F ACEBOOK : WHITTIER NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION | WEBSITE : WHITTIER NEIGHBORHOOD. ORG JANUARY 2014 whittier neighborhood spotlight P OSTER D ESIGN : P HIL N ORMAND COMMUNITY CENTER RENTALS—A current schedule of use and a reservation request form can be found at WhittierNeighborhood.org. A PUBLICATION FROM T HE W HITTIER N EIGHBORHOOD A SSOCIATION • VOLUME 14.01 DENVER CITY COUNCIL DISTRICT 8 DISTRICT 8 OFFICE, 2713 WELTON ST Councilman Brooks 720-337-8888 • [email protected]AT LARGE Councilwoman Robin Kniech 720-337-7712 • [email protected]City and County Bldg., Room 432 Councilwoman Deborah (Debbie) Ortega 720-337-7713 • [email protected]City and County Bldg., Room 492 DENVER CITY GOVT. INFO Just dial: 311 • Denvergov.org DENVER POLICE DEPT. — DISTRICT 2 Neigh. Police Officers Choice Johnson and Andrew Richmond: 720-641-1596 • Officer Jake Robb: 720-641-1592 • Spanish language hotline: 720-913-1089 • Non-emergency: 720-913-2000 • Reyes Trujillo—Community Resource Officer [email protected], 720-641-6647 GRAFFITI CLEAN-UP 720-865-7867 • Denvergov.org/GrafftiPrevention NEIGHBORHOOD INSPECTION SERVICES 311 • www.denvergov.org and Search “inspection services” TRASH PICKUP Large item pickup: call 3-1-1 Unwanted appliance pickup: 303-430-7142 Recycling service start-up: call 3-1-1 UNITED WAY COMMUNITY RESOURCE AND REFERRAL SERVICE Just dial 2-1-1 XCEL ENERGY Electric Emergency/Power Outage: 800-895-1999 Gas Emergency/Gas Odor: 800-895-2999 WHITTIER K–8 PTA 2nd Tuesday every month, 5:30–7:00 p.m. Dinner/childcare provided 303-986-5929 • [email protected]PRESIDENT Nita M. Henry • 303-883-4452 [email protected]VICE PRESIDENT Darrell Watson • 303-946-2533 [email protected]TREASURER Stacy Feeney • 303-345-5633 [email protected]SECRETARY Gabriel Powers • 303-710-9589 [email protected]COMMUNICATIONS CHAIR Lori Kirkland • 303-588-4060 [email protected]COMMUNITY CENTER CHAIR Scott Rittinger • 303-641-0466 [email protected]AT LARGE – EDUCATION Karen Mortimer • 303-986-5929 [email protected]AT LARGE – ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT Joseph Green • 303-587-0137 [email protected]AT LARGE – FUNDRAISING Allison Rankin • 303-881-1816 [email protected]AT LARGE – LAND USE AND ZONING Dru Schwyhart • 303-520-2253 [email protected]AT LARGE – MEMBERSHIP Jordan Dietrich • 303-752-1221 [email protected]AT LARGE – SAFETY Tim Davenport • 206-992-7688 [email protected]Appointed Board Members COMMUNITY BUSINESS LIAISON Gregory Crichlow • 303-308-12824 To submit articles for the Whittier Neighborhood Spotlight, contact Phil Normand at: [email protected]. Proofing and editing: Cathy Calder [email protected]Join the Conversation Check Us Out On Facebook Dogs reported lost and found; items for sale; suspicious activity and police presence; fun classes and running clubs! Up to the minute information about what’s happening in and around the neighborhood. Anyone can join. Anyone can post. Search: Whittier Neighborhood Association. WNA BOARD 2900 Downing St., 1B, Denver, CO 80205 JANUARY 2014 WNA GENERAL MEETING Wednesday, January 15 6:30 P.M. 2900 Downing Street, Suite 1B, Denver, CO 80205 • Review of 2014 WNA Winnable Battles Initiative • WNA Treasurer’s Report • Zoning Updates All WNA meetings are open to every Whittier resident. Membership is not required to attend. Snacks and childcare are provided. Meetings are the third Wednesday of every month at the Whittier Community Center, 2900 Downing Street. Rent the WNA Mario Zavala Kyle Kunkle Broker Associates Direct: 303. 868.9484 [email protected]Prudential Real Estate of the Rockies is proud to announce its new name: Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Real Estate of the Rockies. The storied Berkshire Hathaway name is universally respected and stands for strength, integrity and trust. That’s a good sign for the market and a great sign for you. New in Name... Not in Real Estate. WHITTIER PARK TEAM …And a Grand Time Was Had By All At the Annual Whittier Holiday Cookie Swap! Photos: Val Anisimow See Your Ad here! Reach 2,200 households per month Contact Lori Kirkland at [email protected]for more information “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” Margaret Mead Name ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Names of others in household _______________________________________________________________________________________________ Address _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Phone (home) ______________________________________________ (work) ______________________________________________________ E-mail __________________________________________________ Twitter/Facebook ______________________________________________ I am enclosing $20/household ($12/Senior household) as new member(s)______ as renewing member(s)______ plus an additional donation of $______ for the Thomas Scholarship Fund. By mail: Please enclose check made payable to Whittier Neighborhood Association and mail to: 2900 Downing Street, 1B, Denver, CO 80205 Online: Visit www.WhittierNeighborhood.org and click on “Become a Member Today!” Your membership is fully tax deductible and will be used to support the Whittier Community Center at 2900 Downing Street. Become a member of the Whittier Neighborhood Association — or renew your membership —and start making a difference today! Join online at www.WhittierNeighborhood.org—it’s fast and easy!
