Liberal groups plan to welcome Donald Trump to Colorado by building a wall of cardboard boxes – and then fill them with donations for the needy – when the presumptive Republican presidential nominee makes his first campaign stop in Denver on Friday.

The activists, organized by ProgressNow Colorado, say they’ll erect the symbolic wall – nine feet tall and 30 feet long – in Civic Center Park on Friday morning to protest Trump’s proposal to build a wall on the Mexican border and make that country pay for it.

Trump is scheduled to speak several blocks away at the Colorado Convention Center with former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin at the Western Conservative Summit at 10:30 a.m. on Friday.

ProgressNow Colorado director Ian Silverii said the left-leaning groups decided to stage the “visual protest” some distance from Trump’s appearance in order to avoid the kind of clashes that have occurred between protesters and Trump fans at other events.

“We don’t want this to be about Trump,” Silverii told The Colorado Statesman. “We don’t want to be near his people because violence regularly breaks out at his rallies. This isn’t about Trump. This is about our community, our diversity and doing something special for Colorado families.”

Organizers plan to start stacking the boxes at 9 a.m. and then have local artist Delton Demarest paint a mural – a rendition of the Colorado flag incorporating the phrase “con paz con amor y con todos” – on the side of the resulting wall.

“We’re building a wall ‘con paz, con amor y con todos,’ which means ‘with peace, with love and with everyone,’ because we are determined to fight the politics of hate, isolation and xenophobia and replace them with the politics of community and diversity,” Silverii said. “Colorado is a diverse state, and we are stronger because of it, and we are grateful to everyone who has donated food, clothes, and school supplies to our effort so far.”

The groups say they’ll fill the boxes with donated food, diapers and toiletries and then deliver them to Growing Home, an area homeless shelter.

Trump supporters are planning to hold a rally of their own on the west steps of the state Capitol starting at 1 p.m. While Trump probably won’t be attending – he’s scheduled to appear at a high-dollar luncheon fundraiser in Cherry Hills Village – organizers say former U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo and several Republican congressional candidates will be speaking.

– ernest@coloradostatesman.com