by Glendale Sports Center | Oct 20, 2023 | Glendale City News
Denver Woman Shares Diabetes Prevention Month Success Story
YMCA Programs Provide The Toolkit To Set And Meet Health Goals
Healthy living is more than just exercising or just eating right. It is a lifestyle commitment that requires knowing the best ways to meet personal goals — something that is especially front-of-mind for those who are at risk of diabetes. And while Colorado has one of the lowest rates of diabetes in the nation, rates continue to climb as noted in this USA Today story.
Leticia Lozano joined the Diabetes Prevention Program this year at the Downtown Denver YMCA at the suggestion of her doctor. While not technically pre-diabetic, she knew that some things needed to change, but didn’t know how.
“Before I had no vision, no plans,” Lozano shared. “I knew that I wanted to be healthy and change but I didn’t know where to go or how to start. I thought that I was very smart… could do it myself. I realized that was not the case. I needed help.”
Now she has completed 20 diabetes prevention sessions that provide practical insights for healthy habits and specific goals for each participant.
Now “I have a goal,” Lozano explained. “It’s just different — very different, and I can see results.”
This didn’t mean it was easy from the start — the courses are content-rich and can take time to digest and integrate into daily living. Since different methods work better for some people than for others, certified YMCA instructors provide different recommendations to track diet and exercise. For instance, one method includes looking at food labels and keeping count of carbs, protein, fat, and general calories over the course of a day. Another involves using smaller plate sizes and paying attention to how much and what kinds of food are put onto each one.
“At first the class was very boring, and I didn’t like the tracking,” Lozano shared. “It was overwhelming and required a lot of detail to read all the food labels… but later when [my trainer] shared the plating method, I could relate — I am very visual. I could see the portions and that approach, and then it started working for me.”
In addition to the Diabetes Prevention Program, Lozano also more recently started the Y’s Blood Pressure Self-Monitoring Program, which provided helpful perspective on the importance of monitoring blood pressure levels and direction on how to make nutritional and other adjustments as needed.
“I knew beforehand that sometimes your blood pressure can go up because you’re overwhelmed or just finished exercising, and I’m happy I took that class because it made me aware how serious it can be and how easily it can go out of hand. Something like a stroke can happen,” Lozano said. “I reduced my salt intake, and I’m working to be more at ease and not react suddenly to anything. Now I am much more calm.”
As November is National Diabetes Month, Lozano is particularly aware of how the YMCA of Metro Denver programs have helped her identify and meet her own specific health goals.
“I needed to take more control of my lifestyle. Even when this is over with, I think I am going to join the Y, because I see that they have a lot of things that are the best for my health,” she shared. “This is a lifetime commitment — to be healthy.”
The YMCA’s Diabetes Prevention Program is offered year-round in seven counties in metro Denver, including the five YMCA Wellness Centers and over 20 community sites. Virtual sessions are also offered. Learn more about the cost including Medicare eligibility and scholarships at our website.
The YMCA of Metro Denver has been building strong, thriving and equitable communities since 1875 and provides a wide variety of programs and resources for Denverites. Learn more about the Y’s Diabetes Prevention Program, Blood Pressure Monitoring Program and other opportunities at denverymca.org.
by Charles Bonniwell | Oct 20, 2023 | Editorials
The election to replace Auon’tai Anderson as the at-large Board member for Denver Public Schools (“DPS”) will occur on November 7, 2023. Fortunately, almost anyone in the world would be better than Tay Anderson, who became best known for harassing underage girls and setting up grifting GoFundMe get rich schemes. He was the one leading the charge to get rid of police resource officers that got a teacher killed, not that he cared.
It is amazing that anyone would want to run for the thankless non-paying position. Moreover, the Denver School Board is itself a morass of petty, bickering, backstabbing individuals that spend most of their time fighting about the black/brown divide and little about the scandalous performance of Denver Public School students after the closure of the schools because of COVID-19. Those closures were prolonged by the teachers’ unions across the country. The one silver lining to those closures was parents got to see what the schools were in fact teaching and many didn’t like what they saw.
