About · The Happy Crew

Happy Crew Get help now · call or text 988

The Happy Crew
· Free weekly nights for teensFounder and
executive director

Led by Amy Mays
· Lone Tree, ColoradoThe Happy Crew
· Lone Tree, Colorado

Amy laughing with a student leader under the pergola, other teens around them

Amy Mays with four student leaders, arms around each other, laughing

Started in 2007
· Monday nights since 2015

“I believe teenagers are the coolest people on the planet.”

“We walk in separate, and we leave as a crew.”
Amy MaysA student leader

01How Monday nights started

“The Happy Crew started around my dining room table.

Douglas County had a year where we lost eight high school students to suicide. …

We started at a Starbucks and outgrew it. We moved to a pizza place and outgrew that. Then I said, ‘Come to my house every Monday night. We’ll talk, we’ll listen, and we’ll walk through this together.’”

Amy Mays Get help now

StartedAs 1 Liquid House, 2007
Monday nightsSince 2015
Wednesday nightsMiddle Crew
Where nowHappy Crew Coffee House

“That was 2015, and we have not missed a Monday night.”

The original group who started Happy Crew, arm in arm inside a Starbucks, 2015 — A Starbucks, where it all started

A kitchen packed with teens in name tags, crowded around the island, smiling — Amy’s kitchen

Amy with teens at her backyard table, a line of flames down the middle, string lights overhead — Amy’s backyard

Teens on couches around a low table upstairs, smiling at the camera — Upstairs at Happy Crew Coffee House

02Our mission

The Happy Crew is a nonprofit in Lone Tree that creates a welcoming community for tweens and teens where they know they matter and belong, and where mental health gets talked about out loud.

03Our first name

Every teenager, and the unity they were looking for.

Teen culture keeps changing, so we stay liquid.

Everyone needs a place to feel at home.

1Every teenager, and the unity they were looking for.

LiquidTeen culture keeps changing, so we stay liquid.

HouseEveryone needs a place to feel at home.

Teen culture keeps changing, so we change shape with it. That’s the liquid in 1 Liquid House.

A packed crowd cheering at the Gothic Theatre during Battle of the Bands, in black and white — Seven summers of bands, skateboarding and street art

Middle schoolers crowded around a table inside Wahoo’s, 2010 — Hanging out at Wahoo’s

A teen holding up a Have a Great Summer sign covered in You Matter stickers in a school cafeteria, May 2015 — The Happy Campaign, the first year of Monday nights

A crowd of teens on a staircase and landing at a Christmas party in a house, smiling up at the camera — Monday nights at Amy’s house

The whole crew upstairs at the coffee house in a big group photo — Now · upstairs at Happy Crew Coffee House

Our name now: The Happy Crew

The promise on our logo, “You matter, you belong,” has stayed the same through every shape.

04What we hold to

Seven values every crew keeps.

What’s shared in group stays in group. If anything touches safety, it goes to an adult, and the adult carries it to the right people.

When one person opens up, it gets easier for the next one.

“Know who you are. Own who you are. And own who you aren’t.”Amy Mays

Have each other’s backs, on the good weeks and the hard ones.

Look at it through someone else’s eyes.

Everyone has their own view, and nobody gets judged for theirs.

Listen to learn, not to respond. You don’t have to fix it.

Confidentiality: What’s shared in group stays in group. If anything touches safety, it goes to an adult, and the adult carries it to the right people.
Vulnerability: When one person opens up, it gets easier for the next one.
Self-ownership: “Know who you are. Own who you are. And own who you aren’t.” Amy Mays
Trust: Have each other’s backs, on the good weeks and the hard ones.
Empathy: Look at it through someone else’s eyes.
Respect: Everyone has their own view, and nobody gets judged for theirs.
Listen to learn: Listen to learn, not to respond. You don’t have to fix it.

05What it’s done

1,500+students have come to Happy Crew since 2015
200+students last school year, 2025–26
22student leaders this year, plus 10 mentors for Middle Crew

Alums have started a Happy Crew at college, and at work. Their stories

06Our coffee house

The room upstairs at Happy Crew Coffee House: blue armchairs, an orange couch and a glass garage door open to the Front Range

The coffee house is part of Happy Crew.

Happy Crew Coffee House is run by The Happy Crew nonprofit, and 100% of its proceeds support the Monday and Wednesday nights.

Visit the coffee house

Mondays, 7–8 PM · free · Happy Crew Coffee House, Lone TreeWednesdays, 7–8 PM · free · Happy Crew Coffee House, Lone Tree

Come see a Monday.Come see a Wednesday.

A teen laughing and clapping under the string lights

Your first night

Text Amy at 303-916-1515 or email amy@thehappycrew.org.

The Happy Crew is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit · EIN 73-1627224