Rob Katz, CEO of Vail Resorts and his wife Elana Amsterdam donated $1.6 million to community nonprofits across communities where Vail Resorts operates.
A portion of the donation was given to The Summit Foundation, which received $250,000.
The couple’s donation was focused on programs that support children and families in local communities where Vail Resorts has a presence.
Last January the couple donated $1.5 million to the EpicPromise Foundation, which gives emergency relief to Vail Resort employees.
Community Nonprofits
The Summit Foundation distributed the $250,000 grant between two community nonprofits in Summit County: CATCH Afterschool and the newly formed Mountain Futures Center.
Coordinated Approach to Children’s Health (CATCH) is a quality after-school community nonprofit program for kids in Summit County. It helps to serve about 250 children across the county and is run out of the Keystone Science School. It has three 12-week sessions per school year.
The community nonprofit program is a partnership between the Keystone Science School, the Family and Intercultural Resource Center, the Summit County School District and The Summit Foundation.
The grant from Katz and Amsterdam was crucial to the CATCH program because it allows the program to have a sliding pay scale for parents who may not be able to afford the full price of after-school care for their children.
Around 60 percent of the students in CATCH qualify for free and reduced lunch prices at school.
Mountain Futures is a pilot program in conjunction with Colorado Mountain College and is still in its development stage. Their goal is to find affordable paths through college for individual students.
This community nonprofit program is built to help Summit County students with their education after high school.
Summit County has worked to help increase high school completion rates for at-risk students within Summit. The next step for them is to help students complete college.
The program will not be just for low income families, but for all families putting a child through college. The center will be a resource for both students and families looking for more information regarding the financial process of college.
