first few months of the year! Last year roughly 80% of the resolutions made in January, failed by the end of February. By December 2017, only 8% of resolutions had actually been successful. This is not meant to discourage you in any way, but we need to rethink how we are setting goals. If we want to improve, our goal setting needs to improve too!
For 2018 the top five resolutions are: Improve Fitness; Eat Better; Quit Smoking/ Drinking; Travel More; and Learn Something New. These are all great ideas, but they’re not specific enough! In order to make a resolution and actually stick to it, you need to make it a goal, specifically a SMART Goal.
SMART Goals are goals that we use in the fitness industry to help clients create realistic goals that they can achieve in a specific amount of time. Here is what SMART stands for and some questions you can ask yourself while you’re creating your New Year’s Resolution.
S: Specific — What do I want to accomplish?
M: Measurable — How am I going to keep track of my progress?
A: Attainable — Is this goal realistic? Am I setting myself up for failure?
R: Relevant — Why is this goal important to you? What is motivating you to accomplish this?
T: Time-Bound — When do you want to accomplish this goal?
All of these areas are vital to consider, but in my experience attainable and relevant are the areas in which clients lack focus. It is important to create a “big picture” goal for yourself, but you may not be able to accomplish that right away. SMART goals help you create small, realistic goals that build up toward your big picture. For example, if your goal is to lose 25 pounds, when do you want to achieve this by? Healthy, sustainable, weight loss comes at 1-2 pounds per week. So, realistically, the quickest timeframe would be 14-16 weeks. Why do you want to lose 25 pounds? Would your health improve? Do you want to look better? Do you want to feel better? Decide what your motivation is and really hold on to it. Finding out what motivates you can be difficult, but it is essential to making sure your goal is something you actually want!
After you’ve created your SMART New Year’s Resolution, consider who is going to be your support system. Do you have someone in your life that is trying to accomplish the same thing? Having a support system not only keeps you accountable to your goal, but it may challenge you to create more goals along the way! If your goal is fitness related, ask a friend to join you for some workouts, or look into working with a Personal Trainer. If your goal is nutrition based, consider looking for a Nutritionist that can help you with meal plans and grocery shopping lists. Want to learn something new? Look into classes offered in the area. Regardless of what your resolution is, you must put in work to get there. If you are not planning on taking that first step toward your goal, I guarantee someone else is not going to do it for you.
Take ownership, and be excited about what you are working toward! There can be a great deal of stress built up when you choose your goal. Try your best to let that go, enjoy the process and reward yourself along the way! Change is hard work and hard work should be celebrated. Congratulations on your new goal, it’s going to be a great New Year!
Monica Henrichs is the Health and Wellness Director at the Glendale Sports Center. She is originally from Wisconsin and is a Green Bay Packers fan. She is a certified Personal Trainer, Health Coach, and Group Fitness Instructor with eight years of experience working with all types of people toward their health and fitness goals.
Monica Heinrichs
by Mark Smiley | Nov 21, 2017 | Feature Story Middle Left
by Lisa Marlin
David Ellis
A coffee shop in Cherry Creek North has earned bragging rights thanks to a determined employee and a perfect blend of Wisconsin maples and coffee beans. David Ellis recently won the top prize in the Peet’s Coffee Barista Competition, beating out several hundred other baristas from the company who competed nationwide.
A plaque commemorating the win is now on display in Peet’s Coffee & Tea on 2nd Avenue in Cherry Creek North where Ellis has been making and serving beverages for the past two years. “Our team at Cherry Creek has done so much to help with the competition as well, so having the plaque in our store this year is awesome,” he said.
Now in its 10th year, the competition is a chance for Peet’s baristas to enrich their handcrafted beverage skills through preparing and serving espresso, cappuccinos, and developing a personally designed specialty beverage; all while being appraised by judges on their overall preparation abilities, including latte art.
