The Annual Meeting is on Thursday, June 5, 2025 at 2:00 pm in the Twinberry auditorium.

Come meet the board and hear about upcoming events. Touch base with Forum members. Have ice cream following the formal meeting. See you there!

Northern Colorado Humane Society

Meeting Spot - Colorado Humane Society, Loveland

Description - Do you love dogs? How about cats? Or how about bunny rabbits? Actually, no matter what kind of critter you favor, there’s a good chance that you will see one when our More to Explore group travels to the Northern Colorado Humane Society in Loveland on Thursday, March 20 for a 10 am tour. We’ll start on the adoption floor, then go behind-the-scenes to the private areas of the building to see the Society’s state of the art vet services clinic, barn, laundry room, and much more! The tour is limited to 20 participants and you can reserve your spot now for this one hour event by registering with the Senior Center (970-221-6644), Activity Code 107411-03, or by registering online. For additional information, please contact Terry Barrett at tbarrettt2@gmail.com.

Info on our future More to Explore activities will be provided as events are finalized.

Activity Code: 107411-03 Maximum of 20

The Senior Center’s Twinberry Auditorium is the venue for our opera production playing on Wednesday, October 15th. Doors open at 1:30 pm, the opera starts at 2:00 pm. A facilitator will provide a brief introduction to the opera before the film begins.

Porgy and Bess

This opera composed by George Gershwin in 1935, is set in a working-class Black community in 1920s South Carolina. We will watch a 2020 production at the New York Metropolitan Opera. Back in the day, the opera commonly featured white singers in black-face. For this brand new 2020 production, the Met solicited Black singers throughout the country to audition and at least two singers from Fort Collins were selected for the chorus. The music incorporates elements of African American spirituals, folk songs, and jazz. It includes a number of songs that have become classics including the iconic lullaby Summertime. It is a very emotional opera with powerful music, drama, social themes and a strong community atmosphere.

The Foothills Activity Center is the venue for our next movie playing on Wednesday, March 12th. Doors open at 1:00 pm, the movie starts at 1:30 pm. Following the movie, a facilitator-led discussion will allow viewers to participate in a dialogue on the film. 

THE KING’S SPEECH (2010), Tom Hooper

This historical drama depicts the story of King George VI (Colin Firth) of the United Kingdom, who, with the help of an unorthodox speech therapist named Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush), overcomes his severe stammer. The film highlights their unlikely friendship and the king's struggle to deliver a crucial radio broadcast at the dawn of World War II. Film Length: 1:58.

This month’s photography hotshots group will meet at the Foothills Activity Center on Wednesday, January 22nd at 12:00 pm. Front Range Forum members only.

Bring your brown bag lunch and join us for Lunch & Learn. The program starts at 11:45 am in the Twinberry Auditorium and should end at 12:45 pm. We hope that you’ll come, eat your lunch, drink a cup of coffee and connect with other Front Range Forum members. Lunch and Learn is held on the 1st Wednesday of each month.

Come to the Grocery Store with Us!

A given: we all have to eat! For 8 weeks this spring we explored the world of grocery stores, including the dark side of the American supermarket and beyond. We learned a lot, we had a lot of fun, and we hope that we became more knowledgeable consumers. The grocery store is a culturally rich environment, but what does it take to get food to the shelves and into our carts? Many complex questions arise, and we benefit directly from thinking about them. Kay Gillespie and others will share some of what they learned, and we hope that you leave with some good tips!

Bring your brown bag lunch and join us for Lunch & Learn. The program starts at 11:45 am in Twinberry Auditorium and will end at 12:45 pm. We hope that you’ll stay, eat your lunch, drink a cup of coffee and connect with other Front Range Forum members. Lunch and Learn is held on the 1st Wednesday of each month. You must be a member of Front Range Forum to attend.

Fort Collins Local History Archive – Celebrating 50 Years of Discovery!

The Local History Archive at Fort Collins Museum of Discovery was born in 1974 with an oral history project dedicated to recording the memories and lived experiences of over 70 longtime Fort Collins community members. We’ll explore highlights from these remarkable interviews with audio clips and photos, and round out the presentation with a trip down memory lane showing Fort Collins in the groovy 1970s. Can you dig it? Presented by Lesley Struc, Curator of the Local History Archive at Fort Collins Museum of Discovery.

THE GREAT STUPA OF DHARMAKAYA

Meeting Spot - Fort Collins Senior Center, Fort Collins, CO

Description - See the work of the Larimer Conservation District, which works with private landowners to reduce fire damage by clearing trees & ground cover. We will meet at the Senior Center at 9:30 am on Monday, June 3 to carpool for the one hour drive to the Drala Mountain Center at Red Feather Lakes. Members of the District staff will take us on a tour of the area, showing the work that was done before the fires of 2020 which saved the camp & the Great Stupa. We will then have the opportunity to visit the Great Stupa of Dharmakaya after our tour. Terrain will be rugged & uneven. Please wear sturdy shoes and bring water, hat, jacket, sunscreen & a snack for our up to four hour event (includes driving time).

