Volunteer project number thirty is in the books. It was the biggest one our brokerage has attempted thus far and it was a resounding success. We had roughly fifty people show up to Colorado Youth Outdoors to plant about a hundred trees, and we accomplished our goals.
Colorado Youth Outdoors is a non-profit on an expansive (and beautiful) acreage south and east of Fort Collins. They teach kids how to excel at outdoor sports like fishing and archery, as well as survival and good stewardship of our wild lands. We were invited to plant spruce, juniper, and wild plum trees on a section of the property down by their BB gun range. The junipers were tiny, less than a foot tall, and the plums were spindly and knee-high. The spruces were massive, as tall as an adult, and they required a tractor and several humans to plant.
At first I was assigned non-physical tasks, like getting folks checked in, getting liability forms signed, and handing out t-shirts and hats. Once we had everyone but the three or four no-shows checked in, I put my belongings in my car, and walked down to the work site to take photos. I couldn’t watch everybody, kids included, laboring with shovels and rakes without joining in. I slyly grabbed a shovel and crept behind a group working to cover the big spruces up to the top of their burlap-wrapped root balls. I sort of helped plant about six of those (as best I could), as the tractor went down the row setting them in place. Then they dug up a mound of dirt that we used to fill a bucket brigade to bury them better, and we did the same with mulch on top. I couldn’t carry buckets, but I could fill them for about an hour, until my back muscles called knock it off.
I returned to the main building to help set up lunch, provided by our frequent corporate partner Odell brewing. We (the four friends I roped into helping) visited with other volunteers through lunch, and they were just setting up the BB gun range when we all decided we were old and tired, and we headed back home.
I’m not sure how many volunteer projects I’ve participated in now. More than five, probably not yet ten. I like it more each time, and I liked it enough to start with that this was the deciding factor when I chose to work for Headwaters. It can be exhausting, but I have yet to think it wasn’t worthwhile. It’s always worth the effort.
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