We are pleased to feature a guest blog post from Allie Romo, Program Associate at the El Pomar Foundation. Enjoy!

Each Thanksgiving, The Empty Stocking Fund campaign begins with the goal of raising over $1 Million for 20 health and human service agencies in the Pikes Peak Region. The Empty Stocking Fund began in 1984, when the Gazette Newspaper sought to fill Empty Stockings for families in need. Now, 32 years later, we are grateful to have Care and Share as one of our 20 recipient agencies and for the work they do in the Pikes Peak Region.

I am currently a second year Fellow at El Pomar Foundation and the current Director of the Empty Stocking Fund. I lead a team of five other El Pomar Fellows and we work alongside the Gazette to make the Campaign a reality. Each year, we host community partner events throughout eight weeks, including, but not limited to selling Growl Towels at Colorado College hockey games and collecting donations at the Festival of Lights Parade. These events continually illustrate that every dollar really can and does count for the Empty Stocking Fund.

My favorite component of working on the Empty Stocking Fund has been meeting our agencies and our donors. Our agencies help make reaching self-sufficiency a reality for many of our neighbors in the Pikes Peak Region. The Empty Stocking Fund is possible due to the generosity of our donors. We know there are other avenues for our donors to give, but we are grateful that they choose Empty Stocking Fund. With the matching donations from the Bruni Foundation and El Pomar Foundation, every dollar raised has the capacity to grow over 45% for our agencies.

This year, we continue to be grateful to our community partners, who include the All Colorado Beer Fest, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, the Broadmoor World Arena, Steve Scott of Signature Homes, the Women’s Club of Colorado Springs, the Festival of Lights, California Pizza Kitchen at Briargate, The Mining Exchange, Martini Shot Band, Genesis Med Spa, Paul Franco of Enterprise Financial, and The Broadmoor.

For a list of our community partner events, please visit our facebook page and follow us on Twitter and Instagram, @esfsprings !!

Thanks for reading!