• SPECIAL EDITION IMPACT REPORT •
TELLURIDE FOUNDATION CELEBRATING 20 YEARS OF MAKING MORE POSSIBLE
INSIDE IMPACT INITIATIVES HISTORY OF THE FOUNDATION KIDS PREDICT THE FUTURE
REWIND Our past, formed by tenacious, resilient individuals, tells a relevant story for today; our stories connect us to our future, reminding us of our potential and our values and helping us address our current challenges.
The Smuggler-Union Tram. (Photo courtesy of the Telluride Historical Museum)
WH AT ’ S I N S I D E
10
20 YEARS OF MAKING MORE POSSIBLE
IMPACT INITIATIVES
06
History of the Telluride Foundation
20
Making An Impact
08
A Letter From Our Leadership
22
Broadband Expansion
10
Telluride Foundation Milestones
24
Local Food
26
Workforce Development
28
Strong Neighbors
30
Telluride Venture Accelerator
32
College Scholarships
34
Tri-County Health Network
36
Immigrant Integration
HOW WE DO OUR WORK
14
12
Thinking Outside the Box (Canyon)
14
Building Capacity
15
Thought Leadership
16
Tackling Difficult Issues
17
Measuring Our Impact
18
Honoring Local Heroes
FEATURES 38
38
From Tesla to Tourism to TVA
50
Knitting a New Safety Net
64
Growing Local
64
An odyssey of entrepreneurship and innovation. Benevolence and philanthropy in the San Juans. Explorations in our past and future foodshed.
Paul Major President & CEO
PERSPECTIVE 88
The Future of the Region
90
Reflections on the Foundation
91
Q&A with Tavares Strachan
92
Kids Predict the Future
94
Fast Forward
How Our Work is Funded
76
Community Grants
78
Foundation Financials
Telluride Foundation
Elaine Demas Vice President of Initiatives Katie Singer Marketing & Donor Relations Director Erika Lapsys Programs Director Valene Baskfield Chang Chavkin Scholars Director Robin Kondracki Strong Neighbors Coordinator (AmeriCorps VISTA, 2020-2021) David Bruce Housing Initiative Coordinator (Rose Architectural Fellow 2020-2022)
Susie Schaefer Finance Director
24
Alex Barry Controller Bonnie Watson Capital & Transaction Advisor Carla Reams Skillful West End Manager
82 Recognition 84
April Montgomery Vice President of Programs
ASSOCIATES
IN FOCUS 74
FOUNDATION STAFF
In Memoriam
• 4 • 20th Anniversary Issue
Telluride Foundation
• 5 • 20th Anniversary Issue
20 YEA RS O F M A K I N G M O R E P OS S I B L E
Photo by Ryan Bonneau
because of the Telluride Foundation, there is a safety-net for people in need, there are scholarships for kids going to college and participating in after-school programs, and there are efforts to help diversify the economy and increase jobs and opportunities in our neighboring communities.
HISTORY OF THE
TELLURIDE FOUNDATION The first or second week after I arrived in Telluride in 1978, the only remaining local bank president came to my office to tell me they were closing. Later that month a group of locals arrived in my office to ask me to help save the Telluride Film Festival, which was having financial difficulties and considering closing. By RON ALLRED
Those were the economic realities of Telluride back then. However, I saw the mountains, the scenery, and the quaint, charming Town of Telluride, and a great potential for the future. I realized how special the community was. Isn’t that what people say? “I came for the mountains, but stayed for the community.” It was that passion for the community that got me thinking about how to build on what makes Telluride so special. By 2000, Telluride’s rich depth of community organizations was prospering. It had a 100-yearold opera house, 30-year-old film and music festivals, an adaptive sports program, and a strong network of social service
Telluride Foundation
I see now, 20 years later, how an idea (and some good luck) has had such an impact on so many lives.
programs to help people in need. I started talking to my friends and business partners about my idea of starting a foundation (I had a lot of golf course conversations in those days) to support what we had and what we aspired toward. I got lucky in meeting Norman Schwarzkopf, who agreed to join the board. With Schwarzkopf’s help, it didn’t take long before I had a commitment from 13 people who each contributed $100,000 to seed a foundation; these 13 were recognized as “Friends of Telluride.” That was the birth of the Telluride Foundation.
It’s nice to look back and reflect a bit on our successes. However, the work isn’t done; nor will it ever be, and that’s exactly why the Telluride Foundation needs to continue to exist. I’m confident, with a little help from all our friends, that it will.
I again got lucky in hiring Paul Major as the first President and CEO. Under Paul’s leadership, as well as strong, committed board members and dedicated staff, the Telluride Foundation has kept its original vision alive and has leveraged our initial contributions to more than $60 million in support of the region.
(Top) The installation of the gondola in 1996 was a major milestone in the development of the Telluride Ski Resort. (Middle Left) Norman Schwarzkopf, Founding Co-Chair of the Telluride Foundation. (Middle Right) Ron Allred, Founding Co-Chair of the Telluride Foundation.
When people ask me about my involvement in the region and what I’m proudest of, they might assume it’s building a world-class ski resort. In actuality, it’s knowing that
• 6 • 20th Anniversary Issue
(Bottom) “Friends of Telluride” helped launch the Telluride Foundation.
Telluride Foundation
• 7 • 20th Anniversary Issue
20 YEA RS O F M A K I N G M O R E P OS S I B L E
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Photo by Elevation Imaging
LETTER FROM THE
robust and vibrant arts community, addressing food insecurity, ensuring a strong human service safety net, or strengthening our regional economy. In addition to the Telluride Foundation donors who make everything we do possible,we extend a special thanks to the 20th Anniversary Fund hosts and supporters. The 20th Anniversary Fund allows us to create events and programs to thank donors, celebrate our community and nonprofits, unveil new projects, and launch new initiatives. Host donors include: Mike & Anne Armstrong, Joanne & Harmon Brown, Arnie Chavkin & Laura Chang, Mark & Susan Dalton, Tully & Elise Friedman, Jeff Katz, Adam & Diane Max, Chris & Laura Pucillo, Howard & Debbie Schiller, and Dan & Sheryl Tishman.
By DANIEL TISHMAN
Chairman, Board of Directors
By PAUL MAJOR
President & CEO
As Yogi Berra said so well, “The future ain’t what it used to be.” How are we positioned for the future? Are we up for the challenges of ever increasing complexity and ambiguity? The very nature of our work is to attack the problems we face today so as to create a better future for the people in our community. As we think about our approach for the next 20 years, we know we will continue to identify and leverage new resources and bestin-class, innovative methodologies while demonstrating results through measurable outcomes. HOUSING is the critical issue of our time, and one we must address
Telluride Foundation
to ensure thriving communities in the future. The challenge is not unique to Telluride but exists across the entire region in which we serve. We are now on the verge of launching a rural workforce housing initiative, which we will pilot in neighboring communities and could become a model across the state. The tenacity and outcomedriven perseverance required to tackle an issue as complex and challenging as affordable housing is in the Foundation’s DNA. Our 20th Anniversary also compels us to think about our diverse COMMUNITY and the PEOPLE we serve. Bringing our diverse community together, from Telluride to the West End, from local workers to part time homeowners, from old-time families to immigrants, is our focus; ensuring all feel welcome and supported will only become more challenging as our community grows. In one way or another, the Telluride Foundation touches everyone in this community, whether that’s through funding afterschool and early childhood education programs, supporting a
• 8 • 20th Anniversary Issue
We welcome you to join us on this anniversary journey and in supporting our local communities, as every additional dollar we raise goes, 100 percent, into Making More Possible – here, now, and tomorrow. Thank you, Dan & Paul
Photo by Aurelie Sleggers
Our 20th Anniversary allows us to reflect on how we have met community challenges and embraced opportunities. This year is not just a reflection on 20 years of accomplishments and donor generosity, but also a time to imagine the FUTURE.
Photo by Aurelie Sleggers
CHAIRMAN AND PRESIDENT & CEO
(Top) Rundola participants help each other reach the top. (Middle)Local medical professionals benefit from Broadband improvements. (Bottom) Lone Cone Library patrons enjoy high-speed internet.
