Empowering Families: A Precious Child’s Mission in Colorado

Kenda Ruck (00:02)
Hi and welcome to A Living Colorado's Getting Real Estate podcast. I'm your host, Kenda, and this is our co-host John. We believe that becoming a part of your community is not just finding a home or a place to live, but it's how to get more involved in your community. So,

John, why don't you introduce our guest today?

John Wilkinson (00:23)
it's so very exciting to have Courtney Wickberg with us today. She is the Chief Communications Officer for A Precious Child. Courtney, so great to meet you.

Courtney Wickberg (00:34)
Yeah, thank you guys so much for having me on today.

John Wilkinson (00:36)
Absolutely.

So tell us a little bit about yourself. what brought you to A Precious Child and what keeps you passionate about the work that that you do there?

Courtney Wickberg (00:47)
So I moved to Colorado 16 years ago, and like any, I don't want to age myself, but any mid 20 something year old when you move across the country, I came with no job and just wanting to explore. And I was so lucky to find A Precious Child on my second day moving to Colorado, and I have been so incredibly lucky to be part of the organization for the past 16 years. and the organization is only 18 years old, so being able to see the

growth over those past 16 years has just been so incredibly fulfilling. And you mentioned what keeps me passionate about the work that we do and you know why I'm here 16 years later. It's because of the people. I get to see truly the best in humanity every single day. I get to see families who are trying to better themselves and their family, but I also get to see the community show up. Family community members are coming to drop off donations. People are coming in to volunteer their time and it just fills my cup.

every single day and it's so exciting to see the community just really mobilize and come together to serve their neighbors.

Kenda Ruck (01:53)
Courtney,

I met you at a Kool 105 backpack drive, which was a few weeks ago. That was so much fun, but that was honestly the first that I had heard of A Precious Child. So would you tell our listeners a little bit about the organization and and what the goals and and opportunities are with that organization?

Courtney Wickberg (02:17)
Yeah,

A Precious Child. We are a nonprofit that provides opportunities and resources to children and families in need across the Denver metro area. And what that looks like is providing really basic essentials to families in need free of charge. So it's we have an amazing resource center where we provide clothing, hygiene, food, diapers, all in a dignified way. So families can actually have the opportunity to shop free of charge so that they can spend their money on rent utilities, things that they're able to really help sustain.

Them and we're able just to come in and make sure that they are provided with those basic essentials that every child, every family should have the ability to have access to. We also are able to provide some extracurricular and enrichment opportunities through our backpack program, which we were able just to wrap up. We serve more than 11,600 children with brand new backpacks filled with school supplies, all

Kenda Ruck (03:09)
Wow.

Courtney Wickberg (03:10)
delivered before the first day of school, so that these kids are starting the school year feeling prepared and confident just like everyone else. We also have a

holiday gift program where we serve on average 10,000 children every single year, making sure that they have something to open during the holidays. And then we also are able to provide extracurricular support through our Give Access program where we provide

scholarships and opportun and actual equipment so kids can participate in sports, arts, and educational opportunities. So what we do is we're really good at filling the gap in the community. So we work with more than 300 agency partners that are schools or shelters or other nonprofits and they're verifying the needs in the families that we serve and then they're referring them to receive our services. So by the time a family comes to us, they don't have to bring those last three paychecks to prove that they're in need. They've already had to do that. The referral is all they need so that when they come

To A Precious Child, we get to just say, How can we help you? And just that simple question opens up so many questions for these families and just makes them feel seen and heard and cared for. So we get to really walk through that process with them to just say, okay, you need clothing, you need essentials, what else do you need help with? And we also get to be those resource navigators. So if it's beyond what we beyond our scope of work, we're also able to refer them out to a an agency partner that might help them with mental.

Health resources or might help them with housing. So we're really just connecting the community together, and that's at the core of who we are. We're a community-based organization that's just you know doing great work in the community with the community because no organization, no nonprofit can do this work alone, and it's when we all come together that the families that we serve are the ones that truly benefit.

John Wilkinson (04:55)
So incredible. I read recently that Denver, Colorado, but specifically Denver is ranked higher than California or New York in terms of cost of living and raising a family. And so I think that, you know, the organization, what you're doing is important. And I think what you mentioned earlier too, with dignity, right? There's so much stigma to, you know, folks that may not have the means that other, you know, other kids in the in in in the on the playground or whatever have. And to be able to

you know, go to school with a backpack full of of of school supplies and do it in a way that's the that that makes them equal to their peers, I think is so important for mental health, right? for their kids to be able to adapt and and and integrate with with their classroom. Is there a program that you find or people have have been surprised to know that A Precious Child offers?

