Hundreds of people experiencing homelessness lined up across the street from the Capitol on Monday, where 250 volunteers across metro Denver hosted a free flea market for winter survival gear called, "Christmas in the Park."
The event, an annual tradition held in Veteran's Park for roughly 15 years, is organized by AfterHours Denver, a Methodist church that meets in local bars and worships by making lunches for people experiencing homelessness.
Individuals and congregations from Temple Sinai to the Washington Park United Methodist Church participate in the annual event and try to give people who are living on the streets what they need to survive the cold winter.
Volunteers handed out sleeping bags, Snickers bars, shoes, coats, hygiene products, duct tape, and other winter survival gear to roughly 550 people.
"We try to make the shopping experience as individualized as possible," said Logan Robertson, the pastor of AfterHours. "People can come in and kind of choose what they want. It's not just one size fits all. And we want to make sure that it's as dignified experience as it can be for the people who are here."
At least eight faith communities hosted various stations where people can pick out the items they need.
St. Andrew United Methodist Church, in Highlands Ranch, has been coming to the park since 2011.
"This is something that we do with our church every year," said Linda Wilson. "It's a way of giving back. It's become part of our Christmas tradition. We have family members that come in. They come and do this. Our children come in. They do this. It's the ability to give back to those that don't have, so it's been a blessing for all of us."
Families at Wilson's church wake up, attend services, celebrate Christmas with their loved ones and then come to the park, she said. Afterwards, they go back home to enjoy Christmas dinner and talk about their experience.
"We can discuss the people that we've met, the ability to give, and then just be with friends," Wilson said.
Though the event celebrates a Christian holiday, it's not just Christians volunteering at Christmas in the Park.
"These are really just volunteers from the community -- community volunteers from various ethnicities, various churches, various organizations, and some that don't even have an organization," Wilson said. "They just found out somebody was doing this and said I want to help."
Temple Sinai volunteers, who stocked the winter accessories table this year, have been collecting items to donate since October.
The congregation has been volunteering for Christmas in the Park since it first began.
"I collect new hats, gloves, scarves," said Susan Levine, a volunteer who organizes the Sinai's participation in the event. "The temple women knit hats and gloves for us. We get tarps. We get donations through members of the temple. And our Rabbi has donated. I go wholesale and buy all this stuff."
Christmas, for the Jewish community, can be an alienating holiday, but helping people in the park gives congregants a purpose.
"It's rewarding," she said. "I mean, what would we do? We would sit home and do nothing."
Looking at the crowd of people in line, Levine finds it hard to comprehend how many people are in need this year. "We haven't seen this in a long time," she said.
The annual event comes after Mayor Mike Johnston has spent months trying to shelter 1,000 people living in encampments on the streets of Denver.
Johnston did not participate in the Christmas in the Park event.
No public figures do, explained Wilson, though she'd like to see more participation from local leaders.
Johnston and others have been doing other seasonal volunteer work around the city. The mayor has regularly met with unhoused Denverites throughout his first six months in office and has made solving the issue his number one priority.
As of Christmas Day, Johnston's administration had brought 865 people inside, according to the city's House1000 dashboard. The mayor promises Denver will continue to work toward his goal of sheltering 1,000 people by the end of the year. Next year, he plans to shelter another 1,000.
Volunteers at the event said they were heartened that the mayor was taking the issue seriously, bringing social service providers together to work with the administration and attempting to bring people indoors.
Several noted that homelessness appears to be on the rise, a likely byproduct of record-high evictions and the arrival of thousands of migrants from the southern border who have nowhere to stay.
Though the mayor's working to shelter people, he's likely not outpacing the number of people entering homelessness, volunteers observed.
"It's definitely not diminishing, unfortunately," said Gee Singh, a volunteer with AfterHours.
What does Singh want to see from the administration?
"Stay present," he said.
