On February 7th The Broomfield Enterprise published a short article about the upcoming 50th anniversary of The Church in Broomfield Colorado.
The article shares some fun history and describes an upcoming celebration to take place on Feb 15th 2020.
After more than a year of planning and anticipation, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints finally brought its formal relationship with the Boy Scouts of America to a close on December 31st, 2019.
With more than half of the youth in the church outside of the US the decision to move away from scouting toward a Church designed program that can be implemented universally worldwide meant a 20% decrease in the number of young men in the Boy Scouts nationwide.
On Dec 31st, The Denver Post published a wonderful article which can be found in its entirety by clicking here.
While the two organizations will no longer be formally intertwined, Colorado’s church members made clear that the relationship will remain strong. On Dec. 19, [Elder Thomas] Priday penned a letter to the Scout executive of the Denver-area council, John Cabeza, expressing his appreciation of a century of close ties.
Priday has been involved in the Scouts for more than half that time. His three brothers were Scouts. His son was a Scout. Some of his best friends and mentors to this day he met in the Scouts. On that December day, he watched with pride as his grandson, Ashton, walked across that bridge.
What’s on the other side, however, remains to be seen.
“It’s been hard, it truly has,” Priday said. “It’s the bittersweet end of a really positive relationship. I can’t say enough about what Scouting has meant to me.”
DenverPost.com – December 31st 2019 – Sam Tabachnik – “They’ve been intertwined for more than 100 years. Now the Boy Scouts and Latter-day Saints prepare for life apart.”
You can click here to read the letter mentioned above sent from Elder Priday to John Cabeza.
The future is uncertain but what is clear is that it is the hope of all of us that The Boy Scouts of America can continue to prosper in spreading the ideas and values articulated in the Scout Law and Scout Oath throughout Colorado!
It was a fun and busy season for the Denver Giving Machines in 2019. The first year in Denver meant extra attention from the local media and press. What follows is a summary of some of the local media coverage given to the machines!
Last Saturday, December 14th , the Colorado Saints Chorale put on a special holiday concert in Brighton, Colorado, titled, Joy to the World. The concert featured soloists Lauren Flauding and Victoria Olson.
There was also beautiful music provided on the strings by Chuck Skinner and Ellen Taylor (violin), Sara McFadden (cello), and Sierra Hicken on the harp.
The concert marks one of the first times the Chorale has partnered with the Brighton Colorado Stake. This was a wonderful opportunity for the group to bring their talents up North and share their message of the Savior across more of Colorado.
This magnified the mixed-voice choir’s mission as an ambassador for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And their impact was certainly felt on Saturday night. The music emanating from the choir and soloists was beautiful, and certainly warmed hearts.
But the concert also contributed to warming individuals another way–with a successful coat drive. Through a partnership with the Salvation Army, 176 coats will be distributed to those in need this Christmas.
The Brighton Stake was honored to work with Major Pease of the Salvation Army. Leslie Aldridge, Assistant Director of Public Affairs for the Stake, coordinated these efforts.
All who attended felt that the whole night was a great way to celebrate the Christmas Season and the Joy the Christ Child brought to the World.
You have probably heard by now that this year Denver will be a host city for the much sought after “Giving Machines.”
What follows is a summary of the core information about the Giving Machines in Denver this year.
3 Machines will be installed in a single location in Downtown Denver. They will be hosted at Writer Square on the 16th St Mall. The address is 1504 Larimer Street. Click here for more information about the location, parking, and public transportation.
The machines will be officially opened at 11 am on Nov 26th and will then be available daily from 9 am to 11 pm through January 1st.
The machines are set up just like a vending machine. Foam cards are in the vending machine racks that represent the individual items available to donate.
When you make a donation at the machine one of the cards representing the item(s) you donated will fall down into a collection area.
The actual donations are counted electronically and the individual charities receive the donation checks from The Church of Jesus Christ after the new year.
