2023 Volunteer Impact Report

2023

VOLUNTEER IMPACT REPORT Learn how the community has contributed to the Town of Windsor this year!

windsorgov.com/Volunteer

A note from the Volunteer Coordinator Welcome to the 2023 volunteer impact report!

We are sincerely grateful for everything volunteers do to build community in Windsor. The purpose of this report is to share some amazing contributions volunteers have made this year.

Volunteers took on new and exciting projects in 2023. They painted a community mural and built a single-track trail. They worked in teams to catalog the museum’s collections, led bike rodeos for kids and served thousands of lunches. The efforts of the volunteer gardeners at Treasure Island Demonstration Garden even gained prestigious recognition when they were presented with the Golden Shovel award by PlantSelect!

One of my favorite memories from this year was spending a beautiful July evening at the Summer Concert Series for Volunteer Appreciation Night. There were so many familiar faces there, sharing a meal and enjoying the music, and each one of them had donated their time and energy to make our community a better place.

The mission of the Windsor Volunteer Experience is to build a spirit of community service in the Town of Windsor.

Volunteers contribute to that mission with each lunch served, weed pulled and heart touched. Thank you for being part of the experience. You are what makes our community shine.

Maddi Cheek Volunteer Coordinator

Contact the Volunteer Coordinator 970-388-5199

mcheek@windsorgov.com windsorgov.com/Volunteer New volunteers: bit.ly/WindsorVolunteerApplication Returning volunteers: bit.ly/WindsorVolunteerPortal Sign up for the Volunteer Newsletter! bit.ly/WindsorVolunteerNewsletter

438

Total 2023 Impact

Total volunteers

3,643

Total volunteer hours As a community, you donated

$125,173

in volunteer hours!

The value of volunteer time is calculated by Independent Sector. Learn more about the methodology on their website. Colorado: 34.36. National: 31.80.

Thank you for making Windsor a great place to live, work and play!

VolunTeams Volunteer teams serve on a regular basis to support program areas they are passionate about. In this section, learn about special projects made possible by volunteer teams this year!

Volunteer Teams include: • Crew Leaders • Bicycle Champions • HOST (History, Open Space and Trails) • Trail Ambassadors • Curator’s Crew • Senior Lunch • Treasure Island Gardeners • Museum Education Gardens • Community Events • Tidy Toddler Team

A trained Crew Leader gave a tool talk before the trail build to increase volunteer safety.

Crew Leaders Crew Leaders are trained to facilitate volunteer groups and encourage tool safety. They help the town to preserve outdoor spaces and make events a success.

This year, 4 Crew Leaders dedicated 63.5 hours to our town!

A leader demonstrates how to measure a hole for planting.

Join the team! bit.ly/VolunteerLeads

Bicycle Champions

Bicycle Champions share their love of bicycles by hosting community events and assisting with bike safety programs for kids. They maintain the town’s bike fleet and help make outdoor programs a success.

This year, 12 Bicycle Champions dedicated 98 hours to our town!

Volunteers run a booth at Bike Everywhere Day in June.

Join the team! bit.ly/BicycleChampionsVolunteer

Volunteers hosted Bike Everywhere Day in June, welcoming over 100 visits to bike stations throughout the event!

Volunteers set Bicycle Trivia at High Hops Brewery

Volunteers at a Safe Routes to School training learn how to teach kids about bicycle safety.

Volunteers assisted with bike rodeos for preschool and elementary schools this year, teaching Volunteers teaching the Safe 270 students about bike safety!

Routes to School program

Trail Ambassadors meet up for a group trail ride.

HOST

(History, Open Space and Trails) HOST volunteers help preserve Windsor’s natural history across our open spaces and trails. They help lead outdoor experiences, educate community members, monitor the trail system and share their love of the outdoors.

This year, 10 HOST volunteers dedicated 621 hours to our town!

Four HOST volunteers completed Certified Interpretive Guide training this year!

Trail Ambassadors

Trail Ambassadors help monitor Windsor’s trails for safety and maintenance issues and share their love of the outdoors. They also help record wildlife and trail user trends.

Trail Ambassadors observed the trail system on 195 days out of the year, improving Town staff’s ability to address safety and maintenance needs.

Join the team! bit.ly/HOSTvolunteer

HOST volunteers helped to launch the Trailhead Trunks and guided hikes program.

Volunteers cleaned, researched, recorded and digitized: • 178 objects • 1,252 historic bank checks • 986 photos

A volunteer researches objects and adds them to the Collections catalog.

Join the team! bit.ly/CuratorsCrewVolunteer

A staff member photographs historic clothing.

Volunteers also helped clean, record and organize over 250 oversized objects on over 40 pallets!

Staff labeling boxes of artifacts to ensure proper records are kept.

Curator’s Crew Curator’s Crew volunteers help preserve Windsor’s past by cleaning, photographing and maintaining the Museum’s collections.

Volunteers work with town staff to ensure Windsor’s history is preserved for the future.

This year, 16 Curator’s Crew volunteers dedicated 176 hours to the town!

