When the clock strikes 12:01 Friday morning, Park City’s annual fundraising blitz will have officially begun.
Live PC Give PC has raised more than $16 million since it started 11 years ago. This year, officials from the Park City Community Foundation, which organizes the event, are hoping to garner 6,500 individual donations — a number that would equal more than 75% of Park City’s year-round population.
The featured nonprofits run the gamut from local entertainment venues to historical societies to sports teams.
Here’s a spotlight on three diverse nonprofits that aim, in their unique ways, to support the greater Park City community.
Wasatch Backcountry Rescue
Courtesy of Wasatch Backcountry Rescue/Andy Van Houten
Since the late 1970s, Wasatch Backcountry Rescue has been rescuing people in Utah’s mountains, said Andy Van Houten, the president and CEO of the group.
“75% to 80% (of callers) are either lost or (in) a medical situation we can assist with. That’s kind of right in our wheelhouse,” Van Houten said. “We’re all professional patrollers at each resort.”
The teams are called out when accidents happen beyond resort boundaries and patrollers respond as volunteers with various search and rescue teams. The team’s first focus is on avalanche rescues, he said.
“We do a lot between Big and Little Cottonwood canyons and outside Brighton,” he said, adding that teams have branched out to respond during the summer, as well.
Another large component of Wasatch Backcountry Rescue’s work is its avalanche education, which Van Houten said includes visiting schools to talk about backcountry safety. He said the group often partners with the Utah Avalanche Center.
The group also trains avalanche rescue dogs — a popular partner when it comes to school lessons.
Van Houten said 90% of the group’s avalanche dogs are Labrador retrievers, typically bred to be about 45 to 50 pounds. The smaller size helps the dogs and their handlers move around on chairlifts and helicopters as necessary.
“They have a great temperament for it,” Van Houten said.
He said donations from Live PC Give PC would help expand training programs.
“With the huge increase in numbers of backcountry skiers the last few years, we’re seemingly busier and busier and busier each year,” he said. “We rely on donations for training and to get new equipment.”
Little Bellas
Photo by Abigail Railton/Courtesy of Little Bellas
Hilary Greene leads the ride program for the Park City chapter of Little Bellas, a Vermont-based nonprofit that encourages girls to ride mountain bikes. Greene said the organization’s mission is simple.
“It’s mentoring on mountain bikes,” she said.
The program, now entering its sixth year, is open to girls aged 7 to 15. It offers the opportunity to ride with peers and young-adult mentors in a non-competitive environment.
“This past year was so much fun,” Greene said. “We had a girl who had never mountain biked before. She just got out there, she was so confident because, you know, you have to sometimes remind them to use their brakes, ‘Let’s take it slow, learn a little bit.’ She’d be ending up in the bushes upside down on her bike. … She tried every single time. The excitement on her face is the best part of teaching Little Bellas.”
Donations go to supporting a “gear up” program to connect students with equipment, regardless of their economic status, and to pay for things like trail permits and scholarships.
Greene said the program is “all about having fun” and encouraging girls.
“We try to concentrate on confidence, trust and relationships with other girls — not only mountain biking. We do snack time, really conscious about eating snack with the girls and making sure they’re comfortable with their body image,” Greene said. “… I think that we provide a really important environment and the girls feel comfortable because we’re out there having fun and we’re all doing something we love.”
Immigrant Legal Services
Salt Lake City-based Immigrant Legal Services employs a small staff of Spanish-speaking attorneys and paralegals that help clients navigate the byzantine world of U.S. immigration law.
Executive Director Gina Crezee said one staff attorney has about 150 cases in process, and explained that the nonprofit provides services on a “low-bono/pro-bono” basis.
“Attorneys are going to help you — start you at the beginning, do the consultancy to see if you have a case, work through and help you in an appropriate manner, do your paperwork, do everything you need to do to send it off for the best success,” she said.
Crezee said the firm only focuses on immigration cases and that some clients have “horrific” stories about the violence they have fled.
But sometimes the protections of the law do not extend to a certain case, no matter the threats the client may face at home.
“Some of our previous attorneys who aren’t with us anymore carried over 300 cases,” Crezee said. “The trick is, after you see all of these heartbreaking stories, to not take it home, to figure out how to be mentally OK with that.”
Crezee said donations go to paying legal fees to keep costs low for clients. She said large corporations might pay tens of thousands of dollars to sponsor an employee’s visa, but clients who come to Immigrant Legal Services cannot afford that.
She indicated the organization, founded in 2016, is careful with donations.
“We’re a little different than other organizations. We don’t have endowments,” she said. “We’re new and we watch every dollar and spend it appropriately so we can put it towards more, better representation and help for the people that come in and meet with us.”
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