August Peak News
Thanks to your generosity, we’re able to provide our youth with access to the resources they need to exit homelessness and create self-determined, fulfilled lives. With our fiscal year soon coming to a close, we’re asking you to consider becoming a recurring donor for $10 per month. Over the course of a year, your donation will allow us to provide hot breakfast to more than 50 youth! We couldn’t do this critical work without your help. Thank you for being the spark. 🔥
Photoshoot at the Botanic Gardens!
Some of our parenting youth and their partners were super excited to get themselves and their kids all dressed up for a professional photoshoot one gorgeous sunny day at the Denver Botanic Gardens!
It was wonderful working with the Botanic Gardens to give our youth the opportunity to show off their happy families and gorgeous smiles in a beautiful space. 😊
And big thanks to our photographer Noah Smith who generously waived all his fees! Find more of his work at the link above.
❤️ Beautiful smiles and beautiful families 📸 Noah Smith
Peak Spotlight
Summer will soon be winding to a close, so we wanted to share some of the exciting activities our youth have been up to the last few months!
Cirque du Soleil – our partners at Cirque du Soleil were incredibly generous and provided more than 50 tickets for Kooza. Their death-defying stunts, fantastical feats and bizarre costumes did not disappoint, and we can’t wait for the next show!
Valentine chats with a representative from the Community College of Dinner.
Back to School Resource Fair – we recently hosted a back-to-school resource fair for youth at The Spot to expand their awareness of various educational opportunities available in Denver. Snacks and free school supplies covered practically every table. We were happy to be joined by representatives from several partners:
CU Denver and their Pathways 2 Teaching program
No matter what they choose to do with their time this fall, our youth are well prepared!
Learning Makeup with Miss Colorado – youth and staff were thrilled to have our very own Miss Colorado, Arianna Lemus, come to The Spot to run a makeup tutorial workshop! Arianna had previously asked her friends, family and followers for donations of makeup supplies and funds with which to buy them, and they came through in spades.
Richard and Arianna show off their new looks.
It was positively joyful to have youth of all genders come together to play around with their looks. And it wasn’t all about makeup just for the sake of looking pretty. Arianna started the session by talking about her passion for using makeup as a tool for self-confidence and as a means of expressing oneself to the world. Everyone gets to choose how they want to present themselves, and whether that’s a fierce eye shadow and nail combo or full Joker makeup as Richard did, it is entirely up to us.
Hard to believe it’s almost autumn, but when you’re filling your time with experiences like these, it tends to go fast!
Partner Highlight
Urban Peak was honored to be chosen as the beneficiary of the 2nd annual ARISE fundraiser hosted by All Sacred Tattoo / All Sacred Foundation and Ritualcravt. Found right next door to each other in Wheat Ridge, All Sacred is a tattoo studio/philanthropic foundation and Ritualcravt is a shop that deals in metaphysical and witchy wares. 🔮🧙♀️
Before the fundraiser had even taken place, Aries Rhysing (owner of All Sacred) raised over $13,000 *by himself* from auctioning off two full days of tattoo sessions. Come event day, the air outside these two businesses was electric. The fundraiser ran almost the entire day so folks could swing by and depart at their leisure. There were many options for what to do, including:
Tattoos (there were a whopping sixteen tattoo artists onsite that day! Truly something to behold.)
Food and drink
Haircuts
A reader’s fair
A silent auction (featuring all kinds of items: massages, reiki sessions, vintage books, herbs and medicines, creepy art, you name it)
Tarot card readings (very popular!)
Premier pro wrestling every hour on the hour (by the end of the day there were about five people wrestling each other at once!)
A donation station accepting financial gifts to Urban Peak 😉
ARISE drew an enormous crowd (with lines for tattooing snaking around the block) and by the end of the day, we had collectively raised more than $45,000 for our youth!! Thank you so much to Aries, All Sacred, Ritualcravt and many others who made this possible. And of course, thank you to everyone who came out to support us!
Golfing for Good
Golfers from Weitz and its partners stop to chat between holes.
August is national golf month! What better way to celebrate the sport than by golfing for a good cause? To that end, Urban Peak is thrilled to have been chosen as the recipient of funds raised at not just one, but TWO separate golf tournaments put on by our partners at Weitz and Gensler.
After a lovely day of sunshine, greens and roughs, we were blown away to learn that we’d raised more than $40,000 between the tournaments! We are immensely grateful to Weitz, Gensler, their wonderful volunteers and all the different people who came out to golf in support of our youth. Thank you!
Youth Spotlight 😎
Eli was selected for the spotlight because of his fierce drive and motivation to reach his goal of becoming a professional chef. Eli not only completed his Culinary Certificate with two local partners, Cross Purpose AND Housed, Working, and Healthy, but he is currently working with our Education team to get enrolled in even more culinary training.
You can often find him in the Drop-In Center’s community room making brownies from scratch or playing piano and singing along to his favorite songs! Eli loves music and enjoys sharing his music selection with staff and peers alike. He remains positive in the face of challenges and has navigated barriers with grace and optimism. We’re so glad to know him!
