At the onset of 2020, Samantha Donen had it made. She had recently graduated from Metro State University with a Bachelor of Science in industrial design. After completing four years of intense study, she had also won several prestigious design contest awards including first place in the Community Veggie Box Denver Botanic Gardens Contest, first place in the Clean River Design Challenge, sponsored by Greenway Foundations and the City of Denver, as well as the 2020 Impact Award from MSU Denver. She has also designed a dog harness called “Wag” and an ergonomic desk for children dubbed “Little Butts.”
As February crept into March, however, it became apparent that an industry frozen from the impending COVID-19 shutdown was putting a serious damper on her dreams. Sam was set to kick off her career as an exhibit designer, when over 650 trade shows across multiple industries were shut down by COVID-19 restrictions. By April, it was clear that pursuit of her design career would have to be put on hold, as the pandemic had other ideas for the economy and for society in general. “Pursuing my passion in a year riddled with anxiety was not an easy thing to do,” she recalls. “”I had to realize,” she continues, “that it was not personal — this was happening to everybody.”
A Hero’s Journey
Despondent but not deterred, Donen sought guidance from a local leader by the name of Rabbi Yossi — a figure known for his outreach work with the Jewish community the world over. He encouraged Sam to follow her chosen path no matter the obstacles — citing the parable of Noah’s Ark as a compelling example of design work rendered in a challenging time.
Despite the lockdown, Samantha Donen was determined to put her design skills to work.
Inspired to press on, Donen began noticing the repeating news items about the severe lack of readily available personal protective equipment (PPE) — not just for medical workers, but for the average citizen as well. She did a bit of digging and discovered Make4Covid.co — a nonprofit organization dedicated to making masks and delivering them to as many hospital workers and everyday citizens as possible.
Donen reached out to Dan Griner, the Design and Clinical Testing Lead for Make4Covid, and after a four-hour Zoom meeting she was welcomed into the fold. She then teamed up with Lance Ferguson, the Soft Goods Industrial Designer. The two were tasked with curating a database of all the mask designs floating about the internet and coming up with one universal design which was effective, comfortable, easy for beginners to sew and great for experts to mass produce.
Off To The Races, Onto The Faces
Thirty days later, after several prototypes and tests, they had created the perfect design along with a “how to” video to boot — complete with captions, examples and narrated instructions. Donen then found a way to become further involved, “Since I live in the Denver/Aurora area, I offered to be a ‘hub captain’ — so people drop off and pick up at my place every Sunday — with all COVID-19 precautions in place, of course.” A typical Sunday will have folks who are donating materials dropping off, people dropping off batches of completed masks, and organizations in need of masks picking up requested orders.
Although her professional career was still on hold, Donen quickly discovered that she was gaining valuable experience not only as a designer, but as a coordinator, an administrator and a team leader. “Where I could have become isolated (due to COVID-19 shutdown) I was actually becoming more and more connected to people in my industry.”
“This is a big organization,” Donen explains, “with a marketing team, lawyers, clinical testers, shipping departments, request receiving departments and a lot more.” Ever the driven innovator, Donen then created a child-sized version of the Make4Covid model with a “cord lock” for the ear straps and an overall smaller design.
An Inspiring Perspective
Thus far, Make4Covid has sewn and distributed over 20,000 masks for COVID-19 prevention in the Denver area and more than 50,000 overall. Donen’s design is an open source model available to anyone and everyone who wants and/or needs to make masks. Currently, there is a network of volunteers making masks for family, for professionals in their personal circle and even as a way to make a few bucks — which is perfect for those who have lost work due to the shutdown.
Donen offers some words of wisdom after her first year in the private sector: “Anyone still struggling with ‘what’s next’ or ‘what do I do’ since their careers may have been interrupted — I encourage you to reach out and see where your skills can be used. You can still have a purpose and make a difference and maybe even become part of an organization of like-minded people. Before you give up, seek guidance from someone who can offer an outside perspective.”
The Story Of A “Sewist”
Somewhere along the way, the Make4Covid mask-sewing volunteers were given the nickname of “Sewists” — a term of endearment, no doubt, for folks donating their time and effort for the greater good. One such volunteer is Sammie Hamilton, a longtime friend of Samantha Donen who was drawn into the Make4Covid movement through Donen’s enthusiasm and gung-ho attitude. “She is this driving force — she really inspired me,” recalls Hamilton, an experienced jeweler skilled in the mediums of copper, silver and brass. “I dusted off an old sewing machine, looked at the directions and got to work — and I don’t even sew!” Sammie and husband Tate are long-standing stalwarts of the Denver arts and music scene. “One thing we have learned is adaptability. That’s a hallmark of the art world.”