Windsor’s Senior Lunch is part of the Weld County Area Agency on Aging’s Friendly Fork program.

Volunteers helped serve 22,000 lunches in 2023!

Join the team! bit.ly/SeniorLunchApplication

A special thank you to Otero Corporation and Windsor State Bank, who have helped serve Senior Lunch each week for over a year.

Senior Lunch The Friendly Fork Café provides nutritious lunches to older adults in our community.

Senior Lunch volunteers help to prepare, package and deliver these meals.

This year, 47 Senior Lunch volunteers dedicated 416 hours to the town!

Volunteers’ hard work this year was recognized by PlantSelect with the Golden Shovel award, honoring their contribution to the garden and our community!

Hundreds of people visited the garden this year!

Volunteers conducted a PlantSelect survey to record the health and growing habits of species in the garden.

What do you like most about this place?

“The bees!”

-Andrew

“What I appreciate most is the opportunity to see things that grow well here in bloom, so that I know what to plant in my garden.

We love to visit demonstration gardens to get ideas for our home garden.” -Nancy Join the team! bit.ly/TreasureIslandVolunteer

Bagging produce for donation

Treasure Island Gardeners Volunteer gardeners plant, maintain and harvest the Treasure Island Demonstration Garden each year. They also lead tours and classes in the garden. This community gem would not exist without the dedication of the volunteer team!

This year, 42 volunteer gardeners dedicated 1,125.25 hours to the town!

Harvesting produce for donation

Volunteers grew, harvested and donated 4,497 pounds of fresh produce to the Windsor-Severance Food Pantry this year!

Produce from the gardens is used for children’s programming.

Over 250 people experienced the gardens or produce as part of a program this year!

Join the team! bit.ly/MEGVolunteers

Some of the produce from the garden was used in the Lil’ Explorers preschool class to teach about healthy eating, dissection and more!

Museum Education Gardens The Museum Education Gardens provide a space for hands-on learning opportunities at the Windsor History Museum. Volunteers help Museums staff maintain the garden for public education.

This year, 14 volunteer gardeners dedicated 38 hours to the town!

Community Events Community Events volunteers help staff with set up, management, clean up and more during community events. Volunteers help support thousands of visitors at special events throughout the year.

This year, 18 Events volunteers dedicated 85.5 hours to the town!

Getting in the spirit at the Halloween Carnival

Volunteers helped with setup and visitor services at Bike Night, Yappy Hour, Harvest Festival, Halloween Carnival and Windsor Wonderland!

Volunteers played Vintage Base Ball at the Harvest Festival.

The youth ‘Hammers’ rugby team and the Windsor High School marching band helped with cleanup throughout the Summer Concert Series as fundraisers.

Yappy Hour

Join the team! bit.ly/CommEventsVolunteer

Volunteers helped with daily cleanup of the gym and helped sanitize equipment during cold and flu season!

Tidy Toddler Team The Tidy Toddler Team works alongside staff at the Community Recreation Center to help clean up after preschool open gym. Volunteers help maintain a clean environment for preschoolers.

This year, 3 Tidy Toddler volunteers dedicated 3.5 hours to our town!

Join the team! bit.ly/TidyToddlerTeam

Volunteer Events We are so grateful to everyone who joined us for a volunteer event this year! Events bring together people of all ages and backgrounds to make a collective impact on our community.

This year, volunteers created Windsor’s first community-painted mural, built fish habitats and a new

single-track trail, renovated parks and more.

In this section, learn about what volunteers accomplished at events this year. Then, see if you can find some of their contributions around town when you visit your favorite parks and open spaces.

Kyger Reservoir Fish Habitat Building Kyger Reservoir Date: March 11, 2023 Number of volunteers: 68 Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts joined to learn about animal habitats.

Young volunteers made sandbags to anchor the structures.

Working together to figure out each step of the project

Volunteers built six fish habitat structures and anchored them to the bottom of the reservoir. These provide micro and macro habitats to serve as both attractors and protectors for fish. The habitats will improve fishing in the reservoir for future recreators.

Placing the habitat structures into the reservoir

Group photo of the volunteers

Volunteers helped clean historic buildings and objects at the Windsor History Museum for the start of spring. They also removed weeds, prepared the garden beds for spring planting, and helped repaint the garden shed.

CSU fraternity members helped to install new pathways at the museum.

Windsor History Museum Date: April 29, 2023 Number of volunteers: 42

Museum Spring Cleaning

At the beginning of each month, volunteers gathered at Treasure Island Demonstration Garden for coffee, pastries and weed pulling. Early weed removal allowed gardeners to focus on special projects throughout the rest of the month.

Treasure Island Demonstration Garden Dates: Aug. 4, Sept. 8, Oct. 6, 2023 Number of volunteers: 20

Weed Warriors

Eastman Skate Park Mural Project Eastman Park Date: June 10, 2023 Number of volunteers: 72

Volunteers painted a community mural at the Eastman Park skate park as part of an Art LIVE! event. They also helped renovate landscaping around the pavilion. Volunteers included local families, Otter Products employees, and members of Foundations Church, who participated in this event as part of their annual Serve Day. Group photo of the volunteers

Proposed mural design Volunteers with muralist Chris Bates

The completed mural debuted at the Windsor Grind skateboard competition.

