Denver, CO
Nonprofit aimed to help teen moms set to open early learning center in August
![Nonprofit aimed to help teen moms set to open early learning center in August Nonprofit aimed to help teen moms set to open early learning center in August](https://kdvr.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2024/07/9PM-PKG-HOPE-HOUSE.00_01_46_38.Still001.jpg?w=1280)
(ARVADA) Colo, (KDVR) — Hope House Colorado, a nonprofit that helps teen moms become self-sufficient and pursue their dreams of higher education, is taking on their newest venture opening up an early learning center.
“Our mission is to empower them to become self-sufficient,” said Lisa Steven, Founder and Executive Director of Hope House Colorado.
Steven started this mission 21 years ago.
“My husband and I were teenage parents and so we really saw the need and the struggle that teen moms face,” she said.
Hope House Colorado serves about 265 teenage moms from across the Denver Metro Area. Their campus in Arvada has a residential program where six moms and their kids can live at a time.
19-year-old Rene Bruntmyer is one of them after joining the nonprofit in March.
“I found out about Hope House online, I was looking into pursuing to get my GED and a lot of other things for my son,” said Rene.
She had her son Leo when she was 17 and admits that times got challenging.
“So many things held me back before coming to Hope House,” said Rene. “It’s harder when you have a kid and you just don’t have those missing things to do the things you want to do.”
Rene is also working to get her GED through the nonprofit’s resource center. Among learning about renting, parenting, and building credit.
“I’ve learned a lot about good and bad and ugly relationships. I learned so much about renting and credit just things overall that we don’t really get to learn about as we’re younger and they’ve helped me get my license, and I’m almost done with school,” she said.
She’s extremely excited about a learning opportunity for her son with Hope House Colorado’s early learning center set to open in August.
“I’m just excited about the time I’m going to have to pursue college, and all the things I can do for my son and to know he’s going to be in a safe environment in a place I can trust fully,” said Rene.
Founder Lisa Steven told FOX31 that there is an incredible need for licensed child care in Colorado.
“Our entire state is 90,000 spots short for child care, and for our teenage moms who all qualify for CCAP, which is the Colorado Child Care Assistance program, it’s even harder to find a spot,” Steven said. Very few childcare centers accept CCAP so it’s always been our vision to build our own learning center.”
The new center will have seven classrooms and will provide licensed care to 104 children.
“Our center will open with 50 spots and grow to 100 spots over the next 18 months or so,” said Steven. “We’ll serve kiddos between six weeks old and five years old. During the summer we’ll have a summer camp for the older siblings of our children.”
Steven says it’s an opportunity for teen moms to go to school or work full-time.
“I can tell you, teenage moms, they face so much stigma and so much judgment. People tell them they can’t do it and I’m here to tell you they absolutely can,” she said.
Hope House Colorado is currently looking for about six qualified early learning teachers before their public opening date on August 15.
Everyone is invited. You can find out more information about how to get involved through their website.
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Denver, CO
Rare Orange Lobster Saved by Denver Broncos Fans
![Rare Orange Lobster Saved by Denver Broncos Fans Rare Orange Lobster Saved by Denver Broncos Fans](https://img1-azrcdn.newser.com/image/1547030-12-20240720110017.jpeg)
The Downtown Aquarium in Denver has a new resident—a rare orange lobster that was rescued from a shipment of crustaceans delivered to a Red Lobster restaurant in Pueblo, Colorado. A long-term employee spotted the bright orange lobster while unpacking a shipment last Friday and alerted restaurant managers, reports the AP. The staff named it Crush after the Denver Broncos’ legendary Orange Crush defense from 1976 to 1986. “Myself and many of my team are born and raised Denver Broncos fans, so as soon as we saw that orange color, we knew that Crush would be an excellent representation,” says Kendra Kastendieck, the restaurant’s general manager. “And we all want our defensive line to be that good again.”
When the Pueblo Zoo couldn’t take Crush, Kastendieck called the Downtown Aquarium, which she said was interested right away. Kastendieck packed Crush with ice packs in a container and delivered him to the aquarium on Wednesday. “As soon as they acclimated him to his quarantine tank at the Denver aquarium, he was very active right off the bat and was really exploring his little area,” Kastendieck says. Staff had set up a tank with a new generation Denver Broncos helmet on top and an older generation one sitting in the tank “so he can actually climb into it and play around it,” she said. Crush will be examined by a veterinarian and after 30 days in quarantine will be placed in the “Lurks” exhibit that houses other cold water North Atlantic Ocean species, aquarium staff said.
