Western Welcome Week, an annual event celebrating our Littleton community, commemorates its 97th year this August.
Cindy Hathaway, Western Welcome Week Executive Director, provides a glimpse into the rich history of the event, “It all began in 1928 when Houstoun Waring, editor of the Littleton Independent, held a 40th anniversary celebration for the paper. The event was met with overwhelming support. The next year, 1929, the community, again under the direction of Waring, decided to hold a celebration commemorating the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of Richard S. Little, the founder of Littleton. The event was named ‘Homecoming’, calling everyone who had ever lived or visited Littleton to come home.”
Hathaway continues, “Many years later, in 1962, the name changed to Western Welcome Week. Throughout this time the event has evolved into a ten-day celebration with over twenty other organizations participating.”
Western Welcome Week is dedicated to honoring the tradition of celebrating greater Littleton. The goal is to nurture community spirit, bring together residents and businesses, to support service clubs and nonprofits by creating an opportunity for fundraising, and to provide festivities and entertainment for families, friends, and neighbors.
Elise Luter, Publication Director with Littleton City Lifestyle, interviewed Hathaway, who has been the the Executive Director of Western Welcome Week for 24 years. Hathaway started as a volunteer and then joined the board and has been involved for 40 years with the event.
Did you know that every year Western Welcome Week has a theme? The 2025 theme is “The Spirit of Generosity.” Hathaway shares that this year’s focus is a little twist on volunteerism, philanthropy, and humanitarianism; the desire to promote the welfare of others - benevolence, generosity, public spiritedness, social concern, charity, brotherly love. There are over 1,000 volunteers who help to make Western Welcome Week happen each year and Hathaway says each of these volunteers are an impressive example of the theme. Parade entries are often designed with the theme in mind as well.
One of the primary objectives of Western Welcome Week is to provide a fundraising venue for the non-profits of Littleton. Some of these nonprofits run their own events during the week to fundraise or to just raise awareness of their cause. These nonprofits are able to take advantage of the promotion that Western Welcome Week puts out over social media and the event schedules. This promotion is sometimes the only advertising these organizations get because it is not in their budget to promote themselves. An estimated $75,000 is earned each year by these non-profit organizations during Western Welcome Week.
Most of us are aware that there is a Western Welcome Week parade, but there are also so many hidden gems to take advantage of during the week. Hathaway was able to point out a few to us:
Gold Panning on the Platte: Pan for gold like they did during the Colorado Gold Rush and take home your bounty!
WesternWelcomeWeek.org/Events/GoldPanning/
First Presbyterian Church of Littleton Quilt Show: Stop by the First Presbyterian Church of Littleton and feast your eyes upon a wide variety of quilts - displayed over the pews in the beautiful English Tutor-style Sanctuary.
WesternWelcomeWeek.org/Events/Community-Quilt-Show-2/
The rest of the Western Welcome Week events can be found at WesternWelcomeWeek.org/Events
We hope you have learned a few new things about Western Welcome Week and we hope that you can all come celebrate its 97th year with us!
Western Welcome Week - It all began in 1928 when Houstoun Waring, editor of the Littleton Independent, held a 40th anniversary celebration for the paper. The event was met with overwhelming support.