They have been truly devoted to The Matthews House in word and deed for over 4 years. Let’s hear a little bit more from them:

So, where ya from?

Ken: Colorado native, Colorado Springs, CSU graduate

Suzanne: California (7 ½ miles from Disneyland), lived for 4 years (early 20’s) in NYC

In what ways do you like to volunteer?

Ken: Serving the youth and families; meals; hope to offer classes at some point.

Suzanne: I enjoy baking and cooking for the youth and basically spending 1 on 1 time with them listening to their stories.

Why did you choose the Matthews House?

Ken: Jerri Howe’s passion and vision early on; all of the staff.

Suzanne: Ditto, listening to Jerri talk about the Matthew’s House encourages one to help.

What do you like best about volunteering?

Ken: Personal satisfaction in being able to give back.

Suzanne: During a couple of my shifts as a House Volunteer a couple of the young moms brought in their infants and let me hold them. It was great to see the care and love these moms had for their children. But the best thing about being a house volunteer is just having the youth show up and hang out during my shift. I really enjoy talking to them.

For several years, along with their son Baxter, the Smiths cleaned the house monthly, making sure it was dirt free and comfortable for all that entered (even to the point of discovering a nasty wasp nest on the back of the house).

Suzanne currently hangs out and talks with the youth as a weekly house volunteer, helps regularly with administrative duties and provides yummy food for a variety of purposes. Her dedication and consistent presence is so beneficial to the youth that we serve.

Ken began by doing some vocational mentoring with some of the first Matthews House youth. He was able to give these couple of youth a great experience and a good recommendation to later benefit them in the food service industry. Additionally, for three consecutive years he led student groups at CSU in preparing our Thanksgiving Dinner for about 50 youth. He is also a member of The Matthews House Board of Directors and big time advocate for getting people involved at the Matthews House. In the last couple years, I’m pretty sure he has sent more people our way than any other person. What a great way to make an impact!

Thank you Ken and Suzanne for giving selflessly to youth in need in our community!

Vanessa Aschmann, Volunteer Engagement Coordinator at The Matthews House

Recently, we celebrated Christmas with over 50 of our youth, along with more than 20 volunteers, community members, and staff!

Our youth took a horse drawn wagon ride from The Matthews House to Everyday Joe’s Coffee House through Old Town just as it started to snow.  They were met with hot chocolate, fabulous food, and wonderful live holiday jazz music.

After some socializing we were thankful to be able to provide each of our youth with a Christmas present – for some this might be the only one they receive this year.  A few of our youth had a tough time being at a Christmas party, as this time of year brings back some sad memories; but thanks to our staff and volunteers we were able to help acknowledge old memories while creating new positive memories.

None of this would have been possible without Colorado Carriage & Wagon, Everyday Joe’s Coffee House, the fantastic ladies with Bibliomaniacs Book Club, The Jingle Bell Jazz Ensemble (Kenny Workman: vocals, clarinet, tenor sax, guitar, Brian Fromme: keyboards, Dennis Griffing: upright bass, Paul Gerberding: vocals, djembe, guitar, hand percussion), and our ever faithful volunteers.

And a special shout out to Kara, Aaron, Brenda, and Jessica who consistently attend our events and are an invaluable source of help in making them run smoothly.[[Show as slideshow]]

Some Exciting News Shared At The Christmas Party!

From day one we have been blessed to have such a great house on Mathews Street to call home. And we’ve also been blessed with a very supportive community that has allowed us to grow, serve more youth and take on more staff. This past year as our staff would probably be quick to tell you things have gotten very “cozy” within the walls of The Matthews House.

Which is why we are excited to tell you that with a New Year will also come a new home for The Matthews House!

If all goes according to plan, we will be moving in mid-January. There won’t be any interruption in service to our youth and we’ll still be super-accessible, right in the Old Town area near Lee Martinez Park. We’ll be able to share more details soon and we’ll invite you all over to visit once we get settled.

Making the big announcement!

Merry Christmas from Everyone at The Matthews House.  May this season bring you joy!

Stamp World Online recently donated Maple cutting boards for us to sell and raise some money. They retail for $30, but we are selling them for $20 and 70% goes directly to The Matthews House.

These boards were manufactured and engraved here in Ft Collins Colorado. They have been finished with mineral oil and there are two styles to choose from:

• 15x8x0.5 inch engraved with a Wren design
• 10x10x0.5 inch engraved with a Bee design

You also have a couple of options if you’d like to purchase them:

• Our friends over at Everyday Joe’s Coffee House have been kind enough to offer them for sale at the shop. There you can pay with cash or credit card.

• You can also buy them directly from The Matthews House Admin Office if you’d like to pay with a check or cash. Please give us a call first though at 970-472-4293 to make sure we have someone available to help you.

This Christmas Season your shopping can support The Matthews House work with at-risk youth, empowering them to take control of their lives and go after their dreams.

