The Community Foundation’s “Pat on the Back” Award – named for Pat Shoemaker – is conferred every year to recognize so-called unsung heroes who have quietly volunteered their time to care for our community with the same dedication that Pat embodied.
This year, we’re pleased to recognize Dave Underwood, nominated by Nicky Marone, Executive Director of FOCUS Re-entry. For the past four years, Underwood has volunteered for FOCUS as both a mentor to individuals being released from the Boulder County Jail, and a mentor to other FOCUS mentors.
Specifically, he works both inside and outside the jail to help former offenders make better lives for themselves. Inside the jail, Dave teaches a weekly graphic design class, year-round. He’s known to his students as someone who treats them with respect and dignity, and who understands the value of humor in an unforgiving environment.
“I’ve always felt that folks who end up in jail have been profoundly unlucky,” Underwood says. “Often, they’ve had difficult childhoods, bad friends, and made bad choices.
“In most cases, when we think about volunteering, we think of serving people whom we consider somehow underserving of their fate – not people behind bars, who ‘deserve’ to be there. But the truth is, our prison system keeps people down. The way our inmates are treated, it’s often a self-fulfilling prophecy.”
“Dave was my mentor prior to my getting out of jail, and well after I was released from jail,” wrote James Gold, one of Underwood’s former students, in a letter of support for Underwood’s award nomination. “Dave was with me through my tears, my setbacks, my triumphs…he was a guiding force when it came to my success, and he’s still with me as a dear friend whom I appreciate more than he will ever know.”
Adds FOCUS board member Deborah Simmons in her letter of support: “Dave is unfailingly available, informed, cheerful, optimistic and friendly to all whom he encounters in his roles as a volunteer jail instructor in graphic design, and as a volunteer FOCUS mentor. He treats everyone with respect.”
“I speak with other mentors about best practices,” continues Underwood, a Colorado native who also provides support for CU-Boulder students and faculty who use multimedia in their learning, teaching, research and creative efforts. “It’s foundational for FOCUS mentors to understand that – when we work with someone who’s trying to make a comeback into society – we’re not trying to create carbon copies of ourselves.
“Happy and successful for someone else may not look the same as your definition of happy and successful. A former inmate’s idea of success usually doesn’t look anything like yours or mine…at least, not at first.”
Underwood says it’s too easy to tell someone to “just straighten up and live right.”
“A lot of the people I work with haven’t been equipped with the tools they need to succeed. When you really listen to their stories – about their early family lives, and what they did or didn’t learn at home – you realize they’re not working out of the same toolbox.”
Underwood, who’s semi-retired, also volunteers at Children’s Hospital in Denver, playing music for patients with his combo, aptly named The BandAids. The group, in their 12th year presenting room-by-room performances on a weekly basis, brings blues, soul and funk to what Underwood considers to be the best audience in the world.
“As a volunteer, you get way more out of it than you give,” says Underwood. “It’s transformative, and it’s also kind of addicting.
“After I walk out of the Children’s Hospital or a class at the jail, I feel the exact opposite of what you might think. I don’t feel sad or depressed – I feel energetic, like I’ve had a transfusion. Giving back is the best high I know.”
According to Marone, thanks to Underwood’s efforts and the efforts of other mentors, FOCUS has achieved a 17% recidivism rate – a tremendous achievement compared to the overall recidivism rate of 53% for Colorado. “Dave exemplifies the power of an encouraging presence – a ‘friendly face,’ if you will – to former offenders leaving jail.”
As part of this year’s “Pat on the Back” recognition, a $1,000 award will be presented to FOCUS Re-Entry – Underwood’s nonprofit of choice – at the Legacy Society’s awards presentation this evening.
