Giving Back

On Saturday, our church's junior youth group volunteered at 9Cares Colorado Shares, a huge, state-wide food drive.

9Cares Colorado Shares started as a simple food drive in the old 9News parking lot. A lot has changed but the goal is still the same - to feed, clothe, and provide a happier holiday season for Colorado's less fortunate families. The holiday drive is the largest one-day food, clothing and toy drive in our region, with nearly 30 sites along the Front Range and into the mountains. Combined, the 30 sites, collected 383,025 pounds (191.5 tons) of food. Our youth group worked at the Firestone King Soopers and collected 4,441 pounds of food and $563.

It was so incredible to be a part of this food drive. To watch people head into the grocery store, as I am sure they do every week, but to come out with bags upon bags of food that they bought just to give away, it was amazing! And, the youth group kids really got into it, helping unload van loads full of goods, passing out fliers of the top-10 most wanted items, sorting the items once they were donating, weighing the boxes and loading them in the truck.

Brooklyn even got so very involved in helping the little kids with their donations. She would run up to them, grab their item hand it off to be sorted and say "thank you." So precious!

We really had the best time volunteering, and our family plans to participate next year. Like I said, there's no words to describe how amazing it is to watch people just be so giving and selfless.