On his 9th birthday this week, a Denver boy celebrated at his school, but not with typical sharing of cupcakes in class. Instead, Conrad Robinson was at the center of a full school assembly at Swigert International School to celebrate the money he raised for the Make-A-Wish Colorado foundation to honor his little sister, Pippa.
McAuliffe International School’s new principal, Brian Duwe, PhD, kicked off the 2023-24 school year with playtime. “I am absolutely up for basketball or throwing a football at recess,” he says.
Beckwith’s passion in the classroom has been nationally recognized. She was named a 2014 All-Star Teacher by Major League Baseball, and in 2010, her class was selected to help open the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando. “I would have taught forever, but at some point, you have to step aside,” she says.
On May 19, Ed Dwight became the oldest person ever to go into outer space when he rode aboard a Blue Origin rocket for a 10-minute space flight.
Sporting a wide-brimmed hat and a large paintbrush, artist Ed Natan can often be found on Colfax Avenue, South Broadway, in the Uptown neighborhood, or in one of Denver’s municipal parks, chatting with locals or tourists as he creates vivid watercolor paintings of some of the city’s most iconic street scenes.
Denver Mayor Mike Johnston has enjoyed the plethora of activities he has been fulfilling during his first three months in office. He has been hiring staff members to fill cabinet positions, hosting town halls to connect with Denver residents, determining the priorities of his first budget, and implementing the details of his homelessness initiative. “I love that we’re moving at break-neck speed on the city’s toughest problems,” says Johnston. “We go from working on community economic development in Northeast Denver, to public safety in Southwest Denver, to the revitalization of downtown, to finding a new home for the Broncos stadium.”
United Airlines 777 Line Training Manager Capt. Vince Eckelkamp did not have his captain’s hat on when he arrived at Kahului Airport in Maui after a harrowing drive through Lahaina just hours before the historic town burned to the ground.
As the burden of climate change will increasingly fall on our youth, “Front Porch” features two local students taking different approaches to some of the environmental challenges before us.
After 20 years in the corporate world, Park Hill resident Willy Wilson picked up a camera and “took a chance on the surprise factor,” she says. She launched her portraiture business, Life Unstill Photography, about a decade ago, and in January received one of the top honors in her industry, the Photographer of the Year award from the National Association of Portrait and Child Photographers.
For more than four decades, Park Hill resident and sculptor Ed Dwight has been casting Black history-makers in bronze to ensure that future generations know about their contributions to society.
Smith’s vibrant use of color and her whimsical, energetic style soon caught the attention of friends and neighbors, and last September she unexpectedly launched her second business, this one as a painter of dog portraits.
Terri Gentry is a fourth generation Denverite who has been attending Denver’s Martin Luther King Jr. Marade since its inception in 1986. “It’s always been an event about unity and coming together, with people from all walks of life. Young people, old people, families pushing strollers. Blacks, whites, Latinos, Jews, Christians, Muslims.”
