Guldy’s life lessons lead her to help others

For Cindy Guldy, paying it forward has become a way of life.

“When I first came to Loveland, I was a single mom. I know what it’s like to struggle,” she said. Thirty-seven years later, she’s continuing to focus on reducing that effort for others.

One of the volunteer projects on which Guldy has worked in this mission in mind is the House of Neighborly Service. The organization offers comprehensive emergency basic-needs services for low-income and impoverished residents and people in financial or situational crises.

“We had a retreat to look into the future, and all of us came up with the same idea that we needed a new facility,” she said. “There just wasn’t enough room, and we were having to turn volunteers away.”

Taking what Guldy calls a leap of faith, the board took on the project. “We wanted to put a lot of services in the same building because we knew that, for a single mom, getting from one place to another could be a burden.”

About $3.5 million later, the nonprofit has bought a 62,000-square-foot building that will house about 20 social-service agencies under one roof.

“I made the first ask for half a million dollars, and we went from there,” Guldy said. “It’s easy to ask when you know it’s going to help someone. I’ve learned that when you ask for help, it’s the ultimate compliment.”

Guldy learned that lesson during her early days in Loveland, when she was waiting on tables and wanting to take the personal leap to build her own business. 

“I built my business by calling on customers and asked them to help me and was able to build my whole business on referrals,” she said.

She has been a successful financial-services professional with New York Life for 35 years.

Another fundraising activity in which Guldy has had her hand benefited the McKee Breast Center in Loveland. Working with a team, she created a “Dr. Zhivago Party” complete with moonlit horse-drawn carriage rides, black caviar and wine from Russia and sunflowers.

“People dressed in fur coats and hats, and we had live music and a five-course meal,” Guldy said. “People pay a lot to have fun for a good cause.”

The event raised $10,000.

Another benefit on which Guldy worked came about through her work with the Rotary Club of Loveland. The group created a program that would address childhood hunger.

“Kids would come into the school nurse’s office hungry on Monday mornings,” she said. During the school week, those same kids were getting breakfasts and lunches through a school meal program, but on weekends they were less fortunate.

The club created the Kids Pak program as a weekend hunger-relief program for children in the Thompson School District. Each pack holds enough food, which meets the nutritional requirements for children, to feed a child for the weekend. The food chosen allows children to be able to fix their own meals.

The program currently serves 30 elementary, middle and high schools with about 430 packs each week. 

“I’ve been really blessed by getting a lot of support from this community,” she said, “and I feel like volunteering in the best way to give back.”

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