After 20+ years and nearly $30 million, the Boulder Jewish Community finally has the Community Center it dreamed of, worked for, and deserves. Over 1,000 members of our community gathered to officially cut the purple ribbon and celebrate its opening to the public on Wednesday night.  Probably 20% of the crowd weren’t born, nor their parents married, when the first small group of community members got together to begin the journey that culminated in this event.  Rain showers couldn’t dampen the spirits of the crowd, but did produce a double-rainbow over the building as the festivities got underway.

Boulder’s Mayor, Suzanne Jones, welcomed the JCC as a symbol of Boulder’s diversity and welcoming spirit, as one element of the community has created a center that the whole community is welcome to enjoy for many years to come.  Stuart Feinhor, Congressman Jared Polis’ District Advocate, delivered greetings from Polis, who is in Washington as Congress is finishing up its pre-election session. Paula Pollacheck, the BJCC Board President, thanked everyone and introduced Susan Rona and Scott Peppet, Cornerstone Capital Campaign co-chairs.  Rona and Peppet announced that with about $1.7 million to go to complete the capital campaign, the Sturm Family and ANB Bank have announced a $600,000 dollar-for-dollar matching challenge.

FACE provided musical entertainment, food trucks provided dinner, and there were multiple inflatable structures that kept the kids busy.  If you didn’t make it for the big celebration Wednesday night, there are still two days of events: Thursday afternoon is devoted to the 55+ contingency, hosted by ACE at the J, and Friday night is the dinner for the JCC Preschool families and alumni. Come by for a tour and celebrate!

More pictures are here.