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Barb Warden
goldentoday.com
What’s Happening in Golden Today?
10AM-3PM Brunch at the Rose @ Buffalo Rose
10AM Wild West Walking Tour
10AM and 1PM Wild West Short Tour
10:15AM Family Time @ Golden Library
1PM Wild West Pub Crawl
Live Music
11AM-2PM Chris Koza @ Buffalo Rose (Sky Bar Stage)
5-8PM Live Music @ Eddy Taproom
5PM Sqwerv @ Over Yonder
6PM Chain Station @ New Terrain Brewing
7-10PM Chris Child @ Buffalo Rose (Sky Bar Stage)
9PM Karaoke @ Ace Hi Tavern
New Years Eve Parties
Saturday December 31st – 8PM New Year’s Eve @ Morris and Mae
Christmas is done, it’s time for NYE plans! Join us at Morris and Mae for your celebrations! Not only are we offering bottomless champagne, appetizers, DJs RYLHGHNSS and Movesayer, and balloon drop, but with ticket purchase, you receive $99 room rates at Origins Red Rocks Hotel for the night! (Normally $209)
Saturday December 31st – 6PM New Year’s Eve @ The Golden Mill
Get your party on early. Dj Drake will be here spinning the music of the decades. We will be watching the ball drop in New York City. There will be complimentary hot chocolate for the kids and champagne for the adults when the ball drops.
Golden History Moment
37 Years Ago
The December 31, 1985 Golden Transcript report described the goals and accomplishments of the Christian Action Guild. At that time, they were operating a thrift store out of a storefront on Washington Avenue.
CAG had worked with VFW Post 4171 and several local churches to provide Christmas baskets to several local families–turkey with all the trimmings. They had also hosted a Santa Shop, where families could shop for free toys to use as Christmas presents.
Guild president JoAnn Thistlewood was concerned about helping those families for the rest of the year. “In families with five, seven and even nine kids, that turkey isn’t going to last very long.” For the coming year, the CAG board had set an ambitious goal: they committed to providing food and clothing to 15 families for the next six months.
While the thrift shop had been operating for nearly 20 years by that time–providing low-cost clothing to local families–the goal of providing food was new. To that end, the CAG had appealed to the community for contributions of food and cash. Mrs. Thistlewood was amazed at the response. They had collected many cases of food and over $2500, which they were using to buy still more food.
They had a storage problem. The thrift shop was very small, the plumbing was bad, and the roof leaked. Accordingly, the board members were storing the food in their houses.
“Right now, I’ve got food stocked in the entryway,” she said. “Everyone trips over potatoes, flour and sacks when they come into my house. Other CAG members have food stocked in their basements.”
The article said that hungry families could go to the county’s social services organization, but there was typically a six week wait time for a hearing. The Christian Action Guild was trying to fill the immediate need while those families waited. The community was encouraged to donate food and funds.
The Christian Action Guild has come a long way since then. In 1998, the Foss family funded a building at 14th and Ford Streets, so the Guild would have a permanent home. The west end of the building holds the thrift shop and the east end is a food pantry.
In 1985, the organization was stretching themselves to provide food for 15 families. Now they serve 150 families every month–a 43% increase since 2021. In 2022, they distributed 148,000 pounds of food and donated 4,500 pounds to other organizations. Most of the food is donated and the rest is purchased using donated funds and proceeds from the thrift shop.
The thrift shop is still doing a brisk business, providing a great place for Golden families to buy gently used clothing and housewares at thrift shop prices.
They keep staffing costs low thanks to the 70 active volunteers who support the programs and operations.
This is the final day of a Christian Action Guild food drive at Mountain Toad Brewing (map), the Golden Visitors Center (map), and Golden Pizza Hut (map), so if you’d like to donate some food to the food pantry, stop by one of those locations today! Of course, cash contributions are always welcome.
Thanks to the Golden History Museum for providing the online cache of historic Transcripts, and to the Golden Transcript for documenting our history since 1866!