Courtney Wickberg (05:49)
Yeah,

so everyone really knows A Precious Child for our that core program of basic needs. You know, having our cost-free store, we do a lot of community community distributions where we take the essentials out into the community. And so I think what people are usually surprised to hear is that we are spread out through those eight counties that we serve. We are located up in Broomfield, and that's where our cost-free store lives, but we have these amazing things called community distributions where we identify high need neighborhoods and we work with partners.

in those high-need neighborhoods and will physically take the goods, the diapers, the toys, the hygiene items, the clothing, bring them to those neighborhoods because we know transportation is an issue. We know gas continues to rise and families simply cannot afford to even take the bus to get over to A Precious Child. And we never want to be a barrier to a family. And so we're very strategic with creating opportunities so that these families in a neighborhood, in a community organization that they already trust, will bring the goods to them so that the families can access

Those goods in a space that they already feel comfortable and they don't have to worry about transportation. So I think one of the biggest things that people don't know about us is that we are trying to really meet the need in those eight counties and we're very thoughtful and intentional with getting out into the community. We don't we just don't stay up here and say, hey everyone, come over here. We try to be out in the community and make sure people have access to us.

John Wilkinson (07:11)
It's so great.

Kenda Ruck (07:12)
Yeah, it really is. Courtney, when I was a child, we were considered incredibly poor. Like there were a lot a lot of times that we didn't have electricity or we had to go stand in food and cheese lines and or we would be at the grocery store and have to put things back.

while people are huffing and puffing behind us. And and those days really are, they were important for who I am as a person. But one of the things I remember very distinctly was feeling invisible. You know, and I and I kind of wanted to be invisible. I didn't have my friends over to my house because I didn't know if we were going to have, you know, power or whatever. So

How do you identify these families that maybe are just kind of falling between the cracks and they they they kinda wanna like not draw a lot of attention? How are you identifying families that work for your program?

Courtney Wickberg (08:16)
Yeah,

so and like you said, so many families, you know, they're working one job, two jobs, three jobs, and it's still just not enough to

Kenda Ruck (08:22)
Yeah.

Courtney Wickberg (08:24)
get by. And we never want a child to not want to go to school because they're like, I don't have an outfit that I that makes me feel good about myself. I don't have a backpack like everyone else. And so we want to empower those children and those families. Like when you empower the child, you're also empowering the parent because the parent then feels confident that they're providing for their child. And so really strengthening the family is a

Whole. But we work with our 300 agency partners, and a lot of those are the schools. There a lot of them are other nonprofit organizations, health and human service agencies. But a lot of the schools, those teachers know those kids so intimately, they know their family situation. And so when they see that child coming to school in the same outfit two days in a row, or they know their family situation, that teacher can take them aside, can call a parent and say, Hey, we actually have a resource that we can connect you with, and they're able to.

Refer them to A Precious Child because we know poverty being in need is not a cookie-cutter issue. We know it doesn't look the same for every single family, and we rely on our agency partners, whether that's the schools, hospitals, police departments, fire departments, we rely on them to tell us what kind, you know, the family if they're in need, it might not look like it on paper. That family might have just fled a domestic abuse situation, they might have just experienced a fire. We rely on the agency partners to say, hey, this family is in need of your service.

And that's all we need for them to come to us to say, how can we help you? We have all these amazing programs. Let's wrap our services around you so that you can focus on moving forward.

John Wilkinson (09:58)
Wow,

it's you know, it's it's it's really amazing the work that you guys do. you know lived in Austin for twenty-three years and I Coats for Kids was a big program there. And and they probably did a lot of the ancillary services that you're talking about. but it's tough. I mean, in Colorado we've all seen like the cost of living has has increased.

Are there different challenges today since you've been there for for sixteen years than than you than may have been there, you know, four years ago? are there certain trending things that are happening now that that bring more families, you know, to A Precious Child?