Following months of district and regional competitions, Ellis was among three baristas who were invited to company headquarters in Alameda, California, in October to present their personal beverages to company Roastmaster Doug Welsh and the coffee department.
“My signature beverage was a blend of maples that I sourced directly from a Viroqua, Wisconsin, farm,” said Ellis, who has worked as a barista since 2007 and doesn’t plan on stopping. “I absolutely love coffee, so being able to perfect my craft and passion is great. My barista skills really are just my passion for coffee and craft mixed with my passion for customer service.”
This year’s win is especially sweet because although Ellis had progressed to the finals in 2016, he didn’t bring home the prize. “After getting so far and so close last year, I put a lot of work into practice this year, so it means a great amount to take the win home to Colorado,” Ellis said.
His win also means a corporate donation to the charity of his choice. “I chose to honor Pikes Peak Suicide Prevention because of a personal connection to the topic and the organization,” he said, adding that he has participated in training there to learn more about suicide and crisis intervention.
Finally, his prize includes a trip to Costa Rica in 2018. “Traveling to or
igin with Peet’s Coffee is such an exciting opportunity,” he said. Origin is a single farm or a specific collection of beans from a single country. In this case, it applies to the farmer communities in Peet’s People and Planet initiative. Los Cafeteros Blend, which is a part of this line, is sourced from Costa Rica as well as Nicaragua. Ellis said he is looking forward to the chance to learn more about how Peet’s Coffee delivers social and environmental benefits while there.
A bonus to that trip will be the opportunity he’ll have to explore another passion. “I’m hoping for the chance to take some amazing pictures and broaden my experience as a professional photographer,” he said.
Asked how his passion for coffee and cameras might compare, Ellis had this to say, “Like my role as a barista with the Cherry Creek coffee bar team, as a portrait and wedding photographer I’m often interacting with people from all walks of life. As such, it’s really important to know how to talk to people and make them comfortable. You really have to hone that skill and build it over time.”
The same could be said for the patience he put into crafting the winning cup of coffee out of a shop in Cherry Creek. And there is a plaque there to prove it.
by Mark Smiley | Oct 23, 2017 | Feature Story Middle Left
by Ruthy Wexler
The Carla Madison Recreation Center, under construction for two years at the corner of Josephine and East Colfax, will officially open mid-December. Like its namesake, the center intends for a wide variety of citizens to have the very best.
Multi-leveled and multi-colored, the 62,000 square-foot building features: two swimming pools (leisure and lap); a rooftop deck; a gymnasium with full-size basketball court; cardio-weight and exercise rooms; a child watch area; classrooms and gathering spaces — as well as an outdoor plaza complete with picnic and ping pong tables, a bouldering wall, bike station and slackline area.
Soon, roughly 30,000 monthly visitors will enjoy this state-of-the-art haven in Denver’s urban core.
How Carla Madison — City Council representative for District 8 from 2007 until her death in 2011 — would have loved it!
No One Like Her
With her bright orange hair and costume-like outfits, Madison didn’t look like a politician. Nor — beaming at all and sundry as she dashed about town on her orange scooter — did she act like one.
“We all looked forward to seeing what she would have on,” said a colleague, recalling Madison’s outrageous headgear. “Once she wore c
at ears to a meeting!”
But representing her district was no joke to Madison, who worked 16-hour days and cared deeply about health care, historic preservation and zoning. Her approach to policy, said Governor John Hickenlooper, was “thoughtful and pragmatic.”
He added, “There is and never was anyone like her.”
Unopposed
Madison stood out in this way, too: I could not find one word spoken against her — a rare phenomenon in politics.
Even before her death brought out the accolades, politicians of all persuasions praised Madison’s kindness and generosity.
“If I was having a bad day,” said Hickenlooper, “I would seek Carla out for the tonic of her company.”
Madison — who worked as a mapmaker and physical therapist before entering politics — considered herself an artist. But her greatest work of art was her life, where she shaped each day with such joyful sincerity, cynicism faded in her presence. She’d finished her first term and was running unopposed for her second when Madison succumbed to the cancer she’d been battling and died at age 54.
