Post-News Season To Share, a fund of the McCormick Tribune Foundation, gave $1.79 million to 62 agencies last year serving children, the hungry, homeless and those in need of medical care. Donations are matched at 50 cents for each dollar; 100 percent goes directly to the agencies. To make a donation, see the coupon in today’s paper, call 1-888-683- 4483 or visit .
Roger Bolduc’s arthritic pain was so bad he lost his job wrapping bread at a bakery.
Bolduc had knee-replacement surgery, on both knees, four years ago and tried to go back to work but couldn’t because of chronic pain.
His misery was compounded by bills that didn’t stop after the paychecks did.
“I feared the thought that we could have possibly wound up on the street,” said Bolduc, 52, who lives in a Golden trailer home with his wife, Joleen.
During Bolduc’s dark days, he received financial help and counsel through Inter-Church Arvada Resource for Ministry and Service (ARMS), a nonprofit coalition of 14 churches and volunteers that has been helping the needy in Jefferson County since 1975. The organization has applied for funding from the Post-News Season to Share campaign.
Bolduc said ARMS funding helped him pay rent, utilities and food bills when he desperately needed it.
Now Bolduc receives Social Security disability relief, and money issues aren’t as pressing. He volunteers with the nonprofit as a member of the ARMS Pen Pal program, which matches elementary school students and adults.
“Because of their kind generosity with everything they’ve done, I try to help them as much as I can,” Bolduc said.
The ARMS Pen Pal program helps students improve reading and writing skills.
Volunteers such as Bolduc assist more than 300 students each year, said Ivy Malden, the nonprofit’s executive director and its only full-time paid staff member.
All told, ARMS uses about 230 volunteers to serve more than 2,000 clients annually, said Malden, who has been at the helm for 16 years.
“If someone is struggling or in pain or hungry, I’m very pained because I feel connected; it’s a human connection,” Malden said. “I feel very lucky I’ve found this job that helps me to help others.”
Seventy-five-year-old Dawn Floerke is among the army of volunteers that Malden and ARMS clients have come to rely on.
Floerke, who is legally blind, began volunteering seven years ago.
“I was losing my eyesight. I wanted to do something so I wouldn’t feel so sorry for myself,” Floerke said. “I wanted to do something good.”
Inter-Church ARMS (Arvada Resource for Ministry and Service)
Address: 5400 Ward Road, Arvada
In operation since: 1975
Number served last year: 2,000
Staff: One full-time, volunteers
Yearly budget: $170,000
Percentage of funds directly to clients/services: 92 percent
Kieran Nicholson: 303-954-1822 or knicholson@denverpost.com
