Woodland Park Started in 2016

Shawn Nielsen and Eve Woody

Shawn Nielsen is the founder of Focus on the forest. Shawn was born in Whittier California. He is the oldest of seven kids. He went into the army on February 10th 1986. After his service he got a job as a pipe fitter. He did that for seven years when he joined a plumbing and heating company where he remained for his career. He spent his free time as an avid backpacker. On September 6th 2016 while camping with Eve woody he found a big trash pile behind his campsite. After cleaning it up for the umpteenth time, he had an idea. He wanted to see if he could get people together and clean up the forest. He presented it to his wife Eve who came up with the name, Focus on the Forest. On October 1st 2016 he hosted his first event where seventy-eight people showed up and they all tried to clean up the entire forest in one day. After that didn’t work he knew there was a lot more work and planning to do. He knew he was onto something. The first cleanup became a big hit. FOCUS on the Forest was born!

Aaron Horner and Bree Horner

Aaron joined Focus on the Forest at the beginning. Initially helping as a volunteer he took on a more active role as a board member within a few months. He helps with operating decisions and is a regular group lead during clean up events.

Aaron is an outdoor adventure enthusiast who enjoys hiking, biking, canoeing, backpacking, snowshoeing cross-country skiing, camping, photography, and just being outdoors. He has backpacked part of the Gore Range trail and the western side of the Collegiate Loop trail, and the Inca Trail in Peru, bicycled the Oregon Coast, in Italy, and from Missoula, MT to Anchorage, AK via Fairbanks, and canoed the Colorado River from Loma, CO to Westwater, UT.

Aaron joined Focus on the Forest as a way to take care of the environment he enjoys and to give back to the community. He enjoys sharing nature and the experience of being out in the wilderness with everyone he can and sees Focus on the Forest as a great way to share the beauty of the woods with others. Aaron regularly participates in Focus on the Forest events with his daughter, Bree Horner, who has become a board member, and his partner Kathy.

While Aaron joined Focus on the Forest to give back to the community, it is the Focus on the Forest community that keeps him coming back.

Bree joined Focus on the Forest at the beginning in 2016 as a volunteer with her dad Aaron. She went to every clean up, helping to find locations of trash dump sites. In 2019 she took on a more active role with the board by taking over the social media pages. Currently, she is still on the board with her main roles being social media, creating and updating the website, and being a lead on cleanups.

Bree is an outdoor enthusiast who enjoys; hiking, paddle boarding, trail running, backpacking, camping, photography, and rock climbing! She loves any adventure that takes her into the woods. Bree graduated from Pike Peak State College with an Outdoor Leadership and Recreation Technology degree. She has worked with multiple trail crews to build and maintain trails all around the Southern Front Range part of Colorado. Some of her favorite projects she has worked on are Broken Hand Pass in the Sangre De Cristo Mountain Range and the Colorado Trail.

Bree joined Focus on the Forest initially to have time with her dad. It became a great way to connect with others and feel like she was making a difference in her community. She loved being outside with like minded people and sharing the outdoor environment with others. She can’t wait to continue to work with Focus on the Forest to help it grow and reach even more of the community.

Michael Strobo

Michael began volunteering for Focus on the Forest in 2021, after responding to a Facebook post about one of our cleanups. He has a history of volunteer stewardship including: trail maintenance for Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado and Colorado Fourteeners Initiative, semi-annual Car Care Clinic through Rocky Mountain Calvary Church, and a decade long stint with Camp of the Hills in Smithwick, Texas. His passion for public lands and the enjoyment of nature lead him to move from Texas to Colorado in 2016. He joined the board in 2025. He believes in never walking past a problem, leaving a place cleaner than you found it and he promises to never eat the last bite of ice cream! 🙂

Monument/Tri-lakes started in 2018

Jimmy Zelones and Tyson Reese

Jimmy and Tyson organized their own cleanup in June of 2017 at a shooting area near Rampart Reservoir on forest road 320. During that cleanup they ran into a Forest Service volunteer who shared about a new organization they should look into called Focus on the Forest. In September of 2017 Jimmy reached out to Shawn and Eve about getting involved in a clean up. Shawn invited them out for the Pre-Labor day cleanup. After helping with almost every cleanup they worked with Shawn about starting a new chapter in Monument. Focus on the Forest Monument/Tri-Lakes officially started in April of 2018. Both Jimmy and Tyson are board members and are always out looking to clean up our back yard!

Black forest started in 2024

Meredith Hoffsetter-Kelleher and Bryan Hoffsetter

Bryan and Meredith became involved after their good friends Jimmy and Tyson asked for help with a cleanup event in 2020. What started as lending a hand quickly turned into a passion for serving and being part of this organization. Meredith enjoys cooking in her personal life and now helps out in the kitchen on every cleanup. Bringing creative fun lunches, like taco bar and homemade smoked brisket sandwiches. Bryan serves as a group lead on the cleanups. They both love what they do and look forward to continuing their work with Focus on the Forest for years to come.