Courtney Wickberg (10:38)
Unfortunately, it's the need has just continued to grow, but the need looks different now. You know, the need was very much almost apparent when I first started. Like it was very easy to identify the need. Now, like I said earlier, it's people who are working several jobs, who are going to school with your kids, who, you know, may not look like they're in need, but behind the scenes, they are scrimping and saving and trying to get by that when it's time to, you know, when their kids are growing out of their

Their

clothes, it's a stressor for that family because they don't know how they're going to clothe their child. They don't know how they're gonna put diapers on the their child, how they're gonna put food on the table. And so we try to, again, in the most dignified way possible, because if the past five years have really taught us anything, it's you know, between the pandemic, emergencies like the Marshall Fire that happened in Superior, you could not be in need one day, and the very next day you are needing to reach out for help and support. So we always try to.

Think of how would we want to be treated? How would we want our kids to be treated if we had to tomorrow ask for help? If I came to A Precious Child, how would I want to be treated? How would I want my child to be talked to? what service delivery is the most dignified? And what I love so much about our store is the fact that so many of the kids that come to us they don't know everything's free because it's a store. We actually had our friends at TJ Maxx come and set it up so it looks as much like a store as possible. They get a shopping cart, we have a checkout station.

Because we weigh everything we give out. And it's so encouraging to see these little kids running around the store. They pick something out that makes them feel good and they run up to mom and they're like, my gosh, can I get this? And to see mom's face when she gets to say yes is just fills my cup because you have to imagine how many times has she had to say no, put that back, we can't afford it. But at A Precious Child, she gets to say yes, put it in the cart, let's get it. And it's those

moments that make the biggest impact.

John Wilkinson (12:32)
Yeah, that's

so that's really great. So TJ Maxx set up the store for y'all. So how does that

Courtney Wickberg (12:37)
Mm-hmm.

John Wilkinson (12:37)
how does that work? So you mentioned weighing something. Are there are there limits or yeah, how does that how does that work?

Courtney Wickberg (12:43)
Yeah, so at the core of what we do, we are a donation center and a resource center. So we have almost four thousand pounds of donations that come through our doors every single day from the community. And so we rely heavily on just physical donations of, you know, stuff people don't need anymore. But again, we want quality goods. If it's ripped or stained, or if you wouldn't wear it, you know, we don't want it. We want the best of the best on the store floor so that when our families are shopping, they're excited about what they're seeing. but once everything gets into our

Our donation center, it's processed by our volunteers. We have more than 8,000 volunteers every single year process these donations, help us run our programs, and then it goes onto the store floor where then families are able to come and get those essentials. But it's a big operation. We have 26,000 square feet of just warehouse and store and all of our seasonal programming that happens, and it's really fun to be able to see again the community come together to volunteer, spend their time. We have so many amazing.

Groups because it's a big space, we can have groups of up to 25 come in and sort donations, help us keep our store looking fresh because again, we we treat it just like a store. So just like if you were going into do TJ Maxx, we want families to have that same experience. We want that it to be clean, we want it to be organized. So we're constantly going through and making sure that it looks as best as it can. Yeah.

Kenda Ruck (14:06)
That is so incredibly

Kool. I love that. I love

John Wilkinson (14:08)
It really is incredible, yeah.

Kenda Ruck (14:10)
that. Looking back, you know, now as an adult and looking back on my childhood, I I can't imagine how stressful this was on my parents. I know how stressful it was for me, but I can't imagine how stressful it was on my parents. But at least we had we had a little trailer that we lived in. So at least we had a place to live.

We help people find homes for a living and that's not a mistake for me, but how do you think housing insecurity in Colorado affects the community? And how does it affect in particular the children that you serve?

Courtney Wickberg (14:53)
We I mean we see it every single day. We always ask our families again, when they're coming to us, they are asking for basic essentials. So we always ask the question, what else are you in need of? And nine times out of ten, they are saying we need support with housing. we you know they're behind on rent, owning a home is just out of reach for them. And so we see a lot of families that are living together, we see a lot of families that are living in their cars, we see a lot of families that

That

you know, our we see a lot of mobility. So because we serve eight counties, that is one thing I do love is the fact that even if you were in you know Westminster today and then you're over in Littleton tomorrow, we're still able to serve you with our programs. But we do see a lot of families moving around looking for that affordable housing.

So it has increased over the past several years of just how families are even able to get housing. And we do see that mobility a ton of just trying to obtain affordable housing. They're just having to move around the area in search of

something that will fit their family. Cause like you said

When you're looking at your you know the hierarchy of needs, just being able to have shelter and a place to lay your head down. and when you have a child, that's paramount. That's the most important thing that you want to make sure you're taken care of.

