PARKER: Fun fundraiser for Project CURE

By Penny Parker, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published September 5, 2007 at midnight

Text size  

• 0 Comments
• Email
• Print

Maria Garcia Berry, one of Denver's most powerful lobbyists, remembers vividly Feb. 12, 1962, the day her parents put her on a plane leaving Fidel Castro's Cuba for a better life in the United States.

"I was told I was going to Miami to see my cousins and that I'd get real Coca-Cola and chewing gum," Berry recalls of the day her parents put their only child on a plane sponsored by Operation Peter Pan, an effort that brought 14,000 children from Cuba to the U.S.

"My parents told me they would come later because they had to take care of my grandmother and grandfather," she said. "I did not know I was leaving until the day before I left."

Berry's parents joined her five months later, but she did not return to her homeland until three years ago when she visited as part of the Urban Land Institute's tour of the country. The abject poverty she witnessed left an indelible impression and an insatiable desire to help her countrymen despite the embargo against trade between the two countries.

Berry will join other Denver good-doers in an upcoming trip to Cuba to deliver basic medical supplies through Project CURE, the Denver-based distributor of medical supplies and equipment to developing nations.

To raise money to send three or four 40-foot containers of medical supplies to Cuba, local folks, including Project CURE CEO Dr. Doug Jackson, Colorado Board of Education member Elaine Gantz Berman, Cuba-born Deputy Mayor Bill Vidal, Jamie Van Leeuwen of Denver's Road Home, local documentary filmmaker Yvette Pita Frampton, Schenkein public relations co-owner Leanna Clark and Berry are hosting Havana Nights, a fun fundraiser from 5:30 to 8 p.m. on Oct. 16 at La Rumba, 99 W. Ninth Ave.

"They are in desperate need of simple things like bandages," Berry said. "There's nothing. They don't have pads to write prescriptions on. They want patients to know they can get something sterile that hasn't been reused by somebody."

Tickets and sponsorships for Havana Nights: projectcure.org/cuba.aspx.

FAMILIAR FACE? You may have caught some cable network TV ads recently using a pitchman with a familiar face. Former Denver Post columnist Chuck Green is featured in the commercials selling homesites at Twin Butte Estates, a gated community south of Pueblo.

"It's a personal endorsement," Green said in an e-mail. "There is an extensive flight of TV ads, radio ads (a big buy on KOA morning and afternoon drive) and a direct-mail piece."

Green, who writes a syndicated column for newspaper clients that include the Aurora Sentinel and Pueblo Chieftain, points out that since he is a freelance writer, he can choose to make paid endorsements much like radio talker Mike Rosen, who writes a freelance column for this newspaper.

BIG APPLE BOUND: Rebecca Weitzman, the much-lauded chick chef at Cafe Star, is leaving the kitchen at 3201 E. Colfax Ave. to take a bite out of the Big Apple. Weitzman, considered one of Denver's supreme chefs, will depart Denver in about a month for a yet-to-be-determined cooking gig in NYC.

EAVESDROPPING on a 3-year-old girl and her 2-year-old male cousin: "Have you ever been on an airplane?"

"Oh yes, and the airplane was really big and went really fast."

"My airplane was really big too, but it went slow so my drink wouldn't spill."

Penny Parker's column appears Tuesday through Saturday. Listen to her on the Caplis and Silverman radio show between 4 and 5 p.m. Fridays on KHOW-AM (630). Call her at 303-954-5224 or e-mail parkerp@RockyMountainNews.com.

Featured

• Holiday movies

  

  Check out our movie page to read reviews and see your holiday options.

• Holiday Lights

  

  Is your house the jolliest on the block? Submit your holiday lights display.

• Mount Crushmore

  

  Which four Broncos greats should be immortalized on Mount Crushmore? Vote here.

• Broncos-Jets Action

  

  Visit our photo galleries for some hard-hitting action photos from Sunday's game.

• Bronco Dean's rant

  

  Listen to Bronco Dean's postgame rant on the Jets.

• Rocky Multimedia

  

  The news comes alive in our videos and slide shows. Catch up on what's happening today.

• Stein's View

  

  Editorial cartoons by Ed Stein

• Holiday Gift Guide

  

  Looking to get a jump-start on the holiday shopping season?

• The Rocky @ 150 Years

  

  Read the Rocky's coverage of Colorado's cannibal, Alfred Packer, in 1886.