A sampling of masks from Sammie Hamilton — a “Sewist” for Make4Covid.
Hamilton sews masks nearly every day, donating anywhere from 25 to 50 per week and even making a few on the side to sell where and when she can simply through word of mouth — no website, no Twitter account, no Instagram — just by reaching out to other people personally. She sees her involvement in Make4Covid as a silver lining of sorts: “She [Donen] challenged me in a very soft, very quiet way … and that’s what has kept me going from April until now.”
Enter The “Stitch Ninjas”
Meanwhile, by mid-March 2020, another Denver group had surfaced with a similar directive. The Denver Mask Task Force was started by Amanda Glen, who saw the need for PPE and drew inspiration from her mother’s quilting group on Facebook. Volunteers making masks for medical professionals were dubbed “Stitch Ninjas” and can currently order a sew kit at denvermask taskforce.com and get started asap. Currently, the group is run by Sara Spery and volunteer partner Amy Perlman. Thus far, Spery reports having donated 42,000 masks to medical providers.
The Denver Mask Task Force “Stitch Ninjas” are making a huge difference across the Mile High City.
The group launched with a small grant of 10K and a slew of donated start-up materials. A local arts and crafts supplier, Fancy Tiger Crafts, (59 Broadway, Denver, CO 80203) heard about the Denver Mask Task Force and reached out to help by sharing their network of fabric and textile manufacturers for soliciting donations. “One of the coolest things from this experience” Spery attests, “is that it has given people’s lives purpose and meaning, whether it is an elderly person who can’t leave home who is sewing masks or a person with a car who is delivering them.”
The company’s business model is a hybrid concept, with the directive of donating time, materials and finished products to the medical field while marketing high-quality, breathable, washable, reusable masks to the general public. An inspiring effort indeed, to see a new business forming rather than another one shutting down. “I was in it from the get-go,” Spery continues, “I was bored, I had nothing to do — so I had nothing to lose.”
Elite competitors will have a new avenue to showcase their athletic talent. Taking place November 17 through 21, Glendale is hosting an invitation-only crossover camp that is designed to attract top athletes from non-rugby sports and teach them how to play rugby. The brainchild of Glendale’s Director of Rugby and Manager Mark Bullock, the crossover camp will focus on recruiting American athletes who could become star rugby players.
Photo by Justin Purdy
“The majority of elite athletes in the USA were playing university sports and then would go on to the NFL, NBA, NHL, or the Olympics for track and field, wrestling etc., if good enough,” Bullock explains. “The thought was, why not recruit those elite athletes to rugby once they have completed their university eligibility and/or were cut from professional teams.”
According to Bullock, other rugby teams are at the top of the world rankings because they have elite athletes playing for them. Conversely, the USA has done poorly in the Rugby World Cup over the years because the competitors have been good rugby players but not top athletes. He adds, “We want to change the equation. In the past, our top USA Men’s National Team players have all come from other sports.” By effectively converting elite athletes (who have previously been in scholarship university sports programs) into rugby players, Bullock hopes to mold them into World Cup-worthy competitors.
New Method Of Recruitment
For those unfamiliar with the rugby world, and to use pop culture as an example, the notion of an athlete crossing over from one sport to the other has historically gone well. In The Cutting Edge, a college hockey star trains hard and becomes a gold medal-winning Olympic figure skater and, in Cool Runnings, track runners work hard and become a competitive bobsled team. But in real life, some might question whether or not a former track star, or former hockey, basketball, or baseball player can turn into a competitive rugby player. Based on the trial camp Bullock ran in 2018, he is confident it will work.
“We trained for a week and then played in the Aspen Ruggerfest where we lost our first two matches but improved each game,” he remembers. “The last two matches we won quite readily as the players got better acquainted with the game, and how it is played, demonstrating that we can make the transition. Now our goal is to transition the players into a professional team to ultimately compete in a foreign competition and develop players for the USA National Team.”
