November 2023

Clothes To Kids of Denver (CTKD) has announced the appointment of Kathleen Phillips (pictured below) as its new executive director. Phillips has served in a variety of benefits and human resources roles, most recently as vice president of human resources for Centennial Resource Development and senior vice president of people and integration for Permian Resources Corporation. She has always enjoyed helping employees grow and develop in their careers, as well as working with leadership to create an inspiring company culture where employees enjoyed coming to work and contributing their best efforts. Her skillset will certainly serve her well at CTKD!

“It is with great enthusiasm that we welcome Kathleen to our team,” said Mary Valenti, chair of CTKD’s board of directors. “Her exceptional background in leadership, strategic planning and human resources, along with her passion for our mission, make her the ideal person to lead our organization into the future. Under Kathleen’s leadership, we expect our entire team to continue to build on our past success with an unwavering focus on serving more kids in the Denver metro area.”

Phillips first learned about CTKD when her son's school held a coat drive in 2020. Knowing the mission would resonate with her colleagues, Phillips connected her workplace with CTKD for a holiday giving campaign. Over the years, their team held several more coat, shoe and clothing drives, and even combined the drives with fitness challenges.

Phillips has also been volunteering at CTKD as a shopping assistant since December 2020 and loves all of the aspects of the role including stocking and tidying the store, making the blue bags for socks and undies and, most importantly, helping kids find clothing items they love.

Phillips follows Valerie Lunka as executive director. During her four years in that position, Lunka was instrumental in the organization’s continued growth and renewed focus on elevating the shopping experience for our families. Highlights of her time with CTKD include successfully steering the organization during the COVID-19 pandemic, establishing the curbside service program, overseeing significant upgrades to the store (many of which were donated), the addition of three staff members and significant increases in the organization’s operating budget. Lunka will remain with the organization, continuing to lead fundraising efforts and event planning as CTKD’s development director, the position she held from 2014 to 2019. 

“Clothes To Kids is grateful for Val’s long tenure with the organization and her leadership as executive director, and she deserves much of the credit for the organization’s year-over-year growth in the number of kids we’ve served,” Valenti said. “We are fortunate to have Val remain with CTKD as development director, maintaining continuity in our donor relationships and community connections.”

Welcome, Kathleen! Everyone at Clothes To Kids is so excited that you are part of our team.

This happy Dad asked his college-age daughters to clean out their closets before they left for school...and they actually did it! We appreciate this family's generosity, and we know they appreciate regaining some closet space.

A huge thank you to our wonderful friend Charlene Andrew for her 7th annual donation of crocheted hats. We counted 150 this year...one of her largest donations ever! Charlene spends an entire year making these hats to donate for our fall and winter shoppers, who are always excited to have something so beautiful and thoughtfully handmade.

Many thanks to this generous group from Prophetic Praise and Glory Ministries who brought in donations from their annual worship conference. This is their ninth year in a row collecting clothing at their conference! We can’t thank them enough for their continued support.

We recently hosted two awesome volunteer groups from CNA Insurance. They provided a full day of service and helped us out in so many ways. Thank you for the many ways you support our mission and the kids we serve!