BROOMFIELD, Colo. – To create a winter wonderland for families that lost everything in the Marshall Fire takes a lot of work by a lot of different people.
Luckily for A Precious Child, they have volunteers like Bill & Anita Head. The couple has been volunteering for various groups since retiring a few years ago, but stepped up their efforts when they saw the devastation left behind by the Marshall Fire.
“We've done everything,” says Bill of his and his wife’s volunteer efforts.
On the day Denver7 caught up with them, Bill and Anita were among the volunteers helping set up a holiday party organized for some of the families who lived in the 1,000+ homes destroyed in the fire just days after Christmas last year. The celebration is meant to be a place where they may be able to pick up a few gifts, take holiday photos, and even replace décor lost in the fire.
“It's just good if we can give them a little bit of, you know, joy and an opportunity to come out and do things that they maybe are unable to do in their home because of the fire,” Anita says of the celebration.
“That is literally just love for someone else, and that's priceless,” says Maria Martinez, one of the organizers with A Precious Child. “You can’t repay that because they're giving up their free time to help others.”
“I don’t see them as volunteers, I just see them as friends,” says Karina Owens, the resource center manager for A Precious Child. “They're here making sure people are smiling, things are stocked. They're just part of the family.”
Volunteering is especially important to Anita. She retired from teaching just before the pandemic, and going from a classroom full of kids to having few people around was rough.
- To learn how you can help A Precious Child help children throughout the year, click here.
“I was kind of feeling a little bit like lost and missing my social opportunities,” she says. “So this has been a great way to get back and get involved.”
Bill says the interaction is great, but he knows in his heart the true benefit of what he and Anita do is felt mostly by those they help.
“It gives you kind of warm fuzzies if you will, at the end of the day after you've done your shift,” he says. “That feels good and keeps you coming back.”
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