Telluride Foundation
• 9 • 20th Anniversary Issue
20 YEA RS O F M A K I N G M O R E P OS S I B L E
“Telluride Gives,” a social media giving platform to support nonprofits Awarded first “Energy Outreach” grants to pay the power bills for citizens in need
2000
Ron Allred & Joe Morita established the Telluride Foundation General Norman Schwarzkopf joined Ron Allred as Board of Directors Co-chair 2001
First Community Grants awarded to over 50 nonprofits Capacity-building workshops for nonprofits initiated 2002
Early Childhood Initiative established, increasing access to affordable, quality childcare
Partnered with Mountain Village to host Primal Quest Telluride 360 Adventure Festival 2003
Good Neighbor Fund, a family safety net program created Hosted the first “Operation F.E.A.S.T” to raise funds for the Telluride Medical Center
Program launched 2005
Latino Initiative for a stronger and more inclusive community began Early Childhood Initiative became a stand-alone nonprofit, Bright Futures for Early Childhood & Families 2006
First Citizen of the Year awarded to Terry Tice
Special Initiative Grants established to enable the funding of nonprofit capital campaigns
2004
Fundraising for Telluride Hanley Ice Rink spearheaded Regional College Scholarship
First capital grant awarded to new Naturita public library
Telluride Foundation
Healthcare Initiative implemented to improve access to healthcare in the region 2007
San Juan Cavity Prevention Program launched, offering free dental care in regional schools Special Initiative Grants awarded to San Miguel Resource Center for permanent office space and to Trust for Land Restoration for public access to Wilson Peak Hosted the National Economic Summit on Investment in Early Childhood Education
2008
One Telluride, an immigrant integration initiative, established Special Initiative Grant awarded to Mountain Munchkins to fund a new preschool in Mountain Village 2009
Forever Telluride launched with a bequest from founding board member Steven Wald First AmeriCorps VISTA (Volunteer in Service to America) hired Received “American Recovery & Reinvestment
• 10 • 20th Anniversary Issue
Act” grant to support nonprofits in their economic recovery effort 2010
Alternative Futures Scenarios analysis conducted to understand transportation, housing, and development issues in the region Awarded over $1M in grants during the Foundation’s 10th Anniversary year 2011
The inaugural 4th of July RunDola foot race held Hosted the first
2012
Neil Armstrong Scholarship Fund established, offering college scholarships to students pursuing a degree in science Telluride Venture Accelerator (TVA) launched Received USDA grant to create endowment funds in Rico, Norwood, and the West End 2013
First cohort of entrepreneurs graduated from TVA; all received investment dollars Received the National Housing & Urban Development’s
“Secretary’s Award for Community Foundations”
to the region STEM Teacher Professional Development Initiative created
2014
Health Initiative became a standalone nonprofit -- Tri-County Health Network West End Seniors’ Collaborative established to coordinate and fund senior programs First Affordable Housing Initiative launched to increase workforce housing 2015
Special Initiative Grants awarded to Paradox Valley Charter School to purchase a bus and to West End Economic Development Corporation to fund a commercial kitchen Broadband Initiative launched to bring high speed internet
2016
Hosted the “Innovation Prize Contest,” promoting ideas to improve the region Local Food Initiative launched to improve the regional food economy and decrease food insecurity Facilitated the Colorado Foundation’s Water Retreat 2017
Chang Chavkin Scholars Program initiated to support firstgeneration students in five regional school districts Helped fund the “Alliance for Inclusion” to support the Latinx community Broadband
Telluride Foundation
Initiative receives federal grant to connect Nucla to Telluride with high-speed broadband service 2018
Hosted the first regional trails meeting to support collaboration on trail development “Telluride Works,” coworking space in downtown Telluride, opened Partnered with the Markle Foundation to create a Workforce Development Initiative in the West End, assisting individuals experiencing job losses due to decreases in coal production President & CEO, Paul Major, received Colorado Governor’s Citizenship Award for Innovation West End
“Backpack Program” began, providing children with food over threeday weekends Awarded federal grant to support economic development in the West End Staff received “Silver Tongue” Award for raising the most money during KOTO community radio “Women Who Rock” contest Hired a Capital & Transaction Advisor to support rural entrepreneurs with loan and investment opportunities 2019
Celebrated awarding over $60,000,000 in grant and initiative funding since our inception Two board of director seats added for regional nonprofit leaders
• 11 • 20th Anniversary Issue
Enterprise Outcomes adopted to help measure the impact of the Foundation’s work High School Apprenticeship Program expanded from the West End to Norwood schools 2020
20th Anniversary celebrations postponed due to COVID-19 COVID-19 Response Fund established to provide financial support to the region’s most vulnerable families and to nonprofits providing essential services New Regional Workforce Housing Initiative launched
Photo by Ryan Bonneau
HOW WE DO OUR WORK
THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX (CANYON) 1776
Dominguez-Escalante expedition travels through Ute territory, present-day San Miguel, Montrose & Ouray counties
1811
1870
American fur trappers encounter Ute Indians in the San Juan Mountains
Telluride
West End
Ouray County
Telluride Valley used as summer camp for Ute Indians
he Telluride Foundation brings together the thought leadership necessary to develop innovative approaches to tackle tough issues. We believe in strengthening the capacity and resiliency of the organizations and individuals we serve, in order to support strong, sustainable communities throughout our service region. Through it all, we keep our values front and center – promoting inclusion, building self-reliance, and being a change agent.
T
1870
Ute Indians, led by Chief Ouray, inhabit Uncompahgre Valley, with plentiful game & natural hot springs
1872
1872 Mining Act signed into law, creating the silver & gold rush in the San Juan Mountains
Telluride Foundation
1873
• 13 • 20th Anniversary Issue
Utes cede San Juan mining area to U.S. and are driven out of San Juan Mountains
HOW W E D O O U R WOR K
T Thought Leadership
How We Turn Innovative Ideas Into Reality
Building Capacity It’s Not Just About Giving Away Money
A
t the Telluride Foundation, we emphasize building the capacity of programs and organizations. It’s not just about giving away money. That money needs to be paired with a commitment to nurture the capacity of organizations and programs to ensure that they can be as successful and sustainable as possible.
With that in mind, the Foundation provides continuous opportunities for training and learning. We host workshops and Executive Director Breakfasts throughout the year and consult one-onone with many organizations to provide advice on financials, capital campaigns, strategy, and more. When it comes to our own
1875
1876
Valuable ore discovered in the San Juan mountains, containing zinc, copper, silver lead, and gold
Telluride
West End
From multi-year efforts to one-day convenings, from business leader summits on early childhood investment to a Colorado foundations water retreat, the Foundation has led multiple endeavors to inspire philanthropic, government, business, and community leaders to turn innovative ideas into reality.
initiatives, we aim to provide that same level of attention and support, encouraging them to be successful and – if appropriate – sustainable independent nonprofits.
Our Strong Neighbors Initiative is now a model for other rural communities, providing a multifaceted approach to building community resiliency. Major now serves on the Colorado Just Transition Advisory Committee, helping Colorado better serve coal-impacted communities.
We are especially proud of two programs launched by the Foundation that are now operating as thriving independent nonprofits and essential service organizations to the region: Bright Futures for Early Childhood and Families and Tri-County Health Network. Both are important partners to the Foundation, collaborating with us to achieve mutual goals of meeting the critical healthcare and childcare needs of lower income families in the region.
Town of Ouray is incorporated, as miners move into area in search of valuable ore
Ouray County
1878
Mining camp, originally named “Columbia,” becomes Town of Telluride
he Telluride Foundation has a history of thinking outside of the box canyon and bringing thought leaders and decision makers together to help solve many of the challenges our communities face. We are always looking for new ways to tackle community problems or to get out in front of potential issues; it is no wonder that Foundation President and CEO Paul Major was awarded the Governor’s Citizenship Medal for Growth and Innovation.
The Foundation has become a national leader in creating support networks for business start-ups, innovation, and entrepreneurs in an effort to diversify resort economies in remote mountain towns.
1882
Yankee Girl Mine discovered in Red Mtn. Mining District; District will provide $30M+ in silver/gold
1883
Otto Mears completes toll road connecting Red Mtn. Mining District to Ouray
Telluride Foundation
1886
• 15 • 20th Anniversary Issue
First pioneer family, the Josephs, settle on Wright’s Mesa near Norwood
HOW W E D O O U R WOR K
T
capacity, from planning to property management. Project costs can be more than 40% higher than completed appraised values – driving up sales prices and rents. In addition, demand exceeds supply for affordable homes, and housing is often old, dilapidated, and unsafe.
Recognizing this complex issue, the Foundation launched its “Rural Workforce Housing Initiative” in 2020, exemplifying its commitment to addressing community needs and its willingness to take on complex challenges.
Tackling Difficult Issues
Affordable Housing: The Challenge of Our Time
A
s the Telluride Foundation sought to improve the quality of life for our rural region’s residents, visitors, and workforce over the years, the lack of affordable housing continued to emerge as a critical gap in every community and every sector the Foundation touched.