In preparation for the crossover camp, Bullock and his staff created a database comprised of approximately 3,000 athletes from collegiate football, basketball, wrestling, track and field, along with players from the NFL, XFL, CFL, and other sports. Additionally, similar to Cool Runnings, Bullock and his staff have worked with the USA bobsled program and learned about how they recruited crossover athletes for their program. By researching university athletic program websites, coach contacts, NFL websites, and team sites, they were able to accumulate a comprehensive list of athletes and then watched video, spoke to coaches, and found methods to contact the players who fit their criteria.
Photo by Seth McConnell
Intriguing Sport
When asked whether these athletes are excited about rugby or if they know anything about the sport coming into the camp, Bullock says that so far, he has seen a mix. He explains, “Some have played, some have seen the sport, and others have just heard of it. One example is a wrestler, who recently graduated from Stanford, told us he was intrigued by the sport and really liked the ‘pile of guys in the middle,’ referring to a scrum. And he wanted to be right in the middle of it.”
Another example comes straight from the Glendale coaching staff. Defense Coach and Director of Amateur Rugby Luke Gross was a Division One basketball player on scholarship at Marshall University and was randomly asked to play rugby while he was a graduate student. He accepted the offer and within a year he was on the USA National Team, earned a contract to play professionally in Europe, and ultimately played 12 years as a professional rugby player in England, Wales, and Italy.
Talent Goes A Long Way
Overall, Bullock’s goal for the crossover camp is to offer players professional contracts following the camp, and for these players to develop to the point where they are able to represent the USA and make the team a contender at the Rugby World Cup. He says he expects a minimum of 40 athletes to attend the camp and contract offers will depend on performance during the camp.
“This is an experiment and we have a hypothesis that we can convert crossover elite athletes to become a high-performing rugby team,” Bullock explains. “Not all hypotheses work out 100 percent but we will adjust and learn along the way, just as the athletes we will be introducing to the game will learn.”
Pumpkins: Pumpkins will be available for purchase from the 4MHP Pumpkin Patch.
Fall into some old-fashioned fun at Four Mile Historic Park’s annual Pumpkin Harvest Festival. The festival is set for Friday, October 2, and Saturday, October 3, from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sunday, October 4, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Pumpkin Harvest will require advanced purchase, timed tickets. A ticket guarantees you a 90-minute experience in the 12 acre park.
Fun For All Ages: The annual Pumpkin Harvest Festival at Four Mile Historic Park will feature activities for all ages including craft kits, pioneer games, and pumpkin decorating. The festival is set for October 2-4 with a free preview for members on October 1, 2020.
Activities for all ages include craft kits, pioneer games, live music, photo booth, pumpkin walk, pumpkin decorating, demonstrations and more. Additional activities available for purchase include Pumpkins from the 4MHP Pumpkin Patch, Tasty Treats for Purchase from partnered Food Trucks, Fall-Inspired Beverages.
Sponsorships are still available and include a 10’x10’ tent, choice of location, access to power, listing on event collateral, and complimentary tickets to the festival. Visit FourMilePark.org for more information or to fill out a sponsorship form.
The Pumpkin Harvest Festival admission is $15 and Children 3 and under are free. Members have exclusive access to a free preview night on Thursday, October 1, 2020. There is still time to purchase a membership at www.fourmilepark.org/get-involved/membership.
“Civil service statutes establish a floor for police officer employment protections, which the unions can raise through collective bargaining.”
by Robert Davis
Imagine working in an office with 1,000 coworkers. Once every five days, you get a memo saying a coworker was accused of misconduct. One day you see a video from one incident — a coworker shooting someone in the back. You ask the coworker about it and they say the other person had a gun and they feared for their life. With those magic words, you know the shooting will be justified by the company, almost no matter what the video showed.
Backup: Denver Police Department called in 12 local agencies for backup amid protests.
Anywhere else and this would be unthinkable. For the Director of Denver’s public safety department Murphy Robinson and Police Chief Paul Pazen, this office is familiar. And it’s the storied history of the office that prevents police reform activists and police officers from reforming the mountain of legal protections afforded to police officers accused of misconduct.
Why? Because the city’s civil service laws were designed with a job description in mind. In turn, Denver’s police union — Denver Police Protective Association (DPPA) — learned how to coil its collective bargaining agreement around those laws to protect officer misconduct. And until this job description is reimagined, longstanding police misconduct reform seems ill-fated.
