Local Love: #BoulderStrong
The tragedy that took place at King Soopers in our beloved community of Boulder, Colorado on March 23rd has been devastating on so many levels. We have experienced a full range of emotions: sadness over the ten lives that were lost, fear about the future, and anger and frustration around long overdue changes that need to be made to help prevent these types of events from happening again and again.
Photo Credit: @sophmiller
Yet in the midst of such heartbreak and despair, another emotion has risen: hope.
It has been so inspiring to witness the incredible display of strength, kindness and generosity by the people of this very special corner of the world: the epitome of “Local Love.”
Here are just a few of the incredibly generous acts of kindness we have seen in the past two weeks:
Our dear friends and partners at Elevations Credit Union have created a Victim’s Assistance Fund and are generously matching donations up to $200,000 through April 6th. Their website says, “Together, we can help those facing unthinkable loss after this tragic event in our Boulder community. When you contribute to the Elevations Foundation/Elevations Credit Union Victims’ Assistance Fund by April 6, your donation will be matched dollar for dollar, up to $200,000, through a matching grant provided by Elevations Foundation and Elevations Credit Union. That means we can provide a total of $400,000 to help the families of victims who lost their lives in the tragedy at King Soopers in Boulder — 100% of the proceeds will go to support victims and their families.”
An astonishing $2.7M+ has been donated to the Colorado Healing Fund in the past 10 days. Their mission is to “assist local communities with the financial, emotional and physical needs of victims of mass tragedies that occur in the state of Colorado. The Colorado Healing Fund (CHF) will serve as the single point in Colorado for the collection of public donations in the aftermath of a mass tragedy and in conjunction with community partners CHF will coordinate the disbursement of funds to victims.”
The legendary Cured Boulder in donated 100% of its sales on March 27th to benefit those affected and support several causes that work toward gun reform including @everytown, @giffordscourage, The Brady Campaign, and The States United to Prevent Gun Violence.
Our friends at Dish Gourmet donated 50% of all their proceeds from sales on April 2nd to the Colorado Healing Fund.
Boulder Artist and creative force Phil Lewis donated 50% of proceeds from his gallery on March 27th.
Amaluna Wellness and Acupuncturists Without Borders (with support from my wonderful company Colorado Landmark, Realtors and Land Title) provided pro-bono acupuncture services for those in need of nervous system relief.
Donation yoga classes were held by our very own incredible Sophie Miller, in partnership with Interact Boulder, who raised funds for the Colorado Healing Fund.
Other donation yoga classes will take place each Monday evening for the next 10 weeks at Kondition Fitness and 20% off all treatments at Vasu Skin Solutions for frontline workers through the month of April.
Award-winning restaurant siblings Blackbelly & Santo Boulder are donating 10% of Monday evening dinner sales for the next 10 weeks.
I am so proud of this place where we live, and continue to be blown away by the outpouring of support demonstrated by those right next door and beyond throughout our beautiful Boulder, Colorado community. If you have witnessed acts of kindness that we should add to this list, please reach out!
And I wish you all a wonderful spring, full of sunshine, neighborly love, and especially … hope.