Help Michael Seth restore the Walsenburg Old Mill and bring hope back to the community.

Michael Seth isn’t just chasing a job — he’s chasing a calling. For nearly 30 years, he’s been a deck builder known for the strength of his work and the honesty of his word. Now, he’s answering a deeper purpose: to use his skills, his recovery, and his heart to restore hope in his community.

“I’ve developed calloused hands and cultivated a tender heart. I want to use both — to build what people need, not just what they can afford.”

The Dream

Michael has secured the historic Walsenburg “Old Mill” property in southern Colorado — once a vital landmark, now sitting blighted and empty. His dream is to restore it into a thriving nonprofit hub: a place for affordable housing, recovery support, job training, and dignity for those who need it most.

This vision is not about profit. It’s about people. It’s about creating a space where neighbors can find shelter, encouragement, and opportunities they couldn’t access otherwise.

Why This Matters

Michael is also preparing to take CNA training so he can help care for his father, who is battling stage five dementia — extending that same spirit of care to others in need.

Closer to home, the need is urgent:

• On September 7, Michael is already stepping in to help a friend with a leaking roof.

• Soon after, he hopes to assist his mom with replacing her roof.

• Families throughout the county face unsafe or unaffordable housing, and Michael’s mission is clear: to build lives, not just decks.

Why Now

Michael has already poured everything he has into this dream — even trading material possessions just for a chance to start. What he needs now is support to turn this seed into fruit for the whole community.

And he’s ready. Michael has filed his nonprofit, Make Positive Shift Resources, and is awaiting final approval of his contractor’s license in Huerfano County, so that every project is done legally, safely, and to code.

This Campaign Will Help

• Stabilize and restore the Old Mill into a community hub for housing, training, and recovery.

• Provide urgent home repair relief — beginning with a friend’s leaky roof on Sept. 7 and continuing with his mom’s roof.

• Support CNA training so Michael can care for his father and others with dignity.

• Launch community-based nonprofit programs in housing, recovery, and skill-building.

• Offer emergency support to local families in unsafe housing situations.

A Builder of Hope

Michael Seth is more than a craftsman. He’s a man in recovery who has turned struggle into service, and vision into action. He’s not asking for charity — he’s inviting you to be part of a story that can ripple out far beyond one building, one man, or one family.

Together, we can take a blighted space and turn it into a beacon.

Together, we can help Michael build what people truly need.

Join us in building lives, not just decks.

Michael Seth also writes poetry and loves sharing his encouraging words with others.

Below is one written during his first five years in recovery from alcohol addiction.

My event horizon

the black hole of__________________ was greedily stealing all my life

Thinking I was strong enough to alone face the gravity of despair

and yet survive

I was being stripped of my fine qualities and all but lost my light

The vacuum feeding on my oxygen

I started not to care

My attempts to escape were hollow

Just me putting on big airs

With every cycle I was darker colder lonelier more desperate

positively-less

Losing touch with the faith and hope that I had once so openly professed

Spinning aimlessly no stability or control

Wanting to be on different path

So low on self worth already

with little left to pay the toll

My world was getting smaller

Hurling towards my own destruction

The oblivion began to look like rest

With remorse displacing potential

Wallowing in self pity I was diminished

Without some miraculous course-correction

my complete disassociation must have certainly been finished

Being witness to younger and brighter stars than I being hungrily devoured

Piece by piece I was losing myself the way I’d seen others disappear

To get myself out of this calamity I was gravely underpowered

I was being emptied out while filling up with fear

Slipping in and out of consciousness, could I be awakened re-,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,inspired

I was lost and scared and spread so thin

the chaos and calamity had left me depleted drained so….tired

Didn’t want to be the next victim

I was so out of place

losing touch with my inner self

the balance once deep in my unseen core

diluted and displaced

with the heavy metal like poison in this old soul’s system

A new gravity of other fallen ones who’d banded together-coalesced

Tried to pull me out every time I came around

But by being proud and keeping my truths buried deep down

inside

while spewing my frustrations far and wide

I spurned support

with my Source I had waning rapport

and I was losing such valuable ground

In the crucible of upbuilding camaraderie they had been fired and refined

But were they made of different metal

One more durable than a heart of stone like mine

If I did join them

would they still accept me, a newcomer just zooming in

Would they really understand my condition?

Is there such a thing as a celestial physician?

I’d be willing to travel with them this time in what was to me uncomfortable uncharted space

With just a tiny spark of hope of avoiding such a dark painful perilous fate

I learned from such ones that danger was never too far away

But by earnestly paying attention to where I was and by staying solid enough myself to pull for others I could keep the darkness at bay

The more I resisted trying a way of existing

that I didn’t like, trust or understand

The longer I fought alone believing in my own wisdom clinging to my idea of coming up with a working plan

The closer to falling apart I found myself

I’ll be damned

Just this revelation in itself changed my trajectory in what I thought was a small way

But looking back I had made real progress light years in that one day

My wall-like mountains began to crumble

And my deepest most well hidden concerns I could no longer hide

Spending time with these ones helped me to realize

That a steady appraisal of this soul had uncovered rare and valuable qualities-gems

still planted deep inside

Even with integrity rocked

Even with darkness having extracted so great a cost

Even with reoccurring tremors and new shocks

Even with a core cooled by death’s frigid frost

If I could let go of my old ideas and follow guidance from a wiser source

I could be rocketed into a new dimension

All is not lost

Michael Seth