COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KOAA) — Work at Ute Valley Park often happens after business hours.
"We got two hours. We got about 20 people here. We're going to get a lot done," said volunteer Vance Hewuse.
This evening, volunteers divide between two tasks. One group pulls invasive weeds that threaten native plants. The other pushes back overgrowth on a trail.
"Whatever we're doing out here, we always got our eyes open for a problem that might be developing on the trail," said Hewuse.
Hewuse is a longtime volunteer who sees the open space as one of the city's great assets, with volunteer time also creating a community connection.
"You meet a lot of tremendous people out here, young people that come out here and I'm pushing 80," said Hewuse.
"Would the parks department be able to do it on their own? Sure, but we can make it just a little bit better by coming out and picking invasive species, working on closing social trails, things that the rangers may not have time to get to, were it not for volunteer organizations," said Drew Town, Friends of Ute Valley Park president.
It is an all-volunteer nonprofit dedicated to the care and preservation of this city-owned park.
"We've just sort of built up a collection of neighbors and people who are interested in the park and we've decided that we're gonna try to be the community stewards that the park needs," said Town.
Along with the boots-on-the-ground volunteer work, leadership and administration is also volunteer.
"No paid positions anywhere," said Town.
Unpaid does not mean amateur. The group's board just made a pro move by getting federal nonprofit status.
"So we just decided to make the leap and do a bunch of research and see what it would take for us to become a nonprofit and then we just started jumping through all the hoops and the government forms to get us over the finish line," said Town.
The move is also to ensure this park has friends as caretakers for a very long time. It allows them to dedicate all donations to the park without losing dollars to taxes.
"Create a structure that would last for many years and we want the organization to have a strong base so we could make sure that the stewardship of this park continues well past the current board lineup," said Town.
The Friends group schedules work nights twice a month, typically drawing anywhere from 15 to 20 volunteers.
Friends of Ute Valley Park has been around since 2013, when land on the east side of the park was privately owned and for sale. Neighbors rallied and went to the city, lobbying for it to become an extension of the already existing park to the west. Since then, they have remained advocates.
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