COLORADO SPRINGS — Thousands of volunteers will help give the city of Colorado Springs some extra love on Saturday.
It's part of Fall City Serve Day, organized by COSILoveYou, a local nonprofit, to clean up and retouch over 150 locations across the city. Volunteers will come together to complete projects like building community gardens, picking up trash, cleaning up trails and parks, reorganizing business spaces, and even writing cards to community members.
The goal of the event is to help schools, organizations, businesses, and parks check off some things on their to-do list that they may not have enough hands or time to get done.
Sierra High School will welcome around 50 volunteers Saturday morning to help repaint hallways and special education rooms. Nicole Schurbon, the principal of Sierra High School, said the day of service has lasting effects on the students.
"We would love for them to come in on Monday morning and see clean, beautiful hallways here and a welcoming space. That's a huge thing for students to feel valued and know that their community cares about them, their school cares about them enough to make sure that the school is bright and clean," she said.
This year, Family Life Services, a safe house for single mothers and children, will welcome the largest number of volunteers. Executive Director Tonya Lark said people will help with painting seal coats on fences, yard work, and clearing out one of their maintenance buildings.
Stu Davis, executive director of COSILoveYou, said the event is made for families, with opportunities for young children, the elderly, and people with disabilities. He said this year over 2,500 people are signed up so far.
"We have volunteers as small as two and three years old, and we've got volunteers that are in their 80s. We do work really hard to try and create volunteer opportunities for anybody and everybody that wants to participate," said Davis.
He said he meets many people that want to help out in our community, but don't know where to start. Fall City Serve Day provides them with an opportunity to get their foot in the door and give back to Colorado Springs. Davis said often times people who participate come back to the same organizations to volunteer year-round.
As of Friday, there are still openings available for volunteers. You can sign up for a time to volunteer here.
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