Connections
“We didn’t know Carla,” says Craig Bouck, CEO of Barker Rinker Seacat (BRS), the Denver architecture firm that designed the new center. “But talking to people who did, her values inspired us. With her name, the word ‘connect’ always came up. She believed in the power of connection. And we thought about that.
“What we did was take the front of the building and pull it away from the street — just a bit — to create a covered porch. This is where people can stop, engage, mingle …
“And how she celebrated herself in bright colors? That influenced our palette. Inside, bold bright colors … including orange!”
First In Colorado
The architects are clear: Carla Madison is the only urban rec center in Colorado.
“Sure, there are gyms in the city. But rec centers with all the a
menities are always located in parks or suburban spaces,” Bouck explained. “We were challenged: ‘How to provide great spaces for the community and also convey the uniqueness of this setting?’”
With land at a premium, they stacked spaces vertically — and used large expanses of glass. “Imagine,” chuckled Bouck. “You’re playing basketball, you look out — and see city rooftops and also the Front Range!
“‘It’s Colorado!’ we kept saying. So we put big garage doors on the exercise rooms … they roll up to let in fresh air.”
Unique
Connecting to nearby “historic elements” — Sullivan Gateway, the Esplanade, East High School — was deemed equally important so the architects placed windows to afford long views down Colfax. “People might not be consciously aware they’re taking in history, but it sinks in,” said Bouck, who sat with his team on a garage roof to watch pedestrian flow down Colfax. “From East, 1200 kids move through this intersection every day at lunch. Now they can eat at our picnic tables, have fun on the bouldering wall …
“We’ve worked closely with East. They can use our pool. We can use their parking space.”
That reciprocal partnership is just one of the center’s unique features. Others include: 1) public art on the exterior, an LED screen lighting up according to inside activity; 2) a climbing wall on the outside of the building, starting at the 25’ second level; 3) exercise rooms that face the mountains; 4) the best view of all — the rooftop deck — given over to the community.
Community
Efforts to give this “long underserved” community a center began in 2003. During subsequent years, as the city purchased the land and gathered the funds, the project was known as Central Denver Rec Center. Then a grassroots movement began: “Name It Carla.” Signatures on petitions mounted. There was no opposition.
Now, Carla Madison Recreation Center will be an integral part of the East Colfax neighborhood, where businesses say they welcome the new center and the increased energy it will bring.
In a last interview, Madison said, “My only regret is that I won’t 
be able to finish the work I want to do.”
But seeing as how Madison fought for the resurgence of Colfax — how she cared about art and the environment — with this new (art-filled, LEED Gold certified, community-friendly) center, not only her name will live on; her work and spirit will too.
by Mark Smiley | Sep 25, 2017 | Feature Story Middle Left
Creating An Inspired Painting Per State, Artist Hopes To Fund Scholarships Through Sales
by Glen Richardson
This January, Glendale artist Emily Camp, 21, is setting out to paint 50 canvases in 50 states in 52 weeks. That’s right, come January 1, she is selling all her belongings and road tripping across the U.S.A. to create one inspired painting per state!
The entire trip is being funded by art sales both prior to leaving and during the 50 state trip. Goal is to create a scholarship fund from 20 percent of all art pieces sold. “The fund will financially assist other young artists to follow their big dreams, crazy projects and awesome passions,” Camp tells the Chronicle.
“If the work she creates during the year-long trip sells,” she calculates, “the fund will raise from $20,000 to as much as $50,000 to be dispersed among 50 scholarship winners.” The scholarships, she believes, “will encourage young artists to dream big, go after those dreams and recognize the support they have around them.” The artwork she creates is intended to represent, illustrate and illuminate the unique beauty in each state, as well as the culture and people within them. “I look forward to representing each state to the best of my abilities,” she adds.
