June Extreme Endeavors: Bring A Smile to Someone's Face

Extreme Community Makeover Newsletter  June Extreme Endeavors June 2015

In This Issue Real Estate Industry Work Day Save the Date: Sun Aug 9 AmazonSmile May Volunteers Quick Links About ECM  Contact ECM            Donate  Help ECM build stronger communities in Denver through your financial support. Checks can be made to: Extreme Community Makeover  and sent to:    Extreme Community Makeover PO Box 102586 Denver, CO 80250-2586 "Volunteering can definitely change a heart. It brings a smile to someone's face. It's good for me and it's good for everyone." Check out this video story from a recent volunteer. If you would like to have your own story to share, come out and volunteer with Extreme Community Makeover sometime and help us build stronger communities in Denver "one block at a time"! A Volunteer Story - Trisha Angela Bomgaars, Executive Director  ECM Work Days Summer is a great time to volunteer with ECM! If you want to get a group involved for a future Work Day, click here for the calendar of dates and then click here to register.  To register as an individual, click here.   Saturday, June 13 - 9:00 am (Swansea)  2501 East 48th Avenue, Denver, 80216 - Focus Points Saturday, June 27 - 9:00 am (Elyria) 4809 Race Street, Denver, 80216  -  Colorado Miners

Real Estate Industry Work Day One of the ways we kicked off the summer here at ECM was through having an Industry Work Week, where we invited friends in specific industries to participate in a Work Day together, providing an opportunity to network with other professionals in the industry, while also connecting with co-workers outside the office.  We focused on the real estate industry and were thrilled to be joined by Heritage Title Company, LIV Sotheby's International Realty, & PorchLight Real Estate! Heritage Title Company - helping with yard work and painting trim PorchLight Real Estate - digging a trench to keep a basement from flooding LIV Sotheby's International Realty - landscaping a yard to make it more manageable   Save the Date: Sun Aug 9    AmazonSmile Did you know you can support ECM's work  in Denver neighborhoods simply through shopping at Amazon?   Amazon will donate 0.5% of the price of your eligible AmazonSmile purchases to ECM  whenever you shop on AmazonSmile. Just click here to get started.   May Volunteers Thank you to the groups below who participated in ECM Work Days in May!     Beta Alpha Psi: University of Colorado Denver  Bethany Lutheran Church  Chaparral Boys Lacrosse  Confluence Ministries  God's Grace Community Church  Individuals Jubilee Fellowship Church  Trinity United Methodist Church  West Colfax Association of Neighbors

Thank you for partnering with ECM to make a difference in Denver neighborhoods!       Sincerely, Extreme Community Makeover

Changing Hearts, One Block at a Time

ECM Volunteer, Trisha, sums it up very well, "Volunteering can definitely change a heart. It brings a smile to someone's face. It's good for me and it's good for everyone." Watch other video testimonials from residents and volunteers on our May 16 Work Day - serving the Barnum and West Colfax neighborhoods.

5.30.15 & 5.31.15 ECM Work Days - Barnum Neighborhood

Individuals 

Jubilee Fellowship Church

Trinity United Methodist Church

Summary of 5.30.15 ECM Work Day:

• Volunteers Participated - 30
• Projects Completed - 3
• Volunteer Hours - 120

Bethany Lutheran Church

Summary of 5.31.15 ECM Work Day:

• Volunteers Participated - 45
• Projects Completed - 10
• Alleys Cleaned - 3
• Volunteer Hours - 225

Denver's Westwood Neighborhood

ECM is proudly serving Denver's Westwood neighborhood. 

Westwood is a dense, predominately single family residential, neighborhood in southwest Denver. The population is 15,486 and 81% percent of residents are Latino, 11% are white, 4.3% are Asian/Pacific Islander, 1% is Native American, and 2% is African American. Mexican immigrants are a large proportion of the population. More than 25% of residents do not speak English, and over 60% of births are to foreign mothers. In 2000, 24% of residents had not lived at their address the previous year. 

The average annual wage in Westwood in 2000 is less than 1/3 of Denver’s average, at $11,336, as compared to Denver’s average annual wage of $37,406. Over 87% of children attending Westwood public schools qualified for free and reduced lunch in 2007. The neighborhood has many assets, including rich and unique cultural diversity. Nearly one-third (32.9%) of Westwood’s population is under age 18. 

A committed team of diverse residents and organizations are working tirelessly to promote healthy eating and active living and economic opportunity in Westwood. The coalition has diverse participants from multiple sectors, strong resident participation, and a resident vision for a walkable, bikeable, active community. 

Smart Home on a Budget

We all love the idea of having a smart home, but not all of us can afford such smarts. With growing technology, the ability to have a smart home does not mean you need a deep pocket. Here are some inexpensive ideas to get your home started in the smart direction.

Roost 

The Roost is a a Wi-Fi enabled 9V battery, with an accompanying app, that turns your existing smoke detector or carbon monoxide detector into a alarm system. The smart battery will send you a notification in the event of the alarm being triggered and lets you know when the battery is running low.

Smart Home Kit 

The Smart Home Kit  can add the internet to anything in your home by turning any object into an internet-connected device. You can do things such as automate your curtains or make a remote controlled pet feeder. The kit contains little modules that help the objects in your home communicate with each other. Learn how it works.

Nest 

Nest designs and manufactures sensor-driven, Wi-Fi-enabled, self-learning, programmable thermostats and smoke detectors. In addition, Works with Nest allows other devices to work smarter like your lights, appliances, fitness bands and even cars.