John Wilkinson (16:10)
Yeah, Kenda hit a hit a a sore spot, you know, for many people in Colorado. You know, again, moving from Austin, it during the pandemic, a lot of people moved to Austin. You know, the the cost of housing increased dramatically. The same thing happened here, you know, in Denver and the surrounding counties. do you have you seen well we've seen some reduction in rental amounts, right? In in because of the overbuilding or whatever happened during the pandemic.

Have you seen that there's been better support for families because rental prices have dropped or are they not really experiencing?

Courtney Wickberg (16:51)
We haven't exp

Experience that fully, but what we have seen is that the community is really stepping up. there's a lot of more affordable housing construction happening. There's a lot more conversations around affordable housing. You know, the fact that we're even talking about now, these weren't conversations that were happening, you know,

Kenda Ruck (17:10)
Mm-hmm.

Courtney Wickberg (17:10)
six years ago. So it's really encouraging to see the community really rally together to say that this is a need, you know. To have a successful community, you need to have affordable housing. And so I think there's a lot of amazing.

Opportunities that are coming up really quickly and they're it's moving fast. So we're a part of a lot of different, you know, community group meetings where that's one of the biggest topics of conversation is how can we get these units into the hands of the families faster and you know talking to and making sure construction's on time and things like that. And it's really exciting to see it actually come to fruition.

Kenda Ruck (17:46)
That that would be s so energizing as a person to get to watch that. do you have any stories that really stick out to you as just very memorable that you can share with us?

Courtney Wickberg (17:58)
of course. I mean, again, being here sixteen years, I have

so many stories. Cause I was I was there when our very first family walked through our doors to be able to shop and we were so excited someone actually came. You know, it was a build-in-nail scenario. And so

John Wilkinson (18:10)
Yeah. Right.

Courtney Wickberg (18:13)
when they showed up, I was like, my gosh, someone came. and we saw one family a week and we were like, We have made it. We're a success. And

Kenda Ruck (18:21)
Wow.

Courtney Wickberg (18:22)
now we see forty-five families every single day. And so

Kenda Ruck (18:25)
Wow.

Courtney Wickberg (18:25)
to see that growth, but it's only because we have

The community support that we're able to continue serving those families. But one of my favorite stories, and again, there's so many stories to share, but seeing the success stories, being here for 16 years, we're now getting to hear of families who have utilized our services, the kids who have utilized our services are now graduating, they're in college, they have careers, and to hear them tell how utilizing A Precious Child that we were their childhood. They're like, I was able to go to school because of you. We only

had Christmas because of A Precious Child I wanted to go to school because I knew I was getting clothing from A Precious Child And to hear that and to hear how we're a memory, you know, we're one of their core memories for those kids. It's so exciting to see that they're like, I'm only going to college now because I I knew I had support. I knew I had a community behind me. And I think beyond our programs, beyond what we do, it's that sense of hope and that sense of community that we're able to provide.

to the families that we serve that gives them that encouragement to say, I I got a support team behind

John Wilkinson (19:33)
I have a follow up question. So when you're talking about buildings, you know, coming up and and addressing affordable housing, has any of the redevelopment of office buildings into housing come into any of the conversations about adding more affordable housing through that delivery method?

Courtney Wickberg (19:54)
We haven't seen many refurbishments or have been a part of those conversations yet. but it's an amazing opportunity because

Kenda Ruck (20:02)
Mm-hmm.

Courtney Wickberg (20:03)
there's so many especially as people have gone to more remote work, that's more of an opportunity for companies to get creative and the city and counties in the Denver metro area to get creative with how they can turn those into affordable housing units.

John Wilkinson (20:18)
I I read earlier that, you know,

in Empower Field and all of the the parking lots surrounding that, you know obviously Burnham Yards is where the Broncos are moving to. There's a new stadium that's gonna be mixed use kind of of neighborhoods there. But the once that happens, the the stadium and the surrounding eighty acres go back to the city of Denver. And I'm hoping that some affordable housing gets developed into that space because I think that

Is it is a huge need here in in the community.

Courtney Wickberg (20:50)
It is. And I think like I was saying I think it people are ready to have those conversations now. I think it's there's enough act there's enough momentum behind it that people are ready to have those conversations to get creative and figure out how we can just produce more of these affordable housing opportunities.

