Submitted by Mark Cheeks, Ware Malcomb
Each year, the Colorado Chapter of NAIOP supports the Boys and Girls Clubs of Denver by spending a day prepping the Gates Camp. Gates Camp is a beautiful 80-acre camp in the Indian Peaks Wilderness area that was developed for and continues to provide a wilderness experience for inner-city children for a minimal fee.
Saturday, May 30, 2009 will be the twelfth annual Spring Work Day for NAIOP. It will be a great day. The volunteers meet at the Broomfield Park and Ride for a light breakfast and we will car pool up to the camp. About ten of the camp counselors volunteer their time as well. Tyler Edmonson is the camp’s director and is eager to have us come up because we are the final push needed to get the camp ready for the campers coming this summer.
We do all the prep work to get the camp ready for opening the following week, so the Boys and Girls Clubs really count on us to lend some elbow grease to the projects. There are always a variety of jobs to choose from, last years there were things such as cleaning up the cabins, putting up the large outdoor tents, clearing out cut or fallen branches, digging post holes and setting posts, and staining a cabin.
The camp depends on this group of volunteers each year. The one day of work that the volunteers give the camp is like having 15 people spend a 40-hour week on the multiple projects. While the work is the primary focus, other added bonuses are: networking in an unconventional setting up in the mountains, enjoying a beautiful day, the drive back and forth is a beautiful ride and the food and the drinks taste that much better after a hard day’s work.
This year we will have the abbreviated version of the day again; leaving at 7:30 and returning to Denver by 2:30. The more hands we have there are the more we can get done for them. It will be a rewarding day as usual and it just makes you feel good to know you are helping to make the experience better for the 600 campers that will stay there throughout the summer. We look forward to seeing all the volunteers this year. As the camp cheer goes: Heepwah!
For more information or to register, click here http://www.naiop-colorado.org/pdfs/ev09_workday.pdf.
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