Please be sure to register first with the Senior Center – Activity 307411- 02 or enroll online.

For further information, contact Ann Kem at annkem@gmail.com.

Activity Code 307411-02 Minimum of 5, maximum of 20 participants

SVI Trucks, 3842 Redman Dr, Fort Collins, CO

Description - What if we told you that there’s a company right here in FoCo that makes fire trucks & emergency vehicles which are sold nationwide for over $1 million each. Would you believe us? Well it’s true! SVI Trucks must be FoCo’s best kept secret & they are opening their doors for us to tour their facility! Don’t miss this unique opportunity! Minimum of 5, maximum of 15 participants. Contact tbarrettt2@gmail.com for more information. Please register with the Front Desk of the Fort Collins Senior Center (970) 221-6644.

Activity Code: 207411-06 Minimum 5 — Maximum of 15

Every month, we’ll meet in Foxtail 2 from noon to 1:00 pm on the second Thursday of each month for an hour of just enjoying each other’s company. We hope that this will give members a chance to get to know their fellow classmates.

Bring your own lunch and we’ll just sit and chat.

Bring your brown bag lunch and join us for Lunch & Learn. The program starts at 11:45 am in the Twinberry Auditorium and will end at 12:45 pm. We hope that you’ll eat your lunch, drink a cup of coffee and connect with other Front Range Forum members. Lunch and Learn is held on the 1st Wednesday of each month. You must be a member of Front Range Forum to attend.

Xeriscaping in Fort Collins

Come find out about the rules and regula@ons, and incen@ve programs surrounding xeriscaping in Fort Collins.

Let’s help conserve water.

Where: Penrose Tap House and Eatery, 216 N. College Avenue, Fort Collins, CO

Come celebrate as Front Range Forum turns 30! Join us for snacks and drinks on the patio (and inside), to chat and cheer on another 30 years of learning and exploration. We’ll even provide some of the snacks! Drinks and appetizers are on your own, but at Happy Hour prices; you may even want to stay for dinner in Old Town as the evening progresses.

Please RSVP by May 26, 2023 to judeastman@aol.com, and let us know how many plan to attend.

Bring your brown bag lunch and join us for Lunch & Learn. The program starts at 11:45 am in Twinberry Auditorium and will end at 12:45 pm.. We hope that you’ll stay, eat your lunch, drink a cup of coffee and connect with other Front Range Forum members. Lunch and Learn is held on the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of each month. You must be a member of Front Range Forum to attend.

The Life and Times of the Malaby Store, Meg Dunn

The Malaby Store is one of Fort Collins oldest buildings, but its history has been somewhat hazy, even to the family that’s owned the building for over 100 years. Learn about this 142-year-old false-front former photography gallery in this talk by Meg Dunn who will cover not only what it was like to live in downtown Fort Collins in the 1880s, but also how the building was moved and the lives that were lived in and around it for decades. Through the life of one building we’ll cover a wide swath of local history including the rail road, our early African-American community, neighborhood life, a tragic murder-suicide and more. Meg Dunn is a premier local historian and the chair of the Fort Collins Historic Preservation Commission.

After a long Covid hiatus, we are ready to restart the Great Questions program. Great Questions is a friendly gathering of FRF members to discuss a different question each month, questions like:

• What makes a good friend?

• Should affirmative action be prohibited at colleges and universities?

• How do we know right from wrong?

• Or, how did covid change you?

We are going to limit the program to 24 people, so that everyone has a chance to participate. As people drop out, we will replace them from a waiting list. At the end of each meeting, we will decide as a group on a discussion question for the following month. January’s question will be: Is it ever okay to lie? Class will meet in our normal classroom, Foxtail 2.

To sign up for Great Questions, call or visit the Senior Center Front Desk and enroll in FRF Great Questions, #107412-01. You can also enroll online. You must be a paid FRF member to take part. Enrollment is first-come-first-served. If the program is filled, ask to be put on the waiting list.

Enrollment opens at 7:00am, Thursday, December 8, 2022.

The Chapungu Sculpture Park Art Walk, Wednesday, October 12, 2:30 – 4:00 p.m. (#407411-04)

Description: Northern Colorado is lucky to have a 26-acre sculpture park, featuring over 80 stone sculptures carved by artists from Zimbabwe. Located adjacent to Shops at Centerra, the pieces are nestled among beautiful natural and landscaped gardens. Carl Wilmsen, who is a sculptor and one of FRF's most active facilitators of art courses, will lead the walk, giving us insights into Zimbabwe art and artists.