Art LIVE! events are hosted by the Windsor Arts Commission to build awareness of public art and engage with local artists and the community. Fort Collins muralists Chris Bates and Tyler Boeyink designed the mural painted at this event.

Learn more at recreationliveshere.com/PublicArt

Archery Range Workday Archery Range Date: July 29, 2023 Number of volunteers: 11

Regular users of the archery range decided to give back by volunteering this year.

Volunteers helped replace 3D target inserts, change target butts and clean up the space. Their efforts improved the shooting experience for archers for the remainder of the season.

Volunteers holding an archery target that was replaced during the workday.

Trail Building Kyger Open Space Date: Oct. 7, 2023 Number of volunteers: 16

Cutting wood for a water crossing

The trail route was developed by volunteers and the Overland Mountain Bike Association.

Volunteers brought their bikes to be the first to break in the new trail after the build.

Volunteers built 0.68 miles of new trail!

Tree Planting Main Park

Date: Oct. 14, 2023 Number of volunteers: 15 Volunteers with a newly planted tree

Volunteers planted ten new trees at Main Park, further increasing tree diversity in Windsor’s unofficial arboretum. After the project, volunteers participated in a tree walk with the Town Forester to learn about some of the unique species featured in the park.

Preparing the root ball of the tree before planting

Far left: Volunteers participated in a tree walk with the Town Forester.

Above: Working together to ensure the tree is planted straight.

Group photo of the volunteers

Volunteers helped renovate plant beds by pulling weeds, mulching and planting hundreds of new plants. Volunteers included local families, employees from Vestas Blades America and members of Jesus Christ Church of Latter-Day Saints.

Brunner Farm Park Date: Sept. 16, 2023 Number of volunteers: 56

Park Care Day

Youth Involvement

An Eagle Scout led a project to build a ditch crossing for a new trail at Kyger Open Space.

Eagle Scout Projects Before

An Eagle Scout led the effort to restore a historic outhouse and install it at the Windsor History Museum.

The 5th Grade Student Council volunteered at Brunner Farm Park in the spring to help cut tall grasses, mulch tree rings and prepare beds for future renovation. The students learned about tree care from the Town Forestry Technician.

Date: March 3, 2023 Number of volunteers: 17

5th Grade Student Council National Honor Society Date: Sept. 7, 2023 Number of volunteers: 30

The high school National Honor Society volunteered in the fall. One group visited Poudre Heights Park to assist parks staff with bed renovations. Another group visited Treasure Island Demonstration Garden to help plant saplings and harvest produce for the Windsor-Severance Food Bank.

Civic-minded students from the Windsor Charter Academy got involved in the community this year by volunteering in Town of Windsor outdoor spaces.

Local School Groups

Corporate Responsibility The Town of Windsor enjoyed working with local companies on several community improvement projects. These local businesses gave their time to our community this year.

J-U-B Engineering

Date: May 26, 2023 Number of volunteers: 13 Volunteers helped renovate the parking lot at Boardwalk Park to prevent mulch erosion. They also renovated plant beds around the bandshell to prepare for the Summer Concert Series.

Vestas Blades America

Date: Sept. 16, 2023 Number of volunteers: 11 Volunteers joined Park Care Day to renovate landscaping at Brunner Farm Park.

HP

Date: Oct. 13, 2023 Number of volunteers: 12 Volunteers planted ten trees at Lakeview Cemetery to beautify the space in preparation for Veteran’s Day.

Otter Cares closed2open

Date: June 15, 2023 Number of volunteers: 16

Otter Products volunteers helped restore trails at Highland Ridge Open Space in the wake of destructive spring flooding. Volunteers also built water bars to prevent future rain damage.

Removing weeds from the edge of the trail.

Installing water bars along the trail.

Learn more about group volunteer opportunities by contacting the Volunteer Coordinator at 970-388-5199 or mcheek@windsorgov.com

Group photo of the Otter Products volunteers.

Town of Windsor volunteers gathered at a Summer Concert to enjoy a meal and great music together. It was great to see volunteers from different teams, events and organizations come together to celebrate as members of the Windsor Volunteer Experience. Thank you to everyone who joined, and we hope to see you again next year!

Volunteer Appreciat Appr eciation ion Night Boardwalk Park Date: July 13, 2023

This year included...

15

Total volunteer events *Includes community, corporate and school events

Thank you for joining us and making these events so successful!

We hope to see you for another great year in 2024!

Special thanks to our volunteer photographer Charlie Dana, who provided many of the photos that appear in this report. Thanks for all your hard work!

Learn more about upcoming events at windsorgov.com/Volunteer.

Sign up for a volunteer event at bit.ly/WindsorVolunteerEvents.

windsorgov.com/Volunteer