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June 5, 2009
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To volunteer, contact: samvolunteers@asld.orgOne cent! Drop a penny at one of our three entrances and help us count your visit.
S A R A S I S U N
Highland will celebrate its sec-ond annual Highland Children’sParade on the 4th of July withhopes of topping their alreadyimpressive turnout from last year’sevent. The parade begins at 10 am on W.32nd Ave. and Boulder Streets andheads towards 16th Ave., endingat Hirshorn Park, where festivities will be held until 1:30 pm. Join your neighborhood fami-lies, adults and children alike, ontheir decorated bikes, trikes, wag-ons, strollers and unicycles.If you wish just to watch, comeline Boulder Street along the paraderoute. This year you can expect evenmore excitement in the parade, with a special appearance by theDenver Roller Dolls and The EastHigh Drum Majors. At the parkenjoy food and games, including asteel milk can toss for adults and apie baking contest.Be sure to stick around for theunveiling of the 200 foot-long icecream sundae, which has beenregistered with the Guinness Bookof World Records.Don’t miss youropportunity to con-sume this historicalevent. Music will beprovided by RabbitStew.Participation inthis event has nocost except for a canof food for dona-tion to the local foodbank. Attendees arealso encouraged tobring a finger fooditem (fruit, chips,cookies) to share with the neighbors. The event will bea zero waste event;all plates, utensils,napkins, cups andscraps of food willbe recycled or com-posted.Volunteers, pie bakers, spec-tators and participants are stillneeded!If you have any questions pleaseemail highland4thjulyparade@ gmail.com or call 303.991.6204.***
4th of July Highland Children's Parade
by Yael Nyholm
Last year's 4th of July parade. Photos provided by Yael Nyholm.
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Renee Fajardo-AnstineNorth Denver Notions
Dr. Frank Lucero looks 15 years younger than his sixty something years. He is funny, gregarious andquick to laugh. He loves living; youcan see it on his face. He lovespeople, especially young ones. Heis a true proverbial son of SouthernColorado; he looksat life with aweand inspiration.Some think it maybe because hegrew up so closeto the land; hecan trace his rootshere back 400 years. It is enoughto fill a man withpride, but for Frank it also fills him with a sense of duty.Lucero is man driven by duty;duty to family, community andeducation. He holds a PhD inOrganizational Psychology fromColorado State University. He wasformerly the Superintendent for Trinidad Public Schools. And whenhe left in October of 2008 he sethis sights on the directorship of Colorado’s largest educational facil-ity for the developmentally disabled,Laradon Hall.“Being a 23rd generation Chicano, we trace our roots back to 1603 inSanta Fe. I have a strong historicalsense of who we are. I know thatfor our people, family, giving backto community and wanting to helpis ingrained in who we are. Havinga developmentally disabled childmyself, I knew I could contribute tothe continued success of LaradonHall. That is why when I heard aboutthe job opening I went for it.”What Lucero went for was a hugeresponsibility, not only in terms of what he must fund raise to keep thefacility in the black, but in termsof sheer size. Laradon Hall is theonly facility of its size, scope of ser-vices, and diverse population (29%of clients are Hispanic) west of theMississippi.Established in 1948, Laradon is aprivate, non-profit organization andColorado’s first alternative schoolfor children with disabilities. Withthe support of the Colorado Elks,Laradon is one of the most compre-hensive educational, vocational, res-idential and therapeutic programs inthe country.It has over 15 different programsfor the developmentally disabled thatinclude: employment training andplacement, day habilitation whereadults are trained to socialize andadapt to society, Children’s ServicesDivision where the most difficult stu-dents are rein-tegrated intonormal classrooms, teach-er training,adult residen-cy programs,and compre-hensive medi-cal servicesamong numer-ous other programs.Currently Laradon’s enrollmentlevels are over 600 per year in all of its 15 programs. Its annual operat-ing budget is nearly $6 million. Themain campus covers approximately10 acres and also includes threecommunity group homes which werepurchased by the Colorado Elks.Even as wonderful as all theseprograms look on paper, Luceroknows that to maintain these ser-vices someone must always be advo-cating for those he calls “most vul-nerable.”“People who have special needschildren are the strongest and mostunderstanding families you will evermeet. They comprehend the greatresponsibility with which they havebeen entrusted. Sadly in Colorado we are not serving 34% of the spe-cial needs population. That is 4000families who cannot access servicesbecause of the cost.”Lucero’s developmentally dis-abled daughter who he adoptedin 1982 is now nearly 30 years old.She is, according to Lucero, the lightof his life. “She is my baby and itis just a pleasure to be around her.She and all children and adults likeher deserves to have an improvedquality of life. I spend a great dealof my time schmoozing, looking forthe resources to keep Laradon thriv-ing. There are financial needs, but we could not do any of this withoutour dedicated volunteers,” smiledLucero.Laradon employs a staff of a 183,but also has that many volunteers.“The folks who volunteer here are
Frank Lucero,new director ofLaradon Hall, giveshope to familiesof developmentaldisabled
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Laradon Executive Director, Dr. Frank Lucero, outside of Laradon House in Denver.Photo by Todd Pierson.
see LARADON on page 20
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