We’ve all heard it before, and it’s true—it takes a village to make things happen. That’s so true up here in Gilpin. Many things get done in the county thanks to volunteers from “the village.” Take the Gilpin County Fair, for example. We had thousands of people visit the fair, enjoy the events, visit the vendor booths, and take part in activities over a two-and-a-half day outdoor party.
To make it happen, Krystal and the folks on the Fair Committee, along with Karen Eye and Marilyn Ashmore (of the Friends group), put together a volunteer task force to help with all aspects of setup, operations and cleanup. If you attended, you may have noticed how clean the grounds were, for example. That’s because volunteers helped keep it that way. If you had questions, people were around to answer them. If you visited the Fiber Arts show or entered Gilpin Gourmet, people were there to judge the entries and others sat as guardians during the fair. HCA brought their team of volunteers in to do the Sunday pancake breakfast, and Timberline had their team serving food and drink. And, there were so many other tasks that volunteers did that made the Fair so good.
But, volunteerism isn’t just limited to the Fair. We need volunteers for nearly all the activities involving the Community Center. As another example, we had a grant from the Denver Bronco foundation to do flag-football related activities this year. We’ve already sponsored one activity, with more to come. For that, we needed coaches. Joe Stranaly and Dave Knudson stepped up, along with some Gilpin football players, to make the first event a memorable one for the kids.
We’ve begun a rewards program for volunteers, to a volunteer appreciation dinner, pins, as well as punch card passes to the center. As we grow the volunteer program, we’ll add more incentives and rewards. I don’t think most of our volunteers expected rewards, but it’s only fair to recognize them for their hard work and willingness to step up!
We’re always looking for more volunteers, so if you’re interested in helping out with events such as the Spooky Stroll, the Fair, etc, we will happily welcome you to the fold! Just check out our volunteer form here.