Nonprofits
Overcoming Barriers to Leverage Your Passion
Kathi Wright
Dave Boon
Co-founder Empowering Opportunities
Friends of Lackota
Nonprofit Animal Sanctuary
Presenters
Kathi Wright
A Loveland resident since 1978, Kathi brings a wealth of experience from both the for-profit and nonprofit sectors. Her diverse career includes impactful roles at the Chamber of Commerce in Kearney, Nebraska and within city government.
Notably, Kathi dedicated 18 years as the Executive Director of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Larimer County, where she demonstrated exceptional fundraising abilities and a deep commitment to the community. Wright led the organization’s expansion from multiple, small programs to one program serving youth of the entire county. She made a tangible difference in the lives of young people and successfully secured substantial funding for their vital programs.
Her long-standing presence and broad professional background make her a valuable asset to our community.
Dave Boon
Dave Boon is a force! Some people are devoted to career while others are dedicated to leisure. Dave Boon’s passion is to get teenagers excited about making good choices. Dave has won practically every civic and community award in any community where he resides. After raising two daughters and mentoring dozens, Dave found that he had a special purpose in life. This purpose goes beyond himself and even his own career…it is to everyone, but especially teens and young adults, on their path to happy and productive lives.
Dave’s innovative ideas and successful programs have been featured in The New Yorker and Shape magazines and highlighted by award winning Wall Street Journal reporters Bob Davis and David Wessel, in Prosperity: The Coming 20 Year Boom and What It Means to You.
If not now, when?
If not you, who?
The extraordinary story about Dave, his wife June and a 13 year old teen, Gary Martinez, being buried alive by an avalanche on January 6, 2007, received worldwide coverage. His miracle survival story was featured on Oprah, CNN, MSNBC, The Today Show and in USA Today. Dave is convinced that he survived for a reason. Today his life work is focused on teaching goals, good choices, and value-based decisions in order to place everyone, but especially our youth, on the road to hope and happiness.
Friends of Lackota Animal Sanctuary
Our mission is to rescue animals, specifically horses, donkeys, and mules from deplorable, neglectful, and abusive situations with a particular focus on those at immediate risk, the ones bound for slaughter in Mexico or Canada where they face the most inhumane deaths for the sake of their meat, hides, gelatin, and other by-products. Many of the horses, donkeys, mules and other animals we rescue come from slaughter auctions, kill pens, kill pen diversions, owner surrender, and other abusive or neglectful situations. These animals are cast aside at an alarming rate when they are no longer deemed “useful.”
Despite Friends of Lackota Animal Sanctuary operating as a 100% volunteer-based organization, the needs of our sanctuary are vast, encompassing extensive veterinarian care, medications, feed, shelter, rehabilitation services, and transportation.
Exhibitors
Living Her Legacy
Approved by the Fort Collins Historic Preservation Services Department in December 2014, “Living Her Legacy’s” request–to create the first highly visible, public, outdoor, historic art / education exhibit recognizing women’s accomplishments–took root with great anticipation and excitement. In 2015, the selection process of the forty-eight Living Her Legacy Honorees began and was completed in 2018. A dedicated community of over 100 volunteers nominated, judged, and selected the final forty-eight Legacy Honorees–women with ties to Northern Colorado.