Events

Stahmer has undergrad degrees from CU Boulder in finance and astrophysics with an MBA from CU Denver. He started his career as an intern working for John Elway and worked to be senior vice president Elway’s championship Arena Football Team the Colorado Crush.

Stahmer co-founded the Dare to Play sports camps with another Broncos legend, Ed McCaffrey. The camps pair kids with Down syndrome with pro and collegiate athletes for several days culminating in a scrimmage. During the last 10 years, the camps have made a huge impact on well over 1000 kids while being featured on ESPN and other national media.

Stahmer has served on the Arc Board since 2005 where he’s chaired two of five executive committees for the company and been part of tripling revenues from $30 million to over $90 million in 2018.

Today, Stahmer primarily works in venture capital where he has been part of the funding and strategic development for eight early stage and rapid growth companies.

Dave is a Colorado native. He is an Emmy Award-winning Meteorologist born in Pueblo. He has worked in every television market in the state and has been at CBS4 a long time .. since 1993!

Having lived through and reported on many major weather events, including everything from droughts and floods to blizzards and tornadoes and has seen how the weather deeply affects people. He has been a TV and Radio broadcaster in Colorado and the Rocky Mountain Region since 1986.

He is, perhaps foremost, an optimist, which is a good thing to be when people tend to blame you for the bad weather. But no matter what the sky is doing, Dave looks forward to coming to work, and he always tries to bring a little sunshine into the lives of his audience, no matter what it’s doing outside.

As far back as his senior year in high school, Dave knew he wanted to work in television, but he assumed it would be delivering news. After graduating in 1987 from Colorado State University/Pueblo (formerly University of Southern Colorado) with a Bachelor of Science degree in mass communications/journalism, he found his direction shifting. His interests were definitely looking up – literally. Everything Dave wanted to know was now in the sky. He went on to earn a Certificate in Broadcast Meteorology from Mississippi State University.

He holds the American Meteorological Society’s Certified Broadcast Meteorologist (CBM) designation, a professional recognition of the quality of his weather broadcasts. Among radio and television meteorologists, the CBM designation is sought as a mark of distinction and recognition.

Dave is a member of the National Weather Association and the American Meteorology Society and holds the Television Seal of Approval from both organizations.

Dave has worked as a weather anchor at KRQE-TV in Albuquerque, New Mexico; KOAA-TV in Pueblo/Colorado Springs, Colorado; and at KREX-TV in Grand Junction, Colorado. He also worked as a news reporter/anchor for KHOW-Radio and KOA-Radio in Denver, and as a Disc Jockey for KCCY, KRYT and KDZA, in Pueblo. In September 1993, Dave accomplished the goal he had set for himself in college by joining CBS4 as a meteorologist.

Dave spends a lot of his time every year teaching thousands of elementary school children across the Front Range. Encouraging students to become part of the CBS4 team by becoming Junior Weather Watchers.

Dave participates in and emcees numerous fundraising events for nonprofit groups throughout the year. He feels the community has given him so much and this is his way to give back.

His hopes for the future are to continue to work for CBS4. Living in Denver, which he thinks is the “greatest city in the country,” means playing golf when the weather is nice, skiing when it’s snowing, and coaching his kids’ soccer and basketball teams in-between.

Hailing from Philadelphia and ultimately making his way to the mountains of Colorado in 1999, Lenny Eckstein maintained a 15-year career as a graphic artist. Working closely with such companies as Comcast, The Albuquerque BioPark, Dish Network, and Vail Resorts, Lenny enjoyed tremendous opportunities to create the visual aspects of numerous branding and marketing initiatives During the trailing few years of his design career a level of burn-out began to set in. More often than not the time pushing pixels in front of a computer screen competed for focus and passion with an out of control homebrewing (beer) habit. A constant drive to “make something” pushed his home brewing to the next level, and some small scale distillation efforts (not currently legal in the US) may have ensued. As a deep appreciation for whiskey production/consumption grew and the US craft spirits market began to emerge, thoughts turned toward what it might take to channel current skill sets and passions towards opening a micro-distillery in Buena Vista.

Lenny, along with his wife Amy, founded Deerhammer Distilling Company in 2010 with a mission to redefine the flavor and future of American whiskey. In the beginning, a 2,000 square foot building on Buena Vista's historic East Main Street was acquired, an old-world style distillery was built, and the first few drops of single malt whiskey ran from a 150-gallon direct fire copper pot still in January of 2012. In its present form, Deerhammer has scaled its whiskey production to meet the growing demands of the Colorado market and beyond. With the leadership of Lenny and Amy Eckstein along with the support of a tremendously devoted team, Deerhammer has emerged as one of Colorado’s premier craft whiskey brands. Their year-round portfolio of whiskeys currently consists of the flagship American single malt, bourbon, hickory smoked American whiskey, and a soon to be released rye whiskey.

Melanie Crowder is the acclaimed author of several books for young readers, including Audacity, Three Pennies, An Uninterrupted View of the Sky, A Nearer Moon and Parched, as well as the middle grade duology The Lighthouse Between the Worlds. 

Melanie’s books have been awarded the Jefferson Cup, the Arnold Adoff Poetry Award, the SCBWI Crystal Kite, and the Bulletin Blue Ribbon; they have been recognized as a National Jewish Book Awards Finalist, Colorado Book Awards Finalist, Junior Library Guild selection, YALSA Top Ten Books For Young Adults, ILA Notable Book for a Global Society, Parents’ Choice Silver Medal, BookBrowse Editor’s Choice, BookPage Top Pick, and The Washington Post Best Children’s Books for April. Her work has been listed as Best Books of the Year by Bank Street College, Kirkus Reviews, The Amelia Bloomer List, New York Public Library, Tablet Magazine, A Mighty Girl, and The Children’s Book Review.

The author lives under the big blue Colorado sky with a wife, two kids, and one good dog. Visit her online at www.melaniecro