Volunteer Appreciation 2025: Better Together - Fort Collins Rescue Mission

Happy National Volunteer Appreciation Month! We cannot let April go by every year without celebrating and highlighting a few of our MANY wonderful volunteers. We are so grateful for each and every one of our volunteers who have dedicated their time and service to Fort Collins Rescue Mission and Harvest Farm. Impact happens when we unite together to provide hope for countless individuals in our community.

Jessica Wagner

Activity Leader Volunteer, Fort Collins Rescue Mission

Jessica has been volunteering for four years as an evening activities coordinator at Fort Collins Rescue Mission, teaching and facilitating arts and crafts once a week.

What moment has impacted you while you were volunteering?

“I can think of many moments of why it’s worth it to serve and why it makes a difference. One example is a guy who came in who had been coming very consistently for several weeks. He had opened up to me and told me about his past when he was in and out of prison. He struggled with substance abuse very heavily, but he told me that art was a really good outlet for him, and that it had helped him stay clean and have something creative to look forward to every week.

Since then, he’s gone on to find housing and he has a steady job. It’s been this beautiful story, and I’m very proud of him for what he’s done. I’m just excited that I get to talk to these men every week, talk about their highs and lows, and kind of do life with them.”

What advice do you have for future volunteers?

“Be brave and try it and then be patient with the process. It’s pretty intimidating when you start volunteering to know that you’re making a difference or to keep showing up every week, but it’s absolutely worth it. Just stick it out, keep showing up and the results will show themselves.”

How do you see your volunteerism making a difference?

“I see my efforts making a difference in the community by just helping other people get involved. I’ve been talking to friends and family about finding ways to volunteer and get involved in the community. We do a lot of fundraising or donations for art supplies and different things like that. And it’s also amazing just to see the difference in the guys’ lives, seeing them show up every week and giving them a creative outlet. It just amps me up, and it’s really exciting to see the difference it makes.”

Dave Staats

Bible Study Volunteer, Fort Collins Rescue Mission

Dave has been volunteering for a year and a half at Fort Collins Rescue Mission, leading a Thursday night Bible study.

What moment has impacted you while you were volunteering?

“There was quite a few, but I just remember when I was starting out, we finished the Bible study and there was an older guy, and he started getting a little teary. He said it was just a big blessing, and he gave me a really big hug, a nice big, bear hug. So that was great to know that God is working in people’s lives.”

What advice would you give future volunteers?

“It can be kind of a challenge. Sometimes I feel like a fish out of water, it’s such a different environment, but it says in Isaiah that God’s word does not come back void.

So trust that God is going to let the Spirit do the heavy lifting and just try to do what you can. We’re living in a hard world, but there’s hope. You always have hope to offer. None of us, just by ourselves, can do much impact on our own, but together as a bunch of volunteers and the great staff, and with God’s help, we can actually do something a lot more comprehensive and powerful to help with the whole homeless situation.”

How do you see your volunteerism making a difference?

“At the end of some Bible studies, you kind of wonder if it made much of a difference. But then other times, there are people who come up and say it’s really been a blessing. It’s not just what I do, but other people like providing dinner. One person said he’d been spending nights under a bridge, and he was getting to the place where he thought it was a matter of time before he was going to freeze to death. So you can tell it’s making a difference.”

Jesse Reyes

Meal Service Volunteer, Fort Collins Rescue Mission

Jesse has been serving breakfast at Fort Collins Rescue Mission once a month for the past 6 months

What moment has impacted you while you were volunteering?

“A moment that reminded me why I serve was when we were walking as a family near Old Town, and one of our sons noticed a man experiencing homelessness who was struggling. And it sparked a conversation about how we need to care for those in need, and was just another reminder that even serving in seemingly small ways has a large impact on our community.”

What advice would you give future volunteers?

“Advice I’d give to someone considering jumping in, would be to just do that. Just to jump in.

You don’t need any formal training, you can just show up and be ready to serve. I would encourage you just to try serving a meal for a shift. Start somewhere. It’s a low commitment, but my guess is that as you jump in, you’ll find out how easy it is, and you’ll want to serve even more.”

How do you see your volunteerism making a difference?

“I see my efforts making a difference in the community, not only through the men we’re able to serve, but also the people we’ve been able to pull in to serve alongside us as well.”

Eternal Brothers

Meal Service Volunteers, Harvest Farm

John, Bill and Jason are part of the Eternal Brothers Motorcycle Ministry. They have been volunteering at Harvest Farm for over 19 years.

What moment has impacted you while you were volunteering?

John: “When we walk through these doors and when the guys walk through the doors, the smiles that we get, the ‘I’m so glad that you’re here. This is the best part of the whole month for me,’ I mean, we’ve heard that about a million times. I think that’s probably one of the biggest things for me, is just the smiles and the fact that I know that we’re doing something in somebody’s heart when they’re coming up to us and say, ‘I’m so glad you’re here.’”

What advice would you give future volunteers?

John: “The first step would be to pray on it and not make it about yourself. Make it about wanting to serve somebody else. The fruit that you have is not for yourself, it’s for others. So, as you’re here feeding other people, you’re going to get fed.”

Bill: “I’ve been doing it for many, many years, and thing that got me the most is to hear, ‘You’re not going to be like everybody else and just come out one time.’ That in itself is an incentive. We’re able to come out and minister and be ministered to, so it’s twofold for us. Unless you choose to help and be part, you’ll never understand the joy of giving back and building somebody’s life. And in turn, it creates a great community. Get involved in your community, whatever that looks like for you. Just opening a door for somebody, buying somebody at lunch, you may change their life.”

Jason: “Always make sure that you get to know somebody before you judge them on their livelihood, because there’s a lot of people out there that could use a hug. If your heart is saying you need to do something like that, I would follow my heart.”

How do you see your volunteerism making a difference?

John: “You never know what somebody’s going through. The guy that’s walking by you, you could say hi, and that could change their lives. A lot of us within the group know what they’re going through, so we’re here to show them that there is a way out and there’s hope, and to show the love of Christ.”