There are more people living in their vacation homes in Colorado’s resort communities. There are more people visiting and staying in short-term rental homes. “But it’s a challenge to quantify any of this,” said Jake Andersen, deputy chief of operations for the Aspen Fire Protection District. Fire chiefs like Andersen can gauge one impact of […]
volunteers
Posted inColoradans, COVID, Health, News
How one Denver high school kid helped hundreds of older people get the COVID-19 vaccine
Earlier this month, 16-year-old Melanie Valadez spent 14 hours calling people age 70 or older. In both English and Spanish, the high school junior and other volunteers helped hundreds of older neighbors sign up to get vaccinated this past weekend at a drive-thru clinic in southwest Denver. “When you do a first-come, first-serve strategy, the […]
Posted inCOVID, Health, News, Politics and Government, Wildfire
From vaccines to contact tracing to pet sitting, Colorado volunteers are meeting the coronavirus demand
Mary Williamson, 75, retired from her job as a registered nurse a decade ago, but she wasn’t just going to sit around during a pandemic. The Colorado Springs woman, who spent a career in intensive care and public health nursing, volunteers from 14 to 30 hours per week as a COVID-19 contact tracer for El […]
Posted inBusiness, Coloradans, COVID, News
Stuck at home during the coronavirus outbreak but want to help here in Colorado? Here’s how.
Even if we’re self-quarantined or engaging in some serious social distancing, we’re still a community. And as more and more of us settle into this new normal, we’re bound to find that we’re hungry for ways to feel like we’re making a difference — even as we spend hours on end within the confines of […]
Posted inCOVID, Culture, Food and Restaurants, News
At a time they’re needed most, Colorado food banks brace for fewer volunteers, shutdown of smaller pantries amid coronavirus fears
Inside the cavernous Denver warehouse, Laura Helmkamp guided a pallet mover through aisles stacked high with packaged food, pulling select goods that very soon would find their way to hungry Coloradans. She’d taken a half-day from her job as a statistician at the University of Colorado’s Anschutz Campus to volunteer at Food Bank of the […]
Posted inColoradans, Environment, News, Outdoors
With snow still looming in the nearby San Juan Mountains, Lake City prepares for a deadly spring runoff
LAKE CITY — The San Juan Mountains loom white and ripe with an overloaded snowpack above this small town in south-central Colorado. Some 38 feet of snow fell in the San Juans this winter. Most of that snowpack, still nearly 200% more than normal, clings hard to the steep sides of the Continental Divide that […]
Posted inColoradans, News
How a Colorado family launched a Christmas toy hack-a-thon for children with disabilities that has gone global
Five years ago, a silly toy inspired an enduring tradition of Christmas magic. Fart Blaster, a whimsical gadget spun off the popular “Despicable Me” movie franchise, emits the sound you’d expect, along with flashing lights, when a child pulls the trigger. For Steve and Deana Watson’s then-9-year-old son, Max, who has severe disabilities, it held […]