On Stage and Off, Cocktails & Karaoke Guests Raise Nearly $50,000

Funds benefit unique school at National Jewish Health
that provides education and health skills to children in kindergarten through eighth grade

More than 200 Denver professionals gathered at Casselman’s Bar and Venue on Nov. 3 for the 11th annual Cocktails & Karaoke benefiting Kunsberg School for chronically ill children at National Jewish Health. Funds totaling nearly $50,000 raised from Cocktails & Karaoke will go to medical supplies, uniforms and other items for the 90 kindergarten through eighth-grade students at the free school.

Cocktails & Karaoke sponsors were the Parks Family, GE Johnson Construction Company, Mortenson Construction, MBH Enterprises, Riley Carlock and Applewhite, Ellen Stewart and Donald Vancil, and Steele Street Bank.

The audience enjoyed the performances of their friends singing in front of a live band, but the real joy came from the live auction as participants bid to help this worthy cause. Co-chairs Hadley Cox, vice president at CBRE Group Inc., and Andrew Duke, associate vice president at ANB Bank, joined the evening’s emcee, Heidi McGuire of 321 Media Productions, in urging the guests to bid on the auction and to donate directly.

Committee members for the 2012 Cocktails & Karaoke were Seth Benson, Marc Cohen, Zach Frisch, Barb Gallagher, Dana Pluss Parks, Merc Pittinos, Mary Claire Pittinos, Maximillian Potter, Ashleigh Rothhammer, Taylor Schierburg, Ellen Stewart and Donald Vancil.

The Kunsberg School mission is to provide a safe, friendly and healthy school environment where students succeed academically, medically and socially. Many students are minorities, and most families are at or below poverty level. Typically, they have fallen behind their peers in school because of illnesses including severe asthma and/or allergies, sickle cell anemia, diabetes, HIV/AIDS and other respiratory and related disorders. Kunsberg students receive care and learn to manage their illnesses from three nurses and National Jewish Health pediatricians. They eat nutritious meals, exercise daily, and practice positive social interaction. The students learn in small classes from teachers with advanced degrees using the latest educational technology tools; they demonstrate their knowledge by showing steady improvements on the CSAP test and outpacing their peers in similar schools. Upon graduation, Kunsberg students have the skills to lead healthy, productive, meaningful and active lives.

National Jewish Health is known worldwide for treatment of patients with respiratory, cardiac, immune and related disorders, and for groundbreaking medical research. Founded in 1899 as a nonprofit hospital, National Jewish Health remains the only facility in the world dedicated exclusively to these disorders. Since 1998, U.S. News & World Report has ranked National Jewish Health the number one respiratory hospital in the nation.