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Thank you for helping make our event a success
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DotSero on stage at Groovin' in the Ballroom 2008
Pikes Peak Community Action Agency raised over $12,000 to help low-income people increase their capacity to be self-sufficient during the Third Annual Groovin’ in the Ballroom: Jazz and Jambalaya, September 13, at the Paragon Royal Ballroom. Revenues doubled those gleaned from last year’s Second Annual Groovin’ in the Garden.
The evening jazz extravaganza began with a VIP reception featuring Encompass Modern Jazz Band of the Olivero Foundation for the Fine Arts, continued with a stellar performance by 25 junior high and high school youth from the Cheyenne Mountain School District 12 Summer Jazz Band, led by Director Dan Bell, and culminated with a brilliant 90 minute set from Colorado’s nationally acclaimed Jazz marvel, Dotsero.
Approximately 250 guests feasted on jambalaya, corn bread, spicy green beans, corn on the cob, coleslaw, sweet potato pie and king cakes, prepared by senior students under the direction of Maitre Chef de Cuisines Victor W. Matthews, Jr., owner of the Black Bear Restaurant and Dean of the Paragon Culinary School. Chef Matthews donated delectable Hors’ d’ Ourvres which were enjoyed by VIP attendees, along with with Barefoot Bubbly, also an in-kind contribution.
“We girls had a great night out. It was for a great cause,” said longtime community steward and volunteer, Mary Marshburn. “The Cheyenne Mountain District 12 Band was phenomenal. It was a joy to hear those young people play! It’s marvelous that Dotsero spent time giving them workshops to prepare for the event. Our youth today need role models, and they need to know adults care about what they are doing, that they are giving them a chance to improve their talents.”
Dotsero sax sensation Stephen Watts said he was not only impressed with the exceptional musicianship of the youth in the band, “but also of how supportive they are of one another.”
Leslie Cook, former Executive Director of the Pikes Peak Chapter of the American Red Cross who served on PPCAA’s board for years, recapped for the audience the lessons of the Great Depression, remembering hordes of down-on-their-luck men who would come to the family’s backdoor asking if they could do odd jobs in exchange for food. Cook said her mother never gave the food away outright, but she found ways to let them earn a meal. Cook linked work with dignity, highlighting the nation’s ongoing struggle against poverty, which is not won with handouts, but with helping people help themselves. That, Cook emphasized, is what Pikes Peak Community Action Agency is all about.
Jazz lovers also bid on an eclectic array of silent auction items including a diamond-emerald 18 K gold ring, deep house cleanings from Jack Boyd Janitorial, original paintings by Lisa Deen, a Soumak Persian rug, Avalanche and Colorado College Hockey tickets, a winter sprinkler blowout from American Sprinkler, dinner at The Famous with Theatreworks tickets, and a limited edition JK Ralston Print, “Crossing the Missouri,” with a frame donated by the local Frameworks, among others.
A Special Thank You to Our Sponsors |