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Facebook: Whittier Neighborhood associatioN | Website: WhittierNeighborhood.orgJ A N U A R Y 2 0 1 4 Facebook: Whittier Neighborhood associatioN | Website: WhittierNeighborhood.org J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 4
whittier n e i g h b o r h o o d
spotlight
P o s t e r D e s i g n : P h i l n o r m a n D
Community Center rentals—A current schedule of use and a reservation request form can be found at WhittierNeighborhood.org.A p u b l i c A t i o n f r o m t h e W h i t t i e r n e i g h b o r h o o d A s s o c i A t i o n • v o l u m e 1 4 . 0 1
Denver City CounCil DistriCt 8 DistriCt 8 offiCe, 2713 Welton stCouncilman Brooks 720-337-8888 • [email protected]
At lArgeCouncilwoman Robin Kniech 720-337-7712 • [email protected] City and County Bldg., Room 432
Councilwoman Deborah (Debbie) Ortega 720-337-7713 • [email protected] City and County Bldg., Room 492
Denver City govt. infoJust dial: 311 • Denvergov.org
Denver PoliCe DePt. — DistriCt 2Neigh. Police Officers Choice Johnson and Andrew Richmond: 720-641-1596 • Officer Jake Robb: 720-641-1592 • Spanish language hotline: 720-913-1089 • Non-emergency: 720-913-2000 • Reyes Trujillo—Community Resource Officer [email protected], 720-641-6647
Dogs reported lost and found; items for sale; suspicious activity and police presence; fun classes and running clubs!
Up to the minute information about what’s happening in and around the neighborhood. Anyone can join. Anyone can post.
Search: Whittier Neighborhood Association.
WNA BOARD2900 Downing St., 1B, Denver, CO 80205
JANUARY 2014WNA GENERAL MEETINGWednesday, January 15 6:30 p.m. 2900 Downing Street, Suite 1B, Denver, CO 80205
• Review of 2014 WNA Winnable Battles Initiative
• WNA Treasurer’s Report• Zoning Updates
All WNA meetings are open to every Whittier resident. Membership is not required to attend. Snacks and childcare are provided. Meetings are the third Wednesday of every month at the Whittier Community Center, 2900 Downing Street.
Rent the WNA Community CenterNeed a venue for your next gathering?
I am enclosing $20/household ($12/Senior household) as new member(s)______ as renewing member(s)______ plus an additional donation of $______ for the Thomas Scholarship Fund.
By mail: Please enclose check made payable to Whittier Neighborhood Association and mail to: 2900 Downing Street, 1B, Denver, CO 80205Online: Visit www.WhittierNeighborhood.org and click on “Become a Member Today!”
Your membership is fully tax deductible and will be used to support the Whittier Community Center at 2900 Downing Street.
Become a member of the Whittier Neighborhood Association—or renew your membership—and start making a difference today! Join online at www.WhittierNeighborhood.org—it’s fast and easy!
Facebook: Whittier Neighborhood associatioN | Website: WhittierNeighborhood.orgJ A N U A R Y 2 0 1 4 Facebook: Whittier Neighborhood associatioN | Website: WhittierNeighborhood.org J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 4
Photos: Stephanie Friday ww
w.fridayphoto.com
.
