Denver - Elaine Wolf and Sandy Wolf-Yearick, a mom-daughter duo widely esteemed for their overwhelming generosity and huge hearts, will receive the Cultural Achievement Award from Mizel Arts & Culture Center. This award honors their philanthropic accomplishments through the Melvin & Elaine Wolf Foundation. Elaine's husband and Sandy's adoptive father, Melvin, died nine years ago after a career in the oil business. The tribute to the women's magnanimous persistence in uplifting people across Colorado highlights an Opening Night Gala on Thursday, Feb. 7, to launch the 12 th BNY Mellon Wealth Management Denver Jewish Film Festival of MACC at the Robert E. Loup Jewish Community Center, 350 S. Dahlia St.

Elaine Wolf's and Sandy Wolf-Yearick's substantial civic contributions enhance opportunities for people of diverse backgrounds, beliefs and generations -- especially children. The pair's motivation for giving these gifts flows from their no-frills past and others' compassion that sustained them long ago. Elaine was divorced from a previous marriage and was struggling to care for her family, when the Salvation Army without any hint of preaching or religious admonition filled their home with furnishings including the cot that Sandy slept on at age 4. Still appreciative of this strings-free kindness, tangible boost and unanticipated source of hope, the grown daughter recalls, "My mom and I have been at the bottom of the bottom."

Consequently, the foundation that they co-direct bolsters a full spectrum of Jewish and non-Jewish causes to help families: financial aid for summer camp programs at the JCC, Denver Art Museum and Denver Museum of Nature and Science; support for special advocates representing children in custody issues and scholarships for children of parents in the military. Because the donors overcame family hardships to become givers, the gifts that fulfill them most, according to Wolf-Yearick, promote their wish that "every child should have every opportunity that every other child has."

Their 30-year-old foundation funds 65 agencies, including endowment of MACC's Wolf Theatre Academy, which bears the Wolf name. The foundation also has supplied more visible donations in the health-care realm, resulting in a playroom at the Barbara Davis Center for Childhood Diabetes, the new library at Children's Hospital, an addiction treatment center at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center and a surgery building at Rose Medical Center.

The Gala Reception with music by A Touch of Class String Quartet serves as a prelude to a 7 p.m. program and film, The Galilee Eskimos, an Israeli box-office hit and bittersweet comedy about elderly kibbutz founders who must regain self-reliance after the younger kibbutzniks mysteriously disappear one night. This film won the Audience Award for Best Film at the 2007 Berlin Jewish Film Festival. Legend suggests that some Eskimo tribes abandoned elderly relatives and left them to perish; hence the film's title. Attendees at opening festivities will glimpse a reassertion of spirit, idealism and vision among aging Israeli pioneers, resolved to protect the debt-ridden communal home from developers aiming to destroy it. Directed by Jonathan Paz, whose parents lived on a kibbutz, this Colorado premiere is scheduled for a second screening at 5 p.m. Monday, Feb. 11.

More award-winning feature films from Israel and U.S. documentaries will explore triumphs and foibles of humankind during the festival, which extends through Feb. 16 and also heralds a community celebration of Israel's 60 th birthday this spring. Israel's Beaufort, which just received the nomination for the OSCAR in the category of Best Foreign Language Film, screens Sunday evening, Feb. 10, with a post film discussion led by Gilad Milo, Israeli Consul for Media and Public Affairs.

All screenings will happen in the MACC's Shwayder Theatre at the JCC. The film festival lineup, boasting live appearances by directors, producers and others, is apt to lure audiences of all ages and broad interests: everything from the immigrant experience, to war, disability, women's comedy, cross-cultural conflict, creativity and love. This year the festival series has expanded to 18 screenings and has added weekday screenings at 5 p.m., according to Roberta Bloom, festival director, and Sharon Haber, festival chair. Callaloo Catering will offer kosher snacks and light suppers.

For reservations and tickets, visit www.maccjcc.org or contact the box office, 303-316-6360. Opening Night prices are as follows: $400, Friend of the Honorees; $200, Friend of the Festival; $150, Producer's Pass; $120, Opening Night. The Grand Finale is $18. A complete festival schedule and film synopses are available online or from the box office. The price per film, not including Opening Night or Grand Finale, is $8 ($6 Seniors/Students) -- or $54 for a Festival Pass, good for any 16 admissions (transferable and shareable) except Opening Night and Grand Finale. The festival's title sponsor is BNY Mellon Wealth Management, with Coors Brewing Company and MorEvents providing Opening Night and Grand Finale support, respectively.