Like much of the country, southwestern Colorado faces an affordable housing crisis, which is particularly acute in rural areas. Developing affordable rural projects in rural areas is often infeasible due to higher construction costs, low rents, inability to compete for capital, and lack of development
1886
1886
Railroad comes to Ouray, bringing economic growth & increasing population to over 2,500
West End
Program Evaluation Embedded in Everything We Do
Ouray County
1888
Ouray County Courthouse and Wright Opera House constructed in Ouray
All our programs and initiatives are facilitated by one common thought: you can’t determine if you met your desired outcomes if you don’t measure them. Therefore, measurement and evaluation are integrated into everything we do.
The Foundation has rolled up its sleeves to help address impediments to affordable housing construction in rural areas: capacity, scalability, financing, and construction. The Foundation has formed a coalition of statewide partners to create a replicable model, which empowers rural communities to build affordable housing at scale for their teachers, working families, and lower income residents to improve community health, wellbeing, and economic resilience. The coalition plans to pilot this model in rural communities in southwestern Colorado.
Beaumont Hotel is constructed in Ouray
Telluride
Measuring Our Impact
he Telluride Foundation believes that our donors need to see how their contributions are making a difference in the community. We work hard to explain how the money we invest, in either grants or initiatives, improves peoples’ lives and makes a measurable impact.
Working alongside our regional nonprofits, the Foundation has developed grant outcomes and indicators to measure the impact of our Community Grants. In addition, every initiative launched by the Foundation has accompanying desired outcomes; whether measuring the improvement in specific health indicators for the Food Rx Program participants or the average decrease in the cost of broadband service following our Broadband Initiative, we are continuously and tenaciously measuring the impact of our work.
1889
Butch Cassidy and Wild Bunch steal $24,000 from San Miguel National Bank in Telluride
1890
Carnotite (ore with radium, vanadium, and uranium) discovered in the West End
Telluride Foundation
1890
• 17 • 20th Anniversary Issue
Town of Ridgway, named after Denver & Rio Grande Railroad Superintendent Robert Ridgway, incorporated
HOW W E D O O U R WOR K
F
eeding the hungry. Taking in at-risk youth. Finding funding for those that need help. Never giving up. These are some of the selfless acts that Telluride’s “Citizens of the Year” do every day without expecting anything in return. The Telluride Foundation created its Citizen of the Year award to honor individuals who unselfishly make extraordinary contributions to the region’s quality of life.
Honoring Local Heroes Extraordinary Volunteers Make Our Community a Better Place
(Opposite) Barb Gross, 2019 Citizen of the Year. (Far Left) John Pryor, 2007 Citizen of the Year. (Left) Susan Rice receives her award in 2018.
Photo by Makaela Vodopich, Desert Snow Photography
Nominations are solicited from community members in recognition of exemplary community service and volunteerism.
PAST RECIPIENTS
Citizens of the Year
Railroad comes to Telluride; town grows into a largely immigrant community of 5,000
1890
Congress passes Sherman Silver Purchase Act, agreeing to buy silver for coinage
Telluride
West End
Ouray County
1891
Ames Hydroelectric Plant powers Gold King Mine & serves as demonstration of alternating current power
2014
Marilyn Branch
Kristin Holbrook
2010
2004
Recent recipients include Barb Gross, who makes sure the pantry at the Telluride Food Bank is always stocked and that children who otherwise might go hungry have a full meal, and Naturita Library Director Susan Rice, who advocates for food, shelter, and support for youth in the West End.
Lissa Margetts 2005
John Micetic
2015
Dan & Greer Garner, Andrea Benda
Gary Freedman
2011
Elaine Fischer
2012
Wendy Brooks
2013
Susan Rice
2016
Billy “Senior” Mahoney
2006
Bill Carstens
2017
Anne Brady
2007
John Pryor, Jane Hickcox
Each Citizen of the Year receives a commemorative plaque and a grant of $5,000 to be given in their name to the local nonprofit of their choice.
1890
2009
2003
Terry Tice
2018
Dean Rolley
2008
2019
Barb Gross
Kathy Green
1891
Hanging Flume, above San Miguel River, completed for hydraulic gold mining, although soon abandoned
1893
Repeal of Sherman Silver Purchase Act leads to crash in silver prices and blow to region’s mining economy
Telluride Foundation
1893
• 19 • 20th Anniversary Issue
Colorado Cooperative Company established socialist colony, Piñon, which became Town of Nucla
Photo by Ryan Bonneau
IMPACT INITIATIVES
MAKING OUR IMPACT
Telluride
West End
Ouray County
rom bolstering and diversifying the regional economy to bringing broadband service to the area, the Telluride Foundation’s Impact Initiatives focus on innovative and creative solutions to our communities’ most critical and unmet needs. Executing our own Impact Initiatives allows us to attack community challenges with an all-in approach and positions the Telluride Foundation at the forefront of philanthropic innovation.
F
Telluride Foundation
• 21 • 20th Anniversary Issue
I M PAC T I N I T I AT I V E S
Photos by Aurelie Sleggers
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
2019 was a busy, successful year. A new fiber line was completed from Nucla to Norwood, providing high-speed fiber access to the Uncompahgre Medical Center, Lone Cone Library, and the public schools, as well as some Norwood businesses and residents. In Telluride, the Telluride Medical Center, Wilkinson Public Library, and public schools were also “lit up” with gigabit service, allowing for telehealth options and uninterrupted video conferencing capabilities. Many Telluride residents and businesses are currently getting connected to fiber.
1
B R OA DBAND E XPA NS ION This successful regional collaboration is laser-focused on creating a market-priced, high-speed, redundant, and reliable broadband network in west Montrose and San Miguel counties to support economic development, education, healthcare, and public safety access and activities.
Fiber installation along the stretch of Highway 145, from Society Turn into Telluride known as the “Spur” is in its final construction phase and will be in use before school begins fall 2020. The existing Tri-State fiber that runs between Norwood and Ilium Valley completes the regional fiber network and allows for redundancy and reliability between Nucla and Telluride. 2020 & BEYOND
(Above) Matt Stott, Norwood Fire District, uses highspeed internet to respond to emergencies. (Top Right) Norwood EMT is dependent on reliable internet to save lives. (Bottom Right) A Norwood student accesses high speed broadband for school.
1893
Telluride’s population dwindles from thousands to hundreds as the mining economy shrinks
1896
Camp Bird Mine, established by Thomas Walsh, produced over $26M in gold from 1896 to 1910
Telluride
West End
Ouray County
1904
Governor Peabody calls in National Guard, building Fort Peabody at Imogene Pass to counter miners’ labor strike
TELLURIDE FOUNDATION ROLE
Broadband access in our rural region kept emerging as a critical gap in every sector the Foundation touched, so we leveraged our skills in project management, partnership coordination, and fundraising to do something about
it. By covering the heavy costs of backbone fiber infrastructure, the Telluride Foundation has eliminated the barriers to entry for internet service providers, who are now competing for customers in the region and offering better service and lower prices.
1914
1924
Standard Chemical Co. builds Joe Jr. Mill to process radioactive ore, beginning industry in region
“Million Dollar Highway,” connecting Ouray to Silverton, is paved, opening up tourism opportunities.
Telluride Foundation
With the successful completion of fiber infrastructure, we will begin seeing the fruits of this effort as the years unfold: a more competitive marketplace for internet providers, increased economic development opportunities, and expanded educational and healthcare services will now be within reach for everyone living and working in our region.
1927
• 23 • 20th Anniversary Issue
Ouray Hot Springs Pool opens
I M PAC T I N I T I AT I V E S
1936
US Vanadium Corp. begins production of uranium for WWII Manhattan Project at Town of Uravan
Photo by Aurelie Sleggers
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
A new distribution, sales, and marketing system for regional farmers has been established, and a new community grain mill was recently purchased. Food banks in the region are active and busy, serving community members that need help putting healthy food on the table. Through the Food Rx Program, community members are improving their health with fresh food and nutrition education.
2020 & BEYOND
The Foundation, in partnership with San Miguel County, is conducting a feasibility study in 2020 to evaluate the potential of opening a local meat processing facility. Also, the Foundation recently received a “Strengthening Community Food Systems” implementation grant from the Colorado Health Foundation. This funding will help us improve the overall sustainability of all of our food security programs.
Our work has not only significantly Photo by Aurelie Sleggers
Our Local Food Initiative focuses on strengthening the West End’s historic agricultural ecosystem to encourage a more diverse, sustainable economy, while providing fresher, more nutrient-rich food to neighboring communities – particularly for those who struggle to afford such food.
The Telluride Foundation and our partners in the West End actively collaborate on a number of programs.
increased access to affordable healthy food but has also reintroduced locally grown fruits, vegetables, grains, and meats from western San Miguel and Montrose counties to the entire region.
