Sunday, eight Sun Valley kids and staff rode the new West line light rail to the Rockies game! Thank you to our ticket donor – a great time was had by all cheering the Rockies as they shut out the San Francisco Giants! To everyone’s delight, the girls cheered & danced their way right onto the jumbotron!

Fresh Start Sun Valley kids team leaders present our newest lemonade – Cucumber Mint Lemonade – at the 2013 Lemonade Days Tasting Contest held this past Saturday at Young American’s Bank. It won 2nd Prize for Best Tasting!

Once again, Sun Valley kids concocted a lemonade with all natural ingredients including no white sugar or high fructose. Some of the comments from judges and other tasters were: “really good – refreshing” “the best I’ve tasted all day” “the bomb” “perfectly sweet”! Guests at the Open House to be held this Wednesday, May 22nd, 4 – 7 pm will be invited to sample Cucumber Mint and last year’s 1st place winner – Coconut Lime Sports Lemonade!

Don’t forget to follow Fresh Start on Facebook for updates and to find out where we will be stationed for this years Lemonade Day’s Event.

Please visit Fresh Start at our first Friend-Raiser and tour our new location in the heart of the Sun Valley Community!

The Holidays mean a lot of things to a lot of people. For most, it’s a time centered on the family. For some it’s a time of giving. For everyone, it’s a time of year that should remind you why it’s so important to be a part of a community. Whether that community is religious, familial or friends, it’s a time of year that we reflect.

Through this reflection comes betterment. The holidays are truly a time to marvel at all the good mankind is capable of. With this in mind, Fresh Start Denver would like to urge you to partake in the season wholeheartedly this year. We have a Giving Tree, sponsored by East West Urban Management, set up for the community of Sun Valley located at 1610 Little Raven Street.

Giving a gift is a gesture we are all familiar with this time of year. For the child you decide to get a gift for, it certainly means more than the material involved. It’s a way to include them in the feelings of gratitude and joy we all seek this time of year. While giving gifts is but a small portion of what the holidays are about, by sharing something material, you perpetuate the emotional wealth associated with the holidays. Wealth in joy, wealth in community and wealth in belonging.

You can also sponsor a child by providing a monetary donation of $25, which will provide them with three months of involvement in the Sun Valley Sports Program at the Rude Recreation Center. This includes coaching, practices and games, all of which enrich the child physically and familiarizes them to working with others to accomplish goals.

In addition to the Sun Valley Giving Tree, Fresh Start will also be hosting a second annual Sun Valley Holiday Party on December 12th from 5:30-8:30. It’s our way of honoring the parents and Sun Valley Kids who have been active in the Sports Program in addition to demonstrating a commitment to community and school. We are pleased to say “thank you” to the folks, who in spite of many challenges continue to meet with Fresh Start and visualize their brighter future.

Though the holidays are not about gifts alone, showing a little generosity will go a long way toward helping these families realize their goals.

It’s Holiday Craft time! We know that with all the holidays coming up kids will have days off school and need activities to have fun! Here is what we got, pilgrim hats and Native American headbands.

Here is what you need:

• White poster board or lightweight cardboard
• Construction paper (yellow, orange, black, white, red, grey)
• Scissors
• Tape
• Glue

Native American Headdress

1. Cut a 2” wide headband out of the poster board or lightweight cardboard slightly larger than your head
2. Cut 3 feather shapes out of red, yellow, and orange construction paper
3. Glue or tape the feathers onto the outside of the headband
4. Tape the headband around your head
5. Have someone help you, if you need
6. Voila! Native American Headband

Pilgrim Hat

1. Cut a 2” wide headband out of the poster board or lightweight cardboard slightly larger than your head
2. Cut a hat shape out of black construction paper
3. Cut 1 ½” wide strip of grey construction paper
4. Glue the grey strip onto the black hat as a trim for the hat
5. Cut a square with yellow construction paper, cut out center of square and throw away
6. Glue yellow square over grey strip, to look like a buckle for the hat
7. Glue or tape finished hat to headband
8. Tape the headband around your head
9. Have someone help you, if you need

Have some fun with these headbands at Thanksgiving Dinner. With your new headbands you will feel like you were at the first Thanksgiving.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We are thankful to be able to help as many as we do!

After the extraordinary super-storm Sandy swept through the Northeast, she left a trail of devastation in her wake. And there are plenty more months of cleanup and rebuilding ahead.

