Forty years after she and Elaine Edinburg, Dr. Deborah Flick, Nickie Wolman and the late Marjorie Leidig founded SafeHouse Denver, Lenore Walker returned to Colorado for a gala that marked the organization’s milestone anniversary and raised $260,000 for its continued operation.
“Never would we have thought that SafeHouse Denver would grow and thrive and help make so many people aware of the extent of domestic violence in our community,” she said while leading a champagne toast to SafeHouse and its efforts to assist adults, children and adolescents in reclaiming their right to a life free from domestic violence by providing such things as emergency shelter, safety planning, counseling and referrals to community resources.
Flick was SafeHouse Denver’s first executive director; Edinburg, an attorney, helped get SafeHouse Denver draw up its articles of incorporation; Wolman was a founding board member and Leidig was a psychologist.
Walker is a noted clinical forensic psychologist, founder of the Domestic Violence Institute and author of the groundbreaking text “The Battered Woman Syndrome.”
She taught at Colorado Women’s College before starting her own practice, Walker & Associates, which focused on family violence and violence against women. Later, she moved to Florida to become a professor at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, a position from which she recently retired. In 1987 she was inducted into the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame.
Ramona Gomoll, chief people officer for the Governor’s Office of Information Technology and secretary of the SafeHouse board, chaired the dinner, dance and auction held at the Sheraton Denver Downtown.
Dayle Cedars, a member of the SafeHouse honorary board, put in her sixth year as mistress of ceremonies and served as the honorary chairwoman.
Gomoll joined chief executive officer Victoria McVicker in presenting the Susan Noble Community Impact Award to Brenda and Christopher Volgenau and the Carolyn Hamil-Henderson Memorial Award to Linda Loflin Pettit, manager of the Denver city attorney’s prosecution and code enforcement section.
The Volgenaus are organizers of the Warren Miller film screenings that for the past 10 years have raised money for SafeHouse Denver; Pettit has worked in the field of domestic violence prevention since 1989, when she joined Family Tree. She then served as executive director of AMEND, a batterer intervention and victim service organization. In her current job she oversees the domestic violence arraignment advocates and an elder abuse prevention program.
McVicker traced the success SafeHouse Denver has had since its founding as SafeHouse for Battered Women in 1977. Its current name was adopted in 1994.
“We have been proactive in identifying and addressing community needs, thoughtfully expanding early intervention, education, outreach and collaborative efforts, especially for populations at high risk for domestic violence,” she said.
Why? Because “The reality is, every single one of us in this room, and our children, could be affected by domestic violence.”
In 2018, she said, SafeHouse Denver plans to begin an extended stay program that offers safe, affordable housing to survivors of domestic violence, making “our longtime strategic vision for a continuum of care a reality.”
Guests at the Hope Gala included Denver District Attorney Beth McCann; Denver County Court Judge Brian Campbell; Carol and Paul Rose; Michele and Ted Vanderveen; steering committee members Becca Czarnecki, Bharati Bhardwaja, Laura Keasling, Valerie Chilewski and Shannon Boltz; and auctioneer Adam Kevil, whose power of persuasion helped bring the evening’s proceeds to a record amount.
Joanne Davidson: 303-809-1314, partiwriter@hotmail.com and @joannedavidson on Twitter