Fundraising, Shows
As part of the fundraising effort, she will be releasing new works, accepting commissions, and offering art in exchange for various donations. Scholarships — to be known as the “Reach For Your Dreams” scholarship — will be from $100 to as much as a $1,000 one-time reward given to the winning applicant in 
each of 50 states. Direct donations can be made to Emily Camp’s GoFundMe account: www.gofundme.com/artandaffect.
Despite her young age, Camp’s artwork has been popular and her pieces have been shown frequently at local establishments around town. Recently her art has been exhibited at Stellas Coffee House on Pearl St. and Kaladi Coffee Roasters on East Evans Ave. This August-September her work was chosen for PARADOX, a juried show curated by internationally known sculptor Lawrence Argent at the SPARK Gallery in the Santa Fe Arts District. Started in 1979, SPARK is the oldest cooperative gallery in Denver. A former Professor and Head of the Sculpture Program at DU, Argent trained at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia, and has an MFA from Maryland’s Rinehart School of Sculpture.
Camp’s piece selected for the show was a 22” x 26” acrylic painting on paper titled “Clarinet or Bassoon?” Artists whose pieces were chosen for the SPARK exhibit had to utilize or manipulate the material they used by freely mixing combinations of various media in a paradoxical way. They also had to provide a statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd but in reality expressed a possible truth.
Trip Plans, Tracking
Camp’s basic trip is mapped out. She will embark from Austin, Texas, on January 1, taking a southeast route to the East Coast, and the Northern States. She will then travel down the West Coast before heading to the Southernmost states. “
My route is mostly circular, while touching in and out of the centrally located states,” she explains. She plans to take a ferry from Seattle to Alaska in September. She will travel by plane to Hawaii on the final week of the trip. “The route I have mapped will be avoiding both extreme winter and extreme summer. I will be mostly up North come
summer and down South during
the winter months,” she notes.
The Glendale artist was born in Oregon and moved around frequently growing up. She relocated to Denver from Houston in Janu
ary 2017. She lived in Houston for six years. Her only major travel experience was a single trip from Houston up north and then down the West Coast in one extensive trip. “Other than that,” she observes, “I have traveled frequently for recreation, mostly by car.” Camp plans to keep costs down by staying mostly with friends, family, couch surfing, camping, and utilizing her car. Hotels will only be used on a need-be basis. “I do have quite a few relatives and acquaintances around the country and will be staying with as many of them as possible,” she notes.
Chronicle readers can track Camp’s progress on her website: www.artandaffect.com Readers will also be able to continually track her progress throughout the year, following the intended route via map, and of course, buy artwork. Moreover, her Instagram (@artandaffect) is also kept up-to-date with recent works and trip planning progress.
by Mark Smiley | Aug 30, 2017 | Feature Story Middle Left
Shideh Kerman, BS, MBA
by Shideh Kerman, BS, MBA
AFC Urgent Care Denver
Analysis released by the Kaiser Family Foundation in August found that most proposed healthcare premiums in different states that participated in the study show an increase in premiums for 2018.
The research looked at proposed premiums across major metropolitan areas in 20 states and Washington, D.C. Overall, they found that 15 of those states will see increases of a minimum of 10 percent or more next year. For plans on the individual market, the average proposed premium increase across all companies is about 27 percent. The cost of employer-sponsored coverage is expected to rise about 7 percent next year.
So the amount of the increases in premiums will depend on whether the healthcare plan is offered through the individual market or employer.
The healthcare plans on the individual market are for people who do not get their health insurance through employers. About 10 million people who buy policies through HealthCare.gov and state-run markets are potentially affected, as well as another 5 to 7 million who purchase individual policies on their own. In the state of Colorado, it will be roughly 120,000 people who shop for health insurance in the individual market.
The reason for the increase of these proposed premiums is that insurers are not certain how Congress will change the scope of benefits they must offer through their plans. In other words whether the government will continue to mandate that individuals be insured or continue to subsidize insurers that take on high-risk individuals through cost-sharing reductions in 2018.