Director of Public Safety Murphy Robinson broached the topic with city council in June during a discussion on reforming DPD’s use of force policy. As a self-proclaimed student of history acknowledged that moving on from his department’s storied history is necessary to institute immediate reforms.
“We are at a place where we need to move the needle forward,” Robinson said.
His words rang hollow to protesters in attendance like Brian Hostraw, who witnessed police officers tear-gassing small children without warning, firing pepper balls and rubber bullets indiscriminately, and destroying the property of homeless individuals with impunity during the George Floyd protests.
“These are not the actions of people I trust to protect me or my family,” Hostraw said.
And there are plenty of police officers who side with Hostraw. Chief Pazen told lawmakers that a majority of his officers agree with the increased scrutiny placed on them by SB217.
But, the one reform activists are demanding most loudly in the wake of the George Floyd protests — easing the ability of police chiefs to fire officers for misconduct — is the most difficult policy to reform.
Denver began crafting legal protections for its police officers when the first settlements along Cherry Creek were staked out in 1858. Territorial governor John C. Moore organized the Rocky Mountain Rangers under a vigilante mandate to protect the miners from the prostitutes, gamblers, and thieves that followed them west. By the time the City & County was chartered in 1904, police officers were influential players in state sponsored corruption, and earned legal protections because of it.
Before being elected mayor, Robert Speer was a veteran member of the Police and Fire Board, which oversaw a diverse range of city operations from peace officer certification to public censorship. As such, he knew how to use Denver’s finest to serve his political ends and was willing to do so.
During his first two terms, Denver’s finest engaged in voter suppression, rigging elections, and shakedowns of casinos, brothels, and saloons. Speer’s motivation was obviously political — his administration of tolerated vice and honest corruption relied on an invisible hand used to ward off Speer’s competitors. Over time, Speer rewarded Denver’s finest with employment protections that unions would later use to thwart cases of police misconduct.
Clash With Police: Demonstrators clash with police at the Colorado Capitol on Saturday, May 30, 2020, during the third day of protests in Denver in response to George Floyd’s death at the hands of police in Minnesota. Photo Credit: (Joe Mahoney, Special to The Colorado Sun)
Realizing how important Denver’s finest were to his political success, Speer created the Civil Service Commission (CSC) during his third tour in office in 1916. The commission established a costly disciplinary and disqualification review processes that often incentivizes public officials to look the other way at police misconduct rather than pursue a moral victory of terminating a rotten officer.
Stephen Rushin, assistant law professor at Loyola University — Chicago, argued in his 2017 article in Duke Law Journal that police union contracts use civil service laws like a double-edge sword. First, they “establish a floor for police officer employment protections, which police unions can raise through collective bargaining.” Second, they tilt the political scales in favor of the unions during negotiations.
Employment protections are established through case law, which often results in costly legal bills for the city. In Denver, city representatives must present their entire case to officers accused of misconduct before the officer decides whether to fight it in arbitration. If arbitration returns an unfavorable result, the case is appealed through the courts, where it hopes to find a judge who will accept an assertion of qualified immunity.
Judge Carlton Reeves of the Southern District of Missouri described qualified immunity as “manufactured fiction” that has had a damning influence on how courts handle cases involving police officers in his decision in Jamison v. McClendon.
He cited a decision from the Fifth Circuit Court where qualified immunity was successfully asserted by corrections officers who were accused of keeping an inmate in a jail cell covered in fecal matter for a weekend before transferring the inmate to a cell in solitary confinement that didn’t have a working toilet or sink.
The Court’s reasoning? Qualified immunity can be asserted in cases where a law is not clearly established. In terms of the case from the Fifth Circuit, the court reasoned the timeframe in which the inmate was kept in unsanitary conditions was unsettled and, therefore, qualified immunity could be asserted.
Judge Reeves specifically addressed this logical quagmire in his opinion, stating “it is a fool’s errand to ask people who love debating whether something is debatable.”
University of Virginia law professor Rachel Harmon observed in her article The Problem of Policing in the Michigan Law Review that civil service laws empower frontline police officers “to challenge any internal managerial action that affects them on both substantive and procedural grounds in a formal adversarial process.”
In May, Denver paid $1 million to settle a case against two police officers who were terminated in 2013 after they lied about assaulting two club-goers in downtown four years earlier. Over the past three years, the city has coughed up over $14.5 million to settle cases involving officer misconduct, according to an investigation by The Denver Post.