Kenda Ruck (21:08)
Our podcast is really the the the reason we started it was to help people who are thinking about moving to Colorado or who are new to Colorado kind of understand what Colorado is all about. So you've seen some you've seen some of the the sadder parts, you've seen some difficult stories, you've seen some things of people who are not at at their peak of life.

But what can you tell people who are thinking about moving to Colorado about the community here? Because you've also seen people really step up. So somebody who is moving here, talk to them about what the community spirit is like here in Colorado.

Courtney Wickberg (21:54)
I always tell people I feel Colorado is so unique because there's so many amazing community organizations, so many amazing neighbors who are wanting to help, who are wanting to have conversations of how can we be better neighbors, how can we be a better community together? and so being able to see that every single day of people volunteering their time, volunteering, you know, th bringing goods in, you know, they are looking and saying, I don't need this anymore, I can drop it off at A Precious Child, knowing

It's going to go free of charge to a family who could need it. It's just really cool to see. And we, again, at A Precious Child we get to be really creative with how we utilize our volunteers, how we are able to be in the community. And so I think just seeing people come in and give up their time and be a part of something bigger than yourself. And being able to see that direct impact is always so cool because when you're able to go see a kid in our resource center picking out something that they feel really good about and being able to leave getting

A brand new backpack before the first day of school or a toy during the holidays or you know have the opportunity to play sports, you just get to see their eyes light up and they they feel good. And seeing that just really makes you feel like a million bucks because you know that that kid is going to keep going and be have that positive mentality moving forward because they've had support. They didn't feel alone, they didn't feel like they were on an island by themselves, they knew that they had people behind them, and I think that's what.

What Colorado is really great about doing is that it's, you know, they're a village that's really coming together to support the community as a whole.

John Wilkinson (23:33)
Love that. You in a in a time when you news cycles and things can feel so heavy, you know, this is really a feel good thing. So if somebody wants to get involved right with A Precious Child either financially or not financially, where should they start and and how can they get involved?

Courtney Wickberg (23:52)
always go to our website, apreciouschild.org. you can read about all of our programs, see some of our impact stories. We have amazing videos of families we've served, but you can also see ways to get involved. And you can volunteering is always like the n easiest way for sometimes people to get involved because you know you can donate an hour of your time, two hours out of your time. I always encourage people to come and actually take a tour though of the space because when you get to see the entire organization and

And how it's running. It is really Kool to see. I mean, I've been here 16 years, and I'm still impressed, like going back through our warehouse and just seeing all of the moving parts and how everyone's working together. And we have, you know, a group of 20 from a company volunteering their time, or we have a children's youth group coming in to volunteer their time. You just get to see everyone moving in the same direction, serving the community. And I think it's really cool to see. But go to our website, you can do volunteer orientations that you can actually come to our space and get to hear all of the different

Ways to volunteer because we do everything from sorting donations to setting our store up to welcoming families in to answer to answering the door at our volunteer center. We have volunteers for our volunteer center. So we try to make it really easy for people to get involved. And then one of the biggest ways is donating. Like I said, we see almost 4,000 pounds of donations every single day, and we need more. We have so many communities that are wanting us to bring goods to their neighborhoods, and so

So,

if we can have an increase in good quality donations, that would allow us to say yes to more opportunities of being in different neighborhoods. And so a great way is just cleaning out your closet. And a really fun part about what we do is that we let youth as young as five years old come in and volunteer. So if you really want to start having those conversations with your kiddos early, have them go through their toys and then bring it into A Precious Child and then volunteer, have them, you know, process and put their toys on the store floor so they can actually see, my gosh, this toy that you know I no longer

play with gets to go to someone else and you get to start having those cool conversations about giving back and starting that early. Yeah.

Kenda Ruck (26:00)
That is so cool

John Wilkinson (26:00)
that it is

really cool We did that with our son in Austin when he I think he was six years old and he's an only child, right? And so the sharing or whatever was is is specific for him. But

Kenda Ruck (26:10)
Yeah.

Courtney Wickberg (26:10)
Uh-huh.

John Wilkinson (26:13)
but seeing him you know talking with kids that that you know didn't have very much and then showing them how to play with the things it was really special and something he still remembers you know he's now 16 about to be 17 remembers to to this day.

Great. So just in in in sharing and and giving back to to the community, is I know with the holidays coming up, is there a specific event or or donations that you're needing, or what is the holiday kind of process look like?