Some lawmakers want to offset the cost of the subsidies, estimated at $7 to $10 billion next year, perhaps by cutting other health programs. Moreover, many Republicans criticize the subsidies as a bailout for insurers, and say they will not provide the funds unless Congress also takes steps to reduce insurance costs and cut back federal regulation of the industry.
Consumers in the government-sponsored individual markets can dodge the hit with the help of tax credits that most of them qualify for to help pay premiums. Non-government sponsored consumers could pay full price. Many are self-employed business owners.
The ongoing political turmoil for people who buy individual health insurance stands in sharp contrast to the relatively calm and stable process for most Americans with coverage through large employers, who will only face single-digit increases. The cost of employer-sponsored coverage is expected to rise around 7.46 percent next year, which are averages across all plans and states.
The 2018 premium prices have been the subject of anticipation — and worry — for months. But remember that these are only what the insurers have requested and are not yet finalized. The insurers must justify their premiums to the Division of Insurance.
All theses uncertainties led to the CMS [Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services] giving health insurers three more weeks to finalize their 2018 ACA [Affordable Care Act] individual marketplace rates, pushing the deadline to Sept. 5. State regulators have allowed insurers to increase their healthcare premium rates to “account for uncompensated liability that insurers may face for cost-sharing reductions,” the CMS said in a memo.
More detailed information about premiums is offered on CMS website. The plans and requested premiums from the insurance companies, also called filings, are available on the under Division’s “Health Insurance Filings” web page.
by Mark Smiley | Jul 24, 2017 | Feature Story Middle Left
by Daniel Foster, Esq. and Michael Gates, Esq.
Small and mid-size business owners beware, you are in the crosshairs. After the changes in Colorado law in January 2015 opening the door to discrimination suits against employers with fewer than 15 employees, the number of claims being filed by employees against their employers has skyrocketed. Filing lawsuits against an employer has turned into a cottage industry and can be quite lucrative. (Note: if you are an employee of Foster, Graham, Milstein & Calisher, LLP you can disregard everything I am saying!)
The reality is there are many valid complaints an employee can have with his/her employer and in many of those circumstances a rational discussion between the parties can resolve most issues. Yet there are some cases that cannot get resolved and end up in court. Some make sense, many others do not. Small, and even mid-size, business owners know you are struggling to run your operations, pay your bills, fix the copier (again, ugh!), market new business, and somewhere in the middle of all of this you have a disgruntled current or former employee complaining that he/she was treated unfairly, or worse, illegally, by you or one of your managers. If you mix in a highly aggressive attorney and encouragement from friends and family, it can be a recipe for real headaches and financial strain.
So, you say, “Thanks Danny for cheering me up, but what’s a small business to do?” Great question! And many of the solutions are easy ones. As I have previously explained, our law firm, Foster, Graham, Milstein & Calisher, LLP, is fortunate to have many exceptional lawyers. One is our partner Michael Gates. Michael’s practice focuses on employment law for small and mid-size businesses and he has some words of encouragement and help for you, as well as an opportunity to learn what you can do, face to face for free. Take it away Michael.
Thank you, Danny. I will give you an example of something vexing many employers right now. In January 1806, John Adams wrote a letter to Benjamin Rush labeling Alexander Hamilton the “bastard brat of a Scotch peddler.” Adams was so fond of this label, in fact, that he used it at least twice more in correspondence referencing Hamilton. Not to be outdone, John Quincy Adams referred to Thomas Jefferson as a “slur upon the moral government of the world.” Something about apples and trees. Even across the Pond, Winston Churchill on Prime Minister Clement Attlee: “He is a modest man with much to be modest about.” Benjamin Disraeli said of William Ewart Gladstone, “[i]f Gladstone fell into the Thames, that would be a misfortune, and if anybody pulled him out, that, I suppose, would be a calamity.” While our friends speaking the Queen’s English may be somewhat more refined, there truly is nothing new under the sun.