Photo Courtesy of Apple Core Project
LO CAL FOOD
2
TELLURIDE FOUNDATION ROLE
(Top) Basket of items from the Fresh Food Hub. (Far Left) Apple Core Festival in Nucla. (Left) Mesa Owen and Leila Seraphin working at the Fresh Food Hub.
1940
Idarado Mine near Ouray and Telluride develops lead and zinc production to meet metal demands of WWII
Telluride
West End
Ouray County
1942
“WSP” Mill built in Uravan to process uranium
1959
Nucla Station coal-fired power plant constructed
1964
Telluride Historic District listed on National Register of Historic Places
Telluride Foundation
1966
• 25 • 20th Anniversary Issue
Rimrocker Historical Society founded in Naturita to honor region’s history
I M PAC T I N I T I AT I V E S
(Far Left) Skillful Coach works with excoal mine employee to obtain a new job with Montrose County (Nucla Shop) as a heavy equipment operator.
3
John Wayne’s western movie, “True Grit,” filmed in Ridgway, Ouray, and Cimarron Mountains
1972
(Bottom) Skillful works with businesses, educators, and government to help the nearly 70% of Americans without college degrees get good jobs based on the skills they have or the skills they can learn.
TELLURIDE FOUNDATION ROLE
The Telluride Foundation leverages financial support and coordinates the resources and relationships to effect meaningful change in the job market of our region. ACCOMPLISHMENTS
In the fall of 2018, in partnership with the Markle Foundation, the Telluride Foundation launched the first rural pilot of “Skillful” in the West End of Montrose County. “Skillful-West End” seeks to change hiring practices of regional employers to focus on a job seeker’s skills versus traditional credentials-based practices. Through one-on-one coaching, we also help job seekers identify the skills they currently possess or lack and provide opportunities for them to obtain additional skills so they can qualify for well-paying jobs within the region.
West End
2020 & BEYOND
As the workforce climate in our region continues to evolve, we will remain engaged with regional employers, schools, and job seekers to support the region’s ever-changing economy.
1974
Telluride Ski Resort officially opens
Telluride
Through funding, resource coordination, and oversight, the Foundation also supports the West End and Norwood school districts’ Apprenticeship Programs. These Programs provide students with foundational workforce experience and credit toward certifications and/or college.
Photo Courtesy of Skillful, a Markle initiative
WORKFORCE DEV ELOPMEN T
Our Workforce Development Initiative seeks to help West End communities counter the loss of coal-related jobs by providing skills-based training and job seeking services to adults as well as to highschool students.
1968
(Left) Skillful was in attendance at the West End Community Career Fair & Job Expo to provide assistance with the application process.
Ouray County
1st Telluride Bluegrass Festival attracts 1,000 participants & 1st Telluride Film Festival occurs at Sheridan Opera House
1975
Ridgway dubbed “Town that Refused to Die” after decision to build dam lower on river, not inundating town
1978
Idarado Mine closes due to low metal prices
Telluride Foundation
1978
• 27 • 20th Anniversary Issue
Ron Allred & Jim Wells purchase Telluride Ski Area, launching vision of world-class ski resort
(Pictured) Norwood kids display their new skills after Wide Sky Arts Collective mural painting workshop.
4
STRONG N E I GHBORS A locally-driven, all-in approach to spark prosperity in isolated neighboring “frontier” communities where economies are in transition.
1979
Basin Medical Clinic opens in Naturita; Montrose West Recreation established
1983
Colorado sues Idarado Mining Co. for pollution, eventually leading to a Superfund cleanup
Telluride
West End
Ouray County
1985
1st commercial airline service makes flights available to and from Telluride Airport
TELLURIDE FOUNDATION ROLE
This umbrella initiative covers many of the Foundation’s programs and initiatives serving the west end of San Miguel and Montrose counties, as well as the Town of Rico. The Foundation’s leadership, resources, and deep community relationships, combined with grants, initiatives, and investments, are helping these neighboring communities transition from 100-plus years of boom-andbust extractive industries to thriving, diversified economies. Our strategy focuses on a number of resiliency factors identified in a 2016 “Rural Economic Resiliency in Colorado”
1986
Town of Uravan closes Dec. 31 and becomes $70M reclamation Superfund site
study. These factors include quality of life, industry diversity, community leadership, education, healthcare, and affordable housing. ACCOMPLISHMENTS
We have provided technical assistance and investment support to three community endowment groups (Rico, Norwood, and Nucla/ Naturita), encouraging community philanthropy. Through a $1.6 million federal grant, we help fund WEEDC (West End Economic Development Corp.), which provides resources to new and existing businesses in the region. The Foundation has
1993
New Horizon Mine near Nucla begins coal mining operations in the area
Telluride Foundation
leveraged philanthropy to support and maximize Opportunity Zone investments in the region and serves as a regional point of contact, helping to match businesses with investors and loan capital. We have also facilitated a regional trails and recreational effort. 2020 AND BEYOND
The Foundation will continue to support and partner with our neighboring communities, with a focus on building leadership capacity and honoring our neighbors’ self-determined priorities.
1996
• 29 • 20th Anniversary Issue
Gondola links Mountain Village and Telluride with free transportation, the first of its kind in the U.S.
Photo by Harvey Mogenson
I M PAC T I N I T I AT I V E S
I M PAC T I N I T I AT I V E S
Now in its seventh year, the Telluride Venture Accelerator encourages ambitious entrepreneurs to come together to participate in a bootcamp-driven accelerator program.
1997
Ouray Ice Park established, becoming a mainstay of Ouray’s winter economy
TELLURIDE VENTURE ACCELERATOR
5
2000
TELLURIDE FOUNDATION ROLE
(Top) One-on one conversations with mentors at the Sheridan Opera House. (Middle) Telluride community seated at the Sheridan Opera House to watch Demo Day.
West End
(Opposite) Investment Bootcamp cohort, 2019, with former TVA Program Director Ashley Nager (at right).
2001
Telluride Foundation established and raises $4 million in its first year
Telluride
(Bottom) Investors engage entrepreneurs during Demo Day.
Ouray County
Second Chance Animal Humane Society receives Telluride Foundation grant as first group of grantees
Telluride Venture Accelerator (TVA) represents a significant aspect of our work to help strengthen and diversify the regional economy. TVA offers four specific bootcamps to support budding entrepreneurs every year and provides access to an incredible network of business mentors, investors, and industry leading experts from across the country. ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Thus far, 50 companies have graduated from a TVA bootcamp, and 86 percent of these companies are still active. TVA has created 138 full-time and 35 parttime jobs, including 11 full-time jobs in Telluride. TVA alumni companies represent a $126 million portfolio valuation. TVA owns, on average, 4 percent of most of
2002
Telluride Foundation establishes Bright Futures, a fund supporting early childhood care and education
2003
these companies. Since its inception, TVA has hosted 23 “Meetup” events, two “Startup Weekend” events, and four “Telluride Angels” events to help connect entrepreneurs with the funding they need to grow their businesses. 2020 AND BEYOND
In the future, TVA plans to continue its comprehensive, coordinated slate of interventions to promote rural entrepreneurs. These interventions include business support, incubation, and educational opportunities in the West End; TVA Bootcamps and mentorship; and the expert services of a capital and transaction advisor who matches businesses with capital and investors. The Foundation has also worked with other funders to create $2 million in lending capital that matches the unique needs of early-stage and rural-based companies.
Telluride Foundation establishes Good Neighbor Fund to assist locals in financial crisis
Telluride Foundation
2004
• 31 • 20th Anniversary Issue
Hanley Ice Rink completed after major community-wide fundraising effort
Photo by Brenda Colwell
I M PAC T I N I T I AT I V E S
6
(Left) Neil Armstrong Scholarship Recipient, Slator Alpine with Scholarship founder, Carol Armstrong.
CO LLEGE S CH O LARS HIPS For the past 20 years, the Telluride Foundation has proudly supported regional youth pursuing higher education. Presently, four scholarship programs recognize students in the five school districts within our service area – Telluride, Ridgway, Ouray, Norwood, and the West End.
