Ribs, beef, chicken, Daddy Bruce, and charity. Bruce Randolph opened Daddy Bruce’s Bar-B-Que in Denver, Colorado in 1963. Shortly afterwards, he began feeding hungry locals at near-by City Park in one of the most economically challenged communities in the state every Thanksgiving. When Daddy Bruce passed in 1994, the Epworth Foundation continued the holiday feast for the hungry in his honor.
Project Managers without Borders (PMWB) got involved with the Daddy Bruce Thanksgiving feed in 2014 when the target number of people to be fed increased from 3,000 to 8,5000. For starters, PMWB facilitated partnerships with the Denver Police and surrounding Sheriff departments, as well as the governor of Colorado and mayor of Denver. Just as important, PMWB also provided valuable project management expertise to assist the leaders of the event organize and execute the Thanksgiving charity. For example, introducing PMBOK, the Project Management Body of Knowledge. Insights learned from PMBOK include learning how to better manage time, cost, quality, communication, and of course, risk. Additionally, the event is draining on its volunteers, a lack of energy after a couple of hours and people wearing out is a real concern. PMWB also contributed to alleviating this problem by recruiting additional volunteers to take some of the strain and responsibility of the existing staff.
Bruce Randolph is an iconic figure in Denver and his philanthropy has been recognized around the country and by very prominent figures in the United States. To the degree that the Daddy Bruce Documentary was produced and delivered to the Denver Film Festival in November 2016, on time and on budget. PMWB was recognized in the credits of the documentary.
