A proclamation recognizing Donna Altieri, founder of Altieri Instrument Bags in the City and County of Denver
Thank you. Councilman Brooks, seeing no other announcements. We're going to move on. There are no presentations. There are no communications. But we do have one proclamation this evening. Councilwoman Ortega, will you please read Proclamation 1511? I would be happy to. Proclamation number 181511 is recognizing Donna Altieri, founder of Altri Instrument Days in the City and County of Denver. Whereas Donna Rae Altieri started her business, Altieri instrument bakes in the early 1980s, making musical instrument bags and case covers out of her home in the Baker neighborhood, beginning with a tuba bag with back straps. And we're as she expanded her product line, two bags for French horns, flutes and nearly all symphony instruments and developed a customer base around the world. And. Whereas, she designed bags for traditional Japanese instruments for musicians in Denver's sister city of Takayama, Japan. And. Whereas, Altieri, instrument bags have always been manufactured in Denver using American components first in the Baker neighborhood, then in Curtis Park for the last 15 years, and again in Baker. And. Whereas, Altieri bakes, instrument bags have employed a workforce made up mostly of women, including people working from home grazing families, those struggling to find employment parolees and at least one relocated refugee, all making high wages for for the sewing trade. And. Whereas, ultra instrument bags ultimately grew to export half of its instrument bags internationally. And. Whereas, Altieri adds, Fruit Bags was recently acquired by JL Smith of Charlotte, North Carolina, in a transaction intended to keep up with the growing demand, expanding the workforce and committing to keep the business. This in Denver. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed by the Council of City and County of Denver, Section one, that Donna Rael Terry be honored for producing the first backpack for professional musician for developing the industry standard known around the world. For instrument bags. For her business acumen in professional music. For her insistence on making the instrument bags locally using American components. And an underserved labor force for exporting these Denver products around the world. And for working to keep all Terry bags in Denver and section two that the seal of the city and county of Denver be affixed to this proclamation and then a copy be transmitted to Donna Rail. Terry. Thank you. Councilwoman are taking your motion to adopt. A move for the adoption of proclamation number 181511. It has been moved can I get a second? And seconded comments by members of Council Councilwoman Ortega. Thank you, Mr. President. As you know, this is a business in your district of the Baker neighborhood. And I had an opportunity to go to this site and see where these bags were actually produced. And at least one of the women who was one of the employees that helped make these bags also got to see some of the personal bags that Donna had made for herself, that I was encouraging her to make these and put them on the market because they're they're unique in in not only in their design, but they are so efficient in terms of the kind of bags that women normally want to carry where you're having to, you know, take a an iPad or a laptop. And most of them, you know, have the straps. You carry it like a backpack. But just the commitment that Donna had to keeping this business in Denver, working with local workforce and just seeing how this. What started out really is just providing a bag for somebody that that needed to figure out how to carry their instrument around and seeing how it grew to becoming an international business where people were reaching out to her from around the globe, saying, where can I get one of these bags for my instrument and where they didn't exist for certain instruments? She created a new bag for the different instruments that people were needing them for. And so when I was contacted asking if this was something I would be willing to do. Obviously the Baker neighborhood was part of my old district, and Donna's got long presence in that neighborhood, and I was just honored to be asked to do this. And so I just want to encourage my colleagues to support this tonight and just join me in congratulating Donna for her commitment to working with our local community in this way. That hopefully sets an example for many of our other businesses in the city of Denver. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Councilwoman Ortega. Councilman Lopez. Thank you, Mr. President. Councilman Ortega, I really appreciate this proclamation. But what are what are bigs? Oh. Bags. Instrument bag. I'm just kidding. Are you making fun of my nurse? There's a West Denver accent and a Northside accent, and we never, ever get to highlight it. I need to get. No. But I love hearing it. And I love hearing it from my hometown right here. So I would be happy. And I appreciate you. I do. I do know this. And three, were there another friend of mine and I and I really appreciate seeing this product innovation come through. I've never met her, but I, I do know of this business. And I do appreciate you bringing in a proclamation about the banks to the city council. Okay. Thank you. Kellogg, Colorado. Thank you, Councilman Lopez. And I know. And thank you, Councilman Ortega, for bringing this forward. I am excited to support Madam Secretary Oracle. With. Ortega. I black guy. Brooks. Espinosa. Hi. Flynn. Hi. Gilmore. I. Cashman. I can teach. I. Lopez. I knew. Sussman Hi, Mr. President. I. I'm secretary. Please close the voting. Announce the results. 1212 hours proclamation 1511 has been adopted. Councilwoman Ortega, is there anyone you'd like to bring up to accept provisional? Terry is in the audience and I wanted to invite her to come forward. You're welcome to bring Mike with you if you want to. Do. This right up. To the microphone. If you want to pull the mic down just a little bit. I just feel so honored that you're doing this for me. It's been, you know, half of my life endeavor creating this and that. When you have a small business, it's hard to get the word out. Locally. Even though the rest of internationally you're known and it it this will bring it. Forward to the to the people of Denver and people of Colorado and the fact that Altieri instrument that has brought put Colorado on the music market around the world. But thanks. Thank you.