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

Which is why, with the spirit of gratitude in the air, we were so happy to host our 5th Annual Thanksgiving Dinner for our youth, their families, our volunteers and staff.

Once again we filled the house with laughter as we enjoyed the company of over 60 people, had great conversations, and played countless rounds of Apples to Apples!

A monumental Thank You goes out to Chris, Becky, and all the fabulous folks from Citipointe Church for roasting 4 turkeys and making all the traditional Thanksgiving sides so that our bellies were full!

We wouldn’t be able to have this sort of celebration without the support of the amazing community we are blessed to live in.  For some of our youth this was the only Thanksgiving feast they will enjoy this year.

Happy Thanksgiving from Everyone at The Matthews House!

Greg Bobby, Owner of The Zone accepting a Community Partner Award from Joyce Dickens, Resource Development Director and Kristina Maxwell, Transition Facilitator

Over the past 5 years, The Zone Health & Fitness has graciously allowed The Matthews House to enroll our youth at a greatly reduced rate. The ability to regularly workout at a gym offers our young adults many benefits, not only in terms of increased physical health, but also in the areas of self-confidence and setting and achieving goals. The opportunity for physical activity in a safe environment also provides our youth with a positive way to spend time and energy. Not only has The Zone given us a great deal for our youth, but they’ve also allowed our mentors to accompany their mentees, so they can work out together, making this opportunity not just about getting in shape, but also about building positive relationships as well.

The Zone has a great facility, friendly staff and excellent rates – probably the best hidden deal in the Fort Collins health club world. (You’ll find them nestled in behind Discount Tires on College, just North of Stuart Ave.) If you need a place to work out, I’d recommend checking them out.

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!

Every year, our Whole Foods Market does this great thing called Grab and Give. They offer their customers the opportunity to help their neighbors who are short on food. They do this by asking everyone at the checkout if they’d like to donate a meal to someone who needs it.

That money gets collected, turned into food and donated to a different local charity each week. This year, our Fort Collins store had the ambitious goal of raising over $100,000…and they made it! Then they turned all that money into tons (literally) of healthy food for our community.

The Matthews House was lucky enough to receive the donations from Thanksgiving week. Below you can see us with $13,000 of tasty, well-balanced, healthy food loaded into 2 pick-ups, a 12-passenger van and a few cars – there was barely room left for the drivers.

A lot of people are going to eat this holiday season and beyond because of you!
Thank you so much!

On August 6th and 7th, the Matthews House once again had runners and volunteers participating in the Wild West Relay, a 200-mile relay footrace over the mountains from Fort Collins to Steamboat Springs. This is the 4th year The Matthews House has participated in this exciting event and thanks to the hard work of our 24 runners and 20 volunteers, we raised over $16,000! Can you tell, we're really excited about this!

In addition to training to run between 11 and 19 miles over the course of the race, each runner took on the additional responsibility of raising $600 for the Matthews House. This year’s runners worked very hard training to run some big hills and raising funds to change lives! In addition to setting a fundraising record in this year’s event (last year we barely topped $9,000), one of our team’s took third place in the Open category. Congratulations and thanks to all our runners, volunteers and team sponsors! We’ll be doing it again next year, so if you think you might like to join us next time, just let us know!

Thanks to our Team Underwriting Sponsor Adams Bank & Trust and to all our fabulous team sponsors:

Many thanks to our organizer and displaying artist, Marsha Krygier, and all our artists.

Beyond the Fringe – Susan Bergs, handsewn purses and sachets

Lone Tree Pottery – Abbey Rothenbuehler

Tina Kellogg, glass artist

Earth Spirit Pottery – Nancy Williams

Swing Station Studio, Heather Hallberg – handmade purses and housewares  

Fox Ryde Gardens, Susan Buchele Rowland & Curtis Rowland – handcrafted herbal products

Amber Lovelace – fused glass jewelry

L.E. Smith Artworks, Leslie Smith – jewelry

Carr Creative, Ann Carr – handsewn women's jackets, tops, capris and accessories

Monty Weymouth, photographer

John I. Giem, Woodworker (work can be seen at Timeless Creations)

Sage Designs – Rochelle Sage, fountains, pottery, mosaic art

Shiloh Soapworks – Kaylene Baughman, handmade soaps

In the last couple of years, Mike & Greg Labate and their staff at Mr. Mechanic have donated a lot of time and energy to youth and young adults at the Matthews House by donating pre-sale inspections. The Mr. Mechanic crew has helped tremendously by assisting Matthews House youth in making wise choices when purchasing used vehicles. This life skill empowers young adults to make economical choices when choosing their first car, a major step towards achieving self-sufficiency. Thank you Mr. Mechanic, we are so grateful for your efforts.  You are making a difference in the lives of individuals and in our community!

We have great needs in our community all year long and there are amazing gifts of generosity that happen every day.

However, at Christmas we get to see the generous spirit that I believe inhabits every one of us humans overflow. This season shows me what is possible, what we as individuals and particularly as a community are capable of. 

I am feeling deep gratitude to all those people who are inspiring me and encouraging us this Christmas at the Matthews House. Here are a few…

• Colorado Carriage and Wagon gave 15 of our girls an evening carriage ride, probably not an experience they would ever have had.
• Whole Foods Market, through the generosity of thousands of their customers donated $4,000 of food to the Matthews House, so much that we have been able to not only meet the needs of our youth, but share with other agencies and families we are connected to.
• The Shepherd of the Hills Quilting Group delivered 7 beautiful handmade few full-size quilts that we’ve passed on to youth in our program. They LOVE them!
• A book club that made food and hung out with the youth at our Christmas Party.
• Several volunteers who decided we needed holiday decorations in every room and then handmade and hung them.
• Crossroads Church who held a toy drive and provided toys for several of our youth who have little ones of their own.
• Dozens of people who provided gift cards so our youth could all receive a Christmas present, and
• Burn Longboards, a local company who put on an entire evening event to benefit the Matthews House.

This just scratches the surface of all the people and things we are thankful for this Christmas season. Yes, there are always more needs, more heartbreaking stories, but there are also incredible stories of hope and generosity – and that is what this season is about.

We are so encouraged by the compassion and support of our community.

THANK YOU ALL!!!