Courtney Wickberg (26:47)
Yeah,

so I again I love all of our programs, but again, our holiday gift program, Precious Gift, is one that I hold near and dear to my heart just because families get through the entire year, you know, and you're getting by and the holidays just become this huge overwhelming focus point for so many kids. And when you're in need and you know you can't afford to get your child a toy, you just your heart breaks. And so our Precious Gift program, we provide brand new toys and the goal is to provide an average of sixty dollar value

of toys to each child that we serve. And so we collect their top three gift wishes and we put them on little angel tree tags and we set them up with in different companies, but we're at Orchard Town Center and also Flatiron Crossing Mall. But then we're also online so you can go to our website and you can actually filter like I have a seven year old boy so I usually try to get a kiddo that's his age so we can go shopping together and he can be a part of that process of

Kenda Ruck (27:42)
Yeah, she can get that.

Courtney Wickberg (27:44)
getting a child a toy during the holidays because I always try to tell

I'm like, how would you feel if you walk downstairs and there was nothing there on presence?

Kenda Ruck (27:51)
Mm-hmm.

Courtney Wickberg (27:53)
And so trying to make it real for him. But the Kool piece about that program and going back to that dignity component, which is one of our core values, is that we ask for all the gifts to be unwrapped, and because we give wrapping paper to mom and dad. So they get to be a part of the process of wrapping the gift themselves, of still

John Wilkinson (28:08)
that's great.

Courtney Wickberg (28:09)
celebrating the holiday. You know, if their tradition is always wrapping the gift on Christmas Eve, we want them to keep that tradition and have it be as normal as possible, even though it might not feel normal. We want them to still feel that confidence and feel empowered.

That they are providing for their child during the holidays. Because so oftentimes we do have a lot of donors who are like, my gosh, I want to give it to the kiddo and see their face. But then when you flip it around and you think of like, how does that child perceive that interaction? And

Kenda Ruck (28:36)
huh.

Courtney Wickberg (28:37)
so we're just trying to always think of again, how would my kiddo want to receive

Kenda Ruck (28:40)
Right.

Courtney Wickberg (28:41)
that gift? He'd want it to come for me. And so we try to keep it as dignified as possible. And so that's something I love about our gift program is that we get to make it really special. 10,000 children.

is a lot of kids, but trying to make it special for each individual child is what we try to do.

Kenda Ruck (28:58)
Very thoughtful. is the only place to drop things off up in your Broomfield location? Okay.

Courtney Wickberg (29:04)
It is and so

we make people travel. So if you want to see the state of Colorado, you know, we we allow you to take a tour up to Broomfield.

Kenda Ruck (29:09)
There you go.

John Wilkinson (29:10)
Yeah. I it yeah. That's a great that's a

great question, Kinda. So you know, in Colorado a lot of neighborhoods have block parties, you know, especially during the fall and the weather's nicer. have you ever had neighborhoods kind of coordinate a a donation during either block parties or or whatever, somebody's maybe the central home where things get delivered and then you know, obviously bring it up to the Broompeel location.

Kenda Ruck (29:36)
That's a great idea.

Courtney Wickberg (29:37)
No,

and that's that's exactly what people do because they like have one main representative who like puts everything together and they do. They have a block party, they have a holiday gift part or a holiday party and they bring all the toys, whether it's specific toys or just general toys, to the main spot and then one or two people will bring all the stuff up to A Precious Child up in Broomfield and we're able to get the toys and gifts that way. but they do that throughout the year. So even if it's clothing, we have company or different neighborhoods and even companies that will host.

drives and they're able to collect everything and bring it up to us. But if it's a ton of stuff, we'll we have a few vehicles that we're actually able to go down and pick it up ourselves to. So we try to make it as easy as possible. But knowing that we have a staff at 35 and serving 50,000 children, you know, it's

John Wilkinson (30:24)
Yeah.

Courtney Wickberg (30:25)
those numbers really don't compute that much. So having our volunteers and just community

John Wilkinson (30:29)
Yeah.

Courtney Wickberg (30:30)
supporters that step up and understand like what we're trying to do and they just are able to come alongside us.

to be able to meet that need.

John Wilkinson (30:38)
Love that.

Courtney Wickberg (30:39)
Yeah.

Kenda Ruck (30:40)
That's great. Well, let's do a real quick lightning round and then we'll wrap up. We really appreciate your time so much, but just give us a couple of real quick answers, whatever comes to to your mind.

