Meet Laurie Romberg

“Absolutely amazing!" exclaimed Laurie Romberg, a member of the Evergreen Chorale.  "This was one of the most inspiring and meaningful moments in my singing career. All of my fellow chorale members felt the same way, and the entire audience seemed deeply moved by the quality of the music and the singing.”

Laurie has had a lot of memorable experiences with the Chorale, but their very recent performances (December 8, 9, 2012) of Handel’s "Messiah"  – accompanied by the Jefferson Symphony Orchestra – was truly an exhilarating experience for Laurie and the entire ensemble. The Chorale played once at Central Presbyterian Church in Denver (a sold-out event) and had a second very successful appearance at the Rockland Community Church in Golden. The group performed all three parts of this Christmas classic, which included the original baroque instrumentation.

Laurie is deeply invested in the activities of the Evergreen Chorale and has been a member for 15 years. She not only lends her beautiful singing voice but has also offered her leadership skill and organizational talent with two different stints on the board of directors. This go-round she has been on the board for four years and also served for several years about 10 years ago.

In between those two terms on the board of directors of the Chorale, she was chosen for membership on the board of the Evergreen Council for the Arts (now known as Center for the Arts Evergreen) specifically to help represent the interests of the performing arts aspects of this organization. She did such a superlative job at participating in so many aspects of the group that she was also chosen as president of the council's board of directors for 2007.

No matter what organization she is involved with, Laurie is a tireless worker and devotes numerous hours of effort in a very hands-on approach. She easily moves from dealing with the executive aspects of her position as an officer of an organization, to spear-heading a fund-raising event, to helping with publicity, to being in charge of clean-up after events. (Before her three daughters all grew up and went off to college, she would often enroll them and also lasso their friends into the cleanup activities, which always made Laurie very sought after as the head of a cleanup crew!) Laurie combines her determination and organizational skills with a thoughtful, sweet disposition and a good sense of humor. She is often the person in a community organization that is tuned in to the individual issues and concerns of the members.

Laurie is the owner of Romberg Designs, which focuses on developing graphic designs for promoting businesses, fund-raising events, and also nonprofit organizations in the greater Denver area and the mountain community. Laurie is exceptionally talented as a graphic designer and has a knack for creating advertising that is not only artistic, eye-catching and trendy but also intuitively effective in communicating the purpose of the advertising. Her long years of involvement in many community activities in the mountain area make her particularly adept at transmitting the history and the mission of the numerous nonprofit organizations for which she has developed publicity.

Laurie’s talent has also been recognized by others as she recently won the 40 West Arts Riot 2012 Poster Contest and in 2010 won the Colorado Dragon Boat Festival Poster Contest.

One of Laurie’s favorite ways of conducting her business is to get involved with a community program that blends economic development with nonprofit organizations. She was one of the major players involved with the extremely successfully Arts Alive! initiative in Evergreen which is a 10-day showcase of arts and culture using a variety of different venues, art galleries, and museums throughout the Evergreen community. Her special brand of graphic design graced many of the promotional pieces for this now-burgeoning, yearly event that highlights activities for summer enjoyment in the Evergreen community.

Her newest involvement is in association with a number of organizations including the Chamber and the Downtown Business Association. This project – The Pride in Evergreen Program – aims to encourage residents to take pride in Evergreen by making a point of buying locally. Laurie is enamored with this project because it can help her beloved Evergreen community in two ways.

First, the Evergreen businesses could really benefit from more locals making a point of supporting our community businesses. Second, this initiative also has a secondary potential benefit for our various area nonprofit arts organization. One of the biggest financial supporters of nonprofit arts organizations is the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District (SCFD). SCFD funds are allocated by each of the seven participating counties and are dependent upon the amount of sales tax collected in each county, and Jefferson County has typically been among the lowest statewide with people shopping in their own county. If The Pride in Evergreen Program can actively encourage our citizens to spend more money in Evergreen, the amount of funds potentially available for grants to our arts organizations will expand. This is a great win/win situation for the businesses and citizens of our mountain community, and Laurie is stoked about getting out the word and drumming up greater commitment from Evergreen residents.

Laurie is married to Greg Romberg, a well-known lobbyist in our state, and they have both been an integral part of the Evergreen community for many years.