Today, employers must deal with a workforce with social media accounts who have been taught they can change the world 140 characters at a time. Every employee has his/her own little platform to announce to the world their views on any topic, including expressions of disagreement with those who do not share their beliefs. The sad truth is that it has become easier and easier to resort to shaming, insulting, and demonizing those we do not agree with on any topic. And, the result can be devastating to employee morale and, in some cases, to the employer’s business directly. Words like “snowflake” have made their way into mainstream public discourse. Social media provides a platform to call people names you would never say to their face, like “stupid” or an “idiot” or even a “special kind of stupid.” We live in a world where we are told we are important and that our views should be expressed, and express them we do. History will judge what we may have sacrificed in the process.
In the meantime, employers have to deal with an ever more outspoken workforce. We have been extremely fortunate here at FGMC to co-exist as conservatives and liberals, Democrats and Republicans, religious and non-religious, without resorting to that level of communication. (Though we have not been tested with an admitted Raider fan…yet.) Not every employer is so lucky. The truth is, the level of insults, shaming and demonizing, whether aimed directly at a person or indirectly at a group of people, can and will affect employee morale, productivity, and, in some cases, safety. Political and, even, hate speech are a reality for every employer.
What can an employer do to protect their company when it comes to this activity? What are other landmines that employers face on a daily basis that with a little guidance can be avoided? Sexual harassment, ADA compliance, FMLA, wages, etc. The exposure is significant and most small and medium sized businesses do not have the ability to hire in-house counsel to provide legal advice and direction. Small to mid-size businesses, who have limited in-house human resources capacity, are a particularly ripe target and can quickly find themselves living on the edge and hoping for the best. For the small to mid-size employer, we see a number of easily avoidable, recurring issues/mistakes:
- Properly classifying employees. Perhaps the number one issue for the Department of Labor.
- Tracking and paying vacation time. Many employers are still surprised to discover Colorado considers unused, unpaid vacation as “wages.”
- Failing to have a written anti-harassment/anti-discrimination policy. It will be the first thing the government and employee’s attorney want to see.
- Properly documenting employee misconduct and performance. Many discrimination and harassment suits can be avoided by simple documentation.
- Tracking employee hours. It is easy to let this slide and painful when you do.
- Knowing when, and when not, to offer severance upon termination.
- Policing professionalism in the workplace.
- Failure to address and end inappropriate use of office e-mail and computers. Everyone has a story about an employee who forwards tasteless, racist, or other offensive humor or who uses company computers to access inappropriate material, creating a possible hostile work environment in the process.
- Having a legal social media policy for employees.
- Knowing when to use (and to enforce) non-compete agreements.
At FGMC, we focus on employment solutions for the small to mid-sized employer here in Colorado and would be delighted to help you! Being an employer in 2017 is much different than 1997, 2007 or even 2016. There are many traps an employer can find themselves in and it’s critical to know many of these dangers before you fall into them. We encourage all business owners, small, medium and large to join us at our first FREE Employer’s Boot Camp where we will give you many pointers about how to avoid exposure and protect yourself and your business. We will have two lunch sessions at our office – the first on Tuesday, August 22 and the second on Wednesday, August 23 from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Each session will be capped at 12 people. We will even throw in the lunch! Please RSVP so we can make sure you have a spot (mgates@fostergraham.com or ndale @fostergraham.com) and reserve your space for either the 22nd or the 23rd today. I look forward to meeting you and discussing your employment solutions.
Danny is a managing partner of Foster, Graham, Milstein & Calisher (FGMC). His practice focuses on personal injury. The law firm of FGMC, located in Cherry Creek, is a full service law firm focusing on: criminal defense, personal injury, real estate, litigation, liquor licensing, construction law, tax/estate planning, bankruptcy and zoning. This article does not create an attorney-client relationship and is for informational use only (what do you expect from an attorney!