In 2017, the Foundation launched
the Chang Chavkin Scholars Program to increase the success of rural firstgeneration students throughout our region. Students are selected as Chang Chavkin Scholars in their junior year of high school. Scholars are then supported through the college application process as well as through four years of college. Currently, 12 Chang Chavkin Scholars are attending
2007
2007
TELLURIDE FOUNDATION ROLE
Our staff works closely with donors who underwrite each of these scholarship programs, providing administrative support to ensure the donors’ vision for each program is accomplished. ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Telluride Foundation awards capital grant to help build new Naturita Public Library
college. Each scholar has received on average $30,000 per year toward their education. In 2019, the program expanded to include students in the Montrose School District. The Neil Armstrong Scholarship is awarded to students pursuing college degrees in STEM fields. Seven scholars to date have each
570-acre Telluride Valley Floor purchased for $50 million
Telluride
West End
Ouray County
2008
Economic recession impacts Telluride economy; real estate, tourism, and construction industries shrink significantly
The Telluride Foundation Scholarship is awarded annually to one student from each of the five school districts within our service region. Applicants are selected by each school district’s administrative staff. This support may be used for college or trade school tuition.
The Strokes of Genius Scholarship, awarded to Telluride High School seniors demonstrating financial need, academic excellence, exceptional character, community involvement, and leadership potential is now administered by the Foundation as well. This program has been awarding college scholarships to Telluride youth for 25 years.
2010
2011
received a $20,000 scholarship.
Telluride Foundation distributes over $1M in community grants despite economic downturn
Naturita Library wins “Best Small Library in America” award
Telluride Foundation
2020 AND BEYOND
With the rising cost of college tuition, the Foundation is proud to be the largest funder of college scholarships in the region. We work closely with the five school districts within our service area, looking for opportunities to provide our regional youth with every advantage as they enter the next phase of their lives.
2012
• 33 • 20th Anniversary Issue
Telluride Venture Accelerator launched by the Telluride Foundation
I M PAC T I N I T I AT I V E S
TRI- COUNTRY HE AL TH NETWO RK
7
Originally the “healthcare arm” of the Telluride Foundation, TCHNetwork was created in 2008 to improve the overall quality of healthcare in its service area by reforming the region’s healthcare delivery system and eliminating barriers to care, while also providing solutions to meet critical healthcare needs.
2013
Ridgway becomes state-certified Creative District
2013
(Left) Tri-County Health Network staff, promoting participation in the 2020 Census.
TCHNetwork manages 32 community programs that focus on innovative solutions to the health-related challenges of living in rural regions.
West End
(Bottom Right) Child receives dental services through the Skippy Dental Program.
TELLURIDE FOUNDATION ROLE
The Foundation and TCHNetwork often collaborate on programs and initiatives, including services for immigrants, transportation, and food insecurity.
West End Econ. Dev. Corp. (WEEDC) established, supporting economic development in the West End
Telluride
(Top Right) All smiles during the Skippy Dental Program.
Ouray County
2014
Rockfall closes Red Mountain Pass for weeks, prompting Ouray mayor to declare economic emergency
2017
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
In 2019, TCHNetwork provided the following: preventive oral healthcare services for 371 children; helped 660 people enroll in health insurance coverage; screened 524 community members for risk of heart disease; empowered 60 people to eat healthily on a limited budget through Share Our Strength’s Cooking Matters class; tele-screened 109 people with diabetes for their annual retinopathy exam; distributed emergency funding to help 54 people overcome a crisis and stay warm and safe in their homes; provided 25 students with 264 school-based mental health sessions using telehealth technology; provided eight adults with 43 community-based mental health treatment sessions using telehealth technology; offered care coordination services
West End Business Development & Diversification Plan developed through community process
2017
to over 5,200 individuals, connecting them to supportive services; supported 15 clinics across a five-county region in screening their patients for social determinant of health needs; trained 299 people in Mental Health First Aid and Youth Mental Health First Aid programs; provided 476 no-cost rides to get people to their medical appointments; and performed in-home assessments and connected 121 older adults to resources to help them remain safe and independent in their homes. 2020 AND BEYOND
In 2020, TCHNetwork will survey community members to determine the strengths of our community and the barriers to health and wellness. It will use findings from this needs assessment to guide programming and organize priorities for the next three years.
Telluride Foundation awards grant for renovations to historic Wright Opera House, which opened in 1888
Telluride Foundation
• 35 • 20th Anniversary Issue
I M PAC T I N I T I AT I V E S
Photo Courtesy of Mountain Munchkins Preschool
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
8
TCHNetwork has achieved recognition and accreditation from the Department of Justice to offer Immigration Legal Services. This accreditation and subsequent work have contributed to a drastic decrease in deportations and ICE activity in San Miguel County due to education and advocacy efforts with local elected officials and law enforcement. TCHNetwork staff hosted eight integrated, bilingual and bicultural community meetings; offered an eight-part Equity Series to teachers and administrators of the Telluride School District; coordinated with policy and advocacy organizations at the state level to bring rural voices to the Front Range to impact legislation around housing, food security, and drivers’ licenses; and helped navigate long-term medical cases for young children without access to health insurance.
I M M IGR ATION I NTE GR ATION An Initiative of Tri County Health Network (TCHNetwork), the Immigrant Integration Initiative focuses on creating a more inclusive community through services that improve health, increase engagement, educate, and empower members of our region’s immigrant population.
2020 & BEYOND
(Top) Preschool children demonstrate equity and cross-cultural friendship. (Bottom Left) One-onone counseling is critical to supporting immigrant needs in the region. (Bottom Right) TCHNetwork’s Latinx Advocacy Committee members.
2018
TF & WEEDC receive EDA Coal Impacted Communities grant of $860,000 for economic development projects
2019
New Horizon Coal Mine, in Nucla, closes in advance of Tri-State Power Plant closure
Telluride
West End
Ouray County
2019
Naturita Marijuana Dispensary, the first marijuana shop in the West End opens
TELLURIDE FOUNDATION ROLE
The Telluride Foundation funds and participates in this collaborative effort to encourage community organizations to better work together to support immigrant integration. TCHNetwork was awarded “2019 Equity & Inclusion Nonprofit of the Year” by the Colorado Nonprofit Association. Its Immigrant
Integration Initiative ensures a single entry point for immigrant residents to access services that promote well-being, self-sufficeincy, health, education, social, and civic engagement. The Initiative uses a community mobilization strategy to help increase representation and consideration of immigrant communities.
2019
2020
Tri-State Generation & Transmission Association’s Nucla Station power plant closes September 9th at 9am
Now that TCHNetwork is accredited with the Department of Justice, it will expand its immigration legal services and offer more direct Spanish-languge support to clients navigating the complex immigration system. It will focus on creating a foundation of health and racial equity in our community by building individual and institutional capacity and cultivating champions and convenings around health equity.
Telluride Foundation celebrates its 20th Anniversary
Telluride Foundation
• 37 • 20th Anniversary Issue
FEATURE STORY
From Tesla to Tourism to TVA
An Odyssey of Entrepreneurship and Innovation. By SAMANTHA TISDEL WRIGHT
Photo Courtesy of the Telluride Historical Museum
FEATURE
F ROM TESL A TO TOURI SM TO T VA
“Let the past surprise us out of what we think we know.” STEPHEN A. BAILEY
Author of “L.L. Nunn, A Memoir”
B
Bold and daring innovation permeates Telluride’s dayto-day life.
It’s always been that way. The mining camps of the San Juans were the innovation bootcamps of the late 1800s, full of impossible problems that some of the most disruptive entrepreneurs of the era came here to solve.
Short and skinny as a racehorse jockey, our hero was selfpropelled by big ideas and high ideals. But, let’s be honest, he probably came to Telluride same as pretty much everyone else then and now, to have some fun, get lucky, and make a buck.
“To be clear, they were in it for the money. There was money to be had, and they were gonna try to make it,” said Telluride Historical Museum director Kiernan Lannon. “They never let the environment or the geography get in their way; necessity is the mother of invention.” Perhaps the boldest innovator of them all was an eccentric spark of a man from a farm in Ohio,
desperate to find a cheap source of power for his Gold King Mine, who changed the way electricity would be delivered to the world.
It was the spring of 1881, and he was Lucien Lucius Nunn, Telluride’s original serial entrepreneur. Nunn knew from the start that the miner’s life was not for him. “So,” said Lannon, “he decides he will be a barnacle on the mining industry. Profit off of it without being in it.” And what a great time it was to
Telluride Foundation
be a barnacle in Telluride!
AC-DC
Within a few years, the dirty, smelly, noisy little mining town would have more millionaires per capita than any other town in the U.S. It was a place on the brink of becoming – a broad, gritty canvas crowded with miners from around the world who needed supplies, services, comforts, and diversions.
Nunn found his solution in the vicious and nasty “War of the Currents” that brewed to the east. By that time, much of America was already getting lit up by electricity, but hadn’t yet settled on a standard for electrification. Two rivals were trying to become dominant: Thomas Edison, with his DC system, versus George Westinghouse and his AC system.