Moral Hazard
Because of the cost of disciplining police officers, departments where misconduct is rampant are thus incentivized to withhold information unless an incident rises to a level warranting action. Whistleblower Brittany Iriart revealed in June that DPD, in fact, alters information on its internal misconduct reports to protect its officers before she was fired for violating the confidentiality clause of her employment contract.
DPD: Denver Officers clear a man who fell to the street after they used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the crowd of protestors on May 28, 2020.
Politically, Rushin says, because municipal expenditures such as court settlements can dominate local headlines, the result for lawmakers is a moral hazard. On one hand, they are tasked to upholding the law, yet rely on a third party who is prone to turning the other cheek to prosecute miscreant police officers.
“Municipal leaders may be incentivized to offer concessions on police disciplinary procedures because they are less likely to bear the costs of those concessions in the immediate future,” he wrote.
This issue is further complicated by the political activities of DPPA and its members individually. Since 2012, DPPA has donated over $200,000 to city council candidates, according to the city’s campaign finance data. Over the same time frame, more police officers reported donating to Mayor Michael Hancock than any other candidate for office.
Likewise Denver’s statewide union, Fraternal Order of Police Lodge #27, contributes to General Assembly candidates as in local District Attorneys races.
In her Iowa Law Review article titled Who Shouldn’t Prosecute the Police, law professor Kate Levine argues that a “structural conflict of interest arises when local prosecutors are given the discretion and responsibility to investigate and lead cases against the police,” because “prosecutors rely heavily on the police for their success.”
Levine acknowledges that no criminal case would exist without first contact from a police officer and officers can create and control facts by collecting evidence from the crime scene, interviewing witnesses, or through undercover work, all of which prosecutors can admit in court.
But, the relationship between prosecutor and officer doesn’t end when a case is closed.
DA’s need campaign donations to be elected to office. Then, they rely on police officer conduct to determine negotiating leverage during grand jury cases. The Department of Justice estimates approximately 90 percent of prosecutions end with a plea bargain.
“While cases of police brutality are unlikely to go completely unnoticed, issues of “testifying” by the police, as well as evidence planting, tampering, or withholding, and illegal intimidation tactics will never emerge unless another officer or a prosecutor addresses them,” Levine wrote.
Meanwhile, even though DPPA is a public-sector union, its negotiations with city council are kept confidential. This puts councilmembers at a political disadvantage by keeping them from crowd-sourcing reform ideas from their districts.
Councilmembers also cannot negotiate with union representatives. Instead, they must negotiate through an intermediary. This year it is Legislative Services Director Linda Jamison. Denverite reported that Jamison was not invited to the meetings until three weeks after they began.
Police unions also create leverage vicariously through local news reports on crime rates. Crime statistics from DPD show that violent crime and property crime were all higher in the previous five negotiation years. Last year’s annual report by the Office of the Independent Monitor confirmed officer complaints were higher in these years as well.
Denver City Councilmember Candi CdeBaca, District 9
According to a statement by District 9 Denver City Councilperson Candi CdeBaca, the current CBA negotiations include a measure protecting police officers from furloughs as Denver faces a budget crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic and a two-percent salary increase.
Meanwhile, other government employees covered by career service mandates may be subject to budget-required furloughs. Currently, city projections estimate it will suffer a $226 million shortfall, of which $10 million will come out of DPD’s budget.
“This contract amounts to a uniquely beneficial agreement for DPD in the midst of hundreds of excessive use of force investigations and against a background of nationwide calls for police accountability and transparency,” CdeBaca said.
Violent crime is up 11 percent this year compared to last, according to city data.
Why Reform Hasn’t Worked (Yet)
Police reform activists currently can’t decide whether they advocate for completely tearing down the Denver Police Department or reimagining the role of police officers as a community support role, and this impasse is hindering their overall goal of easing restrictions and procedures for firing police officers for misconduct.
In August, Councilperson CdeBaca introduced legislation to abolish DPD and replace it with a peacekeeping department, a policy she claimed on social media was supported by thousands of Denverites.
Mayor Hancock called the legislation “reckless and irresponsible” in a statement shortly after it was introduced.
“The Councilwoman should exercise greater transparency and public accountability before putting something of this magnitude forward for a vote again instead of springing it on the public. I firmly stand by the men and women of our Police Department and will continue to hold accountable those who step over the line when dealing with the public,” he said.
