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GE Volunteer Workday!

10/3/2007

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This was a press release from General Electric in Loveland, CO, describing what they were planning to accomplish at Swift Ponds.

Q.What is happening this week at the Swift Ponds?
A.Today GE’s Control Solutions business will assist the Colorado Youth Outdoors  (http://www.coloradoyo.org) repairing and painting picnic tables and identifying harmful weeds at the Swift Ponds Outdoor Center.  Over 70 employees will spend the day helping to restore the site.

Q.What are they doing?
A.We will be working as a local GE team in restoring the Swift Ponds Outdoor site for the Colorado Youth Outdoors non-profit organization.  We will be repairing old and damaged picnic tables by replacing boards and painting the tables.  We will also be identifying the location and type of noxious weeds for future removal.

Q.Why Swift Ponds?
A.We looked for a project where we could make a big impact utilizing a number of volunteers during an entire day.  Swift Ponds is a recently purchased outdoor site that will be converted by Colorado Youth Outdoors to an area for use by non-profits organizations.  We wanted to do an event that would bring interest from the employees and give a lot back to the community.

Q.Who is Colorado Youth Outdoors?
A.Colorado Youth Outdoors (CYO) builds healthy relationships between youth and their parents through traditional outdoor curriculum. CYO was developed by high school educators with the program being taught in the participating high school classroom. Parental participation is required with a standardized curriculum that includes fishing skills, shooting skills, archery, map and compass reading, survival and wildlife education. Some goals of the organization are to develop facilities to augment the curriculum with program growth throughout state and increase public knowledge about Colorado's Natural Resources and Outdoor Recreations.

Q.Who are these GE volunteers?
A.They are GE employees who are committed to making improvements in the communities where they work and live.  They participate in service projects that cover a variety of local issues – education, human services and the environment.

Q.Where are these volunteers from?
A. GE Energy’s Control Solutions business is headquartered in Loveland.

Q.What else have they done?
A.  In 2006, GE employees from Colorado contributed more than 3600 hours of service and more than $35,000 to their communities in Colorado.

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Thank you GE!!  We are so encouraged and THANKFUL for your generosity and superb service to Swift Ponds.  The 12+ picnic tables are beautiful and ready to handle years of more service to our many groups.  We also now have a much better understanding of the noxious weed problems and will now have way to chart our progress of their control in the future.  Chase Swift & Bob Hewson
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Mowing Extravaganza

8/3/2007

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We are blessed to have some awesome volunteers at Swift Ponds.  Most recently, Jerry Summers volunteered himself to mow not just the “hard-to-reach,” but IMPOSSIBLE-TO-REACH weeds along many banks of the Ponds.  Jerry has a specialized tractor-mower that has “wings” that can be lowered down over the banks to reach the weeds that love to grow on the shoreline.  Yes we could have asked an army of volunteers with weed-whackers, but that would take weeks for what took Jerry a single day.  The Ponds look so nice now, and most importantly, it allows access for young and old to fish along the banks that have been very difficult to fish, if not impossible, until now.

Thanks again Jerry for doing such a wonderful job!
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CYO Russian Olive Cleanup of Swift Ponds

12/15/2006

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When I was asked by Bob Hewson if Colorado Youth Outdoors (CYO) could help with cleaning up the Swift Ponds property, I eagerly responded with enthusiasm, as we have had many offers but haven't had many groups actually perform meaningful improvement projects.  While we always appreciate help, it is nonetheless difficult to arrange for the proper equipment, adequate supervision (especially when kids are involved) and enough manpower to get significant projects completed.

Because of the large property, Bob wanted CYO's effort to look like a significant change had occurred, so we both agreed we would work on just one of the twelve ponds on the property.  Ironically or not, we choose to work on the pond named Louis' Pond.  Looking back, it was a commitment of responsible stewardship, it seemed, that CYO really wanted to make to my late father.

Louis' Pond had significant Russian Olive growth and many of the trees were growing in very hard-to-get, shoreline locations.  There was also a huge pile of Russian Olive trees that were piled in a mound years earlier.  Needless to say, it seemed CYO had picked a daunting first project to attempt!

When I arrived, early in the morning on the fall day of the cleanup, there were already numerous volunteers, both parents and their kids, eagerly working on removing the olive trees.  When it became clear that one Bobcat wasn't nearly going to be efficient and quick enough to remove hundreds of trees, I was asked by a father/daughter team if they could use their pickup and a chain to pull out the trees near the road?  Then a host of other volunteers began doing the same thing, and I watched this small army attacking the nuisance trees and hauling them to the pile.

The most fascinating aspect, though, was watching the mulching process, operated by the volunteer efforts of the City of Loveland.  That is an amazing machine and it proves the point that proper supervision is required when operating dangerous equipment like a mulcher.  In the end we were provided with lots and lots of beneficial mulch that will be available to spread around the heavier used areas to limit weed growth and human impact.  What a win-win that was!

I wish to thank, from the bottom of my heart, all the CYO volunteers, both the parents and kids, who helped beautify Louis' Pond to a degree I did not believe possible in one day.  It proves, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that CYO is a premier organization of committed individuals willing to go the extra mile and give back more than they receive.  Dad would be so proud of your accomplishments!
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    Chase Swift created this website to keep the history of Swift Ponds alive.

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