Nonprofit's bake table becomes focus of one Colorado city's enforcement
A group of moms raising money for charity has found themselves in a conflict with the City of Golden. The group raises money in the name of the mothers' daughters who died several years ago.
As a nonprofit, they offered baked goods in exchange for donations. They set up outside the Golden Fine Arts Festival every year.
This year, they received a notice stating that without the required license, they would be ticketed.
The city says the license is required to ensure equity for all the different groups that participate each year.
Gift of Grace is a small nonprofit that doesn't have the tax benefits of a 501(c)(3) and uses the opportunity to raise money in memory of Grace Zitoli.
"She was a cheerleader, a dancer, an artist and loved by everybody. She also had Down syndrome," said Grace's mom, Laura Zitoli.
Grace died suddenly in 2017.
"She had two open-heart surgeries, and every time they told me she wasn't going to make it, but she always did. She was such a fighter" Zitoli said. "Her spirit was strong, but her heart wasn't. When she was 19, her heart gave out."
Laura Zitoli and Susan Baldacci, whose daughter Em was Grace's best friend, started "Gift of Grace" with the intention of supporting children and adults with disabilities.
"We have a Halloween party where they dress up and dance and play," Baldacci said. "We also helped one little girl who wanted to be a cheerleader by paying for her uniform. One of her friends was very sick in the hospital for a year during COVID, so we helped her and her mother a lot. We just do small things like that."
When it came to raising money, they took a page from the cheer team which, for years, set up a table outside the Golden Arts Festival and offered baked goods for donations only.
"When Grace died, the cheerleaders were like, 'you guys take it. You go ahead and keep doing the fundraiser,'" Baldacci said.
Their location and operation didn't change, but their relationship with the city did.
"There's always something like, 'you've got to stand behind the barricades, you've got to be further back,'" Baldacci said.
Finally, they got an email from the city saying they were breaking the law.
The group says they were led to believe they needed a vendor's permit to operate, which costs $500 per day.
"All we're doing is offering cookies and water for donations for kids with disabilities. That's all we are doing," Baldacci said.
Baldacci made a public records request and found emails revealing feelings toward their group were more hostile than they knew.
The city's special events coordinator referred to them as a "rogue vendor," "loud and combative" and twice called them a "thorn in her side."
The response from the city auditor was, "if we can catch them in the act, we can certainly ticket them."
The moms were taken aback.
"Catch us in the act of what? Being kind with little Ziplocs of cookies and bread," Zitoli laughed.
After years of back and forth with the city, Baldacci got a call during her interview with CBS News Colorado. City officials offered an apology and a way to move forward.
"Over all these years, since 2012, no one has said, 'go fill out a form for $20 and you can do what you want.' No one. Until you all got involved," Baldacci
The city says they only require a business license, not a vendor's permit, and that it is needed whether you're selling or accepting donations.
In a statement, the city said, "we regret the tone that our communication took during this situation, and we have spoken with Gift of Grace representatives to offer our apology."