Less than half of DPS students can now read, write, add, and subtract at grade school level and it is getting worse. The longer your child spends at DPS the worse it gets. At one time the business community actually cared about DPS board races, but have abandoned the schools, leaving the field to the teachers’ union (the Denver Classroom Teachers Association) with expected disastrous results.
For this election you actually have a choice. The teachers’ union has endorsed former mayoral candidate and ex-CEO of the now bankrupt Tattered Cover Bookstores Kwame Spear. The teachers’ union has endorsed and gotten elected far worse individuals (see present DPS Board).
Spear is a graduate of DPS, undergrad degree from Columbia, law degree from Yale, and business degree from Harvard. He is probably way overqualified to be on a board of misfits and malcontents. He wants to up teacher pay, paid by a tax hike through a citywide ballot measure. He also wants to boost teachers’ healthcare and parental leave benefits. Moreover, he is for subsidized teacher housing with a down payment support program, and 2,000 units of subsidized housing built on city-owned land. He declares that “the best way to support our students is to support our educators.” No wonder the teachers’ union loves the guy.
But we don’t agree that simply pouring money and benefits to teachers is the best way to help students. He doesn’t demand any increased accountability or increased standards from those same teachers. In the end he will likely simply enrich teachers while the students will continue getting the same deficient education.
John Youngquist
The other major candidate is John Youngquist. He is the former principal of East High School and parent of two East High students. He also served as the area superintendent of
36 schools in Northwest Denver, and has been the president of a consulting firm for school principals.
He decided to run after watching the present board and the superintendent fail to address safety threats and concerns on campuses across the city. He has been endorsed by Denver Family Action, a charter school supporter. Notwithstanding that teachers’ unions believe that schools are there to provide a living for teachers and bureaucrats, education is really about the students and their education. The best way to provide a great education is giving students and their parents choices for schools and letting them determine what is best for them. It creates automatic accountability. Luckily Denver has begun a strong charter and Magnet school program that needs to be expanded and grown upon, and it’s clear Youngquist will do that as well as provide a safe learning environment in all public schools. He has the background to know what works in Denver schools and what does not.
The third candidate is Brittni Johnson, a licensed massage therapist who is now unemployed due to a car accident. She has raised little money and has done little campaigning for the job. She has been endorsed by a plethora of progressive groups. She is the one that would probably fit in well with the other present Board members.
If you’re a teacher and want to vote your pocketbook, then you would want to go with Kwame Spear, but for everyone else, John Youngquist appears the strongest candidate, and we strongly endorse him.
— Editorial Board
by Mark Smiley | Oct 12, 2023 | Travel
Bouncing Beds: Like a gaggle of young kids playing in their grandparents’ room, six artists jump on two 600-pound beds that move on rotating platforms.
Corteo: In this Cirque du Soleil a clown imagines his own funeral as a carnival of sorts, blending the ridiculous with the tragic. The show will be performed five times in January at Blue Arena in Loveland.
CORTEO In Loveland from January 25-28, 2024 at Blue Arena
By Mark Smiley
Corteo, an arena production from Cirque du Soleil is back in North America and heading to Loveland. This unique production, directed by Daniele Finzi Pasca, first premiered in Montreal in April 2005. Since its creation, the show has performed in front of over 10 million spectators, in 20 countries, on 4 continents. Corteo will be presented at the Blue Arena for only five shows from January 25-28, 2024.
Corteo, which means cortege in Italian, is a joyous procession, a festive parade imagined by a clown. The show brings together the passion of the actor with the grace and power of the acrobat to plunge the audience into a theatrical world of fun, comedy and spontaneity situated in a mysterious space between heaven and earth.
The clown pictures his own funeral taking place in a carnival atmosphere, watched over by quietly caring angels. Juxtaposing the large with the small, the ridiculous with the tragic and the magic of perfection with the charm of imperfection, the show highlights the strength and fragility of the clown, as well as his wisdom and kindness, to illustrate the portion of humanity that is within each of us. The music turns lyrical and playful carrying Corteo through a timeless celebration in which illusion teases reality.
