With 125 projects and 1,000 people, 2nd ShareFest considered a ‘success’

MONTROSE  —  About 1,000 area residents put their working gloves on and volunteered their Saturday to clean up communities and help out neighbors during the second annual ShareFest event.

Eight hundred people preregistered to help at this year’s ShareFest and another 200 showed up Saturday morning at Centennial Plaza, said Doug Kiesewetter, founder of the Montrose event.

After congregating at 7 a.m. in the plaza, groups assembled and obtained their day’s projects. There were about 125 different undertakings throughout Montrose and Olathe, along with a projects in Paonia, Cedaredge, Delta and Hotchkiss.

“We had some people really overwhelmed by their situation and we were able to go out and put a dent in it,” Keisewetter said.

The focus of this year’s ShareFest changed a little, he said, centering more on individuals in need than institutions. The projects included helping elderly residents with yard work, putting in handicap ramps, laying concrete for an Olathe Boys and Girls Club basketball court and cleaning graffiti.

Montrose resident Julie Card and her family helped a woman in a wheelchair who was moving into her family home. Card, her husband and teenage children, along with eight others, put in a ramp and “retro fitted” the home so it was more handicap accessible.

“It takes such a little bit out of each individual to get a lot going in the community,” said Card.

David Tabor also participated in ShareFest and worked with his daughter and 9-year-old granddaughter. He, and his group of about 14 people, worked on three projects throughout Saturday. They spent time at Life Choices Pregnancy Center, patching up the roof and trimming tree limbs. Then, the group moved to a single mother’s home, who had two special needs children and needed help with her yard. The group also assisted a retired couple with their yard.

“When you get a group of people together, many hands make light work,” said Tabor, member of Solid Rock Foundation Ministries.

Joey Burns and his 8- and 11-year-old children were involved with about 25 others helping a Montrose resident who had been in a bad car wreck, Burns said.

The group cleaned the yard, organized for a garage sale and mended fences and corrals.

Burns is a member of First Church of the Nazarene, but said the day wasn’t about individual churches, it was about coming together to do God’s work.

“We are part of the ‘Montrose church’ instead of individual denominations,” he said.

The day wasn’t about age, either. From parents with children on their shoulders to 70-year-olds, everyone was there to help in anyway they could, Card said.

“It’s not a me, me, my project. It’s just a melting pot of all people,” she said.

That was Kiesewetter and the ShareFest committee’s goal when they set out to bring the national program to Montrose in April 2006.

In an interview last September, Kiesewetter said he was inspired by an event that provides a way for Christians to demonstrate what they preach.

“For people that don’t go to church, we want them to see the church as a valuable institution,” he said. He said that sometimes the church can be too “inward” and not address the community as they should.“It (the church) gets too comfortable within its four walls.”

Sunday night, Sharefest participants gathered together at Grace Community Church to see just how many were involved and what was accomplished. There was a slide show of the day’s projects, music and speech by David Haskell.

Haskell is from Jordan and founded Habitat for Humanity in the Middle East. He has since created his own organization, called “Dreams In Deed,” which helps Middle East communities in the same form as ShareFest. Haskell participated in Saturday’s event and shared his experiences with the crowd Sunday.

In a few weeks, “when I’ve caught my breath,” Kiesewetter said, he’ll start lining up next year’s event. He said the event has been a success and inspiring for surrounding communities which are discussing starting their own event.

For more information on ShareFest, contact the ShareFest committee office at 240-1943 or via e-mail at sharefest@sdgresources.com.

Contact Kati O’Hare via e-mail at katio@montrosepress.com