Tue., April 1 is the seventh annual Library Giving Day! On that date, people across the country — including in El Paso County — come together as part of a movement to strengthen and support our local libraries. Libraries support and enrich people’s lives and have been an integral part of communities throughout the U.S. since shortly after its founding.

Where else but Pikes Peak Library District (PPLD) can you find unlimited access to information, lifelong learning, programs, and resources that transcend physical ability, geographic barriers, background, age, and education? In just one trip, you might find books to keep you entertained, make custom gifts in our makerspaces, and enjoy Storytime with your child. We provide essential resources for our community such as tax prep information and services, programs that support Homeschoolers, language learning and job prep classes and resources, eLibrary materials, research and regional history databases, homework help, programs and activities that enrich our community, and more!

Support your Local library by making a donation

With you by our side, the PPLD Foundation can continue to fuel life-changing spaces, programs, and resources. This means fewer barriers to success and increased opportunities of all kinds for members of our community. Your gift today will make a difference in our ability to serve everyone in 2025 and beyond.

El Pomar Foundation honors Peggy Shivers with Inaugural Excellence in Arts and Culture Trustee Award

Award Presented as part of El Pomar’s Annual Awards for Excellence

On Friday October 1, 2021 Peggy Houston Shivers was recognized by El Pomar Foundation Trustees as the recipient of the inaugural Excellence in Arts and Culture Trustee Award, which honors an individual who has demonstrated a commitment to the advancement of arts and culture in Colorado. In a ceremony with other Awards for Excellence honorees at The Broadmoor Hotel, Shivers was introduced by El Pomar Trustee Colonel Gail Colvin, US Air Force (Retired), before delivering her own remarks. As a part of the award, a $10,000 grant was given to the Shivers Fund at Pikes Peak Library District.

From a young age, Peggy Houston Shivers studied voice. She was selected by Duke Ellington to be the featured soloist in his Sacred Concert II at Grace Cathedral and was the featured artist for the Bicentennial Celebration sponsored by the United States Embassy in Spain. Peggy also worked in the public school system in the United States, helped develop a program for dyslexic children of American families living in Spain and a crisis line program for Torrejon Air Force Base. She moved with her husband to Colorado Springs in 1979.

Peggy Shivers helped create the Shivers African American Historical and Cultural Collection at the Pikes Peak Library District to address the lack of information about African American history in Colorado Springs. The Shivers Fund at Pikes Peak Library District has also been established to ensure that funds will be available to maintain the collection for years to come. The Shivers Fund sponsors a concert series which allows young artists the opportunity to perform in a professional setting, awards grants, scholarships and financial support to students and provides educational activities to encourage young people to participate in and enjoy the classical arts. A choral group, the Celebration Multicultural Ensemble, has also been organized as an extension of the Shivers Fund. In addition, she has served on many boards including NAACP, Urban League, United Way, Colorado Springs Symphony, Colorado Springs Dance Theatre, Colorado Opera Festival -- where she served as president -- and the Pikes Peak Library District Foundation.

About El Pomar Foundation’s Awards for Excellence Program

El Pomar Foundation’s Board of Trustees developed the Awards for Excellence program to honor the commitment of Spencer and Julie Penrose to excellence in the nonprofit sector. The program recognizes individuals and organizations from across Colorado who serve their communities with distinction. Honorees are selected by a committee of community leaders, council members from El Pomar’s Regional Partnerships program and El Pomar Fellowship Alumni. Since its inception in 1989, Awards for Excellence has provided more than $6.5 million in grant support to more than 500 nonprofit organizations throughout Colorado.

About El Pomar Foundation

El Pomar Foundation is one of the largest and oldest private foundations in Colorado. El Pomar contributes approximately $25 million annually through grants and Community Stewardship programs to support Colorado nonprofit organizations involved in health, human services, education, arts and humanities and civic and community initiatives. Spencer and Julie Penrose founded El Pomar in 1937 with the mission to enhance, encourage and promote the current and future well-being of the people of Colorado.

We need your help to create art for Panorama Park! The tile art project will include over 7,000 individual tiles made by the community that will come together to create a beautiful statement piece that celebrates the diversity and unity of Southeast Colorado Springs. Please attend a FREE tile art workshop to put your personal touch on the park through the tile art project.

This project is being paid for by the Trust for Public Land and facilitated by Sand Creek Library and local artist Jere Rose (aka Rizzo). Tile-making workshops will be happening throughout 2021 and tiles will be fired at Sand Creek Library. The mural will be installed in Panorama Park once the renovation is finished (goal of late Spring 2022).

We would like to recognize Peggy and Clarence Shivers for their work with Pikes Peak Library District and service to the community of Colorado Springs.

Clarence and Peggy Shivers created the Shivers Fund at Pikes Peak Library District, in concert with PPLD, in 1993. They introduced the Shivers African American Historical and Cultural Collection at PPLD, which continues to expand annually thanks to the Shivers Fund and its many supporters. In addition to the collection, the Shivers Fund at PPLD also provides opportunities for our community to celebrate history, culture, and the arts. The Fund hosts concerts and other events, as well as helps expands educational and cultural opportunities for young people to encourage tolerance and diversity. Our Library District and Foundation applaud the Shivers Fund for its continued investment to create more tolerance, diversity, and community in the Pikes Peak region. Learn more about the history and work of the Shivers Fund.

Pikes Peak Library District Foundation is honored to receive $150,000 from the estate of Milt and Darlene Johnson.

As we have come to learn, Milt was what we at PPLD would refer to as a “power user.” While serving as the pharmacist at Broadmoor Drug at The Broadmoor Hotel, Milt often worked the 4-11 p.m. shift. With Dar teaching during the day, Milt became a mainstay at our Penrose Library where he spent countless hours educating himself on investments and investment strategies, pouring over resources such as The Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, and Barron’s.

After he retired, Milt continued to visit the library almost daily and used the knowledge he gained at the library to build and grow his and Darlene’s investment portfolio. In fact, Milt became such a subject matter expert that many of the investment advisors he and Darlene used often called Milt for advice. We are grateful to be a recipient of their generosity, which based on this story, is due in part to the time Milt spent at Penrose Library. PPLD’s mission is to provide resources and opportunities that impact individual lives and build community, and we cannot think of a more compelling story that demonstrates the impact of patrons connecting with library resources and in this case quite literally building our community.

PPLD and the PPLD Foundation are truly grateful to Darlene and Milt for including the library as part of the imprint these gifts will forever leave on our region, and we are deeply touched by Darlene’s gesture to make the gift to PPLD in Milt’s memory. The PPLD Foundation was created in 2003 to raise philanthropic funds and build an endowment to support our 15 libraries and the more than 650,000 people we serve. PPLD ranks 10^th out of Colorado’s 13 largest library systems in funding per person, and the PPLD Foundation was created to accept meaningful, generous gifts like Darlene’s. It is donations large and small that helps PPLD close our funding gap and continue providing resources and opportunities that impact individual lives and build community. We are truly sorry to have lost Darlene and Milt, but these gifts will ensure their legacy is forever remembered.

Read more about the Johnsons and their estate in The Gazette's coverage here.

Photo credit: Joe Hollmann and the City of Colorado Springs

For more information on how you can include PPLD in your estate planning and create your own lasting legacy, contact Lance James at (719) 531-6333, x6890, or email foundation@ppld.org.

Learn more about the work of the PPLD Foundation.