Do you enjoy a motorcycle ride on a beautiful Colorado day?

Are you concerned about neglected and abused children and youth in Larimer County?

Want to have fun and make a difference at the same time?

Consider joining Realities for Children on the Realities Ride this weekend.

It’s a blast…you WILL enjoy yourself.

“Realities For Children hopes to draw more than 3,000 people and raise more than $40,000 during this weekend’s eighth annual Realities Ride and Pre-Ride Rally.
The event is one of the largest charity motorcycle poker runs; it benefits abused and neglected children in Northern Colorado. Last year’s event drew 3,000 and raised just less than $40,000, said Holli Milenski, Realities promotional coordinator.”  Read more

This is our big, fun event of the year and we hope to see you there!

Listen to our Cutivate Hope Radio Invitation here.

On Thursday, May 7th, we will hold the 2nd Annual Cultivate Hope Benefit.

There will be a silent auction of hand-created flower pots, garden art and garden goodies, along with music, food and festivities, all to benefit the Matthews House.

This enjoyable evening features

• bluegrass music by Finders and Youngberg,

• a silent auction of handcreated flower pots and garden art by local artists, including Barbara Moore, Kari Lennartson, Lisa Cameron, Bryan Collins and many more,

• as well as a chance to win fabulous prizes, including a Grand Junction Wine Getaway.

This celebration of Spring parallels the growth we see in the lives of youth in the Matthews House program as they take control of their lives and begin to pursue exciting pathways to a future of hope.

The event begins at 6:30pm next Thursday, May 7th, at the Hilton Garden Inn (2821 E Harmony) and tickets are only $25.

More information and tickets are available here or at 970-472-4293.

This year’s event is underwritten by Realities for Children, and presented by Hilton Garden Inn and Capital West National Bank with additional support from the Tenfold Collective and Bath Garden Center.

You may be familiar with Realities for Children, if not you’ll want to be – trust me.

Realities for Children is a cause marketing and promotional company that provides a unique opportunity for local businesses to gain marketing benefits, including special marketing rates, greater visibility, referral networking, and positive name association, while meeting the needs of abused and neglected children in Larimer County. By bringing together a large number of business members they are able to offer member-businesses an amazing return on investment while making a huge impact on our community by providing funding for emergency needs, education, sponsorship support and special activities for at-risk children and youth.

So why am I talking about Realities for Children on the Matthews House blog? Well, I realized you may not know that The Matthews House is a Realities for Children affiliate agency and I also realized that even if you do know that, you might not know what it means. I can tell you that it means a lot to our youth, directly and indirectly.

As an affiliate agency we are able to apply for emergency funding when there are no resources available elsewhere to meet a need. The Realities for Children Emergency Fund creates a safety net for children and youth who would otherwise fall through the cracks. This partnership with Realities has allowed immediate needs such as emergency shelter to be met for our youth.

Realities also meets the needs of our youth indirectly through event sponsorship. By signing on as the Presenting Sponsor for our upcoming Cultivate Hope fundraiser, Realities for Children is underwriting the cost of putting on the event so that all the money that comes in can go directly to helping the youth the Matthews House exists to serve. That means that when you buy a ticket to Cultivate Hope, all $25 is going to help youth develop the support network and skills they need to be successful and self-sufficient. And when you bid and win a beautiful piece of garden art at the event, you can know that the money doesn’t get absorbed into the cost of food or printing but goes directly to our program and youth in need.

If you are a business owner or an employee of a community-minded business, please look into Realities for Children to see how they can help you to leverage your marketing dollars while helping Larimer County’s children.

Please join us for Cultivate Hope, coming up on May 7th at 6:30pm. Tickets and Info available on our website.

On May 7th at our 2nd annual Cultivate Hope benefit there will be music provided by fabulous local bluegrass band, Finders and Youngberg.

We love them and think you will too!

If you’d like a little preview of their music, they are going to be on Live at Lunch at noon this Friday (2/27) on KRFC 88.9FM.
And later that night, they’ll be playing at Avogadro’s Number at 8 pm for the small fee of $10.
If you’d like a preview of their tunes from the comfort of your own computer, you can just drop by their website for a visit.

We hope you will come out to join us on May 7th for food, wine and lots of amazing garden art. And to hear these fun, friendly and talented musicians who will be graciously sharing their music with us.

This Valentine’s Day you have the opportunity to come enjoy the “brilliantly crafted songs” of Jan Garrett and JD Martin while all proceeds benefit several local nonprofits, including the Matthews House.

100% of ticket sales will go to charity.

Jan Garrett and JD Martin are multi award-winning independent singer-songwriters who live and create their music in the heart of the Colorado Rockies near Aspen.  Their music is described as “Rich and intelligent…..a velvet-hammer wake-up call as satisfying to the soul as it is to the ear….. Brilliantly crafted songs to open the heart and refresh the spirit.”  Continue reading and hear music samples on their website.

7:30pm, Saturday, February 14, 2009

Lory Student Center Ballroom

Proceeds Benefit:
Matthews House
Ten Thousand Villages
Village Earth
Geller Center for Spiritual Development

Tickets: $10 in advance; $12 at the door

100% of every ticket sold through the Matthews House will go to fund our continuing programs for at-risk youth.

Tickets can be reserved on our website or by calling Joyce at 970-472-4293.

This concert is sponsored by Mennonite Foundation and MMA Stewardship Solutions.

This Spring, The Matthews House will be holding the 2nd Annual Cultivate Hope Benefit – a garden-themed silent-auction-style event. The highlight of this event, which will be held Thursday April 16th, is its variety of one-of-a-kind original flower pots and garden items created by local artists.

So, we are in search of potters and artists working in all mediums who would like to help make this event a wild success.

If you would like to create or decorate a flower pot for this fun event to benefit the Matthews House, please contact Joyce.

Here are just a few of last years beautiful flower pots…

January 22, 2009
4:00pm – 6:00pm

The Reader’s Cove
1001 E Harmony Rd # C
Fort Collins, CO 80525

The Larimer County Mentoring Coalition consists of six mentoring agencies committed to raising awareness of the need for mentors, and to recruiting and retaining high quality mentors for children and young adults in Larimer County.

Agencies in the Coalition:

The Matthews House
Volunteers of America
Boys and Girls Clubs of Larimer County
Larimer County Human Services, Children Youth & Family Division
Partners Mentoring Youth of Larimer County
Turning Point Center for Youth and Family Development

On Wednesday evening, December 10th youth, mentors and volunteers joined at First United Methodist Church in Fort Collins for a Christmas Party hosted by Steppin’ Out.

Thanks to Steppin Out, the Fellowship Hall at First United Methodist was festively decorated and plenty of tasty food was available for all. Thanks to a generous community, every one of the youth in the Matthews House program received not only a gift card, but a gift bag of goodies to open. For more pictures, come visit our blog

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!