Registration is now open for the Anti-Defamation League Mountain States Region’s 2018 Civil Rights Awards Reception. The event will take place from 5:30-7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, February 7, 2018 in Mitchell Hall at the Denver Botanic Gardens. Tickets, sponsorship packages and tributes may be purchased online at www.adl.org/civilrights2018.
The honorees are Lauren Y. Casteel, Stan Garnett and Governor Ralph L. Carr (posthumous).
Lauren Y. Casteel has been President and CEO of The Women’s Foundation of Colorado since 2015. She is the first person in Colorado to lead three foundations and possesses more than 20 years of philanthropic leadership. She has worked tirelessly to build inclusive communities for all Coloradans across gender, race, ethnicity, socio-economic status, ability status and sexual orientation. Prior to joining The Women’s Foundation, Casteel worked at The Denver Foundation from 1999 to 2015, where she launched The Inclusiveness Project, a program that increased the inclusiveness of people of color at Metro Denver nonprofits. From 1996 to 1998, Casteel served as the executive director of The Temple Hoyne Buell Foundation and before that, she spent six years at The Hunt Alternatives Fund, first as its executive director and then as its president. In 2014, Casteel was inducted into the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame.
Stan Garnett has served as the District Attorney for Boulder County since 2009. During his tenure, Garnett has focused efforts on prosecuting economic crimes, hate crimes and crimes in the immigrant and homeless communities. He has taken an especially hard-line stance against those who target undocumented immigrants with money-for-documents scams, extortion, predatory lending and wage theft. Prior to his election as District Attorney, he was a trial lawyer for 22 years at Brownstein, Hyatt, Farber and Schreck. Garnett began his legal career as a Deputy District Attorney in the Denver District Attorney’s Office from 1982 to 1986. He was elected in 1997 and 2001 to the Boulder Valley School Board, serving as president of the Board during his final term. In 2017, Garnett was elected as President of the Colorado District Attorneys’ Council.
Ralph L. Carr (1887-1950) was the 29th Governor of Colorado from 1939 to 1943. During Carr’s second term as governor, and following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 in February 1942, clearing the path for the removal of Japanese Americans from the West Coast. Carr was incensed by the President’s action and opposed internment camps. While he opposed the camps, Carr believed Japanese Americans should be treated fairly so he invited them to Colorado. Camp Amache, near Granada, Colorado, was home to almost 10,000 evacuees. Carr’s advocacy for racial tolerance and protection of the constitutional rights of Japanese Americans is generally thought to have cost him his political career. Today, he is recognized for his moral courage and devotion to the principles of equality and freedom for all.
For more information on the 2018 Civil Rights Awards Reception, including sponsorship opportunities, visit www.adl.org/civilrights2018 or contact Asha Holsopple at aholsopple@adl.org or 720-799-9678.