Sangre de Cristo Volunteers for Community

Background Statement

Sangre de Cristo Volunteers for Community (VFC) is an all-volunteer 501(c)(3) established in 2009 in the Greenhorn Valley. The group launched its mission by addressing food insecurity with a food pantry which serves members of the community who are unable to afford food for their families or have transportation problems getting to quality grocery stores. VFC soon mushroomed into an active and enthusiastic driver of change in our community. We now have 2 pantries each month. We also collaborate with Valley Market to provide cardboard recycling monthly; we serve twice-weekly senior meals cooked and delivered to our center by SRDA of Pueblo; we do highway cleanup three times yearly assisted by CDOT ; we sponsor a Community Garden of which the bounty often is donated to the pantries. The Knit Wits gather to work with fiber arts and often donate their creations to our Christmas gift program for children or to the residents of the Veterans Nursing Home in Walsenburg. Volunteers teach yoga and self-defense twice weekly, asking only for donations.

VFC purchased a local golf course clubhouse in 2019 in order to build a community center and to create a hub for existing and future projects. County grants and substantial volunteer labor helped to rehabilitate an aging structure into an environmentally friendly and multi-functional building with magnificent views of the Wet Mountains. VFC was able to handle the financial impact in the early years with a private grant and various fund-raising efforts: twice yearly yard sales, private funders and room rentals. However, the death of one of our primary volunteers resulted in the loss of grant support. At present, we pursue room rentals with varying degrees of success. Our reliance upon an all-volunteer staff limits our ability to market our space for people wishing to find a venue for a family get-together, party or meeting. We are the only community center in the Greenhorn Valley and strive to make our non-profit organization and the community center sustainable. We have recently surveyed community members to elicit opinions on future programs which might appeal to our populace. Popular themes include stargazing with a telescope and an astronomy expert, music and dance programs and a senior resource fair which could include blood pressure checks, assistance applying for Medicaid and Medicare, information on home health care, and foot screening.

Our recent efforts to maintain solvency while continuing to address unmet needs in Colorado City and Rye include efforts by Board member Maureen Kelly to write grants to support VFC programs. Community Resource Center (CRC) of Denver is a non-profit dedicated to linking up Colorado non-profit organizations with funders, mostly private foundations with a focus on Colorado.

Board member Dede Downs launched VFC's first annual golf tournament in August 2025 which garnered many local sponsors and a premium sponsorship by CHFA (Colorado Housing and Finance Authority).We hope to launch a capital campaign in the coming year to eliminate the mortgage debt on our community center.