Nunn, the restless barnacle, was happy to oblige. He parlayed one business startup into another, and another, and another. Roof shingler. Hot bath hustler. Rancher. Property developer. Newspaper publisher. Lawyer. Banker. There was just one thing he was not interested in doing, and that was working for someone else.
DC (Direct Current) was a great choice if you were right at the location where you needed light or power, but AC (Alternating Current) was cheaper and easier to transmit over long distances. Sparks flew as these heavyweight electric titans brawled their way through the 1880s to gain market share and public acceptance for their competing systems. The stakes were phenomenally high. The man that controlled the currents controlled the electrified future of the world.
By 1889, Nunn had acquired lucrative water rights for placer mining down along the south fork of the San Miguel River near Ames and a controlling interest in the Gold King Mine, perched in a high alpine basin about three miles away. That’s where the trouble started. The most lucrative high-grade ore at the Gold King Mine had already been gouged out, and extraction costs were on the rise. The only way to power the mine and its nearby mill was to pack in expensive coal on the backs of burrows, cutting sharply into Nunn’s shrinking profits. “Because he was a banker, he was not particularly fond of hemorrhaging money,” said Lannon. “He was looking for any way he could to increase efficiency and reduce cost.”
• 40 • 20th Anniversary Issue
Into this fray came the brilliant and strange electrical wizard Nikola Tesla, born in Serbia to Croatian parents, with his groundbreaking invention called an induction motor that could harness AC electricity to run machinery. L.L NUNN
In May 1888, while Edison’s supporters were busy electrocuting stray dogs and cats to scare the public off AC, Westinghouse quietly paid Tesla a small fortune for his newly patented induction motor and other inventions that made AC a viable alternative
Deep Springs College, 1917 Short and skinny as a racehorse jockey, Nunn was self-propelled by big ideas and high ideals. (Photo Courtesy of L. Jackson Newell papers, Special Collections, Marriott Library, University of Utah)
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FEATURE
F ROM TESL A TO TOURI SM TO T VA
to DC. Tesla came on board at Westinghouse Electric Company in Pittsburgh as a consultant.
see history in the making. Nunn threw a switch, his blue eyes flaring like twin pilot lights.
Now, all they needed was a pilot project – in some nice, discreet, out-of-the-way place – to test Tesla’s new technology.
A wild blue whip of electricity leaped into the air, then zinged along a 2.6-mile strand of naked copper line at 186,000 miles a second – the speed of light – instantly goosing the Tesla motor up at the Gold King Mine, which in turn sparked life into the ponderous 40-stamp ore crushing mill. No coal required.
THE LONG SHOT
Nunn could help with that. Convinced that AC electricity could solve his power problems at the Gold King Mine, Nunn stormed the Westinghouse Electric Company headquarters like his slightly taller hero Napoleon in the spring of 1890 and made an electrifying pitch:
The crowds whooped with wonder. They had just witnessed the world’s first long-distance transmission of AC electricity for industrial purposes.
“We want to use your new technology. We need your expertise (and money) to help us build a hydroelectric plant near Telluride at Ames. We are going to try to shoot this power three miles up the mountain to the Gold King Mine.”
Over the coming months, with this cheap and plentiful new power source, Nunn’s expenses at the Gold King Mine plummeted. Low grade orebodies, previously too expensive to mine, were suddenly profitable.
(Inset) Ames Power Plant original 100 H.P. generator. (Courtesy of Center for Southwest Studies, Fort Lewis College)
It was a completely crazy idea. The project was going to cost a ton of money, and there was no guarantee of its success. But Nunn was not a man to be denied. He sweetened the deal with a sackful of gold worth $50,000 and convinced Westinghouse and a skeptical, skittish board of directors to join him in the proof-of-concept project.
(Top) Ames Hydroelectric Plant. (Courtesy of Telluride Historical Museum)
“This really was what put the nail in the coffin for DC,” Lannon said. “It was wildly successful, and greatly reduced the costs of mining.”
(Far Left) Nikola Tesla. (Lef) Interior of the original Ames powerhouse, as it appeared in 1895, with a single 3.6-MW generator unit attached to two Pelton turbines.
A year later, on June 19, 1891, crowds gathered at the newly built Ames Hydroelectric Plant to
(Sketch) An illustration accompanying Tesla’s patent for his induction motor.
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• 42 • 20th Anniversary Issue
Nunn – ever the entrepreneur – created the world’s first electric utility at Ames and started selling cheap AC power to neighboring
Telluride Foundation
mines and the Town of Telluride. A few years after that, Westinghouse leveraged Tesla’s technology that had been proven at Ames to build an enormous industrial-scale AC power plant at Niagara Falls. The War of the Currents was won. NEW ENERGY
Fast-forward about 130 years to a Saturday morning last September, and the same spirit of risk-taking and innovation that once animated Nunn at the Ames Hydroelectric Plant now infused a sunlit classroom at the brand-new Norwood Public Library. Here a group had gathered to attend a “Demystifying Entrepreneurship” bootcamp sponsored by the Telluride Venture Accelerator. Maybe they had a business idea they were just beginning to work on. Maybe they didn’t even have a fully-fledged idea yet, but they were there to learn how to take an idea and turn it into something. “Imagine a truck on the highway is going by at 90 miles an hour, and you’re hanging on to the bumper with your pinky,” said one of the instructors, a professor from the Leeds School of Business
• 43 • 20th Anniversary Issue
FEATURE
F ROM TESL A TO TOURI SM TO T VA
Just a few days earlier, it had looked like this bootcamp would be a bust. Hardly anyone had signed up.
Photo by Samantha Tisdel Wright
Then, as if from a burst of cosmic dust, the class filled up, and 17 brand new budding entrepreneurs sat around the table, paired off and talking with quiet, focused intensity about the new businesses they wanted to create. (Top) Miners ride tram buckets up to the Gold King Mine. (Photo Courtesy of the San Juan County Historical Society) (Inset) Transmission towers atop Imogene Pass delivered electricity from Ames to the Camp Bird Mine near Ouray. (Bottom) A historic tower from the Smuggler Union Tram has found a new home at the base of the Telluride Ski Area, near the gondola station. (Right) Telluride Venture Accelerator cofounder Jesse Johnson.
Telluride Foundation
A mountain bike ranch in the West End. A coffee shop and gift basket business in Norwood. A pyrolysis plant at the Nucla landfill to process plastics into diesel fuel. Artful light fixtures. Educational toys. A wellness app. A spa. A youth outdoor project. A food co-op. The classroom crackled with energy and optimism. You could almost smell ozone in the air, almost see the wild blue whips of electricity zinging around above their heads. There’s a lot riding on their eventual success. According to a recent report from the Kauffman Foundation titled “America’s New Business Plan,” all net job creation comes from companies that are younger than five years old. Yet, for a variety of reasons, the rate of new startups is actually down – “and drastically down
• 44 • 20th Anniversary Issue
to in Telluride and Ames back in the 1890s, and what recent TVA grad Natalie Binder is up to at an old mining camp near Naturita.
Photo by Makaela Vodopich, Desert Snow Photography
at CU Boulder. “That’s what today’s going to feel like.”
Binder surveys the scruffy landscape, the junk-littered yards, the assortment of mostly unoccupied cabins and shacks, and smiles at this dream in progress – just as innovative in its own way as the old Ames Hydro Plant that still whirrs away upstream, alongside the south fork of the San Miguel River. Vancorum, a quiet, shady settlement of 14 cabins built by the Vanadium Corporation in the 1940s to house the engineers who once worked in a nearby uranium mill, will soon be transformed into Camp V. among younger populations,” said past TVA Program Director Ashley Nager. “And that could snowball into a massive problem.” The solution, on both a national and local level, is to create an environment where fledgling startups can take root, attract investors, and grow new jobs during that first critical five-year window. Too often, however, all the air in the room is sucked up by already well-established companies. That’s where business incubators like the Telluride Venture Accelerator come in. Just as a nebula serves as a nursery for young stars, TVA is doing its part to help nurture and launch new startups and invest in entrepreneurs from southwestern Colorado and beyond with the skills and confidence they need to succeed,
with the goal of strengthening and diversifying the regional economy. With support from the Telluride Foundation, TVA pairs its participants with an incredible network of business mentors and industry leading experts from across the country – many of them secondhomeowners right in Telluride – and funds itself through investments in the companies it helps to launch. The bootcamp model allows TVA to work with companies at different stages of development, as well as different “verticals” – new fields with promising companies that may attract investors. WELCOME TO CAMP V
At first glance, you’d be hard-pressed to find any sort of connection between what L.L. Nunn was up
Telluride Foundation
Part “glampground,” part Burning Man, part outdoor adventure mecca, Binder’s vision for Camp V is to redefine the traditional camping experience through unique design, experimental architecture, storytelling, and world class outdoor recreation. There will be a vintage welcome bus lounge, an outdoor movie theater, art trails, communal bonfires, and unique accommodations ranging from traditional campsites, van spaces, and a “Hammock Town” down by the river, to fully furnished safari tents, artfully remodeled cabins, and an Airstream Village for more upscale guests. Her friends back in Telluride can’t wait to check in. It’s been a big week – Binder just
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FEATURE
F ROM TESL A TO TOURI SM TO T VA
ski resort after its own mining economy collapsed four decades ago – finds herself at the forefront of an effort to rebrand the West End as a tourism and recreation destination.
