IN CELEBRATION OF NATIONAL VOLUNTEER MONTH GIVING TIME COSTS NOTHING AND BENEFITS EVERYONE NIKKI LAWSON BOARD OF DIRECTORS CHAIR BEING A LIFELONG VOLUNTEER is one of my proudest accomplishments. My first experience volunteering was as a Girl Scout at the Denver Dumb Friends League. I was there for an afternoon filling food and water bowls, sweeping up animal hair, and taking out the trash. It was a day I will never forget. After college, I moved to China to serve two years in the Peace Corps. Rather than sweeping up hair, I taught English to eager young adults on the doorstep of the Gobi Desert. I came back to Denver with more volunteer experience than I ever thought possible. In 2017, when I found out I was expecting my first child, I was eager to get back to volunteering. After spending so much time abroad, it was time to find a cause in the community my daughter would call home. Choosing to volunteer with the Denver VOICE was easy. As a long-time reader of the paper, I knew the VOICE is an organization that not only creates an excellent paper, but it also offers an incredible opportunity to the person vending it. Being a distribution volunteer for the VOICE has become the most rewarding volunteer role I have ever held. Volunteering is far more than giving your time, experience, and resources. It is committing to an organization because you believe in its cause and want the organization to succeed. Volunteering is a simple and accessible way to help your community and become a catalyst for positive change. It is also one of the few things in life that costs nothing but offers everyone involved something in return. Whether it is halfway across the world or in your own backyard, volunteering makes the world a better place. ■ April CONTRIBUTORS DENVERVOICE.ORG CE.ORG PAULA BARD is an award-winning fine art photographer, writer, and activist. She lives on a mountain top southwest of Denver. GILES CLASEN is a freelance photographer who regularly contributes his work to the VOICE for editorial projects, fundraisers, and events. He has also served on the VOICE’s Board of Directors. ROBERT DAVIS is a freelance reporter for the Denver VOICE. His work has also appeared in Colorado Public Works Journal, Fansided, Colorado Journal, and Medium.com. @deeOCE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Jennifer Seybold MANAGING EDITOR Elisabeth Monaghan PROGRAM COORDINATOR Anthony Cornejo GRAPHIC DESIGNER Hannah Bragg VOLUNTEER COPY EDITORS Ty Holter Kersten Jaeger Aaron Sullivan Laura Wing PHOTOGRAPHERS/ILLUSTRATORS Paula Bard Giles Clasen WRITERS WHAT WE DO The Denver VOICE empowers homeless, impoverished, and transient individuals by creating job opportunities through our vendor program. We give our vendors a job and help them tell their stories; this creates a space for them to be part of a community again. Vendors purchase copies of the VOICE for 50 cents each at our distribution center. This money pays for a portion of our production costs. Vendors can buy as many papers as they want; they then sell those papers to the public for a suggested $2 donation. The difference in cost ($1.50) is theirs to keep. WHO WE ARE The Denver VOICE is a nonprofit that publishes a monthly street newspaper. Our vendors are men and women in the metro Denver area experiencing homelessness and poverty. Since 2007, we have put more than 4,000 vendors to work. Our mission is to facilitate a dialogue addressing the roots of homelessness by telling stories of people whose lives are impacted by poverty and homelessness and to offer economic, educational, and empowerment opportunities for the impoverished community. We are an award-winning publication, a member of the International Network of Street Papers and the Colorado Press Association, and we abide by the Society of Professional Journalists code of ethics. With the money they make selling the VOICE, vendors are able to pay for their basic needs. Our program provides vendors with an immediate income and a support group of dedicated staff members and volunteers. Vendors are independent contractors who receive no base pay. EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT editor@denvervoice.org VENDOR PROGRAM program@denvervoice.org • (720) 320-2155 ADVERTISING ads@denvervoice.org MAILING ADDRESS PO Box 1931, Denver CO 80201 VENDOR OFFICE 989 Santa Fe Drive, Denver, CO 80204 OFFICE HOURS: For the immediate future, we will be open on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. Orientation is held every day we are open, but prospective vendors must arrive by 10:00 a.m. John Alexander Lando Allen Paula Bard Giles Clasen Robert Davis David Gordon Nikki Lawson Benjamin Eric Nelson Jerry Rosen BOARD OF DIRECTORS Nikki Lawson, President Michelle Stapleton, Vice President Lori Holland, Treasurer Jeff Cuneo, Secretary Donovan Cordova Pamela Gravning Raelene Johnson Zephyr Wilkins 2 DENVER VOICE April 2021 STAFF CONTRIBUTORS BOARD CONTACT US
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