Despite the cold, families in Fort Collins came together Saturday, November 19^th to make a difference in their local communities and neighborhoods this giving season.

Five different projects were successful due to the help of our family volunteers:

• Eager individuals helped to pick up over seven full garbage bags of trash from the Poudre Trails and raked up over 16 bags of leaves around the Lee Martinez Park, which will help to create compost for the farm. With over 1.7 million people utilizing the paved trails in Fort Collins already this year, keeping them clean can sometimes be a challenge. Volunteers had a huge impact in not only keeping the trails looking nice, but also by protecting our waterways and animal habitats!

• The Museum of Discovery brought over their Imagination Playground so volunteers could help to clean the blocks that are used by children each day. This helps keep pre-school kids safe and healthy when participating in hands on explorations into science and culture.

• Gardens on Spring Creek asked volunteers to help prepare pots for school field trips, so every student who visits the gardens can take home a plant. Over 40,000 participants have visited the gardens so far in 2016! Families with children as young as 4-years-old were active in volunteering and helped put stickers on over 300 pots.

• In Larimer County, parents pay about $14,798 per year for infant care- this can really add up! Many volunteers teamed up to put together 61 emergency diaper kits that included diapers, wipes, a baby book, and parent resources for families in need. Even the youngest volunteers were able to help out by decorating each of the kits with their own personal artwork.

• Sertoma volunteers showed up in full force to help build 12 Little Free Libraries for the community. Each of these libraries will be placed around the community to increase access to literature for our youth in Fort Collins! If you know of an area in the community that is interested or could benefit from a Little Free Library, contact Britney Tonning at btonning@uwaylc.org.

Thank you so much to all of our wonderful volunteers that made this day such a success. This day could not have been possible without all of your help, and you helped us make a positive impact in Larimer County.

Click below to see more pictures from Family Volunteer Day!