She and her business partners, Bruce and Jodie Wright of One Architect in Telluride, hope to start welcoming guests this summer, and there’s a lot to do between now and then.
With her background in high-end hospitality, a master’s degree in construction management, and family roots in Naturita that go all the way back to the 1940s when her grandmother was secretary to the president of the Vanadium Corporation, Binder is gambling that she has got just what it takes to turn the old Vancorum property into something uniquely new, honoring Naturita’s colorful past while energizing its future.
Today, Binder is pulling down old fences and putting things into piles. Burn pile. Bike pile. Tire pile. Trash pile. “We have a lot of land. And a lot of junk…. And some chickens,” she laughs. The chickens – and the few remaining Vancorum tenants that remain on the property – will soon have to relocate as the project gets underway in earnest. Some of the junk will remain and get repurposed into art. If all goes according to plan, Camp V could be a game-changer for the once bustling uranium mining towns of the West End, which recently suffered the closures of the Tri-State coalfired power plant and New Horizon Mine. With those closures, 70 well-paying jobs blew away, just like that. New opportunities are on the horizon, though. The West End was recently designated as an Opportunity Zone with significant tax breaks for investors. Binder – filled with the same kind of entrepreneurial zeal that transformed Telluride into a world-class
to be a $3 million investment in Naturita. It’s just an amazing outcome that I never would have predicted when we started this. And hopefully there’s more to come.”
Photos (Left Inset & Right) Courtesy of Camp V
closed on $3 million in financing for the project and quit her day job, with a highend property management company in Telluride, to work on Camp V full time.
A NEW BEGINNING IN THE WEST END
Back at the West End Economic Development Corporation headquartered in Naturita, WEEDC executive director Deana Sheriff couldn’t agree more, “Sure,” she acknowledges, “The West End is going through challenging times, but along with the challenge is a sense of excitement and possibility.” Old story lines about the region’s depressed economy and isolation are giving way to new ones about its wild beauty, blazing fast internet, and strategic location between the booming towns of Telluride and Moab.
Her pitch? “We believe art can save the world, and we plan to begin here with outdoor recreation as our backdrop.”
The West End is a place on the brink of becoming – a broad and gritty canvas, appealingly uncrowded and rough around the edges – inviting the next bold strokes of innovation.
Binder credits her recent participation in the Telluride Venture Accelerator with giving her the confidence and entrepreneurial skills she needed to attract investors and turn her vision into reality.
TF
The project is still in its infancy. But Binder can already see Camp V on the map – lit up in neon – beckoning to happy glampers from around the world.
(Top) Camp V co-founders, Natalie Binder and Jodie Wright, by vintage bus that came with the property and is being transformed into a lounge and retail space.
TVA co-founder and philanthropist Jesse Johnson is thrilled with how it’s turning out. “The Camp V story is a particularly great one to celebrate, I think, because so many different pieces came together to make it happen,” he said. “Ultimately, there’s going
Telluride Foundation
• 46 • 20th Anniversary Issue
(Bottom) The recently decommissioned TriState coal-fired power plant near Nucla.
Telluride Foundation
• 47 • 20th Anniversary Issue
33% RENT
44% 24%
OWN
RENT
RENT
ANSWERS
06
OURAY
Maggie’s Kitchen
OURAY
10
$
12
$
True Grit Cafe
Blondie’s
650
$
TEST YOUR REGIONAL KNOWLEDGE. SAN MIGUEL COUNTY
575
$
RIDGWAY
FACTS
NATURITA
The Town of Nucla got its name from nuclear energy due to the surrounding uranium mines.
Cheeseburger
The Divide Restaurant
04
COST OF A BASIC
TRUE OR FALSE?
NORWOOD
(Federal & State)
PUBLIC LANDS
MONTROSE
OPHIR/RICO
66 55 8
$
TRUE OR FALSE?
At an elevation of 9,000 feet, deer turn into elk.
1499
$
24
The Chop House
56%
OWN
OWN
OURAY
TELLURIDE
76%
67%
SAN MIGUEL COUNTY
Smugglers
TELLURIDE
68.8%
TELLURIDE
NORWOOD
47.9%
in our service area
(By School District)
WEST END
01 False. 02 False. 03 True. 04 False. 05 True. 06 False.
RENTING VS. OWNERSHIP
DID YOU KNOW?
63.8%
13ER & 14ER PEAKS
The prairie dog is the official animal of the Town of Telluride.
Bridal Veil Falls is Colorado’s tallest free-falling waterfall at 365 feet.
FUN
TRUE OR FALSE?
The Sheridan Opera House was originally called the Segerberg Opera House.
O2
8,991
TRUE OR FALSE?
San Miguel County
9,583
05
# PEOPLE
# COWS
TRUE OR FALSE?
PEOPLE VS. COWS
The Telluride Foundation has an official curling team.
03
01
TRUE OR FALSE?
FEATURE STORY
Knitting the Safety Net
Benevolence & Philanthropy in the San Juans By SAMANTHA TISDEL WRIGHT
FEATURE
KNI TTI N G THE SAFET Y NET
Christmas Day in Telluride in 1921 was a good one. everal inches of fresh snow had fallen overnight, and giant, lacy snowflakes drifted lazily from the sky throughout the day. It wasn’t freezing, but the air was crisp and cold enough to make for rosy cheeks and runny noses.
S
Christmas fell on a Sunday that year, and the townspeople crowded into Telluride’s churches to enjoy special music programs. Then came the visit from St. Nick. Ably assisted by members of the Benevolent and Protective Order of
Elks Lodge No. 692, Santa breezed into town at high noon on a horsedrawn sleigh and greeted Telluride kiddies in the lavishly decorated Elks lodge-room, with its towering Christmas tree and mounds of toys beneath the sheltering boughs. With the gifts dispersed, the Elks Santa climbed back into his sleigh and zipped around his Elkdom, waving “halloes” to bundled-up pedestrians, and making special deliveries “to the homes of the poor and the kiddies who, by reason of quarantine or, for other reasons, were unable to attend the reception at the club,” the Telluride Daily Journal reported.
The city hospital was among the first places he visited, followed by the poor farm and the pest house. From there, it was on to Pandora, Smuggler, and Tomboy, then back to the Elks Lodge for a well-deserved cup or two of Christmas cheer. The Elks were part of the informal social safety net that knit together the mountain towns of the San Juans over a century ago – a combination of unions, lodges, churches, fraternal organizations, and local philanthropists.
(Left) Historic headline from the Telluride Daily Journal. (Below) The Ouray Elks Lodge. (Bottom) Exterior detail from the Telluride Masonic Lodge.
a mining community filled with single men far from home, belonging to such an organization meant they would be taken care of, in this harsh environment, even if they died.
Banding together back then was a matter of survival. Because if you slipped through the cracks, it could be a long, hard fall that ended at the poor farm, or worse, an unmarked pauper’s grave.
Photo by Ryan Bonneau
KNITTING LESSONS
Telluride Foundation
• 52 • 20th Anniversary Issue
If you were looking for a fraternal organization to join in Ouray or Telluride at the turn of the 20th century, there were a lot of options.
the World, the Odd Fellows, the Freemasons, the Fraternal Order of Eagles, The Knights of Pythias, the Macabees, and many, many more.
