John Scarffe, Black Hawk. The Gilpin County Education Foundation raised its $15,000 goal during a scholarship fund-raising dinner on Saturday, March 16, 2019, at 6 p.m., at Ameristar Casino in Black Hawk. Sarah Swanson, vice president of the Foundation Board of Directors, said they had 103 guests at the dinner.

The evening began with a cocktail reception and a game during which participants would have to find others at the event who could tell whether they had climbed a fourteener or how long they have lived in Colorado. The dinner of salad, chicken entree and dessert was followed by the presentation of raffle items for those who had bought tickets.

Katelyn Armstrong, who received the scholarship last year, told the crowd that she is almost done with her first year at Baylor University in pre-medicine. Football is huge there and every game has been full of activities. Basketball has been so much fun. She goes out on Saturdays with her friends who are pre-law, physics and pre-med.

Her first semester was very hard, Armstrong said, but she did well the last semester. “You have to work for every grade you get,” she said. She would not have been able to attend Baylor without the scholarship and is thankful for that and the best parents in the world. Her father is Gilpin County Sheriff Kevin Armstrong.

Swanson said the Education Foundation was established to support Gilpin County Schools and administrators, and several sponsors contributed to the event, including Ameristar, which discounted the meals for the event. Board Chair Craig Holmes introduced the speaker for the evening, John Bandimere, Jr., with the Bandimere Speedway in Morrison, Colorado.

Bandimere said that his three children and eight grandchildren were delivered by a doctor in Black Hawk. In 2014, he wrote the book, “Living Out Loud.”

In the mid-1950s, street racing with automobiles became very popular, Bandimere said. The sport spread across the Midwest and that’s when his dad decided to build a race track. In 1958, he started the speedway because he wanted his customers and family to have a safe place to play with their vehicles and wanted to get the kids off the streets, so the original name for the track was Safety Proving Grounds of America (SPGA).

Bandimere is a one-quarter mile straight speedway, so the cars don’t go in circles, Bandimere said. The track record is 3.73 seconds at 323 miles an hour, but one funny car did 328 mph.

In April 1986, Bandimere’s father passed and they were required to remodel. Between 1988 and 1989, they moved more earth than what was thought possible, and it was his most stressful time, but by 1989 they were able to open up and pay the 32 leans against the property. “To God give the glory,” he said.

Now they have 35,000 fans and 400 race teams loading up at the speedway. “Trash is beautiful,” he said. “If you don’t have trash, you haven’t sold anything.”

Now he’s not worried about money as much as whether he made a difference in someone’s life through a relationship with Jesus Christ. “Overall the mission of the Gilpin County Education Association is a blessing. Good Job,” Bandimere said.

The event ended at about 9 p.m. with an opportunity for guests to mingle as they headed home.

(Originally published in the March 21, 2019, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)