The proposal lost at the Council level with only CdeBaca supporting it.
Others taking a community-centric approach include the newest appointee to the Citizen Oversight Board (COB), which oversees the body responsible for officer investigations, forensic psychologist Dr. Apryl Alexander.
As an academic, Alexander hopes to use her background to help forge new ways of thinking about community policing that doesn’t include excessive force, but includes accountability and restorative practices.
“People are looking for change in this moment,” she told Colorado Politics.
“I am still making order out of chaos by reinvention.”
— John le Carre
by Luke Schmaltz
Jeff Bezos’ Amazon has prospered greatly from the Covid-19 shutdown along with McDonald’s, Walmart, Target, and many other wealthy Fortune 500 corporations.. Conversely, many of the most unfortunate economic casualties of the Covid-19 shutdown are small businesses — a staggering percentage of which will not recover. Among these, many of the hardest hit are family-owned food and beverage establishments and independent retailers.
Currently, the nation’s financial spine appears to be either broken or at the very least severely out of alignment. Unfortunately, the middle class can’t just go hobbling down to the economic chiropractor and get its mangled column of vertebrae snapped back into place. Rather, the health of each small yet crucial section is going to have to be nurtured back to solvency one joint at a time.
Jeff Bezos
A Personality Crisis
Doing this is going to require innovation, experimentation, and the willingness to abandon some elements of the old fiscal paradigm. The Washington Post recently reported that over 100,000 small businesses have closed down permanently due to the Coronavirus fallout, and more are expected. This year’s decimation of small business has created a massive void in the marketplace as a whole. The character and warmth of family-owned and operated businesses that are no longer there has left consumers with an ever-dwindling set of bland, prefabricated cookie-cutter options. As most folks with even a fraction of personality will agree — that will not do.
The independent entrepreneurial spirit is strong in many Americans, and some would rather work for themselves 80 hours a week than clock in and out of a regular job and toe the line to the corporate status quo. Independent mom and pop businesses can and will etch their place in the economic landscape once again. If you are willing to step out onto shaky ground, there are a few takeaways from the current crisis you can arm yourself with so that the next stay-at-home order will not mean curtains for your piece of the American Dream.
Brass Tacks Of Business
Boarded Up: Bracing boards on windows does not brace the backbone of the economy.
Retail shops and dine-in restaurants carry the always present, ever-increasing burdens of rent, insurance, property tax, loan payments, utility bills and on and on. Before dollar one can be considered profit, these costs must be met. If your passion is preparing delicious food or supplying people with items they need, consider operating from modest digs for starters or better yet, skip the storefront altogether and set up shop from home. Rather than wait for random foot traffic to wander through the door, you might consider marketing to your immediate community and perhaps to an extended clientele within reasonable, deliverable radius. Plus, if your business is non-perishable goods, there’s always the good ol’ United States Postal Service.
Interact With Your Neighbors
Neighbors: Communities are built on relationships between neighbors.
By creating commerce and delivering value to your community, you are playing an important role in bolstering your small section of the backbone. In this scenario, your neighbors and fellow Denverites are your clientele, and developing relationships with them is crucial to your success. For this to happen, however, there must be a general consensus that fast food and big box stores are not the only options when it comes to enjoying professionally prepared meals and purchasing clothes, accessories and gifts. With the unfortunate dwindling of mom and pop places to frequent, people are eventually going to get sick of unhealthy fast food, generic products and soulless interaction. This newly-emerging niche is where small, home-based and low-overhead businesses owners can step in and make a living — and perhaps a difference in their community.
Reach Out In Old And New Ways
Spread the word about your products and services by talking to people in your immediate community. If the quality you present is on par with your passion for your business — those you serve will almost certainly tell their family, friends and neighbors about you. Also, the internet, despite its flaws, is still a powerful tool for doing business — perhaps now more than ever. You can cheaply and effectively build and maintain a clientele via internet marketing — specifically by email. You will need a basic website, an on-page email capture feature and an email management service. All can be acquired and maintained for a few dollars a month. The scope of this article is not broad enough to go into all of the nuts and bolts of this, but please know that for the curious, there are volumes of free information available about every facet of online marketing.