Non-profits have rallied together to lend support to the relief efforts.  There are several ways to get involved and help in the recovery. Donations are a great way to start – donating anything extra you may have, from clothes to household goods, blankets, and sleeping bags.  Non-perishable food items are also needed. Check with your local non-profits, who may be putting together relief packages. Volunteering your time is also a great option and a rewarding way to spend your time. Some useful links and resources to get started:

http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/30/us/iyw-how-to-help-after-sandy/index.html

http://abcnews.go.com/US/hurricane-sandy-victims/story?id=17598687#.UKQ014Wm5XO

www.redcross.org/Hurricane_Aid

http://blogs.volunteermatch.org/engagingvolunteers/2012/10/29/heres-what-you-can-do-to-help-with-hurricane-sandy/

http://www.habitat.org/newsroom/2012archive/11_08_2012_Helping_Victims_of_Superstorm_Sandy.aspx

http://www.serve.gov/

Winning Stand

In the warmth of the June sunshine the children of Sun Valley poured lemonade for thirsty passers by. The event took place June 3rd from 10am to 2pm. In those few hours, much was accomplished for the participants of Lemonade Day as well as the community they came to represent, Sun Valley. The concept of a lemonade stand is not new, but using it to teach the children in our communities how to conduct good and honest business is an approach that is. Perhaps the idea has always been under the surface of each lemonade stand. The difference in the Lemonade Day approach lies in the fact that each step is explained and applied to business terminology. This gives the participants more insight into the finer details of running a successful business.

Fresh Start recognized the value in teaching the youth of Sun Valley skills that they can carry for a lifetime, which is why Lemonade Day was a perfect avenue for teaching skills and setting the youth of Sun Valley up for a successful future. Fresh Start staff and volunteer mentors worked with thirteen Sun Valley children. They worked in teams of three, ensuring that each child got the opportunity to learn in a small team environment. Lemonade Day took place all over the nation and children from all walks of life got a chance to participate. Fresh Start set up their stand at Riverfront Park in a greenbelt that sits at the corner of 15th and Little Raven.

The sun was bright, and the lemonade, cold. The smiling children of Sun Valley sold various flavors of lemonade, each innovative and delicious. Judges tasted the lemonade and interviewed the participants on their goals and what they learned. The Coconut Sports Lemonade was the big show stealer, winning Best Tasting Lemonade. The recipe is available on the Fresh Start Facebook page,  Coconut Sports Lemonade Recipe. The award for Best Tasting was $ 1,000, which will be used toward the Sun Valley Sports Program. Though the scholarship is a huge financial win for Sun Valley, the real prize the children took home was the skills they learned. With these skills, they can pave their own way toward success in the face of adversity. Learning to work on a team and produce a wonderful product was an experience that offered them a skill set they will use for a lifetime.

The winners of Best Tasting with the Judge

Sun Valley Participant

Delicious Lemonade

Here is an informational video to help you all learn a little more about Lemonade Days.

We can’t wait to see you all tomorrow!

Cheers,

Fresh Start

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They say that a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.

The medicine of the situation is that Sun Valley is a neighborhood held tight in the grips of poverty. The average annual income is 8,000 and it’s the only neighborhood in Denver where the children outnumber the adults.

The medicine of the situation is that over seventy percent of Sun Valley lives below the poverty level and most don’t have cars to get to work.

The medicine of the situation is that some of these people have lived in Sun Valley their entire lives, and some feel like they are stuck there, like they will die there. The faces that compose the community are as different as they are numerous, some speak no English, some are refugees from Sudan.

With all this medicine, is there a sugar sweet enough to wash the reality of their poverty down? They say when life gives you lemons, to make lemonade. This is exactly what Fresh Start intendeds to do. Instead of sugar coating the facts or turning a blind eye on this community as so many others have in the past, they plan on showing the youth of Sun Valley that there is much to be gained with a hard, honest days work. Lemonade Day is an annual event that helps encourage youth across Denver to exercise and learn some entrepreneurial skills. Lemonade Day targets youth anywhere from ages six to sixteen.

Essentially the children of Sun Valley will work with mentors (volunteers from River Front Park) who will help them through the process of starting a business in the all American form of a lemonade stand. The kid’s get to learn how to earn money and manage the more tricky elements of a business like cost and marketing. Though Lemonade Day is open to any child that wants to participate, the hope in bringing it to the children of Sun Valley rests in the idea that with enough hard work and dedication, they too can accomplish any of their dreams.

The event details include a sign-up on May 29th where the families of Sun Valley can come and sign up for the event. A mentor will be assigned and the children will receive their backpacks. The yellow Lemonade Day backpacks include various goodies and a very important booklet. The booklet outlines in simple steps how to go about running your lemonade stand. On June 3rd, the families will meet the mentors at a designated location and commute over to the location of Lemonade Day. Though the kids get to keep most of the money their lemonade generates, a percentage of the proceeds will go toward a charity within Sun Valley, to show that an important part of being a business owner is giving back, an example Fresh Start is making clear.