Southern Colorado Cares Telethon raises hundreds of thousands for Aspen Acres Fire relief

PUEBLO, Colo. (KRDO) -- If there's one silver lining to the destruction caused by the Aspen Acres Fire, it's the way the community has rallied to help the people affected.

Along with our partners at United Way of Southern Colorado, the Southern Colorado Cares Telethon raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to aid fire victims, with every penny staying in Southern Colorado.

"It's helping restore my faith in humans," volunteer Karen Yescavage said. She was moved to tears after accepting a $500 donation from a person living near the evacuation zone. "We can be so ugly to each other. Now to see all this outpouring of help. I love this town, and I love our mountains, and I'm so happy that everyone is stepping in and stepping up."

The original goal was to raise $100,000, but that was quickly surpassed. The goal was raised again to $200,000, then $250,000, and again to $275,000, which was also surpassed.

The community's generosity will go a long way to helping a lot of people.

"Pueblo is just that kind of community where you see someone struggling and you come back and you help them, even if it's just a little amount, like making sure that a child has their favorite color toy or something. Pueblo's always there to do something like that," said Abigail Reeder, who is Miss Pueblo West for 2025-26.

"The community is always willing to step up and show up for each other," said United Way of Southern Colorado President Shanna Farmer. "But we're talking numbers like we have never seen before. So I am blown away by how quickly this funding came in."

The phones rang constantly. Even when the telethon ended, volunteers stayed to accept more donations as calls continued to come in. Those volunteers said the calls came in from Pueblo, to Colorado Springs and Castle Rock, even reaching out later on Thursday to share how touched they were with the whole Southern Colorado community.

"So many of my loved ones have lost everything in Beulah," Yescavage said. "To know that there seems to be people calling to help us, it's really heartwarming."

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