Communications Team Blog : 10.21.23

FINISHING STRONG

Denver seemed to be celebrating the last workday of a successful year with us on October 21st – with a beautiful fall day under bright yellow leaves and equally bright blue sky. It’s hard to beat Colorado in the fall! For this workday we were in the Barnum neighborhood – which one volunteer told us was named after its founder, circus mogul P.T. Barnum. We love learning about the rich history of the neighborhoods in which we work and grow.

With such a beautiful fall day, the whole neighborhood was out cleaning up their yards, enjoying the weather and chatting with neighbors on front porches. It was a picture of what we love about ECM – volunteers and residents getting to know each other, laughing together and working together to make one block at a time a little happier and healthier. We saw residents we worked with before come to say hello and thank you to our volunteers, got to share our mission with passers-by out for a walk, and got to deepen relationships within the Barnum community.

We had volunteers of all ages from all over Denver – our experienced volunteers from Bethany Lutheran Church got their hands dirty working with a resident to prepare his lot for winter. They not only cleaned up the above-ground weeds that seem to take over so quickly, they took the initiative to dig out as many weeds and unwanted plants as possible to help prevent them from returning in years to come. Many of us have dealt with pesky returning invasive plants in our own yard, so they knew how helpful it would be to lend a hand to a neighbor dealing with the same.

We were so inspired by and thankful for our volunteers from Rocky Vista University Surgery club, who took time out of their rare days off to serve the community around them. They, along with volunteers from Regis High School and a great group of individuals, helped us clean up three alleys and paint over graffiti in record time! We were even able to add on another project and help a neighbor with some yard work she couldn’t do on her own.

With volunteers across generations, professions, and neighborhoods, we helped one another, learned from one another and were able to put together our skills to make the last workday of the season a great success! Thanks to everyone who volunteered, donated, and got the word out to help make this such a great season.

We can’t wait to see what next year brings!