Left Hand Laurel - Janet Gates

Janet Gates' wide range of volunteer efforts benefiting the Niwot, Gunbarrel, and surrounding communities have earned her the December Left Hand Laurel.

Gates grew up in Gunbarrel, graduated from Niwot High School in 1984, moved out of state, then returned 13 years ago as a single mother with two small children.

Immediately in need of a path to support herself and her family, her father suggested that she might start by cleaning people's homes. That led her to start her current business, Cleaning Thyme.

Soon afterwards, her previous boss from Bellevue, Washington, called up one day to offer her a position as his administrative assistant. "What are you thinking?" she asked. "I am living in Colorado." But he assured her she could work remotely for him.

This led to the creation of Gates Logic, which provides project coordination for grant-funded research projects in transportation.

Gates, a Niwot resident, is also active in many efforts to give back to the community she loves.

She works with the Outreach United Resource Center, known as OUR Center, which began operations in Longmont 1986 to help people gain self sufficiency.

According to their website, the OUR Center serves over 100,000 meals in a year, distributes over one million pounds of emergency groceries to over 18,000 households to provide a better community while providing compassionate support for the needy population, whether it is the homeless, working poor, aging or despondent.

Through the Niwot United Methodist Church, Gates works to provide toiletries and food items monthly to the OUR Center.

She also works with TGTHR, formerly Attention Homes, and pronounced "Together," which addresses homelessness for at-risk youths.

Gates has also worked with The Reentry Initiative which "offers a unique, evidence-based process that combines mental health and substance abuse treatment with comprehensive support services to individuals on probation and on parole in the St. Vrain Valley region of Boulder County, Colorado."

Each year, Gates shows up at Niwot's Wine About Winter event to serve soup samples in order to entice people to come to the free Soup, Soup and More community gathering she coordinates at the Niwot United Methodist Church. The hundred of dollars of donations received from the Soup gathering last year were distributed to charitable organizations.

Other free community events coordinated by Gates include a Trunk-Or-Treat Halloween activity that offers free and safe trick-or-treating and games for kids and a Back-To-School afternoon filled with free games and goodies for the children of the community.

You can also see Gates marching in almost any parade in Niwot and attending other events such as Rock & Rails. When asked what motivates her to be so active for her community, Gates said, "We can make a difference in the world, one person at a time, one community at a time."