Whittier Families — Welcome to SchoolChoice Season!
If you have a child going into Early Childhood Education (ECE) as a 3- or 4-year old, Kindergarten, 6th, or 9th grade student, it is critical that you research your school options. If you decide that you are interested in a school outside of your neighborhood boundary school or if you choiced-out of your neighborhood boundary school, you will need to submit a SchoolChoice form.
Forms are available at any school, on the DPS website, or you can apply online through Parent Portal. New Parent Portal accounts can be created at myportal.dpsk12.org. Please allow 5–7 days for your account to be created.
Applications are due by 4 p.m. on January 31. You can drop your completed application off at your most preferred school or at an enrollment center.
Starting on February 1, each student who has a School-Choice application is assigned a lottery number. Utilizing the lottery number, individual school priorities and school demand, assignments will be made via computer software. Every attempt to get a family’s first choice will be made. There is only one approved placement by student, and placement on a wait list is only for a more desired choice than the one that is assigned. Once a student is placed at a school that becomes their “home” school until they choose a different school or transition out.
If you are unhappy with your child’s school assignment in Round 1, you can apply to as many schools as you like in Round 2. Round 2 starts March 1 and there are no priorities, it is “first come, first serve.” Families need to submit an appli-cation to each school they are interested in.
Additional information on school choice can be found at schoolchoice.dpsk12.org or by calling 720-456-3493.
—Karen Mortimer
Whittier ECE-8 School Open House Thursday, January 16, 6:00–7:30 p.m.• Potential Whittier families & curious community members
welcome!
• Presentation in auditorium followed by school tour and time with Whittier teachers and parents
• Offering grades ECE (full day 4-year old) through 8th grade
• Third year as a “Green” school on the DPS School Performance Framework with an award winning middle school
Questions? Or to schedule a personal school tour, contact Karen at [email protected] or 303-986-5929.
Whittier Recepción abierta al público Jueves, 16 de enero 6:00–7:30 p.m.• Todas las familias y miembros de la comunidad interesados
en la escuela Whittier están invitados.
• Presentación en el auditorio, seguido por un recorrido por la escuela y tiempo para hablar con maestros y padres de Whittier.
• Incluyendo grados ECE (niños de 4 años de edad) – 8.
• Por el tercer año consecutivo, una escuela “verde” en la representación escolar de DPS
• Tiene una escuela secundaria premiada — una de las mejores escuelas para academicas en Colorado
¿Preguntas? Favor de ponerse en contacto con Elizabeth a 303-596-4020.
Project VOYCE In Your Backyard“I used to be a statistic. As a freshman, I had no credits, no
home, and no hope. Through Project VOYCE, I have learned skills that not only helped me grow and be successful, but also help others at my school.”
—PV youth Destiny Carney, DC-21 High School (2013)
Project VOYCE (PV) was founded after the closure of Manual High School in 2006. Since then, PV has developed a powerful model for youth-driven school change and education policy advocacy. The organization started out in the hallways of Manual High School and is now thriving in the Whittier Community Center.
PV’s mission is to empower youth to create change within themselves, their schools, their communities and the world. We do this by training students in leadership, non-violent communication and facilitation skills that will not only benefit them in their school lives but also in their personal lives.
We use the following process of change: beginning with
Whittier WisdomOur diverse neighborhood is rich with citizens who hold great
stories and experiences that represent the true essence of what makes Whittier so special. These are the people on your block, in your church, in your community garden…, whose interesting stories and memories provide a glimpse into the past.
When we moved to 27th and Williams in 1984, the recession had damaged the neighborhood. Houses were
boarded up and ours had been one of them. We loved our Queen Anne cottage, but weren’t sure buying it had been such a brilliant idea. It needed a ton of work, and the neighborhood had become a little rough.
Getting comfortable began with Ms. Evelyn Windom. It was April and I was in the backyard battling weeds. A clear, sweet voice called, “hello!” and I looked up to see a slender grey-haired woman two yards away, wearing a wide-brimmed straw hat and garden gloves, waving her trowel. “I’ve been meaning to welcome you to the neighborhood,” she smiled.
