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Golden gentlemen found a way to bring the community together

Brian Coles, one of the founding members of the Gentlemen's Leisure Club of Golden, discusses his work in the community.
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Gentlemen’s Leisure Club of Golden member Brian Coles

When you see something missing in your community, do you complain about it, or do you do something about it?

Brian Coles, a founding member of the Gentlemen's Leisure Club of Golden, admits he did his fair share of complaining before he and six of his friends decided to take matters into their own hands almost four years ago.

"Lots of people will moan about what they want… so we decided to start acting on it," said Coles. "We knew we wanted to settle down here, I know I did, so this was a way to make the community what we wanted, and kind of give back at the same time."

The Gentlemen's Leisure Club of Golden formed because the seven founding members wanted to see more organized events that brought the transient community (such as the seasonal workers) together with the more settled community in Golden.

"It started with a ski swap in Brady's (Starr) front yard. That was one of the events we definitely wanted to see, there hadn't been a ski swap here for about five years at that point. So it just went from there," he said.

Major events like a ski swap, movie festival, or moustache competition (the Movember Internationally Acclaimed Moustache Competition to be exact) takes a lot of time to organize, but with the Gentlemen's Club their volunteer hours spent never feel like work.

"We had lived together, and when we all moved out this was a good excuse to all be hanging out in someone's basement again," said Coles. "It's a lot of fun, and it's really rewarding to be able to do things like this."

And of course there is always a large group of people eager to help the guys out at the events.

"There's a pretty good core group of people who volunteer and help us out at pretty much every event, we definitely couldn't do it without them."

In the past the Gentlemen's Club has raised funds at their events, either to help fund other projects, or to benefit an individual or group in the community. Moving forward, however, they would like to focus their efforts on improving outdoor infrastructure around Golden.

"Outdoor recreation is definitely our main focus, so anything we can help build around town for everyone to use, and leave a bit of a legacy, is what we want," said Coles.

In the meantime, the boys are still at it, organizing community events to keep people social and active. They have started a weekly horseshoe game at the Golden Horseshoe Club. Every Monday night at 6 p.m. everyone is welcome to join the club for a game and a barbecue.

On May 2 they're also hosting a Bike and Outdoor Gear Swap at the parking lot by Town Hall from 1 to 3 p.m. To learn more about this and other Gentlemen's Club events, like them on Facebook.

"The community support has been really great," said Coles. "So as long as people keep coming and giving us good feedback, we'll keep on doing it."