I/DD Day at the Colorado Capitol

March 05, 2018

On Wednesday, February 28, the Foothills Gateway Community Relations Team along with Jean Marie, our DSP of the Year Nominees, and their guests made their way to the Colorado Capitol for Intellectual and Developmental Disability (I/DD) Awareness Day. This year’s event was organized by Alliance, The Arc of Colorado and JFK Partners at CU Denver.

Jean Marie from the Nita Crisp Crew had the great honor of leading the pledge of allegiance in the State House to kick off I/DD Day. She did wonderfully, and was congratulated, thanked and complimented walking through the House after concluding.

The proclamation was sponsored by Representatives Lois Landgraf and Dave Young and Senators Irene Aguilar and Jim Smallwood.

Eat & Appreciate

As always, the Capitol festivities were followed by a luncheon. This part of the day has historically been held at the Denver Art Museum, but this year, thanks to collaboration and growth, it was held in the McNichols Civic Center Building.

With over 400 people in attendance, Lieutenant Governor Donna Lynne kicked off the speakers, which included Shannon Sullivan, parent and founder of the Autism Community Store, Brittney England, the 2017 DSP Honoree, Donna Gunnison, self-advocate and speaker, and 2017 Legislator of the Year Representative Bob Rankin.

Lunch closed with the announcement of the 2018 Alliance DSP Honoree: Jason Kingsbury from Imagine!

As always, the process of choosing the honoree was difficult to narrow down, with almost 30 amazing nominees.

The Foothills Gateway nominees are David Hawkins, Behavior Line Staff with the Cross System Crisis Response Pilot, and Abri Willison from Residential. They were both highly complimented on their use of person-centered practice and dedication to this field and the people they serve.

Learn more about our nominees and what makes them so great here!