The stage has a unique setup as it will be set up in the center of the arena and audience members will be on either side with good sight views. Set Designer Jean Rabasse has divided the Grand Chapiteau and its rotating stage in two, with each half of the audience facing the other half, so they see not only the performance, but also have a performer’s eye view of the audience. There is one turntable built into the stage, which is about 41 feet long, and the track is almost 120 feet long.
The show lasts two hours and 30 minutes (with a 20-minute intermission) and is packed with death defying feats fans have come to expect from Cirque shows. Corteo was in Colorado in 2019 and is back by popular demand. Tickets for Corteo in Loveland are available online at cirquedusoleil.com/corteo.
The performance schedule is Thursday, January 25, 2024 and Friday, January 26 at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, January 27, 2024 at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. and Sunday, January 25, 2024 at 1 p.m.
by Glendale Sports Center | Sep 26, 2023 | Glendale City News
The Health Beat
One Denver Mom Is Helping The YMCA Transform Lives Through Sports
by Claudia Morlan, YMCA of Metro Denver
When Jessica Giffin first signed up her daughter for the 3rd/4th grade basketball at the YMCA of Metro Denver last year, she had no idea she’d fall into coaching the team. While she “accidentally” volunteered for the position, it was a decision that has proved “the best experience.”
Over the course of two seasons, the University Hills YMCA team became one of the best in their bracket, winning all but a few of their games each season and transformed the lives of students and parents alike.
It didn’t start that way. The first game, Giffin couldn’t make it. The second game, her team lost horribly. “Some of the girls started crying,” she recalls. “I encouraged them that what mattered is that we played with heart, and we became ‘team heart.’ Every game we started with the rally cry ‘We’ve got heart!’”
Transformation began from the inside out. “After the kids started taking ownership, the parents got involved too. Every single member of the girls’ families started showing up for our games. Even the grandparents and extended family started coming.”
As a long-time member of the Y and current Senior Manager of Community Well-being, Giffin is used to leaning in at the Y and has discovered many benefits along the way. This time, her willingness also opened the door to new leadership skills and the esteemed moniker of “coach.”
“The kids wanted to have fun, and all wanted to be in charge,” she shared, “So we had a dance between me letting them take charge of certain areas and learning their strengths… I never thought I’d have the title, but now all my kids call me “coach,” which is super cool.”
For Giffin, it was the perfect opportunity not only to refresh herself on aspects of the sport but to rediscover her own love for basketball. “I played basketball in high school, and I joined a Y rec team with women who played a lot of division 1, 2, or 3 in college,” Giffin explained. “That gave me the basic experience I needed…. If you have any interest or baseline knowledge of a sport, it can be really fun to re-acquaint yourself with it by coaching. Plus, I remembered just how much fun it is to shoot hoops, and now I do that at the beginning of all my workouts.”
What was particularly gratifying was to see the positive impact on the kids and their families.
“One girl who really struggled with our losses wrote me a sweet note at the end of the season about how she appreciated me listening to her and helping her. Her mom shared that her daughter doesn’t like writing and struggled with it in school. So, the fact that she wrote something meant that I made a huge impact on her life,” Giffin added.
The impact extended to her own family. “My daughter is a very headstrong kid, and this was her first team sport. It was really cool to watch her learn how to be a part of the team.”
“It’s about what attitude you bring, showing up for your teammates, and listening to your coach — once they took that to heart, it really made an impact.”
Giffin encourages parents and students who might be interested in joining or coaching a Y sports team to get involved. It’s the kind of experience you won’t want to pass up but pass on.
The YMCA of Metro Denver offers a host of youth sports, egaming and other offerings to the greater Denver area throughout the year. Learn more about all the programs the YMCA has to offer at denverymca.org.
by Mark Smiley | Aug 28, 2023 | Travel
Founder: Adam Avery started Avery Brewing with his dad in 1993 and built it into one of the largest breweries in Colorado.