“We are thrilled to be able to share this very rare and extraordinary animal with the community and visitors to Colorado,” says Ryan Herman, general curator at Denver Downtown Aquarium, in a statement. Crush was shipped to the Pueblo restaurant from a supplier in Tennessee. It was caught off of Canada, says Kastendieck, but she was unable to confirm which coast. Genetic mutations can lead to lobsters that are orange, blue, and yellow. Downtown Aquarium has had one orange lobster previously.
(More lobsters stories.)
Denver, CO
Cooler, with scattered storms across the Denver metro-area this weekend
![Cooler, with scattered storms across the Denver metro-area this weekend Cooler, with scattered storms across the Denver metro-area this weekend](https://ewscripps.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/6631367/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1280x672+0+24/resize/1200x630!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fx-default-stgec.uplynk.com%2Fause%2Fslices%2F9dd%2F0e3a3b3bc3ae4d6eac785fb8a26bdb6b%2F9dde03f761b44b86a7d3d7df749bee9f%2Fposter_54a6f9991a134df3a0d76e4e553557a9.jpg)
DENVER — We’ll have a bit of sunshine to start your Saturday with clouds quickly increasing by the afternoon. Look for scattered showers and storms to arrive just after lunchtime. So far, it doesn’t look like any will turn severe.
Daytime highs will be a bit below average, with highs in the mid-80s on Saturday. An even bigger cooldown arrives Sunday, with highs only reaching the mid- to upper-70s.
Storms make a comeback on Sunday afternoon too, with heavy rain falling in some spots. The National Weather Service in Boulder was calling for a half-inch of rain on the Palmer Divide, and increased flooding chances in Colorado’s burn areas.
Enjoy the rain and break from the heat. These weekend temperatures will be about 5 to 10 degrees below normal for mid-July!
We’re also likely to see some Canadian wildfire smoke drift into the state this evening and stick around through Sunday.
Northerly winds aloft will likely contribute to an increase in upper-level smoke across northeast Colorado for Sunday, stemming mainly from Canadian wildfires.
Model forecast below depicts vertically-integrated smoke (i.e. not just near the surface). #COwx pic.twitter.com/Sb7vqU7KCm
— NWS Boulder (@NWSBoulder) July 20, 2024
Warmer, drier weather is back by the middle of next week. Highs return to the 90s by Wednesday.
DENVER WEATHER LINKS: Hourly forecast | Radars | Traffic | Weather Page | 24/7 Weather Stream
Click here to watch the Denver7 live weather stream.
Denver, CO
Jake Cave’s clutch hits, red-hot Brenton Doyle lift Rockies to comeback win over Giants in first game out of All-Star break
![Jake Cave’s clutch hits, red-hot Brenton Doyle lift Rockies to comeback win over Giants in first game out of All-Star break Jake Cave’s clutch hits, red-hot Brenton Doyle lift Rockies to comeback win over Giants in first game out of All-Star break](https://www.denverpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/TDP-L-RoxGiants-071924-ZSK-9.jpg?w=1024&h=686)
Jake Cave’s juice launched the Rockies to a comeback win over the Giants on Friday at Coors Field.
The veteran outfielder, a stop-gap on a one-year contract for a team in transition, was a difference maker again to lead Colorado to a victory in the first game out of the All-Star break. Cave scored the tying run in the seventh after roping a leadoff pinch-hit double, then the next inning, he gave Chatfield alum Tyler Rogers a rude welcome home via the deciding three-run homer.
Cave’s clutch hits, along with another homer from the red-hot Brenton Doyle, made up for a slow offensive start in the 7-3 triumph over San Francisco in the series opener in front of 40,115.
“The way Cave plays baseball is what we want the whole team to do,” right-hander Cal Quantrill said. “He has great energy, and his approach and ability to stay in the game mentally and come into the game late and make that kind of impact is special.”
The Giants scored first in the second inning on a two-out, sinking line drive to left by Thairo Estrada. Sean Bouchard charged in and dove at the ball, but it went under his glove and rolled to the wall. That resulted in a two-RBI triple for a 2-0 visitors lead.
San Francisco added on the next inning, with Patrick Bailey’s RBI groundout to push the score to 3-0.
Meanwhile, the Rockies had just one hit through the first five innings as they struggled to get anything going against rookie Kyle Harrison. The southpaw struck out six, and Colorado also couldn’t capitalize on four walks.
After Quantrill polished off his quality start by working around Mike Yastrzemski’s single in the sixth, the Rockies offense finally came to life against right-hander Randy Rodriguez.
