Volunteer Opportunities
Calling all eager volunteers!
Do you love animals? Do you love the great outdoors? Are you looking to complete volunteer hours for your school, NHS program, work, or scholarship? In that case, the Flying W Ranch and the Flying W Ranch Foundation may be exactly what you are looking for.
Volunteer Opportunities Include
Non-Chuckwagon Volunteer Activities:
- Installing Log Erosion Barriers to minimize run-off
- Seeding and Mulching projects
- Woody debris removal and scatter
- Weeding
- Thinning overgrown vegetation
- Cleaning stalls, etc.
Chuckwagon Volunteer Activities
If you love people, animals and being outdoors and can only volunteer a few days per week, then the Chuckwagon may be right up your alley. Activities include:
- Walking ponies and other ranch animals
- Aiding in educational activities to enhance the Western grounds experience
If you’d like to volunteer at the Flying W Ranch, please fill out the volunteer interest form on this page. With your help, we can continue to repair and preserve the living legacy of the Flying W Ranch.
Recovering from the Waldo Canyon Fire – The Flying W Foundation
On June, 26, 2012, the Waldo Canyon Fire consumed the Flying W Ranch. Nearly every major media outlet, including the New York Times, NPR, the Wall Street Journal, the Denver Post, Fox News, CNN, and the LA Times, carried the story of the loss of the much beloved Ranch. Local newscasters wept as they told the story. The Ranch had touched the lives and hearts of seven million people from its inception in 1953. Twenty-nine buildings, Old West artifacts collected over several lifetimes, and Ranch homes were gone. Out of the entire western town, only one small building, one teepee, and one wooden cross remained. After the fire, the Wolfe family spent millions of dollars on mitigation efforts, and tirelessly worked to restore the landscape.
Following the destruction of the Flying W Ranch and 346 homes within the neighboring community of Mountain Shadows, the Flying W Ranch Foundation was formed. The Flying W Ranch Foundation is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization based in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The purposes of the Foundation are to restore and mitigate the Waldo Canyon burn area, preserve the history of the West, and be a blessing to the community.
With the help of other non-profit organizations, government agencies and countless volunteers, the Flying W Ranch Foundation is bringing natural beauty back to the hill slopes of Colorado Springs.
Work of the Flying W Ranch Foundation includes:
Installing log erosion control structures to stabilize hill slopes and drainages prone to flood events
Planting seed and spreading mulch over acres of burned terrain
Planting saplings to jumpstart the restoration of the forest
Removing noxious weeds
Forest Mastication of burned tree stands
