CENTRAL CITY OPERA GUILD

Wheat Ridge

News: Caroline Grace Coors, whose great, great, great-grandfather, Adolph Coors, founded the Golden brewery that bears the family name, and Sarah Peck Caulkins, whose grandfather, George Caulkins, founded the Vail ski area, were among the 25 members of the Central City Flower Girls Class of 2023.

In keeping with a tradition begun in 1932, the Flower Girls were presented in an al fresco ceremony emceed by Roopesh Aggarwal, co-chair of the Central City Opera’s board of directors, and held June 17 in the garden of the historic Central City Opera House.

The presentation, and the Yellow Rose Ball that followed, herald the start of the Central City Opera’s annual Summer Festival, which begins with a performance of “Romeo and Juliet” on June 24.

Coors, who come fall will be a senior at the Cate School in California, where she plays flute and piccolo in the student orchestra and is a member of the volleyball and lacross teams, is a sixth-generation Colorado native. Her parents are Peter and Meredith Coors of Denver.

Caulkins’ grandmother is Ellie Caulkins, lifetime honorary chair of the Opera Colorado board and for whom Denver’s Ellie Caulkins Opera House is named. Ellie Caulkins also serves on the board of New York City’s Metropolitan Opera Association. Sarah will be a senior at Kent Denver School where she is on the varsity field hockey team and a nationally competitive lacrosse player.

The 2023 Flower Girls also included:

• Kendall Adams, co-founder of the Biotechnology Club at Kent Denver School
• Kent Denver honors student Dylan Agron, co-founder of a program that provides support and materials for youth lacrosse coaches in Nairobi
• Sophie Alijani, a three-sport athlete at the Cate School who spent nine years traveling nationally and internationally with the Denver Children’s Choir
• Colorado Academy’s Georgia Burstein, whose family came to Colorado in the 1800s to mine for gold and whose aunt, Allison Burstein, was a Flower Girl in 1992
• Emilia Calamari, a member of the National Honor Society at Regis Jesuit High School who co-founded the Denver Summer Lacrosse Program that offers lacrosse clinics to Denver-area children
• Audrey Connelly, a National Honor Society member at East High School whose college plans include pursuit of a law degree
• Linden Fatland, whose great, great-grandfather, Robert Kenneth Fuller, was a partner in the architecture firm that designed the Central City Opera House. Her mother, Kelsey Fuller Fatland, was a Flower Girl in 1992 and her grandmother, Ginny Fuller, is a past member of the Central City Opera Guild board
• Francesca Fucarino, sister of 2019 Flower Girl Anna Fucarino, and a three-sport athlete at Colorado Academy
• Estella Alvarado Geller, an honors student at Colorado Academy who plays on the varsity field hockey and lacrosse teams. Her grandmother, Linda Alvarado, is a part-owner of the Colorado Rockies
• Alexandra Hatzidakis, a two-sport athlete at Regis Jesuit High School who volunteers for Special Olympics, MetroCaring and other nonprofits
• Katelyn Jobe, the sister, niece and cousin of former Flower Girls who is active in the National Charity League at Cherry Creek High School
• Helaina Korneffel, president of the Colorado Academy debate team and the great, great-granddaughter of a former editor of the Rocky Mountain News
• Sophia Miles, a member of the National Honor Society and Servant Leadership Club at Regis Jesuit High School
• Claire Grogan Murphy, captain of the field hockey and lacrosse teams at Kent Denver School. Her great-grandmother was a performer with the Central City Opera
• Helene Pearson, granddaughter of 1963 Flower Girl Molly Mitchell Williams who, after graduating from South High School plans to pursue her love of mathematics and medicine
• D’Evelyn High’s Samantha Schneider, granddaughter of the late Melissa Trask, who had been president of the Central City Opera Guild in 1984, and daughter of Laura Trask Schneider, a member of the Central City Opera board
• Lily Ann Sheldon, a fourth-generation Coloradan who attends Cherry Creek High School and volunteers for Food Bank of the Rockies, Special Olympics and Project C.U.R.E.
• Kathryn Schloss, an advanced placement student at South High School and granddaughter of Don Beauregard, who was instrumental in the development of Keystone ski area
• Anne Smith, an honor roll student at Colorado Academy and sixth-generation Coloradan whose great, great, great-grandmother graduated from the University of Colorado in 1907. Her great-grandmother was a Flower Girl in 1965 and her mother in 1989
• Catherine Stava, a state-ranked track relay racer from Regis Jesuit High School who was invited to join a relay team at the highly competitive Penn Relays
• Allison Turner, a member of South High School’s DECA and varsity tennis teams. She’s also the sister, cousin and niece of former Flower Girls
• Madison Twombly, an honors student at Cushing Academy in Massachusetts and daughter of 1985 Flower Girl Suzan Parker Twombly. Madison’s grandmother, Nancy Parker, is chairman emeritus of the Central City Opera board and has volunteered for the opera company since 1971
• Scarlett Wiedenmayer, co-captain of East High’s varsity field hockey team and a championship-winning recreational tennis player. She’s also a member of the school choir and the National Honor Society.

About the organization: The Central City Opera Guild was formed in 1974 to assist the Central City Opera, the nation’s fifth oldest opera company, with historic preservation and restoration projects, community education, cultural and social events and various fundraising campaigns. Members also plant flowers in the historic Central City Opera House Garden, host the annual L’Esprit de Noel Holiday Home Tour and stage Opera Teaser, a dinner and preview of each upcoming season. Barbara Ferguson was the founding president; Nancy Hemming currently serves.

Website: centralcityopera.org/guild

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