Good News Friday!

Imagine!'s premier fundraising event, the 10th Annual Imagine! Celebration is scheduled for Friday, January 28, 2011 from 5:30-10:00 p.m. at the Plaza Hotel Longmont (formerly the Radisson), 1850 Industrial Circle. The event includes dinner, an award to the Consumer of the Year, a Silent and Live Auction, and a Special Appeal. This year’s Celebration also marks the 10th anniversary of the Imagine! Foundation, and special activities are planned surrounding that milestone. Tickets are $95 each and may be purchased online. Last year’s event brought 365 people together to celebrate Imagine! and raised $218,000.

Live auction items for the 10th Anniversary event can be viewed online, and any individual may place a bid that will be incorporated by the auctioneer into the Live Auction at the event. Foundation board members have been the prime donors for the Live Auction, but this year Imagine! employee Kristen Fledderjohn’s family’s summer cottage in New Hampshire joins the exciting line-up.

A highlight of the event will be the recognition of Imagine!’s Consumer of the Year, Dawn Marie Candelaria-Bisgard. I wrote about Dawn in my blog last year, and she was also featured in a story in the Longmont Times-Call when her self-portrait was displayed in the National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C.  I can’t wait to see her receive this well deserved honor.

Another reason this event is so important: during the foundation’s first ten years, donations have reached more than $4,000,000 and have allowed Imagine! to do all of the following, which would not have happened without community support.

• Purchase five 24-hour staffed homes for clients and pay down more than 2/3 of the mortgages on the homes

• Fund the retrofitting and furnishing of many of Imagine!’s homes

• Provide handicapped-accessible vans for transportation

• Augment Family Support Grants for those caring for an individual with developmental disabilities at home

• Support young teens in a supervised first work experience

• Enhance summer camp and after school activities
• Augment early intervention activities for children aged 0-3
• Establish a fund for assistive technology devices for the people we serve 

• Build two first-in-the-nation SmartHomes – one in Boulder and one in Longmont    

 We appreciate the fact that our generous community members are creating opportunities and enriching the lives of the people we serve. Hope to see you on January 28th!