Directions: We will meet at the small parking lot at the north end of the Chapungu Sculpture Park. Parking is limited there but you can park in the main lot on the east side of Centerra, close to the Sculpture Park.

Registration is limited to 14 people and you must be a paid FRF member. You can register in person at the front desk, by phone at 970-221-6644, or online, using the Activity Code numbers shown below. Registration opens on August 11.

Activity Code: 407411-04

This year’s summer movie musical series features two Broadway legends, Stephen Sondheim and Harold (Hal) Prince. Revolutionaries both, their approaches to storytelling with setting and song changed the musical landscape forever. dance, history, social commentary, all in enjoyable technicolor!

West Side Story

This year’s summer movie musical series features two Broadway legends, Stephen Sondheim and Harold (Hal) Prince. Revolutionaries both, their approaches to storytelling with setting and song changed the musical landscape forever. dance, history, social commentary, all in enjoyable technicolor!

Cabaret

This year’s summer movie musical series features two Broadway legends, Stephen Sondheim and Harold (Hal) Prince. Revolutionaries both, their approaches to storytelling with setting and song changed the musical landscape forever. dance, history, social commentary, all in enjoyable technicolor!

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

Thursday, June 23 - Senior Center Twinberry Auditorium, 1:30 —4:30 PM

This year’s summer movie musical series features two Broadway legends, Stephen Sondheim and Harold (Hal) Prince. Revolutionaries both, their approaches to storytelling with setting and song changed the musical landscape forever. dance, history, social commentary, all in enjoyable technicolor!

Fiddler on the Roof

THURSDAY AFTERNOON

1:30 - 4:30 PM

JUNE 16th

Stephen Sondheim and Harold Prince: Musical Masters

• June 16 - Stephen Sondheim’s 80th Birthday Celebration

PRESENTERS: Judith Eastman (chair), Jan Gilligan, Melinda Larson and Diane Lawton

We look forward to seeing you at the Senior Center’s Twinberry Auditorium. Show time is 1:30 PM. Doors open at 1:00 PM.

This group will meet weekly online using the Zoom video conference app. The purpose of the group is to practice silent meditation together, share meditation experiences, and respond to each other’s questions related to mindfulness and meditation. To join contact Bryan Fain at bcfain@gmail.com or 970 214-5015.

The group is limited to the first ten who respond.

This group will meet weekly online using the Zoom video conference app. German Expressionist art began as a revolt against the rigid rules and power of the German Academy of Fine Art who favored a naturalistic style and dark chiaroscuro. In rebellion, artists such as Franz Marc, Wassily Kandinsky, Ernst Kirchner and others in the early 20th century formed artist groups. We will examine several of these artists, their group, their art and the influences that inspired their art. To join this group contact Carl Wilmsen at carl_wilmsen@comcast.net or (970) 226-6064.

The group is limited to the first ten who respond.

Wednesday, February 26th — Senior Center Foxtail 2, 1:30 — 3:00 PM

Great Questions is a friendly gathering of Front Range Forum members to discuss and exchange ideas on a different question on the fourth Wednesday of each month. No preparation is necessary, nothing to read, nothing to study. Just bring your experiences, thoughts, and opinions.

A different question will be selected each month and announced to all FRF members. The discussions will be led by one or two of the Great Questions Committee members. We’ll probably never agree on an answer to any of the questions but we’ll have a great time talking about them and, maybe, leave knowing a little more than we knew when we came in.

This month’s question will be: What can we do about fake news?

This question was selected by popular vote on our FRF website.

Kick off for Fall Registration

This is your opportunity to visit with the facilitators about their course offerings and to register for the class/classes of your choice. Light refreshments will be served. Front Range Forum classes will begin the week of September 9, 2019.

If your Front Range Forum membership has expired, please pay $14 for Fall quarterly dues. Dues are paid at the Senior Center front desk or by telephone with a credit/debit card.

Front Range Forum, 2018 Annual Meeting and Ice Cream Social

The year's annual meeting will be held at the Fort Collins Senior Center in the Twinberry Auditorium. There will be a brief business meeting including the acknowledgement of the many volunteers that keep Front Range Forum moving forward. The meeting will conclude with an Ice Cream Social for all.

Mark your calendars now for this event.

Please note that the date for this event has been changed from Monday, May 22nd to Tuesday, May 30th.

We are fortunate to have David Bayer, a master naturalist with the City of Fort Collins Natural Areas, as one of our members. David has offered to guide us on a hike at Bobcat Ridge. The hike is about 3 miles and follows the Valley Loop trail.

Trail description: The trail passes for one mile through the prairie in the glade (valley). It then ascends gently up about 100 feet in elevation for about a half-mile. We’ll turn south and follow the trail along the lower shrub and tree line for 1.2mile and then descend a half-mile back to the entrance.

