Celebrating the Last Family Night of 2010-11 School Year

Posted by Katie Ehrlich, Mi Casa Intern

This Wednesday, April 27, the Mi Casa Neighborhood Center hosted its third and final Family Night of the school year. Mi Casa’s Family Night events are generously sponsored by Target.

The family and friends of Mi Casa’s afterschool program participants enjoyed bean-bag tossing games, face painting, balloon animals, and a dinner catered by Revolution Foods. Nearly 150 people attended, 43 of those were families of Mi Casa’s afterschool program participants. Everyone got to see the kids’ clubs “Foco y Movimiento” (Focus and Movement), “College 4 U”, “Paint the Town”, and “Mouse Squad” perform, and there were some smaller student talent showcases as well. Mi Casa also gave out 14 awards to the students and five door prizes, including two $50 Target gift cards.

When asked about her time at Family Night, one student named Fernanda said, “It was really fun and the Family Night was really respectful and nice because everyone participated in decorating it.”

Another former “Student of the Month” award-winner named AJ commented, “The best part was just to be with family and share a meal together.” Everything went smoothly, and everyone is looking forward to the next Family Night, which will take place next school year!

Mi Casa and Friends Celebrate Solar Energy

Mi Casa Resource Center welcomed friends and partners today to celebrate the completion of Mi Casa's 40.5kW solar energy array, which will offset 24% of the agency's total energy use at our Acoma Street home.


After a program including remarks from Stacey Simms of the Governor's Energy Office, Doug Wells of Renewable Energy Ventures, Michele Weingarden of Greenprint Denver, Christine Marquez-Hudson and Benita Duran of Mi Casa, and Geronimo Adams, a graduate of Mi Casa's Green Construction and Energy training program, we headed to the roof.

It's not easy to put a ribbon across 180 solar PV panels, but we tried! At first we hesitated to take the group up to the roof - the only way up and down are ladders, which aren't to be combined with high heels and dress clothes on a normal day. But our group was not to be deterred.

And the ribbon was cut on a beautiful, sunny Colorado day, with our panels pumping out energy in the background!

THANK YOU to the funders who made this project possible:
Governor's Energy Office
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
Doug Wells, Renewable Energy Ventures

Mi Casa would also like to thank:
Jon Sullivan, 303 Solar LLC
Mike Pardun, Renewable Technology Partners
City Electric
Geronimo Adams
Shawn Larson
Josh Simpson

College Friday at Mi Casa Neighborhood Center

Posted by Naia Posniak, Program Assistant

The Mi Casa Neighborhood Center celebrated College Friday Lake Middle School on Friday, April 8, with students and staff wearing their favorite college gear.

Joel Orozco, a student at Metropolitan State College of Denver and President of MCSD's chapter of Sigma Lambda Beta International Fraternity, spoke to the students in Mi Casa's afterschool program about the barriers he faced as an immigrant student getting accepted to and especially paying for higher education. Joel stressed that plenty of resources are available for the students who seek them out and encouraged students to start thinking about and preparing for college.

After Joel’s speech, some students were asked what they thought of his experiences:

“It made me think he’s right," one female student mused. "It’s never too early to think about college. I also thought it was cool that he was the first person in his family to go to college.”

“I liked that he was from Chihuahua," one young man observed. "That’s cool because that’s where I am from.”