“The people that come are really nice,” says Joshua Station resident Farah (age 7), of our many summer volunteers. “They say I’m doing a great job. That makes me feel good. I like learning to do new things.”

Farah, and dozens of her fellow youth residents, have enjoyed a jam-packed summer of enriching day camp activities—on and off our premises. “At first my favorite thing was…” Farah searches for the right English word. Her family speaks Arabic, and now her young brain is learning English and Spanish. “It was this bag with seeds inside, that you throw at a red circle.”

It only got better from there for Farah and the others. Face painting, balloons, fingernail polish, ice cream, pool day, lake boating day. Ocean/marine life camp. Two intensive daily courses: Afro-Cuban and Puerto Rican drumming, and drone flight school.

“I made friends with other kids at Joshua Station and the adults. Especially Grace (Grace Dean, Joshua Station’s new youth advocate). I have a lot of fun with her! Plus I can visit her in her office and talk. I also know Miriam, Kira, Jill, Mary Ann, Melanie, Amy, Scott, and some more people (JS/MHM staff + volunteers).”

Grace moved to Colorado and plunged into Joshua Station life with big responsibilities all in the same week in June. “This amazing summer was arranged by Benjamin Armas (who preceded Grace in her role). Plus I’ve had incredible support from volunteers, fellow staff, parents, and the children themselves.

“I’m truly blown away by our Joshua Station youth. They have amazing capacities for learning. Drones are hard! After training on the flight simulators, they were buzzing their drones around the room. Read more on our blog…

“I also gave them real leadership responsibility and they rose to the challenge. One of our primary English/Spanish interpreters was resident teen Victoria. Others served as community builders, peacemakers, and leaders for the younger ones. They did a volunteer day at a homeless shelter in Golden, packing socks and toiletries into bags they marked “from our heart to yours.”

The fun and enrichment isn’t over. Next week? Ninety (90!!) current and former residents will head off for a week at Rainbow Trails Camp, a 3.5 hour drive to the mountains. What a partnership this has grown into—with their staff actually coming to Joshua Station for two weeks for on-site activities before the mountain camp week.

Huge thanks—to so many volunteers and partners that we can only name a few:

• Faith Lutheran Church – amazing ocean-themed Christian day camp week with other kids that also raised over $5,000 for Joshua Station

• Without Walls Castle Rock – funded our tie dye shirt project that became a colorful hit expressing each kid’s uniqueness

• Water Heals – wakeboarding!

• Inner City Parish – yummy nutritious lunches

• FaithBridge Missions – trained for six months in Houston TX; then rocked our morning kid activities and poured sweat into our building maintenance each afternoon

• La Alma Rec Center – pool fun

• Denver Fire Department – our kids climbed up behind the wheel!

• Moyo Cultural Arts Center – secured funding for Drums and Drones and helped lead camp courses

• Keeson and Dr Eliot – dronemeisters

• Lazaro and Vincente – drum rhythms are healing, empowering, community-building, and fun

Please chime in if we’ve missed you, and we’ll be eager to add you to our blog here.

What a summer! Can it just last forever?