John Wilkinson (30:50)
Yeah.

Kenda Ruck (30:50)
So the first one would be what makes you smile at work?

Courtney Wickberg (30:56)
The the people and I say that all the time, but it's the staff like we have such an amazing staff who are so giving of themselves. But seeing the families that we serve, getting to see mom have a full cart of essentials, like that just makes that will make me smile, tear up every single day 'cause I know she's going home that day, so excited to see her kids because she has a lot of amazing stuff for them.

John Wilkinson (31:19)
Love that. So on a on a personal note, what are some of your favorite restaurants here in the Denver area?

Courtney Wickberg (31:25)
man. I mean I am a illegal Pete all day every day. I yes.

John Wilkinson (31:30)
Well the weak beats. Yeah.

Courtney Wickberg (31:32)
their margaritas, fantastic. yeah, I just love I that's my go to. Anytime

John Wilkinson (31:38)
Okay.

Courtney Wickberg (31:38)
I'll always go to an illegal Pete's. I get their bowls

Kenda Ruck (31:40)
Love it.

Courtney Wickberg (31:41)
so good.

John Wilkinson (31:41)
That that's funny, what a previous

guest, theirs was Tacos de humo, so it's like that that Mexican American Tex Mex,

Courtney Wickberg (31:47)
Yeah.

John Wilkinson (31:48)
you know, thing

Kenda Ruck (31:48)
Yeah.

John Wilkinson (31:48)
is kind of you know coming through. So that's nice.

Courtney Wickberg (31:50)
Yep.

And I have a seven year old, so I'm like, a a quesadilla is going to win him over every single time. Exactly. So

Kenda Ruck (31:55)
Every single time. Yeah.

Courtney Wickberg (31:57)
I'm like, what will he eat?

John Wilkinson (31:59)
Yeah. Yeah.

Kenda Ruck (31:59)
Yeah.

What's one thing that you wish you could tell anybody who's new coming to Colorado? What's like the most important thing you think they need to know if they're moving to Colorado?

Courtney Wickberg (32:10)
Few things, but A, people are really nice. People are so kind. and so finding your community might feel overwhelming at first if you're new, but just plug in. Everyone is very kind and wants to help you. So don't be afraid to like make the first move and you know, joining a community somewhere. And then also get get out into nature. I was just up at Lake Isabel this past weekend. I saw two moose. We got to see the beautiful lake, Colorado, and it's an hour and a half from my home as I

where else in the world do you have that kind of access where you get to see the beauty of nature so accessible to the city? And so I think you know finding a good community, people are kind and get outside.

John Wilkinson (32:53)
One hundred percent. I mean that's one of the reasons I think many people move here is is just the beauty of this state. Courtney, this has been so fun. I think, you know, as we as we close, what gives you hope when you think about the future here in Colorado?

Courtney Wickberg (33:10)
I think one of the biggest things that gives me hope is the fact that

Like I said, people are good. I get to see it every single day, but I feel people inherently want to help others. They want to see others succeed because when your neighbors are succeeding, the community at whole is succeeding. And so if we can just really come together and just help each other out and be kind to your neighbor, be kind to your community at large, like we're all going to thrive that way. And that leaves so much hope for the future, for that next generation of kiddos that are growing up now. If they can see that kindness and that generosity shown

to them, that's what they will grow up just knowing themselves and they'll be able to carry that on to the future.

Kenda Ruck (33:50)
That's beautiful,

John Wilkinson (33:51)
I

Kenda Ruck (33:51)
Courtney.

John Wilkinson (33:52)
it is, yeah. And you know, Ken and I are with Real Brokerage and and their tagline is work hard, be kind. And I think that fits perfectly to to your message today for sure.

Kenda Ruck (34:04)
Absolutely. Thank you so much for your time today. Courtney with A Precious Child. If you would like to find out more information about A Precious Child, it's apreciouschild.org and all of the information is there. And also you can feel free to reach out to us with any questions and we can get those questions to Courtney. But remember that the community is what makes your home a home. And whether you are struggling or you're

doing the best that that you've ever done. There's a place for you here and we really appreciate everything you do, Courtney.

Courtney Wickberg (34:39)
Thank you guys so much for having me on. I really enjoyed this.

Kenda Ruck (34:41)
Thanks for watching.

John Wilkinson (34:42)
Absolutely.