2025 JAMBOREE

Thank you for joining our 2025 Jamboree!

ILCO hosted the Fall Jamboree on Thursday, October 2nd and Friday, October 3rd in Denver. Kicking things off at the Governor’s Mansion made this year’s celebration truly special. We loved seeing so many of you bring your families, connect with one another, and share in the joy of this growing statewide movement. Our full day of sessions at the Colorado Department of Early Childhood was filled with inspiring conversations about enrollment and fundraising, creative ideas for affiliates, and plenty of laughter. This was a great opportunity to meet and learn from other affiliates across the state.

Michelle Anthony

Allie Kallmann Wegner

Caitlin Raaz

Kaz Windness, Heather Brockman Lee, and Mary Lanni

Colorado Evaluation & Action Labs

ILCO Evaluation Brief from COLabs

Helpful Tools from Jamboree

CO Gives Day Toolkit

ILCO Grant Writing

2025 ENROLLMENT WEEK TOOLS

Speaker Information:

Michelle Anthony: is a regional director for The Dollywood Foundation. She’s passionate about bringing positive change to her community, and has spent her entire career working in the non-profit sector for youth serving organizations. Michelle and her husband have two daughters, and all four of them are avid readers! Outside of reading, they enjoy watching the Denver Broncos, playing sports, spending time in the Rocky Mountains, and just being together as a family.

Allie Kallmann Wegner is a Senior Researcher at the Colorado Evaluation & Action Lab at the University of Denver. The Colorado Lab was created in 2017 under the leadership of the Governor's Office as the state's policy lab. They work with a broad range of government, community, and family partners to unlock data-informed solutions and identify opportunities to foster meaningful and sustained change. In this session, we will discuss the results of the 2025 evaluation of ILCO, as well as potential policy implications.

Caitlin Raaz is a speech-language pathologist and researcher specializing in early language development and speech sound disorders. As an associate professor at the University of Northern Colorado, Caitlin focuses on innovative service delivery models to address health disparities in underserved communities. Children in rural communities often face barriers to early intervention, including provider shortages, long waitlists, and limited access to culturally responsive support. To help address these gaps, our USDA-funded project piloted in Eastern Colorado equips home visitors with practical, evidence-based strategies to support children’s early communication and language development while families wait for formal services. This session will share lessons from our pilot program, including how easy-to-use digital tools can help families build strong early language and literacy skills in culturally and linguistically responsive ways. We will also discuss how this model can be adapted to create engaging content for the Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library in Colorado as part of our project’s next phase. Participants will leave with actionable strategies to strengthen their role in promoting early literacy and bridging gaps in early intervention for the families they serve.

“When You Love a Book: Inspiring Children to Make Friends with Reading,” a fireside chat with literacy outreach specialist, Mary Lanni, and the author and illustrator of "When You Love a Book," Kaz Windness and Heather Brockman Lee. Imagination Library's July book for age group 4, “When You Love a Book,” was written and illustrated by local Colorado residents Kaz Windness and Heather Brockman Lee. Mary Lanni is a librarian, book reviewer, and a youth literacy advocate.