30th Anniversary: The Avery Invitational featured a curated list of invited breweries based on Avery’s employees favorites. There were 58 breweries from 14 states and five countries in attendance.
The Avery 30th Anniversary Invitational was held on July 29, 2023, at Avery’s 67,000 square foot brewery campus. To celebrate 30 years of brewing beer, Avery Brewing Company hosted an Invitational Beer Festival which brought together all of the beers and breweries that have inspired and worked with them throughout the past 30 years.
“It’s a celebration of beer,” said Adam Avery, founder of Avery Brewing Company. “I’m not a beer snob. I want the beers that my employees and co-workers want to have here. I want to have the best beers at the festival. It doesn’t matter if it is craft or 100 million barrels.”
The event featured live music and food trucks. The main attractions were the 58 breweries from 14 states and five countries pouring their beers. Additionally, Avery Brewing Company released an Anniversary Barrel-Aged Strong Ale, which is a blend of several styles and brewing techniques, representing the culmination of 30 years of brewing experience.
Adam Avery started the brewery in 1993 with his dad’s retirement nest egg of $90,000 and a dream. Along the way, Avery gives credit to his dad for believing in him and another few hundred people who helped him succeed. “How do you succeed in business?” Avery asked. “You don’t give up. My high school mascot was the bulldog and that is what I consider myself.”
After starting the business in a 2,000 square foot facility in 1993, Avery and his father did not pay themselves for over three years. “My dad has always pushed me and believed in me,” said Avery. The most gratifying part of the last 30 years is that he hasn’t once woken up and dreaded to go to work. “I feel like I haven’t done a day’s worth of work. It’s just my life. I am grateful to the people who have gotten me here. You don’t get here by yourself.”
Avery celebrates good beer no matter who brews it. He wishes there was less competition with so many breweries existing but he credits those who care about their craft. “There is no better time in the history of the planet to be a beer drinker than today,” said Avery. “It’s only going to get better. I feel super lucky that some people say Avery is on my list.”
You may ask what is on Adam Avery’s list or in his fridge. He always has Pacifico, Guinness, and Sierra Nevada’s Pale Ale in stock. He also recognizes Vinnie Cilurzo from Russian River Brewing as the best brewer in the country and admits the bar is set by him.
Avery Brewing is located at 4910 Nautilus Ct. in Boulder. You can find their beers in liquor stores throughout the state and 39 other states. Visit www.averybrewing.com for more information.
by Glendale Sports Center | Aug 28, 2023 | Glendale City News
Photo: Courtesy of the YMCA of Metro Denver
by Angelica Rodriguez Luna, Marketing Manager, YMCA of Metro Denver
Are you a parent of a teenager looking for a program that challenges your child, gives them a chance to grow as a leader, builds friendships, and makes an impact your community? Look no further than our YMCA Service Project program!
What does your teen gain from the program?
- Develop Leadership Skills: Through the Y Service Project, teens gain invaluable leadership skills that will benefit them in all aspects of life. Whether it’s project planning, effective communication, team collaboration, or problem-solving, the program provides a hands-on learning experience!
- Make Positive Change: By being actively involved in planning and executing a service project, kids can address issues that matter to them and witness the positive impact of their efforts firsthand.
- Build Lasting Friendships: The Y Service Project is not just about community service; it’s also about building a tight-knit community of like-minded individuals who share a passion for making a difference. Teens forge bonds with other teens (often from different schools and communities), share experiences, and create memories.
- Earn Community Service Hours: As if all the personal growth and rewarding experiences weren’t enough, the Y Service Project also allows teens to earn community service hours for school or other organizations.
“Be courageous, be respectful” is what one teen had to say about her involvement in the YMCA Service Project program.
What kind of projects will teens take part in?
Teens can do anything, from assisting with the YMCA’s Beyond Hunger Food Pantry Program, to volunteering at a shelter/kitchen, to supporting a community garden. So, consider empowering your teen to lead the way and join like-minded students in the YMCA’s program this fall. Also, learn more about the Youth in Government program offered by the YMCA. Get the details at https://denverymca.org/teen-programs.
