On Saturday, March 1st the new Arapahoe Library District's Smoky Hill Branch officially opened at 5430 S. Biscay Circle (at the corner of Biscay and Smoky Hill Road) in Centennial. The new 42,500-sq.-ft. facility offers vast resources and has lots to offer. For more information call the Smoky Hill Branch at 303-693-7449 or just go check it out in person. Social Committee The 3rd annual Cup of Cheer Christmas social was another wonderful success, thanks to the efforts of our very fine hosts, Stan and Linda Massey and Steve and Anne Jeffries. We started at 5:00pm on Dec. 8th at the Massey's home for homemade appetizers, punch and good fun, then progressed to the Jeffries' at 6:30 for more appetizers, punch, desserts and fellowship. Our hosts had decorated their homes for the Holidays and the tables of extravagant goodies and treats were a happy way to get the season off to a good start. This has become one of our most celebrated social events of the year and we look forward to continuing the tradition for a good long time. It is a great opportunity to mingle with your neighbors and have some great food. Be sure to plan on coming next year. Or maybe you'd like to volunteer to be a host! Thanks Stan, Linda, Anne and Steve for your hospitality. BUNCO BABES We're still playing!! And you're invited to join us. Sandie Hill is hosting Bunco on March 13th - future dates to be announced. We play on the 2nd Thursday of each month, starting promptly at 7:00pm. It is fun and fast and you might come home with the biggest prize! Call Jean Roup to get on the list of players, 303-400-8113. Remember ladies, if you can't play when you've signed up, please get a substitute. ** Board Meeting - March 12 ** The next meeting of the Board of Directors of the Sanctuary Homeowner's Association will be on March 12th at 7:00 p.m. at the home of Joe & Lita Dirks, 6204 S. Blackhawk Ct. All homeowners are welcome and encouraged to attend.  Annual Clean Up Day Our annual Clean Up "Work and Play" day will be the last Saturday in May, the 31st. Be sure to mark your calendars to get together with your neighbors to spiff up the Sanctuary and enjoy a catered lunch afterward. This year we will be serving the usual Krispy Kreme incentive, and finish with Mexican food and cervezas. Mucho fun and absolutely free! Do not miss this. |
Field Trip a Wildlife Experience Eleven of our neighbors gave a new meaning to the idea of a field trip. They stood nose to nose with two charging bison, watched a polar bear nurse her twin cubs, snooped into the nest of a Peregrine falcon, watched a lion consume Major Stewart and just for laughs took pictures of themselves in front of a white rhinoceros. And all that was before lunch one February morning. Our trekkers were at The Wildlife Experience, a 101,000-sq. ft. museum built by 10 RE/MAX affiliates at Lincoln Ave. and Peoria St. in the Meridian Business Park. The museum opened Labor Day. "Awesome," they seemed to agree in their summation of what they found in the curious building. It was designed to highlight the diversity of nature with emphasis on conservation. Ultimately, it will feature rotating themed exhibits and artworks devoted to specific conservation efforts. Our neighbors found a just-opening retrospective exhibit by renowned nature-artist Guy Colheleach who, by the way, was there that morning to introduce his work and interact with guests. His work included the whimsical Major Stewart piece showing what might have happened to the very-British army officer who disappeared into the bush in the 1909 visit to Africa of Theodore Roosevelt. Only his pit helmet beside a bloody lion suggests the answer. They watched the 40-minute iWERKS (some might call it I-Max) movie about the life of bears.They enjoyed the exhibit of "Back from the Brink" about how America's bison population was brought back from extinction and about the prairie ecosystem in our own backyards. They meandered through the Peregrine falcon exhibit depicting efforts to return this bird to urban environments. They saw an artists' bird-sketching exhibit just before it closed. They stuck their heads into the Children's Gallery with its interactive displays. And they strolled through an exhibit of mounted Masai animals, which are part of the theme called "Vanishing Africa." It has groups of Masai lions, a Thomson's gazelle, an eland, the largest of antelopes, and the 4,000-pound white rhino. It didn't charge. Just in case you're interested, upcoming exhibits will include "The Photography of Jim Brandenburg," a National Geographic Society photographer who specializes in wildlife, from March 8 to June 5; Feline Art: Art of Cats, June 7-Aug. 31; Birds in Art, June 7-Aug. 3, and LeRoy Neiman, Sept. 12-Feb. 2, 2004. As for lunch after all this immersion in nature, the group dined at the Wildlife Experience Café. Our hard-working Social Committee, chaired by Marilyn Fitzgerald, was responsible for putting this field trip together. Submitted by Jim Banman
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