Volunteer of the Month - James and FORGE, a ministry of Flatirons Community Church

This month we are pleased to introduce James J. and FORGE, a ministry of Flatirons Community Church, as our newest Volunteers of the Month!  James has been coordinating FORGE's involvement with YardBusters for three of the six years that the group has been volunteering with Cultivate.

James' life mission is: To Serve…In His Faith, His Family, and His Community. He met his wife while studying at the University of Colorado in Boulder and both are lifelong Buff fans. They have been married for 31 years and are in the midst of the college years with three sons ages 24, 21, and 19.  James is a Financial Advisor with Edward Jones and views his role as an extension of the “serving my community" component of his mission. International travel is their favorite family activity and they often incorporate service components into their travels abroad. James serves as president of his Rotary Club and loves the Rotary motto of “Service Above Self” as a foundation for his daily activities.

He also sees the spirit of "Service Above Self" in FORGE. The ministry of FORGE recognizes the importance of a loving father in a boy’s life as he develops into manhood. Unfortunately, not every boy has a father present in their lives and so FORGE pairs fatherless boys (Apprentices) with mentors (Guides) who may be empty nesters, uncles, or grandfathers. Among other things, FORGE seeks to help boys heal from abandonment, develop life skills, and model a father’s commitment and love. James emphasizes that the mentor Guides are the “Real Heroes” of FORGE and his role is just to support them. Guides commit to the mentoring relationship for a minimum of three years (many go longer) and agree to have a minimum of five specific touch points each month. One of those touch points is that the Guide/Apprentice pair engage in at least one service project together each month. In addition to modeling the behavior of “serving others” for the boys through mentoring, the monthly service projects provide an additional opportunity for Guides to reinforce “serving others” as a foundational life lesson. 

James plays the role of a ‘Coach’ for these men and boys, which means providing an infrastructure to support their success. In alternating months, he organizes a group service project with YardBusters that brings the pairings together. This enables friendships and camaraderie to develop between Guides and Apprentices in the context of serving others as a group.  This past month, their YardBusters project included participation of five Guide/Apprentice pairings and himself (11 total) as they helped a couple that were both experiencing health issues and had fallen behind on their yard work. They pruned overgrown trees and bushes (also removing a few dead ones), raked up pine needles, and removed many weeds. The couple expressed deep gratitude and the group all thoroughly enjoyed serving them (despite the summer heat). In the words of the homeowner (Howard):

“I'm just so pleased with what’s going on here. I feel like I won the lottery! It’s like I won a TV show where they do a makeover, except this time it's landscaping. I got a new knee this summer and the yard got out of hand. So I couldn't be more appreciative of this and it's great to see the adults and the kids working together. They're just doing a tremendous job and I can't thank them enough.”

FORGE generally participates in four YardBusters events each year. Because their groups often include 8 to 10 people, they are typically assigned to larger yards that have a significant amount of work that needs to get done. James says that beyond accomplishing the work, it’s always a good time to be together making an impact in the lives of others. He remembers a couple years ago one of the families that FORGE served asked if they could treat the group to ice cream at McDonalds after the work was complete. James says it was so much fun to wrap up that way that they have tried to incorporate doing that together on a more consistent basis. The group finds it rewarding that the families and individuals they have served are always so grateful and friendly. It has been a pleasure to get to know them in addition to addressing their yard needs. Here are some quotes from our last project:

Guides - Men (responding to the question, “Why are you a part of FORGE?”):

Brett: I remember the impact that my dad and my brothers had on me and these relationships really helped form who I am today. So it's important to me to pass that on, to just be a male figure in someone's life. I just like spending time with him - he and I are absolute friends and he's part of my family now.

Scott: FORGE keeps me young and gives me a chance to hang out with Nathan who keeps me young as well. I get to see him do new things like fishing for the first time or hiking up the Flatirons. We also get to connect through talking about God and getting to pass on to him some of the cool things God has done in my life. It’s been awesome!

Kent: I joined FORGE to support a fatherless boy in his journey and to teach him about God. I also like fishing and I enjoy taking kids fishing.

Jerry: I thought FORGE would be a perfect opportunity to make new friends, be involved more in my community, and give time to somebody in a great relationship. It's been everything I thought it would be.

Larry: I wanted to get involved in FORGE to help a fatherless boy by being a mentor, to give him some direction, and to take a young boy and mold him into a Godly man.

Apprentices - Boys: (responding to the question, “What do you like about FORGE?”):

Martin: I think FORGE is a great program. My favorite part about it is basically getting to have a father, someone to look up to.

Ryan: I mean, there are a few things I like about FORGE. I have the opportunity to be with like a father figure in my life. I've had many meaningful conversations and also I can have conversations about stuff that just really wouldn't resonate with most people I know. I get to do work in the community and I go to church with a father figure, so that means we can discuss Biblical stuff. It’s a cool experience!

Braylin: Some things I like about FORGE is all the workers and leaders because they're just all like really inspiring and really nice. We do a lot of fun stuff together.

Brody: Some of the things I like about FORGE is that the leaders are really inspiring, they're very kind to us, and they take us to do lots of fun things for the first time like fishing. It's just a lot of things that we enjoy!

Nathan: FORGE has definitely been one of my favorite things to do. I've been doing this since I was 7 and now I’m 13. Yeah, it's been pretty fun!

We thank you James, and everyone involved with FORGE for all the hard work you have done for Cultivate's clients over the past six years. Your service makes such a difference in so many people’s lives of ALL ages. You are outstanding role models and we appreciate your commitment to help Cultivate and others in the community, and especially the lives of the young participants in your program. We are honored to have FORGE represent Cultivate and our YardBusters program.