The interpretive hike passes through three life zones: prairie, shrub lands and lower montane forest. Each of these vegetative zones will be explained as to its primary vegetation and the birds and mammals adapted to each. Several important geological principles and examples will also be demonstrated, e.g. Bobcat Ridge is the boundary between the foothills’ hogbacks and uplifts of the Rocky Mountains.

If you enjoy hiking and want to learn more about the natural areas, please join us on Tuesday, May 30th from 10:30 AM to 1:00 PM, Members only.

Bring a lunch to enjoy in the shade of the ponderosa forest about half-way through the hike. A brochure is available on-line at:
https://www.fcgov.com/naturalareas/pdf/bcr-brochure2014.pdf?1443629521

Directions to the Trailhead:

Bobcat Ridge's address is 10184 West County Road 32C, Loveland.

From Fort Collins, take Harmony Road west, it turns into CR 38 E. Follow CR 38 E to Masonville. Go left (south) at the Masonville Mercantile onto CR 27. Follow CR 27 about 1 mile to CR 32 C, head west about 1 mile to the Bobcat Ridge parking lot.

From Loveland, go west on Highway 34 about 4.5 miles west of Wilson Avenue. Turn north on CR 27 by Big Thompson Elementary and drive 4.5 miles. Turn left on CR 32C and go 1 mile west to the Bobcat Ridge parking lot.

The City of Fort Collins natural areas consists of 43 sites, with more than 40,000 acres of protected lands, and more than 100 miles of walking trails. Deciding where to walk next can be the toughest decision. Join us as Natural Areas Department experts share their favorite walking locations and the best time to visit them.
  
 

Walking the Natural Areas Details:

o    When - Wednesday, April 27; 2:00 - 3:30 pm
o    Where - Senior Center, Twinberry Auditorium
o    Who - Free and open to FRF members and non-members

The Twinberry Theater at the Fort Collins Senior Center is the venue for our next movie playing on Wednesday, February 11. Doors open at 1:30 pm, the movie starts at 2:00 pm. There will be free popcorn available. Following the movie, a facilitator-led discussion will allow viewers to participate in a dialogue on the film. 

Oscar winners Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson reunite with the acclaimed filmmakers Merchant Ivory for this moving story of blind devotion and repressed love.  Hopkins plays Stevens, the perfect English butler, as he serves his master, Lord Darlington (James Fox). Like other members of the British upper class in the 1930s, Darlington is duped by the Nazis into trying to establish a rapport between Germany and the British Government.  Thompson plays the estate’s housekeeper, who watches the ggoings-on with horror.  Despite her apprehensions, she and Stevens gradually fall in love, though neither will admit it. 

Front Range Forum Reads!

Front Range Forum Reads is aimed at bringing our membership together over the discussion of two books each year, a nonfiction book in the winter and a work of fiction in the summer. Our Winter 2015 selection, our very first selection is . . .

             “One Summer: America, 1927”
                            By Bill Bryson

Knowing that history is a favorite subject area of FRF readers, we have chosen a readable, lively account of several significant events that occurred in a few months in a single year. Bryson covers Lindbergh’s solo flight across the Atlantic, Babe Ruth’s long-standing homerun record, and the low-key presidency of Calvin Coolidge, along with the capture of Al Capone, the seeds of the Great Depression two years later, and other fascinating stories. Old Firehouse Books will have the paperback edition for sale for $15 (their discounted price).

Once you’ve read the book, here’s what is planned:

A Deeper Dive (Saturday, January 17 from 10:00 to 11:00) – On that Saturday we offer you the chance to go deeper into one of the major topics covered in the book; choose from among these three concurrent one-hour programs, which will combine videos and discussion to do a “deeper dive”:

Lindbergh and Aviation – Twinberry Auditorium                                                                Baseball, Boxing, and the Sports of the 1920s – Foxtail 2                                          The Politicians and Anarchists – Sand Lily

The Twinberry Theater at the Fort Collins Senior Center is the venue for our next movie playing on Wednesday, December 10. Doors open at 1:30 pm, the movie starts at 2:00 pm. There will be free popcorn available. Following the movie, a facilitator-led discussion will allow viewers to participate in a dialogue on the film. 

Lars Lindstrom (Ryan Gossling) is a lovable introvert whose emotional baggage has kept him from fully embracing life. After years of near solitude, he invites Bianca, a friend he met on the internet to visit him. He introduces Bianca to his brother Gus and wife Karen, and they are stunned. Bianca is not a real person, but a life size doll. They consult the family doctor who explains this is a delusion Lars created, but they better go along with it! What follows is an emotional journey for Lars and the people around him. (1 hr. 46 min.)

For additional information, please contact Joel Rutstein.