CENTRAL CITY OPERA

Wheat Ridge

News: Just when it seems that the world is spinning at a breakneck pace, it’s nice to know that time can stand still – if only for a few hours – and traditions can be celebrated at an event that has been a Colorado tradition since 1932.

The presentation of the Central City Flower Girls not only signals the start of the Central City Opera’s Summer Festival, but it also offers time to reflect on the state’s rich heritage and recognize the daughters whose families carry on the contributions their forbears made five or more generations ago.

Twenty-seven young ladies who are about to start their senior year in high school made up the Flower Girl Class of 2025.

Master of ceremonies Roopesh Aggarwal, vice president/investor relations at Xcel Energy and a member of the opera company’s board of directors, introduced them at the June 21 Yellow Rose Ball, which began with the Flower Girls descending the steps leading to Central City’s Teller House Garden. This was followed by the traditional Yellow Rose Waltz, where the honorees danced first with their fathers and then with their escorts in front of the historic Central City Opera House on Eureka Street.

Dinner in the Teller House rounded out the evening.

The 2025 Flower Girls were:

• Hayden Agron, a third-generation Coloradan and Kent Denver School senior who challenged her academic prowess by spending a semester at a school in Zermatt, Switzerland, that is known for its rigorous curriculum.

• Finley Bell, who used food to help foster connections and celebrate cultural diversity at Regis Jesuit High School by founding the Foodie Club. In addition, she competes on al all-star cheer team through Steele Athletics, which won the world championship at the All-Star Worlds.

• Ava Buese, a senior at Kent Denver High School, where she plays lacrosse and serves as a volunteer coach for the Denver Mustangs, an adaptive hockey league.

• Hadley Corson, a fourth-generation Coloradan whose grandmother, aunt and mother were Flower Girls. Hadley is a member of the American Sign Language Honor Society at ThunderRidge High School and hopes to incorporate her fluency in ASL into her future career as a journalist.

• Kate Engles, a member of the Kent Denver lacrosse team and 3D New England club team. With her family she volunteers at Sacred Heart House Denver, Denver Rescue Mission and Homes of Hope in Tijuana, Mexico.

• Natalie Furgason, a fifth-generation Colorado native, a member of the varsity golf team at Regis Jesuit High School and volunteer for the Global Down Syndrome Foundation and Special Olympics Colorado.

• Elle Guillot, co-president of the Haiti Club at Colorado Academy and a two-year Gates finalist for an invention she helped develop to help older individuals move through airports independently.

• Caroline Haley, president of the Horizons Club and an admissions ambassador at Colorado Academy. She also dances with the Cherry Creek Dance Performing Company and the Colorado Academy Dance Company.

• Milly Harry has played golf every year since eighth grade at St. Mary’s Academy, where she is about to start her senior year and is a member of DECA.

• Lila Hutchins is a varsity starter on the Regis Jesuit High School volleyball team and competes on a national level with the club team FCA One. Lila is a member of the National and Spanish honors societies and holds a leadership position in the school’s Women in STEM Club.

• Tatum Johnson was team captain for Kent Denver’s runner-up state champion field hockey team and is one of three lead vocalists for the school’s elite SOULAR WAVE band.

• JoAnna Kennedy is ranked No. 2 in the nation for her age group in tennis and is a member of the National Charity League at St. Mary’s Academy. Her mother, Jamie Schabacker Kennedy was a Flower Girl in 1994.

• Lucy Klein has been on the Green Mountain High School honor roll every semester and has volunteered at an all-girls school in Peru. Her great-grandmother chaired the Yellow Rose Ball in 1959, the same year her mother, Cecily Klein, was a Flower Girl.

• Audrey Lipsey is the co-chair of Kent Denver School’s Ethics Day Committee, is the lead singer in a school band and is a student teller at MidFirst Bank.

• Twins Cate and Sophie McMorrow are honors students at J.K. Mullen High School where they’ve each received the Torch Award, Mullen’s highest honor, for two years. Their appreciation for opera stems from a great-uncle who sang with the Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.

• Avery McPherson was co-captain on Cherry Creek High School’s varsity cheerleading team during her junior year and following graduation plans to study nursing in college.

• Tinsley Morozs, a third-generation Coloradan whose great-grandparents made their way to Colorado from Germany during World War II. She attends Dwight School in New York, where she created a club that provides clothing to teens in need.

• Caroline Mulvany’s family has lived in Colorado for 50 years. She started a pickleball club at Regis Jesuit High School whose members planned a tournament to raise money for Nobody Dies Alone.

• Rosie Risch, a fifth-generation Coloradan, has been passionate about musical theater since she was 9 and has performed in numerous Colorado Academy productions, where she is a member of the Chanteurs Choir and leads the Vintage Radio Tea Club and the National Honor Society for Dance Arts.

• Julie Ryan’s family has lived in Colorado since 1925. She is varsity field hockey captain at Regis Jesuit High School and volunteers at Praying Hands Ranch and Food Bank of the Rockies.

• Evye Schaefer was born in Vail and moved to South Carolina when she was 5. Her grandparents came to Colorado in 1938 and her grandfather, Richard Schaefer, spent 25 years on the Central City Opera board and an uncle worked for the company before becoming director of the Virginia Opera.

• Emma Walker, a fifth-generation Coloradan, will be a senior at East High School. Her mother, Ashley Clanahan Walker, is a former Flower Girl as are her two aunts. Every Thanksgiving she helps deliver food baskets with the Epworth Foundation.

• Ashlyn Weaver will be senior editor of the Kent Denver yearbook. She also heads the school’s Medical Club and hopes to become a physician’s assistant or nurse practitioner.

• Cate Whalen attends Colorado Academy, spent two weeks with a host family in Costa Rica to learn the language and culture, and volunteers for Robbie’s Hope, Horizons Colorado, Children’s Hospital Colorado, HOPE and Newborns in Need.

• Ashlyn Wills is descended from families who settled in the Denver area in the late 1800s. Her mother’s family donated the family’s Victorian furniture to the Central City Opera and her great-great-great aunt, Mary Kent Wallace, was one of the “Three Marys” who founded what was then Kent School for Girls in 1922. Her mother was a Flower Girl in 1998.

• India Phoenix is a three-sport varsity athlete at St. Mary’s Academy (cross-country, dive and lacrosse) where she is a member of the National Honor Society and has completed 60-plus hours of community service over the past two years.

About the organization: Founded in 1932, the Central City Opera is the nation’s fifth-oldest professional opera company. It is world-renowned for staging elaborate productions during its annual Summer Festival held in the company’s historic 550-seat opera house that was built in 1878. The company also hosts competitive and robust young artist training programs and numerous education and community engagement activities.

Website: centralcityopera.org

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