Blogs

Project Team Chloe strives to raise money to help family in need, Bring Chloe Home!

Longmont, Co October 17, 2016:  Chloe has lived in isolation at Children’s Hospital in Aurora Colorado since she was 9 days old. After two rounds of chemo therapy, two bone marrow transplants and over 433 days in the hospital things are finally starting to look up. With a little bit of hope and faith, Chloe will be able to leave the hospital in about 6 months but Chloe’s family needs a place to live. Please help us find / build a home for Chloe. Support, share or keep us in your thoughts to help us bring Chloe home!

Chloe Elizabeth Cook was born on July 8^th, 2015 to Beth and Jackie Cook. Chloe was born with SCID, Severe Combined Immunodeficiency. Basically, Chloe was born without an immune system. (Think Bubble Boy). When Beth and Jackie, found out their baby girl had SCID, their lives were turned upside down. They were forced to make decisions no parent even fathoms. Destiny (Chloe’s big sister), is so excited to be a big sister but the only time Chloe and Destiny have even met was before Chloe was admitted to the hospital.

“Beth and Jackie pour themselves into Chloe and Destiny, Chloe’s 8-year-old sister.” Says Sherie Dike-Wilhelm, a close family friend. “With one daughter at Children’s Hospital in Denver, and the other in Longmont, both Jackie and Beth have been stretched to the absolute limits of what parents can handle. They have sacrificed jobs, education, a wedding ceremony, and more. They love their girls, but this is not how they imagined their life together. In many ways, Chloe’s fragility has put their lives on hold.”

We are raising money to find / build / put a down payment on a house for Chloe, Destiny and their moms. You can also help us spread the word about SCID. Please consider making a donation to our cause. Your donation will help provide a clean, safe home where this family can just be together again. For more information or to make a donation please visit our website at https://chuffed.org/project/bring-chloe-home. Support, share or keep us in your thoughts to help us bring Chloe home!

Spectra Logic, a Boulder-based data storage company, is one of several organizations participating in Northern Colorado Manufacturing Partnership’s “Manufacturing ROCKS! Tours” today, October 7th. This event is designed for local school district students to expand their knowledge about and improve perception of manufacturing careers. Two groups of high school students from St. Vrain Valley School District visited Spectra Logic at 9:30am and 11:30am for a 90-minute tour and overview of the company’s manufacturing department. The event is taking place on national Manufacturing Day, and will allow students to learn about real career opportunities, training and resources.

Spectra is involved in and committed to the local community, as well as the larger international community. The company offers volunteers and monetary donations to support various organizations in the Colorado area, and organizes special events for its employees to give back to the community. Examples of Spectra’s commitment include participation in Boulder County’s Corporate Food Challenge, on-site blood donations, reputable internship programs and volunteer time with groups like Habitat for Humanity.

Visit us at www.spectralogic.com or follow us @SpectraLogic.

Spectra Logic’s Thadd Corlett, Senior Director of Operations and Todd Stam, Director of Manufacturing, prepare to educate high school students from the St. Vrain School District at the Manufacturing ROCKS! event happening in the Boulder Community today

8z Real Estate was pleased to have been the presenting sponsor of last month’s Venus de Miles bike ride in Longmont, Colo. The ride took place on Saturday August 27, 2016, starting and ending from  the Prospect New Town. Venus de Miles is a major fundraiser for Greenhouse Scholars, a nonprofit organization that supports low-income high-achieving students with scholarships, mentorships, and support for college success.

Venus de Miles is unique as it is Colorado’s largest women’s road ride.  This year’s Venus de Miles ride had 1193 rider participants, who raised over $45,648 in donations.

8z Real Estate participated in multiple areas as the event’s presenting sponsor.  Thirty 8z Realtors, staff, and friends of 8z rode in the event as Team Cycle 8z, and rose over $1,700 in donations for the event.  Another eight 8zers volunteered serving snacks at a rest station along the course.  Upon finishing the course, the 8z Real Estate logo was on the finish line signage, and the finish line festival.  Riders were invited over to the 8z Shasta, where 8zers served 8z’s signature blue lemonade, popcorn, and ran raffles throughout the afternoon for Venus de Miles participants. 

Beyond the participation at the Venus de Miles ride, 8z Real Estate is an active supporter of Greenhouse Scholars.  The company makes a donation on behalf of each buyer or seller who closes a transaction with an 8z Realtor.  Each year several 8z Realtors and staff members have volunteered for the organization’s selection committee, reading applications and interviewing scholarship applicants, to help select the ambitious scholars to benefit from scholarships and support from Greenhouse Scholars. 

Please join us on October 7 for the public gallery opening of Portraits of Ability: 25 Stories of Independence and Inspiration, a powerful photojournalism art exhibit featuring the people Via serves functioning capably in their world.

Curated by VSA Colorado, Portraits of Ability features the distinctive style of visual storyteller Sophie Klafter, the recipient of the 2014 VSA Emerging Young Artist Award of Excellence from the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts. Ms. Klafter is a young photographer living with an inherited neuromuscular disorder whose portrait art serves to dispel continuing myths of disability and age. By fully immersing into her subject's home, family, possessions, present challenges and life dreams, the photographer is able to capture the spirit of the individual in the final image. Each of the 25 subjects is incredibly unique; however, all share a common theme - that of striving to not be defined by disability or age. Yet paradoxically, by authentically connecting to, rather than denying physical challenges, Sophie and her subjects transcend personal limitations and allow the spirit to ring loud and clear.

Portraits of Ability employs the power of visual storytelling to transform personal narrative into public meaning and demands the audience to ask what are we doing to support these lives?

VSA Colorado/Access Gallery is the state organization on disabilities and the arts whose purpose is to create opportunities for people with disabilities to access and experience the arts.    www.accessgallery.org

Via is a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting independence and self-sufficiency for people living with mobility limitations and providing caring, customer-focused transportation options. Via serves over 20 communities in five Colorado counties.  www.viacolorado.org