Thursday afternoon was grateful as Kroenke Sports Charities held a lunch for their Signature Community Partner Fellows to celebrate partnerships and initiatives that improve the Denver community.
Classroom fellows who receive annual funding from Kroenke Sports Charities include Colorado Adaptive Sports Foundation, Denver Police Foundation, Denver Public Schools Athletics, Gold Crown Foundation, Playworks Colorado, Special Olympics Colorado Unified Schools Program, and Young Americans Center for Financial Edukacja.
Thursday afternoon lunch was the first event since the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 that a personal event could have taken place. As a result, fellows and members of the Kroenke Sports Charities and Community Relations department, including Deb Dowling, Vice President of Social Relations for Kroenke Sports & amp; Game.
As the fellows arrived for lunch and met with representatives from each foundation, Dowling noted the importance of the first personal meeting of Kroenke Sports Charities fellows and charities since the pandemic, as it served not only to mix but also to significantly connect how the important local foundations can continue their tremendous work and intertwine with each other to continue their efforts to improve the Denver community.
Over lunch, as the fellows took their seats, Dowling presented each representative on behalf of Kroenke Sports Charities with a commemorative poster and an opportunity to share with the group what additional funding had provided to their foundations over the past year.
For the Colorado Adaptive Sports Foundation – which strives to strengthen independence, improve self-confidence, increase social interaction and improve the quality of life by providing financial and organizational support so that people with physical disabilities of all ages have the opportunity to participate in organized sports programs and is a partner of Kroenke Sports Charities since 1995 – have provided updated information on their successful programs; Colorado Avalanche Sled Hockey, Rolling Nuggets, Colorado Rolling Mammoth and Rapids Power Soccer, which use their funds to reserve slots on ice, pitch and court.
They also celebrated the achievement last April when Avalanche Adult Sled Hockey was crowned national champions. Dowling announced that Kroenke Sports Charities will be supplying Rolling Nuggets with new kits for the upcoming season.
In the case of the Denver Police Foundation, they shared the importance of using the funds to distribute backpacks back to school, which aims to bridge the gap between the community and the Denver Police Department by supporting the most deprived communities. Thanks to the scholarship, they were able to provide nearly 10,000 students from the low-income, high-crime areas of Denver with a backpack filled with school supplies.
In the case of Denver Public Schools (DPS) Athletics – which has been cooperating with Kroenke Sports Charities since 1997 – the granted grant allowed for the implementation of organized extracurricular activities in 33 schools, reaching 6,600 students with the possibility of participating in 17 sports disciplines throughout the country. school year and summer.
Impressively, they also celebrated the achievement of the historic run of the Denver East High School hockey team as they not only won the 5A Colorado State Championship, but also won the Chipotle-USA Hockey High School National Championship in 2022 and were proud to have 18 of the 23 players out of the winning The squad started their hockey career with an introduction to floorball – one of the programs offered by the DPS grant – at school.
On behalf of the Golden Crown Foundation – which provides a variety of programs based on the principles of participation, sporting competition and community – they proudly shared how their location in the news of their Edgewater Enrichment Program provides free after-school programs for young people aged 12-18 an emphasis on interest-based learning and an emphasis on teaching technology through exploration, creativity and self-expression.
In the case of Playworks Colorado, they were able to continue with their mission to help primary school children stay active and build valuable social and emotional skills through play and build a play culture that allows children to feel a real sense of belonging.
As part of the United Special Olympics Schools Program in Colorado, they are able to provide year-round sports training and sports competition in various Olympic-type sports for children and adults with intellectual disabilities, giving them continuous opportunities to develop physical fitness, show courage, experience joy and participate in sharing gifts, skills and friendships with families, other Special Olympics athletes and the community.
And for the Young Americans Financial Education Center, funding from the Kroenke Sports Charities enables their foundation to continue on their mission to develop young people’s financial literacy through real-world experiences and hands-on programs that are designed to enable them to thrive in our free corporate system. Their Young AmeriTowne is a unique program that introduces young people aged 10-12 to Free Entrepreneurship through an experiential learning platform and instills key financial and work readiness skills in 5th graders.
Funding from Kroenke Sports Charities supports the Young AmeriTowne sports facility, which helps students understand the importance of entertainment budgeting.
While each foundation has been recognized and appreciated for its enormous and positive impact, each creates for its individual missions, they all also celebrated their collective efforts to improve the Denver community and how they are able to extend that reach through the generosity of Kroenke Sports Charities .
For more information on Kroenke Sports Charities and how to get involved or donate, click here.
