In an effort to celebrate first responders and launch a new community emergency relief fund, the Douglas County Community Foundation is hosting the inaugural Heroes Gala on Sept. 21.

Around 600 people are expected to attend the sold out event at the Denver Botanic Gardens Chatfield Farms in Littleton. The event will honor local individuals and organizations for their contributions to public safety. 

The gala will also be the main fundraiser for the community foundation’s new Community Emergency Relief Fund, which will be dedicated to paying for community response after a catastrophe, such as a natural disaster or a mass shooting. 

The fund has already received more than $500,000 in contributions, including a $200,000 donation from Douglas County. 

Douglas County Community Foundation Board Chair Brock Smethills said the fund is the first of its kind in the county and will be crucial in recovering from emergencies. 

“Federal, state and even county resources can take a while to deploy those resources and for dollars to start showing up, so the community has to be the first line of response and fund emergency support,” Smethills said. “When an emergency hits, you don’t have days to wait.”

Marco Fields, a Douglas County Community Foundation board member and gala organizer, said  the foundation coordinates response funding in the event of an emergency.

“Douglas County Community Foundation kind of serves as the first responder nonprofit in the county, so we disperse money to all of the nonprofits that would need to be activated if we needed to respond to a large-scale event,” Fields said. 

Ultimately, Smethills said the community foundation hopes to build it into a $10 million endowment over the next decade.

Fields said the goal of hosting the Heroes Gala to promote the fund is to give people a behind the scenes view of how emergency response works in real time. 

The night will kick off with an inside look at some of the tools firefighters, dispatch and law enforcement use, such as a demonstration from the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office K9 unit and bomb squad, vehicle tours and the opportunity to fly drones. 

“It’s an exciting opportunity for highly interactive experiences,” Fields said. “It will help give an understanding of what it takes to keep a county this size safe and the coordination and collaboration between all of these incredible agencies.”

In addition to the demonstrations, the event will also have live and silent auctions, a plated dinner, live music and an awards ceremony. 

This year’s Heroes Award recipients are Jeff Cislo of the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office; dispatcher Keara Martin; CJ Bailes of South Metro Fire and Rescue; veteran Alex Racey; Jacob Mathis, a member of the Armed Forces; and community member Michelle Kaye and her organization, Operation Equine. The Fall Hero Award will be given to Kendrick Castillo and the Best Year Yet Award will go to Wellspring.

Agencies participating in the gala include the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office, South Metro Fire and Rescue, Castle Rock Police Department, Lone Tree Police Department, Parker Police Department, Castle Rock Fire and Rescue, Douglas County Search and Rescue, and West Metro Fire.

“We want it to be an evening where our first responders feel seen and honored, and we want our guests to have a sense of what it takes to keep Douglas County a safe and thriving community and the best way to do that is to meet these heroes,” Fields said.