BPD reaches milestone

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With the recent promotion of a fifth female sergeant, the Boulder Police Department has announced that it has more commissioned female supervisors than at any time in its history.
The milestone was reached when Officer Kristi Peterson was promoted to the position of sergeant.

Peterson joins four other female sergeants — Katie McEldowney, Melissa Kampf, Lauri Wegscheider, Janet Aguirre — and Cmdr. Kim Stewart in leadership roles.

The Boulder Police Department first hired women in police positions in 1951. The first two recruits were listed as a “police woman/records clerk” and a “police woman/clerk typist.”
At the Boulder Police Department, 24 percent of commissioned officers are women, surpassing the national average of 13 percent.

In other BPD news, the department has launched a new website at www.boulder-police.com. It features a range of tasks that visitors can often accomplish with a single click of the mouse, including reporting some types of crime online. The website also highlights many of the department’s major programs and initiatives with a rotating slideshow. The home page also provides links to the most recent public safety press releases.

Music center gala

Crescendo, the fifth annual gala benefit for the Rocky Mountain Center for Musical Arts (RMCMA) will be held at the Renaissance Suites Hotel at Flatiron in Broomfield on Saturday, March 6, from 6 to 11 p.m.

The RMCMA is a nonprofit community music school in Lafayette that merged with the Colorado Music Festival in October 2009.

The event will begin with a silent auction, hors d’oeuvres, champagne and music by harpist Nancy Brace and RMCMA students, followed by a formal dinner. Showcasing the student talent at the RMCMA will be current student Casey Rosenberg, violin, and RMCMA alumnus Zac Garcia, voice.

The evening will conclude with musical entertainment by RMCMA faculty, featuring Marcelo Sanches, cello; the Mountain Music Duo with James Cline, guitar, and Tenly Williams, oboe; and an RMCMA jazz ensemble with Steve Christopher on trumpet, Byron Dudrey on bass, singer Faye Nepon, Bob Schlesinger on piano, and Chris Wahl on drums. Mike Hooker of the CBS4 Northern Newsroom will be the emcee.

Tickets are $80 per person, and half is tax-deductible. RSVP by Friday, Feb. 26, at www.rmcma.org.

Real men get depressed

The HOPE Coalition of Boulder County is hosting its annual suicide prevention and awareness event on March 3 in Louisville. Called “Real Men Get Depressed: Tools Anyone Can Use to Reduce the Risk of Suicide,” the event will feature Mark Allen as keynote speaker, a panel, and break-out sessions.

Allen is director of research at the University of Colorado Depression Center. Panelists include Michael Pantaleo of the Boulder Vet Center, Boulder County Coroner Tom Faure, Sally Spencer Thomas of the Carson J. Spencer Foundation and Marcela Ot’alora, a local therapist.

The HOPE Coalition is comprised of representatives from CU, Boulder County agencies, Boulder Valley Schools and the Boulder County Mental Health Center, as well as individuals who are survivors of a family member’s suicide. The event is free and open to the public.

For more information, visit www.hopecoalitionboulder.org or call Teresa DeAnni at 303-441-4995.

Food tax rebates available

Each year, the city of Boulder provides rebates to help compensate lower-income residents for the city sales tax they pay on food. Those seeking a rebate must fill out an application documenting their eligibility.

The application period begins on March 1 and will run through June 30. Applications can be picked up from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday, at the West Senior Center, 909 Arapahoe Ave.

Applicants from 2009 will automatically receive an application in the mail.

To be eligible to receive a refund, people must have been a resident of Boulder for the entire 2009 calendar year. They must be a low-income senior (age 62 or over for the entire 2009 calendar year) a low-income person with disabilities, or a low-income family with children under 18 years of age.

Rebates will be $70 for low-income individuals and $213 for low-income families. For more information, visit www.bouldercommunityservices.com or call John Bunzli at 303-441-1836.

Sports program set for new season 

i9 Sports® is now accepting registrations for youth flag football in Boulder, which will begin April 11. Full program details and registration information can be found at www.i9sports.com or by calling 303-462-1520.

The program, for boys and girls ages 4-14, is open to all skill levels. All practices and games are scheduled on Sunday afternoons at Platt Middle School, at 6096 Baseline Road.

There are no tryouts or drafts, and each child receives equal playing time. All instructors and volunteers go through a thorough background check and certification process, and there are absolutely no fundraisers of any kind and no mandatory volunteering.

i9 Sports provides professional management of all program details; certified officials at every game; around-the-clock access to league information, standings, and team news on the company’s website; and a program that places greater value on fun than the score.

EXPAND Program gets grant

The City of Boulder Parks and Recreation Department’s EXPAND Program has been awarded a $15,000 grant from the National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA). The grant, part of the U.S. Olympic Committee’s (USOC) Paralympic Grant Initiative, will be used to provide athletic opportunities for injured service men and women returning to the community.

Boulder’s Parks and Recreation Department is one of 12 agencies across the country to receive a grant this year.

The EXPAND Program — Exciting Programs, Adventures, and New Dimensions — provides opportunities for people with disabilities to gain and improve recreation, sports and leisure skills. One of EXPAND’s objectives with the grant is to support the growth of community-based Paralympic sports programs that accommodate people with physical disabilities. EXPAND plans to launch a new triathlon training program for injured military personnel this spring with the aid of the grant.

NRPA awarded grants to agencies with an established community need for military-inclusion programming and expansion, as well as those that could provide daily physical-activity programming for injured service members. Currently, more than 35,000 of the 21 million physically disabled Americans are military personnel who sustained injuries in Iraq and Afghanistan.