Elias Diaz was grazed by a pitch — and initially wanted to stay in the box before jogging down to first with some prodding by manager Bud Black from the dugout. Doyle picked up where he left off before the All-Star break to help out Quantrill, who rebounded from his shortest outing of the year in a two-inning dud in Cincinnati.
“It’s hard to be angry when I start and the team wins,” Quantrill said. “It won’t go down as my favorite start this year, but I battled through those last three innings, and I thought I gave us a chance. We were able to get it done late.”
Doyle blasted Rodriguez’s elevated fastball 434 feet into the left-field seats, his fifth homer over his last seven games. The no-doubter from Doyle, who has nine homers in July while slashing .429/.509/1.082 and continuing to emerge as a franchise pillar, got Colorado within shouting distance at 3-2.
“Doyle, doing what he’s doing right now, is one of the best players in baseball,” Jake Cave proclaimed.
In the seventh, right-hander Tyler Kinley ran into trouble when the Giants loaded the bases off him with two hits and a walk. But southpaw Jalen Beeks bailed Kinley out by striking out Michael Conforto on a full-count, top-of-the-zone cutter.
Colorado then tied the game in the bottom of the inning against right-hander Ryan Walker, taking advantage of Cave’s double down the right-field line. With two outs, Ezequiel Tovar rolled over on an infield single in the hole between third and shortstop, and Matt Champan proceeded to make an errant throw to first.
After an intentional walk to Ryan McMahon and a walk to Diaz, Doyle came up again, but grounded to third into a fielder’s choice in end the threat and keep the game tied 3-3.
But the Rockies finally took the lead in the eighth, after Brendan Rodgers’ leadoff infield single and Michael Toglia’s double off the submariner Rogers set up Cave’s 410-foot blast to right center on a hanging slider. Cave pimped the shot out of the box off, pointing and yelling to the dugout as he took his time trotting down the first base line.
After Rogers was lifted, Tovar added on to the big inning with a homer down the left field line off Luke Jackson. It was Tovar’s 15th dinger of the year and third homer in his last two games as he continues to climb out of a recent slump.
“It was a rough patch there for Tovar for a while,” Bud Black said. “He was hitting .290, .295, and slipped all the way down to near .260, so a pretty big drop. But he stayed the course and he didn’t waiver from his routine and his process, and he didn’t panic.”
With another big night of slugging, the Rockies have scored 24 of their last 25 runs via the homer, including 20 straight runs spanning from Toglia’s fifth-inning home run on July 11 at Cincinnati through Doyle’s home run on Friday in the sixth. That’s the longest streak of consecutive runs scored on homer in franchise history.
Colorado also tied a franchise record with 21 homers through its last seven games, a feat the club also achieved in 2018 and 1995. With the way the Rockies are hitting, both Quantrill and Cave believe Colorado (35-63) can play spoiler in the second half. Cave said the club has “a good chance to make some people mad.”
“We need to do everything we can to be a very competitive baseball team the rest of the way,” Quantrill added. “We want to be a team that other teams don’t want to play. We want to be a team that some of the teams in the playoff hunt don’t want to see on the schedule. If we can do that, we’re in a good spot.”
Saturday’s pitching matchup
Giants RHP Logan Webb (7-7, 3.47) at Rockies LHP Kyle Freeland (1-3, 6.00)
6:10 p.m. Saturday, Coors Field
TV: Rockies.TV (streaming); Comcast/Xfinity (channel 1262); DirecTV (683); Spectrum (130, 445, 305, 435 or 445, depending on region).
Radio: 850 AM/94.1 FM
Freeland’s been money since returning June 23 from a left elbow strain. In his four quality starts since, the Thomas Jefferson product has a 1.71 ERA and the Rockies are 3-1. He’s also pitched into the seventh inning in each of his last three outings. And he’s been excellent at home this year overall, with a 1.50 ERA in three starts and no homers allowed. Freeland has a solid track record against the Giants, going 7-6 with a 3.93 ERA in 22 career starts. Webb’s recent momentum, however, is the opposite of Freeland’s. He allowed seven runs in five innings against Toronto in his final start before the All-Star break, and in the All-Star Game he surrendered three runs in an ugly third inning that swung the momentum back toward the American League. In eight starts at Coors Field, he has a 4.24 ERA.
Pitching probables
Sunday: Giants RHP Jordan Hicks (4-6, 3.79) at Rockies RHP Ryan Feltner (1-9, 5.36), 1:10 p.m.
Monday: Red Sox TBA at Rockies LHP Austin Gomber (2-6, 4.61), 6:40 p.m.
Tuesday: Red Sox TBA at Rockies RHP German Marquez (0-0, 6.75), 6:40 p.m.
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