The Gilpin County Education Foundation hosted a Scholarship Dinner at the Ameristar in Black Hawk on Saturday, April 20, 2024, to raise money for scholarships. The festivities began at 6 p.m. with drinks and a Bingo game.

The goal of the game was to meet fellow dinner guests while learning something about them, guests covering one spot on the card with each new name. Those who turned in their bingo cards before the dinner received extra tickets for the raffle for locally donated prizes.

Raffled gifts included a gift certificate from Dostal Alley for $50 and two beers, $50 from Southwest Airlines, $50 from JKQ BBQ, $50 from Mountain Poppy, a Porcelain Snowman family, two gift baskets, hats and other material from Claire Stone, items from Girls on the Fly and Tonic Trails Wellness, and a $150 gift certificate for food and $50 from Saratoga Casino.

Dinner was served shortly after 6:30 p.m. and included artisan rolls & butter, Caesar salad, sun-dried tomato fennel glazed chicken, roasted fingerling potatoes, fire roasted tomato olive relish, broccolini, hunter’s sauce and a dessert of gluten-free flourless chocolate cake with raspberry coulis.

Board President Sarah Swanson welcomed everyone to the dinner. She has been on the Board since 2013, founding and promoting the annual scholarship dinner since then.

She thanked the sponsors which included United Power, donating $3,500, and a family providing a $5,000 grant. Ameristar donated the wine and discounted the food.

Instructor Sunny Vincent introduced the student speaker, Gilpin High School graduate Sierra Ramsey. Ramsey graduated from Gilpin High School in 2023, receiving a scholarship from Gilpin County.

She has been attending Red Rocks Community College for an associate degree. She said the scholarship paid for her full tuition so she doesn’t have to pay back student loans. The funds also helped pay for school supplies. “The scholarship has been a blessing, and the scholarships have helped many Gilpin County students.”

Following the speech, the raffle winners were awarded their prizes, which included 30 items worth $3,000.

Swanson said that what their work comes down to is grants for college; so far they have raised $85,000 and have awarded 84 scholarships. Last year they awarded $12,000. At this dinner they needed to raise $3,000 from the room after a donation of $5,000 and one from the Swansons for $1,000.

The main speaker for the night was Jane Miller, who has a bakery in Golden. Miller is a local executive and entrepreneur with experience ranging from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies. She is currently the CEO of Rudi’s Rocky Mountain Bakery. She previously held CEO positions with Lily’s Sweets, HannahMax Cookie Chips, and ProYo. Miller’s passion is mentoring the next generation of leaders.

She is also the founder of a career advice website, Janeknows.com, and the author of a sassy business book, Sleep Your Way to the Top (and other myths about business success). In 2021, she co-founded Haevn, a start-up focused on early career development.

She was raised in Illinois and had three brothers. Her mother worked three jobs every day including driving a school bus and taking 911 calls at night.

She told Miller to get an education, and she indeed was the only one in the family who went to college. Scholarships got her through college. She was going to law school but moved to Dallas, Texas while working for Lord and Taylor at night. She then applied for a scholarship for someone who worked in retail. The summary was that it was scholarships that helped get her to where she is now.

The event ended after the speech. Shortly afterward, she said “The GCEF Scholarship Dinner was our largest ever. We had 95 guests and raised $17,500!”

For more information about the Foundation, go to https://gilpineducationfoundation.org).