Our 100th Post: A Retrospective

Since it’s our 100th post, we thought we would recap some of our favorite posts since we started the blog in September 2008. We hope you enjoy (and indulge us in) this walk down memory lane! Please help us celebrate this milestone by leaving comments about your favorite post(s)!

2008

September: We wrote our first post to introduce the new Web site, blog, and agency branding. The new look of JFS features a brand new logo, and a more modern appeal that we hope will energize our staff, volunteers and supporters.

October: We attended the Colorado Nonprofit Assocation Fall Conference and started creating content and personality for the blog.

November: Denver Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce named JFS the Nonprofit of the Year at the 12th Annual Gay and Lesbian Business Awards Dinner. This annual event honors Colorado individuals and organizations that promote gay-friendly values in the business community.

December: JFS in the News! We were spotlighted in several news stories that month, including feature stories on 7News and 9News and articles in the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News.

2009

January: Celebrate Life! Colorado Senior Connections (CSC) hosted a party honoring 13 Berkshires at Lowry residents who were 90 years old and older.

February: Arnie Kover reflected on his 30th anniversary with Jewish Family Service and SHALOM Denver. The same month, Jewish Disabilities Network hosted the first annual Jewish Disabilities Awareness Day.

March: Marilyn Lande, a great friend, volunteer, and supporter of JFS was a 2009 Jewish Women in the Arts honoree and had an art exhibit at the Rafael Spiritual Healing Center at JFS. Also this month, the JFS Group Home residents attended a private magic show by famed magician, Brad Montgomery.

April: Mark Krivel, a dedicated JFS volunteer, received the CWEE (Center for Work Education and Employment) Volunteer of the Year Award and we celebrated National Volunteer Week - honoring the individuals who dedicate themselves to taking action and solving problems in their communities.

May: We wrote several blog posts this month about various mental health topics to commemorate Mental Health Awareness Month. Guest blogger Evan Silverman wrote one of our most popular posts to date about living with a mental illness. Also, despite the economic downturn of 2009, we raised $153,000 at the JFS Executive Luncheon featuring Frank Abagnale.

June: Alysa Stanton became the world's first African-American female rabbi. Alysa was trained as a JFS para-chaplain by Donna Lutz, Nursing Home Outreach coordinator, and Rabbi Eliot Baskin, JFS community chaplain. We also had our Annual Meeting where we presented the Max Frankel Volunteer of the Year Award and welcomed our new board members.

July: The JFS Group Home crowned a new champion at its annual croquet tournament and we learned that volunteering can be a family affair as one family shares their years of experience volunteering at the Weinberg Food Pantry.

August: We heard stories from people who used our services and liked them: Sue Silverman worked through the grief of losing her daughter 10 years ago by participating in an eight-week bereavement support group through JFS’s Rafael Spiritual Healing Center and the Hübler family shared their experience making their own centerpieces and donating the items to the Weinberg Food Pantry.

September: During Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the Jewish New Year and High Holy Days, we reached out to isolated Jewish seniors in a variety of ways to ensure that they have a meaningful holiday season. Two of our staff members also shared some personal thoughts on how their work experiences relate to the High Holy Days.

October: Our hard work on the new Web site was formally recognized by the Colorado Healthcare Communicators with a Bronze Leaf Award and three of the projects through Temple Emanuel’s Mitzvah Day, the congregation's annual social action event, benefited JFS clients.

November: Brad Nieder, the Healthy Humorist, entertained senior residents and their families at Berkshires at Lowry during a Colorado Senior Connections event. Our supporters came forth with great generosity at Thanksgiving to help us provide holiday meals to hundreds in need and we announced our Reel Hope movie. JFS at Home was also a sponsor of the Young@Heart Chorus’s “Alive and Well” performance.

December: Westword held a holiday food, toiletries, and winter clothing drive for Family Safety Net clients and we recapped Reel Hope-Take 14, our annual movie fundraiser.

2010

January: We debuted “A Day in the Life of JFS” - our 2009 annual report. Gretchen Koplin of Allied Jewish Federation also shared her touching, personal account of how Rabbi Baskin, the JFS community chaplain, supported her during her difficult battle with cancer.

February: We wrote several posts about various disabilities topics for Jewish Disabilities Awareness Month. We also mourned the passing of Audrey Reich, a JFS Group Home resident, and announced the transformation of the Weinberg Food Pantry into a client choice system.

March: We announced our needs of food, time, and money to help provide hundreds of Passover meals for our clients, celebrated a client’s 89th birthday, and showed you some new, simple ways to support JFS by shopping. Then we ended the month by sharing some Passover successes and recipes.

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