How we helped when the past came to call on Miners Alley favorite Samantha Piel
Who we helped: Samantha Piel is a local actor, teaching artist, props designer and doer of all things whose name usually shows up three times in every new Miners Alley show program. She loves to work on just about any theater-related project. Sammi graduated from Denver School of the Arts and CU Boulder (Class of 2021) and has since been seen as Rebecca in “Our Town” (Arvada Center), as Mary Warren in “The Crucible” (Miners Alley Playhouse), as Zoe in “An Octoroon” (Benchmark), as well as in various TYA shows with Miners Alley Children’s Theatre. She has also been teaching around the Denver area and often designs props for shows at Miners Alley Playhouse. Using her love of theater to educate others is what she loves to do most, and she is putting that passion to work as a teaching artist for the Colorado Shakespeare Festival’s touring education shows.
Her medical story: Way back in late 2021, Sammi went to the emergency room on two separate occasions for what was ultimately determined to be appendicitis. By the time all the number-crunchers did their parts, Sammi was staring down at a debilitating hospital bill totaling $8,377.
How we helped: Sammi’s case came to us as one of the three biggest in Denver Actors Fund history. And the Board stepped right up to do its part to help Sammi resolve her obligation but … does anyone remember the world in late 2021? Through a series of accounting confusions, we were informed that her balance was actually zero. Wait, what? Perhaps wiped off the books as a COVID case, as many were at the time? Perhaps zero because Sammi had applied for Medicare? Who knows. In any event, we all took that zero to mean zero and went about our lives, grateful to have dodged that bullet. Fast forward three years (and at least three moves by Sammi) and, sure enough, that dreaded bullet has found its way home again. Which was a bummer but not legally unfair. More confusing than anything else. In any event, we asked our volunteer legal counsel/angel (Graham Fuller) for advice, and he suggested to the hospital that, given that we had offered to resolve the issue back in 2022, and given their mistake at the time in telling us there was no balance to pay, and given the subsequent passage of time … perhaps a reasonable offer settlement was in order? Long story shorter, the hospital accepted an offer of $5,942 to make it go away. That represented a total reduction of about $2,435 from the original amount due. Meaning that one act of smartness and kindness by Graham saved $2,345 of your cherished donated dollars – dollars that we can now use to help someone else in need. It makes us all warm and fuzzy inside.
‘WHEN I NEEDED IT MOST, THE DENVER ACTORS FUND PULLED BACK UP AGAIN.’ – SAMANTHA PIEL
How you can help us help us help more Colorado theater artists: If you would like to make a donation to help The Denver Actors Fund replenish, simply mail checks in any amount made out to Denver Actors Fund to P.O. Box 11182, Denver, CO 80211. Or use this donation link, with our humble thanks.