Subvert The Supply Chain
Locally sourcing raw materials is an essential component of a community-focused, small business resurgence. Large agricultural distributors are in the same category as fast food chains and corporate retailers. They are only concerned with numbers and have no contingency in their business plans for building and sustaining communities. On the other hand, according to farm flavor.com, there are 36,180 farms and 156 farmers markets in the state of Colorado. Plus, delivery services such as Grub Hub, Door Dash and Uber Eats are available to deliver just about anything edible you may produce to your local customers. As the locally-sourced, delivered inventory model grows, so too will regional services designed to meet that demand. Currently, Coloradofreshproduce.com and Farmtoforkcolorado.com are serving the entire Denver metro area and surrounding suburbs.
While some of what is presented here is speculative, the fundamentals of what make small businesses volatile are definite: high overhead, a disconnect with the community and outdated marketing strategies. What makes them invaluable, however, is that they are run by human beings who share the same aspirations, concerns and neighborhood as you.
United States Rugby Foundation has recognized Glendale Mayor Mike Dunafon with its prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award to be presented to the mayor August 2020.
Lifetime Achievement: Glendale Mayor Mike Dunafon is receiving the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award from United States Rugby Foundation in August 2020. He is shown here in Chile back in 2001 while he served as Manager of the United States U-19 National Team.
Dunafon was a football, rather than a rugby standout, in his youth. He was a star running back at Golden High School and then played at the University of Northern Colorado (UNC) where he played H-back and wide receiver. Many of Dunafon’s receiving records are still intact at UNC. He was signed on as a wide receiver by the Denver Broncos in 1976, but injuries curtailed his professional career.
In 1978 he traveled down to the Caribbean island Tortola, in the British Virgin Islands, where he was introduced to one of the islands’ favorite sports — rugby and he fell in love with the game’s continuous play and the camaraderie between players and teams.
Dunafon has stated that: “Rugby has had an incredible impact on my life; it’s an extended family that welcomed me instantly as I took to the pitch for the first time and it has since instilled in me an inherent respect and acceptance for people.” He went on to note, “I knew that if I could share that experience with my community, we could create something truly extraordinary that exceeds the bounds of race, religion, sex and economic standing.”
Island Paradise: Mike Dunafon, pictured here in a promotion for Village Cay Marina in the Caribbean island Tortola in 1978, the year he was introduced to the sport of rugby.
He played for British Virgin Islands RFC until 1992 when he moved back to Colorado. He also has a USA Rugby Level 3 coaching certification. From 2000 to 2001, he was the Manager of the United States U-19 National Team, taking them on three international tours to Australia, a World Cup Qualifier in Trinidad, and the 2001 Junior World Cup in Chile.
“Rugby continues to be a big part of my life and has become part of the Glendale lexicon since Infinity Park was established in 2007,” says Dunafon. “I’m thrilled to be honored by the U.S. Rugby Foundation and look forward to the August award event.”
As the only municipally-owned, rugby-specific stadium in the United States, Infinity Park has hosted teams from all over the world. According to U.S. Rugby Foundation Executive Director Brian Vizard, Dunafon’s “biggest impact on rugby in America is the development of RugbyTown USA in Glendale, Colorado.”
On May 30, 2007, then Governor Bill Ritter officially proclaimed Glendale to be the “Rugby Capital of Colorado.”
Vizard went on to note: “As Mayor of Glendale, Mike’s vision was to revitalize a community by embracing the ethos that he saw in rugby — the camaraderie, sportsmanship, and commitment to community. Infinity Park is widely considered to be the finest rugby training facility in the country. I have seen the growth of RugbyTown over the years and am truly amazed by what Mike and the City of Glendale have been able to accomplish.”
Adds Vizard, “We look forward to . . . recognizing Mike with a Lifetime Achievement Award for his over 40 years of service to the sport.”
Glendale has various men’s, women’s and under 19 teams as well as junior programs for kids of all ages. The Glendale Raptors recently withdrew from Major League Rugby wanting to concentrate on developing top players for the national team known as the American Eagles. With regard to the same, USA Rugby has moved from Boulder to Glendale which should greatly assist such an effort.
Dunafon who was reelected for another four-year term as Mayor of Glendale in April 2020, indicated that: “Glendale’s role in the world of rugby will keep on growing. As much as we have achieved over the last decade it is just the beginning. We hope that every kid who plays rugby will want to someday visit and play in RugbyTown U.S.A.”
