Mean Street Ministry is requesting donations of new, unwrapped gifts for Christmas on Colfax, a Christmas party for homeless families and individuals living a day-to-day existence in the small motels that line Colfax Avenue in Lakewood and Denver. Gifts may be brought to Grace Fellowship of Lakewood, 9210 W. 2nd Avenue, Lakewood, the co-sponsor of Christmas on Colfax. Gifts will be accepted through December 13.

Especially needed are new children's gifts, for all age ranges, to allow parents to pick out a toy to give to their child. Suggested gifts for adults include warm socks, boxes of candy, manicure sets, brush and comb sets, and toiletries for family-care packages. All donations are tax deductible: Mean Street Ministry is a 501(c)(3)-status charitable organization. Grace Fellowship of Lakewood can be reached at 303-233-7017 .

Christmas on Colfax will be held for 300 guests on Sunday, December 14, 3:00 - 6:00 pm at the VFW, 4747 W. Colfax Avenue, Denver, with shuttle service from and back to the motels. The party features a turkey dinner with all the trimmings, live entertainment, and gifts for everyone in attendance. In November invitations to the event were handed out by Mean Street volunteers to residents of motels and shelters and housing projects on Colfax Avenue. These volunteers, about a dozen people grouped into threes, knock on doors and offer burritos, sweets, and fruit, an extensive resource guide for every kind of need, toiletries, bibles, bus tokens, formula and diapers, toys and books, prayer, a caring presence, and a listening ear.

Mean Street is a multi-denominational Christian outreach ministry whose mission is to help meet the immediate needs of the working poor and homeless stuck in motels or housing projects, and ultimately to help families get into their own decent apartments. It is not unusual to find families of five or more dwelling in one motel room. Usually at least one adult in the family has a job, often as a day laborer, but the earnings are barely enough to cover the costs for a night in the motel -- $30 to $40 a day -- or to save for the monthly rent, leaving little or nothing for other necessities.

Because the balancing act of earning just enough to stay off the streets is so precarious, it doesn't take much of an unforeseeable circumstance to bounce a family back to the shelters or the streets. All these desperate people dream of leaving the day-to-day existence of motel life, of getting into an apartment of their own where they and their children can be safe and stable. An apartment would be less expensive than a motel over the course of a month, but saving up the first-month's rent and deposit is often not possible.

For families meeting certain criteria, the goal of Mean Street Ministry is to synergize with other missions to supply first-month's rent and deposit and help find and furnish an apartment. Mean Street also assigns a trained family mentor to help with the transition and encourage long-term success.

Mean Street Ministry was founded by Chaplain James Fry. Chaplain Fry can be reached at (303) 237-0443.