Kingdom Notes
Nonprofit Nook
Summit County Rescue Group by Shauna Farnell
A New Facility to Assist in Saving Lives Now set up for faster, more efficient rescue missions, Summit County Rescue Group opened its new headquarters in Frisco this August. Composed entirely of unpaid professionals, SCRG is dedicated to saving lives when people become lost or injured in rugged terrain. The nonprofit never charges for its arduous and sometimes dangerous work. In 2024 alone, SCRG took 184 calls. The new facility, shared with the Sheriffs Office special operation units, has been in the works since 2019 and was funded largely by individual donations. Whereas the Rescue Group’s previous facility could only accommodate about 20 of the group’s 75 members and its garage would often freeze shut, the new facility has garage space for all of SCRG’s equipment, including trucks, ATVs and snow-tracked vehicles as well as a spacious classroom with recording capabilities and an indoor technical training area and climbing wall with which to practice high-angle and rope rescues.
cannot afford winter clothing. When he discovered that none of the local nonprofits could accept this volume of donations, he founded Breckenridge-based nonprofit Slopes to Hope. “I rented a storage unit last week,” Roberts said in early November. “Since then, the Dillon Community Church picked up 35 pounds of jackets after noticing people standing in line for food who didn’t have coats and were cold.”
Slopes to Hope by Lisa Blake
Connecting People to Clothing So many things are left behind when guests check out of a hotel—winter coats, gloves, boots, swimsuits, pillows, phone chargers. Oftentimes, guests are contacted to be reunited with their belongings and they don’t want them, so the items end up in landfills. Working the front desk at the Grand Lodge on Peak 7, Drew Roberts decided to connect the tens of thousands of pounds of winter clothing sitting in trash bags with the tens of thousands of Coloradans who are experiencing homelessness or 16
After that, a children’s clothing store that had just closed dropped off 30 brand new jackets and 40 pairs of mittens along with boots and goggles. US Bank in Breckenridge offered to host a Slopes to Hope clothing donation box in their branch to help gather winter clothing before the holidays. Keystone and Copper Mountain ski resorts reached out and donated their lost and found hauls and, in a single week, Roberts received 400 pounds of clothing. “I’ve got to get a bigger storage garage,” he says. The 40-year-old Breckenridge Mountain Rotary Club member has been working with homeless shelters, churches and community organizations in Summit County and the Denver Metro Area, including Christ’s Body Ministries, ReSaddled Thrift Store, Dillon Community Church and FIRC. He has already donated more than 4,305 pounds of clothes, gloves, hats and blankets in his first year and was able to collect 500 pounds of queen-sized
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blankets from Hampton Inn & Suites in Silverthorne as they were replacing linens. Slopes to Hope was awarded a $2,000 HC3 Strong Futures Grant and $6,500 through the Town of Frisco small business waste reduction program. Roberts is currently working to raise $12,000 to reach the goal of collecting and distributing 10,000 pounds of winter clothes. “I’m figuring out the nonprofit world,” he says. “Fundraisers are huge. You have to bring the money in somehow, some way. Grants are great, but you can’t rely on them forever.” How You Can Help Slopes to Hope Donate Clothing: Reach out to Roberts via the website below. Donate Money: Funds from grants, sponsorships and individual donors are welcomed. Donate Time: Roberts needs help with community outreach and connecting with hotel and resort managers and volunteers to help pick up donations and sort clothes. www.slopestohope.com