Thank you to our community champions for riding along on a delivery route and helping to spread the word about the important mission at Meals on Wheels of Boulder!
Get your donation tickets for our online “live” concert, Friday, March 24th, featuring special footage from Hazel Miller & the Collective and Face Vocal Band!
March 20 – Jan Berg
All around Community Champion
Tiffany Merlo
Photographer
Jan has been retired from the corporate world for a number of years after a long career in Sponsorship and Event Marketing but she has stayed connected with the business community.
She strongly believes in supporting non-profit organizations and has dedicated her time and efforts to Cultivate, whose mission is to help seniors flourish in every community. She served on their board for many years and as their Chair led them through some very challenging times.
Jan is the proud recipient of the award , Women Who Light the Community which was presented to her in 2018 by the Boulder Chamber. She believes that helping others is what we’re meant to do while we are here and that one should find their passion – get involved and commit. Her mantra is “you will be remembered by the tracks you leave behind”.
March 21 – Rachel Friend
Boulder City Council Member
Mikaela Brown
Photographer
Rachel Friend is a mother to 3 kids, 2 dogs, and 1 cat, and has been married for over 20 years. She firmly believes that lifting each other up serves us better than tearing each other down. Rachel stepped into public service from a deep commitment to activism, and a drive to leave this world a better place than we found it. For more specifics on Rachel’s professional background, feel free to visit her LinkedIn page (Hyperlink: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachelfriend/).
Briefly, Rachel earned her undergraduate degree in Psychology from Stanford University in 1995, and her law degree, magna cum laude, from Notre Dame Law School in 2000. After law school, Rachel clerked for a federal judge in the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, and then started off her legal career in the Labor and Employment field. She has spent the bulk of her career advocating for vulnerable populations, including individuals with disabilities, survivors of domestic violence, abused children, elderly persons, and asylum seekers.
Rachel is also an educator and has spent the past several years teaching college courses at Front Range Community College. Finally, as an activist, Rachel has worked in such areas as gun violence prevention, flood mitigation protections, climate crisis resiliency, immigrants’ rights, Boulder County Democrats, and helping to elect leaders committed to progressive values. In her spare time Rachel enjoys writing fiction novels, hiking, and meditation.
March 22 – Ginger Havlat
Longtime KBCO Radio Host
Olivia Laney Edwards
Photographer
Ginger Havlat moved to Boulder in 1981. She recently retired after a 37 year career as an air personality at 97.3 KBCO. Ginger’s hobbies include taking long walks with an eventual goal of walking every street in Boulder, traveling (only 5 more states to go), wine tasting, movies and literature. She has two cats, Willow and Pipurr, that she adopted from the Humane Society of Boulder Valley. Her motto for cats is the same as for margaritas: “no more than two, no less than two!” Ginger also has been a volunteer at Meals on Wheels of Boulder’s Niche Market.
Olivia was a staff photographer for the Denver Post, 1969-71, back in the days of film cameras. Combining photography and abstraction, she transitioned to shooting, manipulating and exhibiting Polaroid SX-70 images in the Denver/Boulder area until Polaroid closed its doors. Currently, she is mostly retired, but she enjoys looking at the world with digital photography.