2012 Power List: Locals who made a difference this year

Ellis McFadden

Ellis McFadden is receiving the special Publisher’s Lifetime Achievement Award for his life-long dedication to the community as a volunteer and activist.

No matter what you choose to do in life, Ellis McFadden said, “just get involved.” For the lifelong community volunteer and activist – engaged in Colorado’s LGBT community for decades – that isn’t something he preaches from a distance. He walks the walk.

“When I first came out, there was a group called ‘Coming Out Group,’” McFadden said, which was his first experience with LGBT activism in Denver. That was 36 years ago, McFadden said, when he was just 27.

“Then I found out The Center was opening – it was first in a little rental building,” McFadden said. He started working the phones and donated a phone line to the effort when The Center needed one.

His involvement continued through the years. When the Colorado AIDS Project was new, McFadden volunteered, participating in a project called “the buddy program,” which paired volunteers with people suffering from HIV to offer a caring friend and keep their hopes up, holding the loneliness at bay. That was taxing, dedicated work – buddy after buddy died of AIDS.

That program is now gone – it ended at about the time that new drugs allowed HIV-positive people to live much longer and have much more normal lives. But when that happened, McFadden kept ties with his most recent buddy, who is still alive and who he still tries to visit once a month.

The engagement extends to electoral politics, too. “I love canvassing,” McFadden said – he’s gone door-to-door for a long list of state legislative candidates including Reps. Andy Kerr, Diane Primavera, Max Tyler, Daniel Kagan and Joe Mikklosi, now a candidate for U.S. congress, House candidate Tracy Kraft-Tharp and Sen. Evie Hudak.

It’s more than just time that McFadden gives. It’s energy, care, passion and money.

“I like writing checks and supporting what I give time to,” McFadden said. “My financial planner said I write too many. So I had to cut back. I guess I’ve still gotta live. But to me that’s not as important as supporting things.”

Becoming well-known and recognized for his involvement is “kind of humbling,” McFadden said. “A lot of people I hang out with are more deserving.”

But while he’s getting some attention for his work, his message is for others to do the same.

“Why can’t somebody stuff an envelope for an hour?” McFadden asked. “A couple hours, a couple days – it makes a difference.”