Church Partner: Restoration Community Church

ECM is extremely thankful for a great Church Partner in Restoration Community Church.

Restoration Community Church is located at the corner of South Marion Street and Iliff Avenue; just a few blocks south of Evans Avenue and East of Downing Street.  Thanks for being a supporter and believer of the work ECM is doing in Denver communities "one block at a time" and for tackling so many projects during your recent participation in the Work Day on May 18th!
 

Church Partner: Bethany Lutheran Church

Thank you to our most recent Church Partner, Bethany Lutheran Church!  For the past couple of years, Bethany has been involved in Be the Blessing, which they will be participating in with ECM on Sunday, June 2.


If you show up to worship as usual at 8:00 or 9:00am at Bethany on Sunday, June 2, you will find the building empty!  A sign will say that worship is cancelled at 8:00 and 9:00 and that our congregation has joined the service in the neighborhoods of our community. There are MANY opportunities to serve fit for little ones through 100 year olds. READ all about the Project Sites HERE!

We are looking forward to working with you on June 2.  Thanks again for your support of Extreme Community Makeover!

5.18.13 - ECM Work Day in West Colfax

God's Grace Community Church

Restoration Community Church

University of Denver Alumni

Individuals

 

Summary of 5.18.13 ECM Work Day in West Colfax:



• Volunteers Participated - 70
• Projects Completed - 17
• Alleys Cleaned - 4
• Volunteer Hours - 370

5.4.13 - ECM Work Day in Elyria

Denver Downtown Partnership Leadership Program Alumni

Harvest Bible Chapel Denver

Valor Christian High School


 

Summary of 5.4.13 ECM Work Day in Elyria:



• Volunteers Participated - 50
• Projects Completed - 7
• Alleys Cleaned - 14
• Volunteer Hours - 280

4.20.13 - The Big Day of Serving in Westwood

 
The Big Day of Serving was an amazing day of bringing Westwood residents, non-profit partners, city government, and local businesses together to accomplish big things in one day!



420 volunteers...didn't all fit in the picture!



Stats:

• 420 volunteers
• 10 zones of alley clean-up and graffiti removal completed
• 4 alley improvement projects completed, which included painting murals on the dumpsters and alley pavement

Thank you to the many Westwood residents who welcomed the volunteers into their neighborhood and worked so hard to recruit additional neighbors to join in the projects alongside the volunteers.
 
Thank you to the non-profit partners and city government agencies who worked to make a great event, which include: Action Youth, BuCu West, Crossroads of the Rockies, Denver Public Works, LiveWell Westwood, Office of Councilman Paul Lopez, Westwood Resident's Association, and Westwood Unidos.
 
We also want to say thanks to the generous donations of these groups: Centerplate for box lunches, Colorado Rockies for tickets to the game that night, Denver Parks & Recreation for the use of a trash truck for the day, Glidden for paint, P & L Printing for the event banner, Radio Resource for the use of walkie-talkies, and Waste Management for a discount on the dumpsters.
To see all of the photos from the day, click here.  A huge thank you to everyone who made The Big Day of Serving a huge success! 



Neighborhood Spotlight: Elyria

Elyria
Swansea and Elyria have their own unique histories, yet the two neighborhoods share common historical features. In the mid-19th century, Denver was a miners' town, and settlements began to form around it. The Swansea-Elyria area was the site of two of these early settlements. People and industry liked the area because it was close to the South Platte River and its land was flat. Among those attracted by the expanding economic opportunities were Slavic immigrants who settled in Swansea and Elyria in the mid-19th century, when the two neighborhoods were part of Arapahoe County.

History

Elyria was platted on March 29, 1881, by A. C. Fisk and C. F. Liner, President and Treasurer of the Denver Land and Improvement Company. Elyria was named by Mr. Fisk after his hometown of Elyria, Ohio. Elyria residents voted in favor of incorporation as a village on August 2, 1890. Elyria's focal point was the Town Hall, built in 1894 at the corner of East 47th Street and Brighton Boulevard. Elyria was annexed to Denver in 1902. There are three structures in Elyria that have been deemed historically significant. The first is the Chapel Building, constructed in 1876 at the corner of East 52nd Avenue and Race Street. It is located in the Riverside Cemetery, which itself was founded in 1870, approximately 10 years before the Village of Elyria was established. The second structure is the Livestock Exchange Building, built in 1916 and located at 4701 Marion Street. This facility followed the establishment of the Denver Union Stockyards, which opened in 1910. The third structure is the old Elyria Elementary School at 4705 High Street, built in 1924.

Today

Aside from its large amount of industrial and commercial development, the greatest influence on the Elyria-Swansea area environment has been Interstate 70, which was built directly through both neighborhoods in the early 1960s, despite the objections of area residents and business owners. They opposed the imposing viaduct because, they said, it was an eyesore that would hurt property values. Despite the encroachment of the interstate, the physical character of both Swansea and Elyria has remained basically stable since the end of World War II. Small sections of well-maintained, single-family homes are interspersed with larger areas of commercial and industrial development such as Denver Union Stockyards, Cudahy Meatpacking, Denver Pepsi Cola Bottlers, and numerous other firms.

Source: Wikipedia

More Info: The Piton Foundation - Elyria