Three upcoming FamilyLife Weekend to Remember marriage getaways are coming to Colorado and The Shelter Foundation is proud to continue our partnership provide discounted rates and scholarships! Attend one of three weekends in Estes Park or Colorado Springs.

On Sunday, June 26th the OneGoat Foundation held its annual Flip Flop Gala at the Hilton Inverness Hotel to celebrate local first responders and their impact in our community. Deputy Zack Parrish along with David Fancher of South Adams County Fire Department were honored as First Responders of the Year.

It has been a busy and exciting couple of months since we relaunched The Shelter Foundation and debuted our new website on March 1. Thank you for your continued and faithful support both financially and prayerfully. Here’s what we’re up to this summer…

Gracie Parrish Miller reflects on her visit to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington D.C. during National Police Week in 2018 four years later.

The Shelter Foundation is proud to partner with Eagle’s Nest Ranch to sponsor The First Responder Families’ Buckaroo Days this summer! The event includes three fun-filled days of games, hayrides, horse fun, crafts, snacks and a devotional and local law enforcement and firefighters with children 5 - 17 are invited to attend this no cost day of fun at the Ranch as a thank you for continued service to our community.

Gracie Parrish Miller joined the The Hopecast podcast to discuss her story of first responder loss and things she learned along with host Rachael Flick who loser her husband Micah Flick in 2018 to a line of duty death in Colorado. Click the links on this page to view or download the podcast.

It is with great excitement that we are launching the latest chapter of The Shelter Foundation. This new phase comes with a new website and a new logo, but the same (and renewed) urge and conviction to bring hope to the families of first responders.

Gracie Parrish Miller joined the Nothing is Wasted podcast and hosts Davey and Kristi Blackburn to discuss her story of loss, grief, redemption, and newfound purpose. Click the links on this page to view or download the podcast.

It was a strong calling and conviction to start The Shelter Foundation in the wake of loss. While I had no experience or education in creating a non-profit, I jumped in and God provided and led me each day.

Gracie Parrish spoke at an awards ceremony Monday evening hosted by the Colorado Organization for Victim Assistance for the 40th anniversary of National Crime Victims’ Rights Week, recognizing people and organizations who provided exemplary victims’ services and advocacy in 2020.

Deputy Zack S. Parrish III Memorial Park opened in Castle Rock, a 5.5-acre park at 2020 Fiddle Road. It honors the public safety profession and the men and women who work to keep the community safe.

Here are 13 signs you might be a firefighter family…

Your husband comes home from a long, exhausting 24, 48, or 72-hour shift and you must readjust to life with a partner again, after just getting the hang of things on your own. The firefighter schedule may seem easy to your friends whose husbands have 9-5 jobs, Monday-Friday, but for you it’s a total life readjustment – one that requires patience, understanding, and excellent communication skills.

“The key to spotting a fake,” he told me, “is knowing the real thing so well that the second you come into contact with a fake, you know it without thinking.” As a Christian, do I know the real Jesus so well, so intimately, that I can tell the difference between Him and all the counterfeits the world throws at me every day?

There are only so many hours in a day, there are only so many days in a year, and we only have so many years to live…The kicker of course being that our number of years, or days, is unknown.

How are you spending those hours? And more importantly, who or what are you honoring with your time?

It’s amazing how much reflection you do while grieving. You look back and pick apart every inch of your time with that person, reflecting on the highs and lows together.

I’ve often thought about what I’d say to Zack if he could come back and sit with me for a few hours. What would I tell him knowing that his time was short and eternity was calling him back?

At age 28, my husband and I found ourselves in an E.R. room filling out a POA and Living Will now planning my funeral as my life is dwindling away to stage 3 sarcoma cancer.

Where is joy to be found in planning one another’s funerals before my 30th birthday? How can life be lived abundantly while burdened with so much hurt, pain, fear, and despair?

I sat in the parking lot for hours as my dear friend sobbed over her broken marriage. She was lost, hurting, confused, unsure of the future. I sat and listened and loved her. I cannot fix her marriage.

What we can do is hold each other up in the midst of this crazy life.

Where is God on the job? I think that we honor Him when we seek him on the job…and that means that we have to treat every call we respond to in a way that glorifies him – with a serving heart no matter the recipient.

Who we recognize ourselves to be and how others know us becomes our identity, which shapes everything else in our lives. When we place our identity in anything or anyone other than Christ, we are failing to recognize the new creation we have become, by grace through faith, in Him.