That moment shimmers in memory still. Things had been looking scruffy on the street, but she was a beautiful sight. Ms. Evelyn was my first friend on the block, steadfast to the end of her days. She had spent many years teaching at Cole and Manual. Two years into retirement, she hardly seemed retired, came and went constantly, to lunch with friends, to Bible study. On Sundays I had the treat of watching her leave for church in her trim suits and snappy hats. She had a pale pink suit with simple A-line skirt that skimmed the knee, and I thought, “She still has really nice legs. I hope I’ll have such legs at that age.”
After many front porch conversations, when I knew her better, I should have told Ms. Evelyn that story. She’d have laughed. After all, this was the woman who said, “makes me so mad, I could spit,” when she picked up fast food trash high school kids dropped on her lawn. A teacher I knew said she went to his church. She sniffed at his name and corrected, “He goes to my church, dear.” She’d taught Sunday school and served on the Altar Guild since 1942.
Ms. Evelyn Windom moved into her house in 1945, the year my husband was born, raised three children there. Her front
yard had a parade of red and yellow tulips each spring. She re-membered the houses that stood across the street where Manual High School is now, remembered the big house to our north in “its glory days.” “A doctor lived there,” she told me. “They had peach trees.”
If she came to her door as I arrived
from work, I knew she’d been watching for me and we needed to talk. Leaning toward me she said in a low voice, “He moved out today.” “What!?” “I saw him throwing his clothes in the car.” Such business took time to sort out. We had to compare notes on all we’d heard and air our opinions on the matter.
For over a decade, Ms. Evelyn cared for her older sister with Alzheimer’s who lived across the alley. She walked over there several times a day, often with plates of food. Her brother or son mowed the lawn; other relatives pitched in. That family made it possible for the older woman to stay in her home long past when most would have resorted to a nursing facility.
Once I met her in the alley, both of us emptying trash. She’d just come from Bible study. “I’ve been thinking so much about Esther,” she ruminated. “What an amazing thing she did, putting her own life at risk to save her people.”
I didn’t recall Esther, had to look it up. If I’d known, I might have observed that Ms. Evelyn Windom’s service to people in her life had a lot in common with that story. She’d have said that was some of my nonsense. I still miss her, especially in April, the month I met her, the month she left us in 2008, when her red and yellow tulips blare their bright glory in the front yard.
—Patricia Dubrava
RTD makes neighborhood transit improvementsAt the October WNA Meeting, Regional Transportation
District (RTD) staff gave us status updates for the 29th and Welton Station and the FasTracks Central Rail Extension.
The RTD Board of Directors had just voted to remove the permanent closure of the 29th and Welton Station from RTD’s January service changes. A new mobility study could determine whether or not the station should be closed permanently.
RTD will extend light rail service from 30th and Downing streets to connect with the future 38th and Blake Station on the East Rail Line to Denver International Airport. A Central
Rail Extension mobility study is expected to identify the most feasible plan to provide a one-seat ride from the 38th and Blake Station into downtown Denver.
At the WNA meeting, RTD staff also informed the attendees about the result of RTD’s North Metro Rail Line request for proposals, which encouraged bidders to propose options for extending the Southeast, Southwest and Central rail lines. Regional Rail Partners, (formerly Graham, Balfour Beatty, Hamon Constructors), will design and build the North Metro Rail Line.
To learn more, visit http://www.rtd-fastracks.com/cc_54.
our students’ personal growth to let them find their leadership abilities they move on to the school and community arena, working with teachers and administrators in their schools to create change through specific projects that they feel will help the student body. Then students explore the world of educa-tion policy, finally progressing to a focus on systems change.
Our goals include: increasing graduation and post-secondary success rates among predominantly high-poverty, inner-city youth; improving the quality of education in Colorado; and empowering youth to become educated, informed, and engaged citizens.
Our current partner schools are: Bruce Randolph School, Manual High School, CEC Middle College of Denver, Denver Center for 21st Century Learning and Noel Com-munity Arts School.
For more information drop by our office Monday–Friday, 9 a.m.–5 p.m., or visit projectvoyce.org and donate today! —Brea Harris, Project VOYCE Project Specialist /Executive Intern
Whittier Wisdom is a new column dedicated to community members who have a long history in the neighborhood and can bring to life our historical past. This column will highlight some of our most valuable assets – our people. Our diverse neighbor-hood is rich with citizens who hold great stories and experiences that represent the true essence of what makes Whittier so special. These are the people are on your block, in your church, in your community garden, etc. that share interesting stories to provide a glimpse into memories of the past.
