Boulder County treats its residents to natural beauty, a natural take on food, high-tech business innovation, and a fabulous lifestyle. This picturesque image makes the county’s poverty statistics a bit startling. Just over 16% of Boulder County children live below the poverty line, according to a 2015 study by a group of Boulder County non-profits.

That meant nearly 10,000 children in our community could have missed presents under the tree this Christmas. This sobering statistic inspired a band of seven Voltage employees to pitch in and help kids this December. We headed to Boulder’s Share-A-Gift warehouse just before the holiday as part of Voltage’s Force for Good initiative and worked for families in need by volunteering at the 44-year-old gift-giving organization.

A towering wall of stuffed animals, rows of toys, a corral of bicycles and many friendly volunteer faces greeted our little band. And we arrived just in time. A truckload of toy donations showed up the same time we did. For one afternoon, we donned our Santa hats and ferried toys from the parking lot to the warehouse, then helped organize and shelve hundreds of toys.

The Share-A-Gift program provides toys, books, and bicycles for low-income families. Since 1972, Share-A -Gift has served Boulder County families and this year as many as 600 parents came to the Share-A-Gift warehouse, selected gifts, and took them home to more than 2,000 children.

In addition to volunteering our time, Voltage employees donated new and used toys to the drive as well as making monetary donations. It was an honor and privilege to spend the afternoon working for Boulder County kids. We look forward to helping again in the future. You can learn more about this awesome organization or volunteer yourself at Share-A-Gift.org.