DONATE TO THE DENVER WALDORF SCHOOL
If you prefer to deliver your gift in person, we welcome you to visit us at 2100 S. Pennsylvania St., Denver, CO 80210, or reach out to our School Director, Kelly Molinet (kellymolinet@denverwaldorf.org).
The 2023-2024 Annual Fund • Believe in DWS
The Denver Waldorf School is beyond grateful for our generous community of families, friends, alumni, grandparents, and more – We thrive with your support! Since our founding in 1974 we have worked together to provide a distinctly unique, urban Waldorf education.
The Annual Fund is essential to our work each year, providing for our teachers, scholarships, beloved campus, and more. At DWS, our goal of 100% family participation is just as important as reaching this year’s campaign goal. Read on to hear from our School Director, Kelly Molinet, and others in our community on this year’s Annual Fund campaign, Believe in DWS.
A note from our School Director, Kelly Molinet
“…I believe in hope. I believe in belief.” –Ted Lasso
The week before school started, I sat down for a video introducing myself to the community in my Ted Lasso t-shirt. I talked about my family. About my son, Felix, who is now an 11th grader at DWS, and all the things he is excited to do and learn here about, my hopes for how our school community will continue to grow into the truest version of itself.
On the first day of school, I was standing out in the sunshine with my coffee, welcoming families to a place that was new to me, when the sweetest kindergarten twins walked up to me and handed me a picture they had painted for me. The “Believe” sign from Ted Lasso has hung over my office door ever since.
This year, my first year at The Denver Waldorf School, the Annual Fund Campaign is about belief. When I first arrived at DWS (Has it been three months already?? Has it only been three months??), I came with 30 years of education experience and a beginner’s mind. I know a lot of things, and I don’t know a lot about Waldorf. I find that the things I do know have positioned me to be of service to the school community and also given me the tools to be a good student of Waldorf. I know what I’m looking for. I know most of the questions to ask. And, yet, I’m surprised daily by something new, something beautiful, something I couldn’t have made up.
This juxtaposition of experience and newness has me thinking that this is exactly how I want to send my children out into the world. I want them to know themselves and be curious about others. I want them to have the skills and knowledge to go somewhere new and be of service. I want them to know what community feels like so they recognize it even when it looks a little different.
One thing that comes up in education, and has been coming up for decades, is the idea of “21st Century Learning”. If you’re wondering exactly what that is, welcome to the club. Educators have been trying to define the skills and content students need to know for what’s next in our world with little success. Is it project-based learning? Or STEM? Or maybe standards?? or rigor???
While educators go back and forth from one new thing to another, we continue to foster what it means to be human, cultivate lifelong curiosity, and inspire love for the world. Our students graduate with the knowledge and skills to be of service to the world, and hearts open to beauty and wonder.
Our school is at an interesting place in its journey as a learning community; while it may be my first year, The Denver Waldorf School is approaching its 50th year. It’s naturally a time of looking back and looking forward. It is a time of remembering our history and imagining our future. I am thinking about those kindergarteners carrying hope for the future. For all their individual futures and the collective future of the school. Where will we be when they graduate in 2036?
During this end-of-year fundraising campaign, you will hear from many families about their hopes for their children here at DWS. You will hear about their belief in who we are and what we do.
I am falling in love with a school with its roots in Steiner’s humanitarian curriculum and its branches growing out into the community. Looking forward, I see us continuing to grow, rooted in our values and traditions, into a more diverse community of teachers and learners where everyone belongs.
I’m giving to the Believe in DWS Fund because I believe in what makes us different. I believe we are preparing our students for a world needing people who understand what it means to be human. I invite you to give generously to support our school community.
With Gratitude,
Kelly Molinet
Tax Deductions for Your Gift
- All gifts to DWS are tax-deductible to the fullest extent of the law.
- Gifts to the Annual Fund may be eligible for the Colorado Child Care Contribution Tax Credit, allowing up to 50% of your gift returned to you as a tax credit.
- Click below for more information on the Colorado Child Care Contribution Credit and how your Annual Fund gift impacts our school and students.
Read the 2022 DWS Annual Report
Open up our most recent Annual Report to hear from school leadership, learn about what and where our recent graduates are off to, view our 2022 donors, and see our tribute to legacy faculty.
Other Ways to Give
- Contact your HR representative to learn about matching gifts to DWS.
- Give to DWS at no cost to you by downloading the Box Tops for Education app.
- If you would like to donate an in-kind gift, please fill out our In-Kind Gift Receipt and email our School Director Kelly Molinet.
- DWS graciously accepts gifts of appreciated stock. To make a stock contribution, contact our School Director Kelly Molinet (303.777.0531 ext. 108).