News Release
February 13, 2006
All Colfax Elementary School Alumni Are Invited To Attend "Play Party" At The School On Thursday, Feb. 16; Event Is Fundraiser For School Library
For three years now, a group of Colfax Elementary School "alumni" - former students who attended the school in the late 1950s and early 1960s - have been getting together on a weekly basis over bagels and coffee to reminisce, work on fundraising projects and to support each other. When weather is good, the 15 or so friends even head out on a long bicycle ride on Sunday mornings before gathering to eat and chat.
Colfax Elementary School, 1526 Tennyson St., serves as the basis for their friendship. "Colfax was more than a school to us," says Marc J. Rosen. "That was our home. We all have such fond memories."
Now the alumni group, which dubbed themselves the "West Side Gang" or WSG, is turning their fundraising efforts to the school itself.
On Thursday, Feb. 16 the WSG are inviting all former Colfax students to attend an open house and "Play Party" at the school beginning at 6:30 p.m. Colfax Elementary School students will be dancing and singing. Community members are invited to join and play with the children. The event will be held in the school cafeteria.
All returning alumni will have a chance to tour the school and donations will be taken to support the effort to stock the school library with books and learning materials. The WSG has already contributed $1,000 toward the effort.
"That same family feeling is still there at Colfax," said Rosen. "It's a different culture, but it's still there. We wanted to do what we could to improve the learning experience at the school."
The "WSG" includes, among others: Ron Bernstein (Colfax class of 1962), now involved in business and real estate development with three companies Signet Partners, Webb Development and Imagine That Entertainment; Marc Rosen (1962), retired from automobile business and now a bingo hall volunteer; Francie Licholat (1962), Vice President/Accountant for Paragon Media Strategies, a market research company; Cheri Licholat Knobbe (1962), software engineer/programmer at UCAR; Ted Roland (1962), president of K&H Windows and Exteriors; Terry Grazi Kania (1962), accountant at Greenwood Athletic Club; Mark Newman (1962), self-employed, Kazinets, repairing kilns; Ron Feldman (1962), retired gemologist; Saul Licholat (1959), credit manager in the construction industry; Al Marienberg (1960), works for a tele-communications company; Rick Feldman (attended Colfax from 1960-1963); software publisher, specializing in real estate software.
For more information or to find out how to contribute to the fundraising effort, contact Marc J. Rosen at 303-961-1663 or Francie B. Licholat at 303-922-5600.