Denver’s fifth-annual pajama party today may pour as much as $1 million into the city’s homeless initiative.
This year’s fundraiser for Denver’s Road Home kicked off Wednesday afternoon at Auraria Campus with races in which student and corporate teams wearing colorful pajamas pushed wheeled beds carrying a rider.
The biggest winners were Denver’s homeless.
“We see the homeless all the time when we’re walking down,” said Alec Gwin, explaining why he participated in the race. “It just pains me; it pains me hard.”
The political science major at the University of Colorado Denver was a member of the winning student team, Bed Heads.
The races, which raised $1,000, were prelude to today’s Pajama Day events benefiting Denver’s Road Home, which is Mayor John Hickenlooper’s 10-year plan to end homelessness in the city.
Organizers expect to raise about $1 million, double the amount raised last year. In the first year, the event raised $60,000.
In addition to Wednesday’s bed races and tonight’s high-class pajama party at the Residence Inn downtown — more than 500 $100 tickets have been sold — money will come from about 65 businesses donating a portion of their sales today.
Residence Inn and the Oxford Hotel will contribute 100 percent of their sales for the night.
“I think the community has really come to the conclusion that it’s not just the right thing to do — it’s the smart thing to do,” said Jamie Van Leeuwen, executive director of Denver’s Road Home project.
Since the first Pajama Day, Denver’s Road Home has used event funds to create 1,500 new housing units, employ 3,278 homeless people, and mentor 564 families and seniors out of homelessness, among other projects.
The estimated $1 million expected this year will help make up for the $1.5 million budget cut the project took in February.
Leeuwen said a committee will decide exactly where the money goes, but added that the focus will probably be on more housing and mentoring.
“We’re going to make sure we spend every dollar as effectively as possible and direct it to where we have those gaps,” Leeuwen said.
Yesenia Robles: 303-954-1638 or yrobles@denverpost.com