Over 200 people showed up to the Fort Collins Country Club to have a rock’n 1950′s style good time. They enjoyed live performances from the likes of Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, and Judy Garland.

SugarMill Productions was also on hand to entertain the crowd. And thanks to a swing lesson and dance off from the Jumpin’ Jive Cats folks were cutting a rug well into the night.

And amongst all the 50′s festivities there was also a lot of fundraising going on. All told the evening brought in over $13,000 for The Matthews House!

Check out these photos from the event:

It would not be possible to have such a good time while helping the at-risk youth of our community without the support of our Hoopla for Hope sponsors:

Our “Hot Rod” sponsor was Realities for Children.

We had these “T-Bird” sponsors:  Cornerstone Mortgage Company, Bighorn Family Dental, Tenfold Collective, Northern Colorado Business Report, and Fort Collins Country Club.

And the “Jukebox” sponsors were: Pure Energy, LLC, Yancey’s, Re/Max, North Beach Dental, Lighthouse Chiropractic, Odell Brewing Company, Tandem Select, Snowy Peaks Winery, eSquared Exceptional Events, Hal & Ki Johnson, and Craig Vollmer Photography.

Additional thanks are due to: All our Matthews House Ambassadors, Auctioneer – Jeff Sweeney, Chipper’s Lanes, Sam’s Club, Marilyn Foster and our Living Legends – Kristi Siedow-Thompson, Robb Copp, Ann Foorman, Vi Wickam, & Christina Gressianu.

In the first three weeks alone, we have seen a group of teenagers with very little confidence begin to encourage one another, push each other to challenge themselves, and reach to fulfill their highest (literally!) potential.  The self-discovery that occurs during these sessions carries over to their lives in general, building positive self-image and a sense of hope for the future.

Each week we take the team to an indoor or outdoor location to climb.  During these training sessions youth set goals for themselves and for the team as a whole. They learn climbing skills, techniques, and safety protocol; then they get on the rock and use those skills. Seeing our youth begin to trust each other and our volunteers is truly amazing!

Thanks to the generous support of Inner Strength Rock Gym and La Sportiva, we have been able to kick off this fantastic opportunity for our youth.  However, we want to be able to offer this program to all of our youth, providing them with safe, high-quality equipment, weekly outings, and the opportunity to travel and compete.

If you would like to help young adults to push past their fears and grow in monumental ways through our climbing team, please contact Carolyn at 970-472-4293 or carolyn@thematthewshouse.org .

The Matthews House strives to fill the current gap in services for at-risk youth transitioning to adulthood by providing the resources and support necessary to empower these youth to take control of their lives, shape positive futures for themselves and become successful contributors to their community.

You can find out more about The Matthews House on our website which is located here: http://thematthewshouse.org

Very early next Friday morning,  August 12, The Matthews House will have a team lining up for the Wild West Relay for the 5th year in a row. Like the other 100+ teams, our team of 12 will be running 200 miles from Fort Collins to Steamboat Springs. However, we’ll be running in order to raise money for the Matthews House to help youth whose childhood’s were stolen by neglect and abuse, to learn to dream and thrive.

This race will take our team about 30 hours, during which each runner will run 3 separate times for a total of 12-20 miles each. As part of the team, each runner has committed to raising $650 for the Matthews House and training for this challenging (and incredibly fun!) adventure. Our team has set an ambitious goal of raising over $9,000, and we are oh so very close!

This year’s team is: Stacy Friday, Chris Branchflower, Jessi Pitmon, Debby Myers, Brian Hansen, Steve Griffin, Doug Douillard, Gwen Koenig, Stephen Koenig, Joyce Dickens, Kristina Maxwell and Daryle Dickens.

If you’d like to support these 12 amazing runners who are volunteering their time and energy (lots of it) to help youth in our community, you can learn more about them and support them here.

Thank you to our Team Sponsors

Brian & Esther with Matthews House Volunteer Coordinator, Vanessa Aschmann

Every year at their State of the Community event, United Way of Larimer County recognizes outstanding volunteers in the community. At the 2011 event, on June 9th, the Volunteer Excellence Award was presented to our very own 2010 Volunteers of the Year, Brian & Esther Hansen, recognizing their truly extraordinary commitment to serving their community. Brian & Esther have been doing outstanding work, empowering youth through their work with The Matthews House since it was founded in late 2005.

They’ve helped in unseen ways like cleaning the house in the evening or weekend when no one was around, as well as directly working with youth by acting as mentors and even inviting several of our young adults into their home through our Host Home program. Over the past 5 years, they’ve been involved in about every way imaginable and we are incredibly grateful for their support. We were thrilled to be able to celebrate this recognition with Esther at the State of the Community event and see them honored.

Of course in characteristic fashion she used her few minutes in the spotlight to talk up the Matthews House and make sure all 700 guests knew exactly what we do.

Thank you to all 165 of the volunteers who make the successes seen here at the Matthews House a reality!