At the machines, six different charities are represented and each has five items available that you can donate. The six charities include 4 local organizations and two global ones.
Charities:
Click here to learn more about each organization.
Items available for donation range in cost from $3 to $300 and any single transaction is limited to $1500.
Click here to see the full detailed list of every item available for donation.
100% of your donation will go toward the thing you donated. For an example of you donate a pig, which is a $100 donation here is what happens with those funds:
You pay $100. Credit card merchants charge a transaction fee that varies between 2 and 5% so for example if the fee were 5% then $95 would be received into the LDS Charities fund.
The church covers that transaction fee and provides $100 to the designated charity.
If that charity has administrative fees or costs necessary in order to get the piglet to the end consumer those will also be covered by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints up to 10% (and the charities do not have administrative costs in excess of 10%). So the Church would cut a check to the charity for $110 and $100 of that $110 will purchase piglets.
The long story short is that your exact dollar donation amount will go toward the thing you donated.
All major credit cards are accepted. You cannot donate using cash or check.
Each of the charities represented accepts donations directly. If you are unable to visit the machines in person we encourage you to contact one or more of these charities directly to make a donation.
There is no way to donate via the machines without visiting the machines
If possible visit the machines during the day. During evening hours and weekends, lines are expected and wait times will be longer.
Visit this website and plan out your donation in detail to limit how long it will take you to make your actual donation at the machines. Given the anticipated wait lines, making your donation plans in advance will help limit how long others will have to wait in line.
Plan to snap a few pictures and share your experience with your friends and networks on social media and via other electronic communication!
Volunteers from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have already been assigned to man the machines and help visitors make their donations.
If you are interested in bringing a large group, providing music for those visiting the machines, handing out materials, or otherwise contributing to the effort please contact your Stake’s Public Affairs Director or fill out the contact form at the bottom of this webpage.
The biggest and most significant way to support the Giving Machines effort is to invite a friend or neighbor to visit the machines with you and make a donation. Then share your experience with others.
Lastly, remember the giving machines are a small part of the larger #LightTheWorld campaign of the Church, encouraging all people worldwide to serve others the way Jesus Christ did.
Visit lighttheworld.org and learn more about how you can spread the light of Christ this holiday season!
This spring the hashtag #trashtag has gone viral worldwide prompting people to clean up litter and trash on beaches, roadsides, parks etc.
In an effort to make our neighborhoods cleaner members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that make up the congregations in Arvada were encouraged to work with neighbors, friends, and youth groups to pick up trash around town.
Across the town, groups went out picking up garbage and sharing their efforts on Facebook and Instagram to inspire others to clean up their neighborhoods too.
Missionaries serving in the Denver Stake participated in a day of service early on July 20th at Bronco stadium for the Cystic Fibrosis Climb 2019.
Over 500 people participated in running and walking inside around the stadium and climbing over 3600 steps for the cause. Participants ranged from professional step racers to friends, families together with babies on their backs and very young children.
The missionaries served as the route marshalls to show the way around the stadium as participants climbed up and down the stairs.
In this the 10th annual CF Climb, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation continued to lead the charge in finding a cure. This year over $140,000 was raised at the event!
To learn more about the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation visit https://www.cff.org/
On Tuesday, May 20th leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were once again invited to participate in an Iftar Dinner at the invitation of the Multicultural Mosaic Foundation.
A few days later, leaders also participated in an Iftar Dinner at the Downtown Islamic Center at the invitation of Imam Muhammad Kolila.
Fasting is one of the five pillars of Islam and Muslims fast in order to feel the pain of the poor. During Ramadan, a 30-day religious period, they fast from before sunrise to about sunset and it is not uncommon for Muslims to invite other faiths to join them in an iftar, or a meal to break the fast.
At the dinner on May 20th, President Scott gave an excellent message about fasting in our faith tradition that created unity as he spoke of our similarities with Islamic fasting.
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