On Thursday evening, November 20th, we held Thanksgiving Dinner for our youth – it was a big hit, much bigger than initially expected as it turns out. We had 50 youth and their friends and family gather at the House to have turkey, potatoes, stuffing, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie, deliciously prepared and graciously served by Dr. Ken Smith of CSU’s Resort and Restaurant Management program and his talented students.

On 9/27, the Fort Collins Diakonos Brotherhood hosted a BBQ for Matthews House youth. The afternoon began when 10-15 members of the brotherhood roared up to the Matthews House on their Harleys! The youth loved it! The BBQ took place on one of the few remaining sunny Saturdays in 2008 in the Matthews House backyard. Several youth came along with some family members and friends to enjoy the delicious feast prepared by the Diakonos Brotherhood. The brothers were able to meet and interact with some of the youth, while sharing personal stories and similar life experiences with them.

We are thankful for the generosity of the Diakonos Brotherhood and are looking forward to partnering with them to have monthly events!

On Sunday, October 26th Peak Community Church hosted a breakfast for Matthew’s House youth and their mentors. Everyone enjoyed the omelets, fresh fruit, pancakes and fun company that the church volunteers provided! It was a wonderful opportunity to sit around the breakfast table and enjoy a family style meal together, thank you Peak Community Church!

Thanks to Stacy Fridal at Premier Mortgage Group, youth at the Matthews House had pumpkins to carve for Halloween. Premier donated 15 pumpkins which youth and staff transformed into both happy and scary creations. They proved so talented that we borrowed the pumpkins to serve as part of our decor for our Pathways to Hope fundraising breakfast last week.

This year on Make a Difference Day in Larimer County, more than 3,500 people gave their time and energy to help 90 local nonprofit organizations and agencies. That’s 14,336 hours of volunteering, worth over $279,000, in just six days!

Here at the Matthews House we had 3 groups of wonderful people join us from Mountain View Church, First Baptist Church and Summitview Community Church. They spent the three days with us finishing construction on our storage shed, painting our fence, sprucing up the paint on the house and landscaping the yard. Its an important piece of our mission that the youth in our program always have a homey place to spend some time, so we owe a huge thank you to all our volunteers for making sure the house stays welcoming and comfortable.

A very big thank you also to Lee Smith and FlatIron Steel in La Salle for donating all the steel and the majority of other materials needed to construct our storage shed. This was a huge gift and without it, we wouldn’t have a shed today.

Some of our volunteers even made the United Way home page.