Golden West’s mission, as a nonprofit organization, is to offer affordable housing choices to seniors AND be committed to providing quality services to residents, their families and the Boulder community.  The mission of the Golden West Foundation is to support those efforts through fundraising.

Our efforts in fundraising have been successful and I’d like to share with you some of the ways we are making our mission possible:

1. We have just launched our 3^rd Annual Friends and Family Campaign with a goal of $50,000.  We achieved our goals for the first two campaigns and it looks like we are off to a great start with this campaign.  The money raised from the campaign is for the benefit of our residents through rent subsidies, personal needs assistance, wellness scholarships and general building improvements.
2. In August, we held a dedication of our new pavilion in the south garden. The family of Margaret Gray, a former long time resident of Golden West, stepped forward to provide the majority of funding for the structure.  The pavilion provides shade and comfort for residents enjoying the gardens.  Thanks to Jim Gray and Janet Kidd, Margaret’s children, for their generosity and support of this project.
3. Our main dining room in the Towers has been under renovation since the summer.  Through funding from our dining services vendor, Morrison, we are able to upgrade our dining facilities to offer a new dining concept to our residents.  We are moving from the more institutional dining to a more flexible restaurant style. Residents will be able to dine anytime during the day rather than at set hours. Breakfast, lunch and dinner will be available throughout the day.  We will be fully operational by December 1, 2011.  The residents have voted to name the remodeled dining room the Ponderosa Dining Room in keeping with our theme of naming rooms after Colorado trees.In October of this year, we began the installation of a prototype window as the precursor for our window replacement project.  We have received a grant from the City of Boulder Affordable Housing Fund in the amount of $375,000 to replace windows in the Central Tower, Golden West’s oldest building (46 years).  The prototype will give us an idea of how long and what is involved in replacing the windows.  We hope to start and complete the replacement project in 2012.  We are launching an “adopt a window” campaign as part of our fundraising effort to come up with the $125,000 we need to match the grant.  Each window costs $1,000, but you can adopt a window with a gift of $250 and the match will cover the rest.

Our mission is only possible through the generosity of our donors, support from our vendors and opportunities to obtain grants that help us to provide quality services. We thank you for your support.

• • ENTERTAINMENT
  • Boulder Film Festival Friday May 10, 2:30 pm
  • Jazz with Joe Diamo Friday May 17, 2:30 pm
  • Visiting Professor Monday May 20, 2:30 pm
  • Who is Sophia Friday May 24, 2:30 pm
  • TRIPS
  • IMAX Tuesday May 14
  • Cinema Grill Thursday May 23
  • Botanical Gardens Tuesday June 4
  • Islamorada Restaurant Friday June 21

   

I am excited to share with you that Golden West will receive funds from the City of Boulder’s Affordable Housing Grant in the amount of $375,000 to replace windows and air conditioning in the central tower. Golden West will have to match this grant with $125,000 as the cost of the total project is at least $500,000.

The Golden West Foundation is sponsoring a campaign to raise the $125,000 over this year and next year to help to support this huge project. Plans are underway now to hire an architect and a window consultant to put together the bid documents over the next couple of months. We will actually take one apartment and build a prototype before launching into the full scale project.

The windows in the central tower are 46 years old and are inadequate in terms of blocking out cold air. The windows are outdated and energy inefficient. Every year, especially when we have very low temperatures, we have trouble maintaining adequate heat levels in some our apartments. This project will eliminate that problem and will also add another level of energy efficiency to the building.

Our initial plan was to provide new windows for the south tower as well but we did not receive enough funds to do both buildings. At some point in the future, we will seek another grant for the south tower.

The window replacement project has been a high priority for a number of years and the challenge year after year has been to find funding. The grant from the City now gives us the opportunity we have been looking for to complete an upgrade that is extremely needed for our residents.

Stay tuned for more information as we move forward with our plans. If you would like more information about this, please contact me at (303) 939-0897 or jtorres@gwboulder.org . As always, I want to thank you, our donors, for your support of Golden West.

John Torres
Executive Director

As we enter into 2011 we can look forward to another busy year at Golden West. We can anticipate those hot summer days knowing that we finally completed the pavilion in the south garden. The pavilion was built in memory of Margaret Gray, a former resident of Golden West for many years. The cost of the pavilion was provided in large part by her family.

We can be assured that there won’t be any roof leaks in the South Tower now that we have the new roof replaced. Our fundraising efforts include writing grants and we did receive a grant to cover most of the cost of this $42,000 project. Hopefully, we will have fewer problems with the elevators now that the upgrades have been completed. The elevator upgrade was also funded with a grant from the City of Boulder Community Development Block Grant Program in the amount of $200,000.

Although the new dining concept didn’t happen in 2010 as anticipated and the project has its challenges, I am hopeful we can meet those challenges in a timely way and get on with the project. We are partnering with Morrison Dining, our dining services vendor, who is funding the majority of this project.

If things go as planned, we can look forward to replacing the windows in the Central Tower, which are 45 years old and not very energy efficient. We have approval from the City of Boulder Affordable Housing Fund in the amount of $500,000.

The Golden West fundraising committee comprised of residents from the Towers and Flatirons Terrace set a goal to raise $45,000 for 2010-2011 through the second annual Friends and Family Campaign, and we met that goal! I appreciate the work of this committee as they advise staff in the running of the campaign.

The Golden West Foundation Board of Directors will be focused on implementing the strategic plan for the Foundation as well as working with staff in elevating our visibility in the community to further our fundraising efforts. We have an active and committed board that believe in our mission and are supportive of the services we provide.

I look forward to another year of the positive things many, many of you express to me, residents and family alike. Every week people stop me and express to me how happy they are to live at Golden West or how great they think the staff are or how friendly and supportive Golden West has been for them.

I want to thank all of our donors and I want to wish you all a very Happy New Year!

John Torres
Executive Director