Teen boys and moms serve organizations facing insecurity
Young Men’s Service League (moms and sons) at Habitat for Humanity of Metro Denver. From left to right: Hope Marie Hooper, Evan Hooper (back), Jan Lam Etz, Lucas Lam Etz and Brayden Hooper.
In September, members of the Young Men’s Service League (YMSL) Douglas County chapter spent two weekends tackling overdue projects for Habitat for Humanity of Metro Denver (HH). Through their Ultimate Gift, an annual signature service YMSL initiative that allows chapters to go above and beyond their regular volunteer commitments, 168 members (high-school-aged young men and their mothers) spent more than 350 hours completing wish list items for HH. This included projects to improve the landscaping and parking lot areas: weeding, picking up trash, adding landscape rock, painting parking barriers and cleaning up and painting the loading dock area.
“2026 is the 25th anniversary of the YMSL Ultimate Gift and our chapter wanted to make an extraordinary impact through our service and member participation for our project this year,” said Jaime Babcock, the Ultimate Gift chair and Oakwood Lane resident.
YMSL also focused its efforts on supporting individuals and families experiencing food insecurity. Members collected more than 470 pounds of food donations for Help & Hope Center and decorated food bags for Project Angel Heart.
Canyons resident Hope Marie Hooper and son Evan were founding members of the Douglas County YMSL. Evan, a junior, and Brayden, a freshman, attend Rock Canyon High School and both participated in the projects.
“With our help, these organizations can thrive to support our community,” said Evan (17). “For me, it’s fun because I can work with my YMSL teammates and we all work together to give back.” Brayden (14) added that he enjoyed helping the community.
The YMSL is a national nonprofit for mothers and high school sons to complete service projects in their communities. There are 226 chapters across 24 states.
For more information, visit ymsl.org.
Members of YMSL gathered for two weekends to help do small projects for Habitat for Humanity Metro Denver.
By Hollen Wheeler; photos courtesy of Kristi Calfee and Hope Hooper
