The week from April 19 to 25th is dedicated to “Celebrating People in Action” – honoring the individuals who dedicate themselves to taking action and solving problems in their communities.

Here at the Matthews House we rely heavily on the dedication, commitment and passion of volunteers. Our volunteers offer significant support to disadvantaged youth both by working behind the scenes (i.e. admin work, cleaning, fundraising) and directly with youth (i.e. one-on-one mentoring, providing rides, leading groups). They are the heart and soul of the Matthews House and we absolutely could not give the quality care and support that we give without our volunteers.

Since it is National Volunteer Week, this seems like a particularly fitting time to take the opportunity to recognize and thank some of our most committed volunteers.

In 2008, we had over 110 active volunteers, who gave over 4200 hours of their time and energy to insure that youth who were once without hope were given the tools, skills and support they needed to learn to dream and to create new paths for their lives! We’d like to especially recognize seven volunteers who each gave over 100 hours in 2008:

Over 100 Volunteer hours:

Dave Brown
Elly Wiebe
Matt Martin
Bob Addleman

Over 200 Volunteer hours:

Cliff Bergren
Cathy Rotman

Way over 200 Volunteer hours:

Jerri Howe

THANK YOU TO ALL OUR VOLUNTEERS – YOU ARE ALL AMAZING!

Want to learn more about making a difference through mentoring?

Join the Larimer County Mentoring Coalition this Thursday, April 23rd from 4 – 6pm at Reader’s Cove to explore the opportunities for mentoring in Larimer County

For more information contact
Kathleen Vasa
E-mail:  voarsvp@frii.com
970.472.9630

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…

Thanks to the incredible generosity of an anonymous donor and the smaller gifts of several supporters, the Matthews House recently became the proud owner of a gently used white 15-passenger van.

Most of the youth we work with have few transportation options and in order to allow them to take full advantage of activities and services offered at the Matthews House we frequently serve as a source of transportation. In the past we relied solely on staff and volunteers to use their own vehicles to pick-up and transport youth. But the addition of our new van is already saving us money by reducing the number of trips needed and the mileage costs, allowing us to redirect money saved back into our program. And we’ll be sure to have room for all the youth who want to participate in future programs.

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.