BLACK HAWK — Gilpin County residents may need to rely on one another when a wildfire, severe weather, or another emergency strikes. 

Gilpin County Stronger Together showed them how to help.

Community organizations gathered at the Gilpin County Community Center on Sunday, June 14, 2026, to connect residents with volunteer opportunities.

The Gilpin County Sheriff’s Office organized Gilpin County Stronger Together as a volunteer recruitment event. Tables filled the multipurpose room with information from Gilpin Ambulance Authority, Timberline Fire Protection District, No Animal Left Behind, the High Country Auxiliary, animal evacuation teams, and other community partners.

Gilpin County Sheriff’s Office representatives greet visitors at the volunteer fair.

Photo by Mindy Leary

Undersheriff Greg Demo said the event was also an opportunity to highlight cooperation among local agencies and nonprofit organizations.

“Part of my reason for doing this is to show our collaboration with all our partners in the high country and our 501(c)(3) nonprofits because they play such an important role in our success,” Demo said. “We all work together to make the community better.”

Sheriff Kevin Armstrong said it can be difficult to find people willing to step up, but the County hopes to form a Community Emergency Response Team made up of volunteers who could assist during wildfires and other emergencies. Anyone interested can reach out to the Sheriff’s Office.

In its infancy, the group, commonly known as CERT (Community Emergency Response Team), would train residents to assist during emergencies with jobs that do not require a law enforcement officer or firefighter, such as delivering food, helping with roadblocks, or performing other support duties.

Steven Mingura, Director of the Office of Emergency Management, said volunteers are especially important in a mountain county where outside assistance may take time to arrive.

“We are so kind of landlocked, if you will, from any emergency aid that comes through mutual aid contracts or agreements that I’d like to establish our own community response teams and elicit that in there so we’re able to help each other,” Mingura said.

Timberline Fire representatives offered information about volunteer firefighting. The district accepts applicants from outside its boundaries, unlike other districts. This gives aspiring firefighters from all over the state an opportunity to train and gain experience.

TFPD now brings new volunteers into one large onboarding class each January. Representatives said the organized approach allows recruits to move through training together and has improved retention.

The High Country Auxiliary also recruits volunteers to support emergency responders. The group provides food and drinks when Timberline firefighters are called to extended incidents. It also raises money for equipment, including drones for the Gilpin County Sheriff’s Office and emergency alert devices distributed through Gilpin Ambulance.

At the ambulance authority table, residents learned about Gilpin CARES, which stands for Community Assistance Referral and Education Services. The program helps seniors and other residents identify hazards inside their homes, manage medications, connect with services, and obtain medical equipment.

The free emergency alert devices are also available. Some connect to landlines, while portable GPS models can be carried outside the home anywhere cellular service is available.

Gilpin Ambulance displays a portable emergency alert device.

Photo by Mindy Leary

“Our number one goal is just to ensure that any resident in the county, primarily our seniors, have a comfortable, safe environment to work in or to live in,” Gilpin Ambulance representative Bobby Putnam said.

Animal safety was another major part of the event. Members of the Front Range Animal Evacuation Team explained how trained volunteers enter evacuation areas under law enforcement direction, transport animals, and document where each animal is taken.

The team primarily handles horses and other large animals but may also rescue dogs, cats, birds (30 homing pigeons were once rescued), chickens, and other animals encountered at a property. Volunteers provide their own trucks, trailers, equipment, and animal-handling skills.

Meanwhile, a separate training was underway at the barn beside the community center.

No Animal Left Behind founder Brittanie Dickson and others led a mock emergency exercise for the newly formed No Animal Left Behind Emergency Response Team, or NALB-ERT. The nonprofit team is effectively replacing the former Gilpin County Animal Response Team known as G-CART.

Dickson said the Sheriff’s Office wanted to partner with a nonprofit organization to provide animal evacuation and sheltering assistance. No Animal Left Behind already had experience finding lost pets and helping displaced, injured, and lost animals throughout the county.

The new emergency response team expands that work to wildfires and other disasters. Twenty-five people had joined the team by the time of the training.

During the exercise, volunteers responded to a simulated wildfire near Rollinsville. Teams practiced receiving assignments, inspecting trailers, collecting animals from mock addresses, documenting injuries, and checking animals into a temporary shelter.

“The more people we have, especially, like, trailers and large animal experience and small animal experience, just the better,” Dickson said. “We need more hands on deck because eventually here we’re going to get something.”

The event offered many ways to help, from volunteering as a firefighter or animal rescuer to providing meals, organizing supplies, or helping neighbors prepare for an emergency.