If you love Fort Collins you will…
I love Fort Collins. From Old Town, to Horsetooth Rock, to the Oval at CSU, I can’t imagine spending the last few years anywhere else. But we’re not perfect.
According to an article last year from the Coloradoan, around 300 individuals in Fort Collins are homeless.
I have begun to understand that really loving something means devoting the most precious commodity you can to it. Time. If I really love a person, I will spend time with them. If I really love watching basketball, I will spend hours in front of the tv and if I really love my community, I will spend time supporting and helping that community.
I am a normal person, and often don’t consider the needs of others. For example, I don’t think about the homeless when it snows. I think about what is the best way to walk to class or drive to a friends house while avoiding the cold at all costs. I think about curling up with a cup of tea and reading a book or getting lost BBC’s The Hunt on Netflix. With this line of thought I even enjoy a good snow and a brisk day.
But people who are homeless are extremely vulnerable when it snows in the winter and cold nights. To help with this, local government and volunteer groups operate temporary warming centers to give people a chance to warm up, get something to eat, or just rest.
When my friend invited me to spend my Saturday night serving the homeless at one of these “warming centers” I wish I could say I was excited. I wish I could say that in that moment I really cared about the homeless population and how they would get food or shelter that night. Truth is, I didn’t really care. I had a long week and thought, “I need the rest tonight, next week I could do it but today I am tired.”
Despite all these thoughts, I realized that all my friends were going and I would be the odd man out. If I didn’t go, not only would I have no one to hang out with, I would probably feel guilty later about it. So I said I would show up, only for a hour or so.
There can be obvious impacts from begrudgingly doing a good thing. Project Helping, a volunteer organization based in Florida, Colorado and California, said on their website that of the people volunteering with them 95% said that volunteering makes their community a better place.
When someone donates time and resources to renovate a playground, it obviously affects the children there. But sometimes the impact from volunteering may not show in tangible ways. Handing out pizza and popcorn to homeless people in a warming center might not make the community exceptional tomorrow. There is not a physical representation of giving of time and resources.
As I walked up to Peak Community Church where the warming center was located that night, I gave a few awkward head nods to the people huddled outside sharing a cigarette. “Volunteer?” they questioned. Then they pointed me in the right direction. I walked to the basement of the church and found a large room with people sprawled out sleeping, eating, or just sitting with a small kitchen on one side of the open basement.
As the night went on, my friend who invited me, suggested I should sit down next to one homeless men by themselves and strike up a conversation. I was thinking about when the best time to call it a night was, but I went over and said hello anyways. Half of me wanted him to ignore me completely and the other half wanted a quick pleasant conversation where we didn’t exchange first names.
We chatted for a little bit. We started talking about the snow fell and how cold it was going to be that January night. He kept saying that no one really likes the cold, they just like the idea. He said, “Everyone who says they like the cold, don’t like being cold. They like to cuddle up with tea and big blanket inside while everyone outside is freezing.” In that moment I realized how much I would hate the cold if I had nowhere to go on a frigid night.
We talked for about a half an hour and shared a few laughs. We shook hands as he left to head to the Rescue Mission that night. Before he left he thanked me for the food and talking to him.
When that man who I talked to for a mere 30 minutes thanked me at the end of the night, it took me off guard. I hadn’t realized that just talking and handing out PB&Js could make an impact. When that homeless man thanked me, I could see he genuinely enjoyed talking to me.
Fort Collins is one of the best communities in America. With frequent appearances in top 25 lists of best places to live in America, it’s not really a secret. The best way to show that you love this community is giving time and volunteering to make it even better. Plenty of places need help, and plenty of community issues need people who are willing to show up.
I showed up late that January night to the warming center, with a terrible attitude, and time commitment issues and I still managed to make an impact. There are plenty of places that don’t require you to sign up for more than a few hours a week.
Fort Collins is great, not perfect. Volunteering within the community can make it a little closer to the perfect community. A place where people care about, and help each other.
