AROUND TOWN: Urban League rebounds with a Motown beat

The Urban League of the Pikes Peak Region had an announcement: the group “is coming back.”

In between heavy-duty dancing to Motown sounds and visiting with friends, supporters from throughout the community cheered enthusiastic board member EJ “James” Mason at the Dec. 1 “Motown in the Rockies Winter Wonderland Scholarship Fundraiser.”

“We need you physically and emotionally if you want to bring this organization back to the one you remember years ago,” he said to cheers. The search is on for an executive director.

The local Urban League dates back to 1964 but in the early 2000s imploded.

Now, said Mason, there’s a board determined to take the group forward: Chair Tim Trowbridge, Janice “JJ” Frazier, David Sered, Carolyn Jones, Bob Null and Mason.

Appropriately, the celebration of new was in the new Mining Exchange.

DJ Sugar Bear kept up a beat that not only drew most of the people in the ballroom onto the dance floor but had passersby walking along Nevada Avenue grooving on the sidewalk outside the big windows.

Joining the fun were Shirley Martinez, Violet and Leonard Heath, Susan Saksa, Penny Larsen and Jim Hubbard, Mark Bittle, Jane Ard-Smith and Davis Smith, Donna and Brian Nelson, retired Cols. James and Gail Colvin, Eileen, Trevor and Traci Burnley, Henry and Caron Allen, Mary Thurman, June and Denise Waller, Kathy Stults, James Tucker, Jennifer Barber, Rosemary Harris, Prince Porter, Todd and Pam Wilson, Ron and Wanda Cousar, Larry and Bonnie Null, MaryEllen Burciago and Birdie Miller.

Corporate Sponsors were Wells Fargo Bank, Colorado Springs Utilities, CenturyLink, Harrison School District 2 and the NAACP.

More photos: coloradosprings.com