Remembering Christy Bailey

In 2015, we said goodbye to our Pañuelo Girl, Christy Bailey, a cherished loved one and friend and a vibrant member of Denver's writing community (not to mention her running, travel, VCFA, Peace Corps, and IBC communities!).

This year, we have an exceptional opportunity to create a lasting memorial to Christy at Lighthouse Writers Workshop in Denver, and we're hoping you will join us.

You may know how special Lighthouse was to Christy and how many of her local writing friends first met her there. She was a fixture at Lighthouse workshops, events, and parties. She was actively writing her memoir about living with and gradually accepting her hair loss to alopecia, an autoimmune disease, until her passing that June to inflammatory breast cancer. Just days before we lost her, Christy attended the kickoff party for Lit Fest, the annual summer festival that brings the Lighthouse community together. She was stunning in her navy pañuelo and coordinated outfit and overjoyed to visit with so many of us.

Now, Lighthouse has outgrown its current home and launched a capital campaign to build a beautiful, brand-new literary arts center. It's an ambitious project that will put Denver on the literary map and serve many communities.

Our goal is to raise $20,000 in multi-year gifts and pledges to dedicate a library collection at Lighthouse's new home in Christy's memory. So much of Lighthouse's work dovetails with what Christy loved: writing, community, and giving back to the world through teaching and working with youth, women, veterans, and others in need to express themselves through words.

Christy touched so many of us in profound and inspirational ways. We invite you to join us in our effort to remember and honor her.

Please consider giving a one-time gift or a multi-year pledge of $250, $500, $1,000, or even more over a three-year period. Each contribution, in any amount, is a worthy reflection of how Christy built community, one friendship at a time, to bring us together. Through this giving page, you can make your gift monthly, quarterly, or annually.

If you'd prefer to fulfill your pledge in other ways, contact Lighthouse's development director, Jordyn Wolking, at jordyn@lighthousewriters.org. For example, gifts of appreciated stock or from your IRA if you're over 70 1/2 can have great tax benefits.

Thank you for helping us to honor Christy with this dedicated memorial. May her spirit and presence live on in this beautiful new home for literature that she would have so enjoyed and treasured.