Wink 

Wink lets you take control of your lighting with GE Link. Using the Wink app, you can operate the bulbs from anywhere, sync them with other smart products, program dims or highlights and automate them to fit your schedule.

Leeo Smart Alert Nightlight 

The Smart Alert Nightlight keeps track of your smoke alarms, your carbon monoxide alarms, and the climate in your home, such as the temperature and humidity in the home. The system acts as a virtual ear and listens for a smoke or carbon monoxide alarm and then sends notifications straight to your phone.

Simplicam

Simplicam is a Wi-Fi monitoring camera with face recognition technology. You don’t need a computer, just your smartphone. However, the system does provide streaming HD video to your computer or smartphone. With the facial recognition, you can set up texts to alert you when someone arrives home or if a stranger is on the premises.

Skylink Alarm System

Skylink has an easy-to-follow installation kit helps you have your home or office wired for protection. It takes less than an hour to set up, and there’s no wiring required. Your smartphone acts like your personal security monitor, notifying you whenever an alarm is triggered.

Kevo

The days of fumbling around for your keys are over. Kevo is an eKey that allows you to open and lock your door with the use of your smartphone. You can also view history of lock activity, and set up other configurable features and options with the Kevo App. Kevo is also compatible with Nest.

WeMo Insight Switch 

Belkin has a Wi-Fi enabled switch that connects your home appliances and electronic devices to your network, allowing you to turn devices on or off, program customized notifications and change device status. The WeMo Insight Switch can also monitor your electronics and will send information about the device’s energy usage directly to your smartphone or tablet. The switch is perfect to pair with space heaters, wall A/C units, TVs, washers, dryers and fans.

Internet of Things

Our world is getting smarter by the minute. There are new devices invented every day to make our lives easier. The Internet of Things will grow to make our lives easier with increased machine-to-machine communication, built on cloud computing and networks of data-gathering sensors. There are no limits to this mobile, virtual, instantaneous, and smart connection that is rapidly changing how we live our lives.

Photo by Robert Basic from Germany (Samsung Smart Home) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

5.16.15 ECM Work Day - West Colfax Neighborhood

Confluence Ministries & Individuals

God's Grace Community Church

West Colfax Association of Neighbors

Summary of 5.16.15 ECM Work Day:

• Volunteers Participated - 55
• Projects Completed - 5
• Alleys Cleaned - 5
• Volunteer Hours - 220

My First Work Day Experience

Extreme Community Makeover couldn’t have asked for a more perfect day as we embarked upon our third Work Day of the year.  The day included volunteers from Beta Alpha Psi at the University of Colorado Denver and Chaparral High School Boy’s Lacrosse team.  This being my first Work Day in my first year of volunteering for ECM, I was impressed with the energy amongst our volunteers, especially the young gentlemen from Chaparral High School.  Even though many of them had prom on their minds, scheduled for later that evening, they dove into their work with gusto, focus, and great attitudes.  Truly, it was a pleasure to observe these young people working to help better our communities. 

I was also fortunate to share my first Work Day experience with fellow Extreme Team and second year returning volunteer - Courtney.  Her assigned position is the Fundraising Team, but she answered the call to be photographer for the day, as our regular photographer was laid up with an injury.  We decided to join forces and drove from site to site together to gather stories and photos of our volunteers and residents.  Teaming up with Courtney gave me the additional experience and appreciation of witnessing the compassionate, hardworking and kind people working for ECM.  Not only did I find kindness and people with a serving attitude within ECM volunteers, but this personality trait was also evident in the residents in Villa Park and the surrounding neighborhoods. 

High school sweethearts, Ted and Linda, met and grew up in the same neighborhood they are now living in. Residents for 30 years, they have both seen many people come and go throughout the years and have watched the neighborhood go through many transitions. Ted shared stories of how he and his neighbors look after each other.  His wife Linda commented that when Ted gets bored he will go see what the neighbors are up to. Ted and Linda especially love it when their Guatemalan neighbors share homemade tamales with them at Christmas time.  Although retired, Ted and Linda haven’t slowed down – at the age of 50 Ted taught himself how to play base guitar and Linda the keyboards. They formed a band with their son and a neighbor; and enjoy getting together once a week to play rock and roll tunes by Santana, The Beatles, and other bands from the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s.  They play purely for pleasure, however, Ted said they did get to play at a bar once.  He said the experience was wonderful, but the one time was enough.

Several of the other residents have similar stories of growing up in the neighborhood and returning to raise their own families.  One resident - Sally, has lived in the same house for 62 years, and Charles and Loretta 40 plus years.  Dorie has been in her home since 1962 and shared that her neighbors check in on her and bring over food when she is not feeling well. They all concur that they keep in touch with their neighbors and they all look out for each other.

Carrying on the tradition of community and neighborhood involvement; the youngest resident that day was Rose. She and her husband recently bought their home from a long time resident.  Rose is glad to belong to the neighborhood, and excited to update their home and make it their own.  She feels it is important to get out and meet neighbors and to stay informed as to what is going on in her community.  Rose told me that she frequently visited website like www.nextdoor.com and www.everyblock.com to keep up on the news and to research suggestions on how to keep one’s neighborhood more peaceful and harmonious.  Rose looks forward to staying in touch with ECM to continue our work and to stay involved with the community.

I look forward to my next Work Day with ECM.  I know this experience has changed me and I am happy to be involved with such caring, and compassionate people. ECM offers many thanks to our volunteers for their time and to the residents for sharing their stories.  I am especially grateful for the opportunity to be a part of ECM, an organization that is doing their part to restore communities and help build relationships.

- Lisa, ECM Communications Team