Colorado Lottery Celebrates Lottery Conservation Month

Colorado Lottery Conservation Month Celebrates Conservation and Stewardship Through Month-Long Volunteer Events to Benefit Colorado’s Outdoors

Pueblo, CO (October 2, 2024) — Gov. Jared Polis has proclaimed October 2024 Colorado Lottery Conservation Month to celebrate the Lottery’s impact on conservation, stewardship, protection, and growth of the places Coloradans play. To help drive awareness about the Lottery’s impact on Colorado’s outdoors, the Lottery has partnered with organizations throughout the month to promote conservation volunteer events.

The Lottery exists to grow revenue to support Colorado’s outdoors and schools. Its net revenue is almost entirely dedicated to supporting the state’s second-largest economic driver: Colorado’s great outdoors, and its parks, trails, recreation, open space, and wildlife. The Colorado Lottery is the only lottery in the world whose majority of proceeds go primarily to benefit the outdoors, and it has generated over $4.2 billion to-date.

As part of its commitment, on Oct. 5, the Lottery will host its 6th annual Runyon to the Res Arkansas river cleanup in Pueblo, which is the home of the Colorado Lottery’s headquarters. The volunteer event invites Pueblo residents, employees, and partners to participate in a hands-on clean-up event as part of the month. Hosted along with partners Colorado Parks and Wildlife, the City of Pueblo Parks and Recreation, and the Nature and Wildlife Discovery Center in Pueblo, volunteers will help clean up garbage and debris along the popular river.

Interested volunteers can sign up here. Volunteers will be treated to breakfast and lunch and receive all the supplies needed to help clean up this popular Colorado attraction.

The Lottery will also sponsor a Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado (VOC) volunteer event to help make ADA improvements to trails in Ridgway State Park on October 19-20. Volunteers will join the Lottery and VOC in the picturesque Ridgway State Park, just 15 miles from Ouray, to contribute to constructing a new trail, enhancing accessibility, and diverting visitors from the road. This project aims to increase ADA accessibility, making Ridgway State Park a safer and more inclusive space for recreation. Volunteers can create an account and RSVP to volunteer here.

“We are proud to be hosting our 6th Runyon to the Res event this year during Conservation Month,” said Tom Seaver, director of the Colorado Lottery. “We are encouraged every year

that we fill our full limit of volunteers from the community, partners, and Lottery staff, who get to do the actual work to keep Colorado clean and beautiful.”

As of today, the Lottery has returned more than $4.2 billion to parks, recreation, conservation projects, and schools; in fiscal year 2024, the Lottery gave more than $196 million to its proceeds partners.

During October, the Lottery also supports the Colorado Open Space Alliance, Colorado Partners in the Outdoors, and Connecting Colorado at their annual conferences.

About Colorado Lottery

Since 1983, the Colorado Lottery has returned more than $4.2 billion to outdoor projects through Great Outdoors Colorado, the Conservation Trust Fund, Colorado Parks and Wildlife,  the Outdoor Equity Grant Program, and to schools through Building Excellent Schools Today. Proceeds from sales of Colorado Lottery games – Scratch, Powerball, Mega Millions, Colorado Lotto+, Lucky for Life, Cash 5, and Pick 3 – enhance, protect, improve parks, trails, and open space in Colorado. For more information, visit coloradolottery.com.

SOURCE: Colorado Lottery.