Vail Valley Cares hands out the most grant funding in its 30-year history to 63 Eagle County-supporting nonprofits
Grant recipient breakfast on Aug. 29 saw $585,000 handed out as organization celebrates 30 years of Thrifty
Brian Maloney/Foto cortesía
Vail Valley Cares, the ecumenical Christian help organization that runs the Thrifty Shops in Eagle and Edwards, gives out hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants to other nonprofit organizations that help the Eagle County community.
Vail Valley Cares’ annual grant recipient breakfast took place on Thursday, Aug. 29, at 4 Eagle Ranch in Wolcott. The event was hosted by Michael and Julie Barry, who hold a long-term lease on the property.
2024 marks the 30th anniversary of Vail Valley Cares’ first Thrifty Shop. Two Eagle County pastors, Jerry Milsaps and Benny Clark, founded Vail Valley Cares in 1992 to accept donated clothing and household items and redistribute them to Eagle County residents in need. In 1994, Milsaps and Clark received a grant from the local Rotary Club to open a thrift store in Edwards. The Eagle Thrifty Shop opened the following year.
Vail Valley Cares has been providing others with funding since 2000, when Greg Osteen, early on in his career as the organization’s executive director, created the grant program to distribute the stores’ excess profits. To date, Vail Valley Cares has provided other nonprofits with over $5.9 million in funding, all raised through the two Thrifty Shops, in Edwards and Eagle, that resell donated clothing, furniture, and other items.
This year, Vail Valley Cares awarded $585,000 in grants to 63 local organizations. According to Greg Osteen, Vail Valley Cares’ executive director, this was the most money the nonprofit has ever given out. “This year is our biggest year ever,” he said.
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Vail Valley Cares bestowed a $50,000 donation on Colorado Mountain College with the funds going to the college’s scholarship program, in addition to gifts of varying sizes to each nonprofit organization in attendance.
In keeping with the breakfast’s tradition, representatives of each organization were given the floor for a minute to share anything they wished to about their work.
Before the speeches began, however, the program recognized the impact of two prominent, longtime members of Eagle County’s charitable community, one who already retired and one whose retirement is upcoming.
Dr. Randy Simmons retired after 27 years running the Samaritan Center of the Rockies, and nearly 70,000 clinical hours conducted. Simmon’s legacy includes being one of the first to address the mental health challenges faced by Eagle County residents.
“This is way before anybody knew about the issues we were dealing with in the valley,” Osteen said. “The valley is what it is a lot of because of what Randy has done and the people that he has helped.”
Tsu Wolin-Brown has been with the Salvation Army for more than 41 years, and fronting the organization as the coordinator since 2004, she said during the breakfast. She will retire in October. “Tsu has been such a help to the community. She has done so much that nobody ever sees,” Osteen said.
At the start of the dispersion of grant checks, attendees were told to turn to their left and right and tell each other, “you’re awesome,” and “the work you do is important.”
Grant checks were handed out by Osteen, with Erik Williams, president of the Vail Valley Cares board, providing comments and running the microphone between recipients. The speeches by recipients were interspersed with Williams’ comedic bits, as well as the grant breakfast’s signature playing card drawings.
A representative of each grant recipient organization was given one playing card when they arrived. Periodically, recipient speeches were paused for the card drawing, and the organization with the winning card received an additional $500.
Grant funds were given to organizations covering everything from enabling hospice care for all income levels to purchasing new Nordic equipment for Battle Mountain High School students to providing all of Eagle County’s children with a Christmas gift. The most common overlapping themes revolved around mental health resources, providing affordable child care and education, and keeping people housed and fed.
Holly Kasper-Blank with the Bright Future Foundation for Eagle County, which combats and aids survivors of domestic and sexual violence, shared a letter of appreciation from one of the 17,000 survivors the organization has supported.
Stevi Bratschie, Mountain Youth’s director of community education, spoke about how the Vail Valley Cares funds go to many educational programs, including Tu Guía, a free tutoring program that pays high schoolers to tutor elementary students. Bratschie also brought along one of the organization’s three youth board members, Victor Lopez.
When asked by Williams why he chose to serve in the position, Lopez responded, “being someone in the youth community and seeing things go bad and things go great and things go amazing, it’s really nice to give my perspective to people that can help change that.”
As the event drew to a close, the crowd, at times rowdy, settled down for a moment of reflection, at Osteen’s direction.
“When you sit and listen to what these organizations do, you realize what it takes for a community to strive and to thrive like we do,” Osteen said. “Thank you — it’s truly amazing. If you get a chance, give our staff a hug and tell them thank you, because they really do make this possible, and it is amazing the work that they do.”