By 1905, there were more than 20 active clubs in the area. Besides the Elks, there were the Woodmen of
Some clubs provided life insurance benefits and death benefits to their official dues-paying members. In
Telluride Foundation
Women were joiners too, with auxiliary organizations like the Rebekah Lodge (the women’s wing of the Odd Fellows), Order of the Eastern Star (a co-ed branch of the Masonic Lodge), Women of Woodcraft and the Commonweal Club. Ethnically segregated community halls like Finn Hall and Swede-Finn Hall in Telluride sprang up as places for immigrants to gather and look after their own. Down on the shady side of town, the madams looked after their own, as well – but they weren’t necessarily motivated by benevolence. The ladies of the line were considered a
• 53 • 20th Anniversary Issue
FEATURE
KNI TTI N G THE SAFET Y NET
commodity, and taking care of them made good business sense; it was all about eking out an existence. In the late 1890s, the Western Federation of Miners came to town, offering a new kind of social safety net to its members. During the brief time that the union took root in Telluride, it fought for better wages, safer working conditions, and an eight-hour work day for its members. From unions to lodges, madams to miners, churches to ethnic community centers, people back then looked out for each other as best they could. They may not have always liked each other, and they would get into fights, but they managed to make a community in a place where it was difficult to exist by banding together in their separate spheres. WHAT THE DOCTOR ORDERED
There was clearly a desperate need for medical care in the isolated mining camps of the San Juans, but not everyone could afford to pay for it. Some communities were lucky enough to have a built-in charitable solution to that problem. In Ouray, a Catholic ministry called the Sisters of Mercy built St. Joseph’s Miners’ Hospital in 1887 at a cost of $3,500. Thomas Walsh, the wealthy owner of the Camp Bird Mine, helped the Sisters pay off their mortgage. Various mines in the region “subscribed” to the hospital to provide care for injured miners.
But records show that the Sisters also provided considerable indigent care to the community. Out of the 998 patients they treated from Sept. 1887 to Jan. 1, 1893 (with 90 deaths), 156 were charity patients. Telluride finally got a hospital of its own in 1896, paid for with mining money from the giant syndicates up in Savage and Marshall basins. Conveniently located right at the bottom of Tomboy Road, it was called Hall’s Hospital after its first physician, Dr. Hall. But more often it was known simply as the Community Hospital. In addition to treating grisly mining injuries and gunshot wounds incurred in barroom brawls, the hospital staff eased the final hours of ancient, destitute prospectors, stood by helplessly as children died of meningitis and other incurable ailments, and tended to the births of over 600 babies that were born there during the six decades the hospital remained open. When the Labor War broke out in Telluride, the National Guard occupied the miners hospital and denied striking miners care, so in 1902 the Western Federation of Miners built its own structure a few blocks away that served as union headquarters and provided free medical care for striking miners. That short-lived arrangement
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came to an end in 1904 when the union lost its bloody labor battle in Telluride and abruptly decamped. The Idarado Mine later subsidized the hospitals in Telluride and Ouray, much as a previous generation of mine operators had once done. In the 1960s, Idarado built modern clinics in both Telluride and Ouray, where subsidized community healthcare continued well into the 1970s. PHILANTHROPY, GREED AND THE “COUNTY POOR”
The history of philanthropy in mining communities is spotty. Some mining boomtowns were lucky enough to have their own self-made millionaires who lessened the need for public assistance by pouring their fortunes back into their communities.
(Inset) A funeral procession at the Smuggler-Union Mine in Marshall Basin. (Photo Courtesy of the Telluride Historical Museum) (Top) Dr. Anna F.S. Brown (in dark skirt) with staff, on the porch of Hall’s Hospital where the Telluride Historical Museum is now located. (Photo Courtesy of the Telluride Historical Museum) (Opposite Left) Thomas Walsh. (Left) Miners at the Smuggler-Union boarding house. (Photo Courtesy of the Telluride Historical Society)
Such was the case in Ouray with Tom Walsh, the unassuming and philanthropic Irish immigrant who made his fortune at the Camp Bird Mine. Walsh treated his miners well, and helped the poor and down-and-out throughout his life. He made sure that nobody went hungry in Ouray while he lived there during his Camp Bird days and left the community a better place than he found it through his endowment of a new library and financial support for the hospital. Unfortunately, the same could not be said for the wealthy industrialists that bought up and consolidated the mines around Telluride in 1890, for example, the Rothschilds of England
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who purchased the Tomboy Mine in 1896. The people running these mines could be real scoundrels and were much more interested in wringing money out of the mountains than investing it back into the community.
night while the family was engaged in reading and doing school work. The house still stands in a meadow just south of the Cedar Hill Cemetery and has since been beautifully remodeled.
Labor’s 1903-04 defeat made matters worse by wiping out the prominent role that unions and union-friendly lodges and fraternal organizations had played in sustaining the region’s needy.
ANGEL BASKETS
Over time the past has been painted over, but hunger and poverty have continued to haunt this region through the decades.
At about this time, county governments became increasingly responsible for caring for their most impoverished citizens. In Colorado, counties levied a small “poor tax” to provide public relief to their neediest residents. The chairman of the board of county commissioners was declared ex officio superintendent of the poor of his county.
Davine Pera was well aware of this in the early ‘80s, when she was working for San Miguel County’s social services department and saw that some families in the region could not afford to celebrate Christmas. So she filled some baskets with food and gifts and delivered them to a handful of needy families.
Poor people requesting aid were required to register with the county clerk, who recorded their name, age, sex, place of birth, time of immigration to the United States, and other relevant details in a book entitled “Record of County Poor.” PEST HOUSES AND POOR FARMS
Rich or poor, if you caught a contagious disease like small pox back in the day, it was off to the pest house with you. Telluride’s was on the hillside above the old brewery on the western outskirts of town. The Feb. 28, 1901 issue of the Daily Journal made it sound like some sort of spa: “The spot is a most picturesque and pleasant one, situated at Butcher Creek about threequarters of a mile from town, with a wagon road already built to it up the mountain side. There is no publicly traveled road or trail in the vicinity, and a more desirable spot in which to isolate persons who may be so unfortunate as to contract pestilential
diseases can nowhere be found.” With highly contagious diseases like smallpox running rampant, pest houses were accepted as a necessary evil for the common good. But there were plenty of people (then as now) who resented the idea of public money being spent more broadly on indigent care, and believed that the poor should work to earn their keep. That was the idea behind the poor farms that used to be common on Colorado’s Western Slope. Poor farms served as the homeless shelters of their time. They were located on land set aside by counties for the care of so-called “paupers” – a kind of warehousing of the impoverished.
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(Left Top & Bottom) The Ouray County Poor Farm, then and now. (Right) Angel Baskets volunteers wrap holiday gifts for low-income residents of Telluride, Mountain Village, and the West End.
Able-bodied inmates were required to clean their quarters, raise livestock, and grow their own food. Deaths at the poor farms were common, and the county, when necessary, arranged for pauper burials. Ouray County created a poor farm in 1914 at a shabby old mansion it had taken back for taxes called the Jackson House, located at the abandoned townsite of Ramona about halfway between Ridgway and Ouray. A few years later, with the urging of
local newspaper editors, Telluride followed suit. The Telluride Poor Farm was west of town out by the old brewery and pest house. Its main occupants were destitute, aging prospectors and miners. Poor farms persisted across Colorado through the Great Depression, but disappeared in the 1930s with the passage of the Social Security Act. Ouray County’s shut down for good in 1937 and reverted to a private residence. A family that lived there in the 1970s said they were often disturbed by a ghost that would come downstairs at
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The program blossomed into Angel Baskets, an annual giving spree that the whole Telluride community takes part in, brightening the holidays of hundreds of low-income individuals in Telluride, Mountain Village, and the West End. Since food insecurity and poverty impact these communities year round, Angel Baskets has expanded its mission in recent years to fund food pantries in Telluride, Norwood, and Dove Creek, which support more than 650 food-insecure people a month. In addition, they fund a school supply “backpack” program for kids in the West End, and an apothecary program that ensures seniors in the West End do not have to choose between food and needed medication.
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“It was a huge stretch for us at first, and now it’s just, that’s what we do,” shrugged Angel Baskets co-chair Kathy Mahoney.
“The community is so generous. I’m in awe every year, just completely in awe. The extent of the generosity is staggering.”
IMPACT IN ACTION HEROES
Michele Blunt Barb Gross
(Left) A driver for the Care and Share food program delivers tons of food to the Norwood Food Bank.
And so, frankly, is the level of need – even in places like Telluride and Mountain Village that appear to be so wealthy on the surface.
SAW A PROBLEM:
(Right) Neatly organized rows of food items line the shelves at the Norwood Food Bank.
Food insecurity in San Miguel County. FOUND A SOLUTION:
“Christmas is a luxury for some families,” said Mahoney. “That’s what Davine saw all those years ago. And there is food insecurity. People are hungry. There is large need here in this community, supporting our resort economy.”
Volunteering to run food pantries in Norwood and Telluride. crates of Gatorade, and boxes of random canned and dry food items. The entryway is dominated by a huge box full of cakes, donuts, sacks of bagels, and other bakery goodies.
FEEDING THE HUNGRY
It’s the second Wednesday of the month, which means it’s truck offload day at the Norwood Food Bank. A semi-truck from the Care and Share food program in Colorado Springs has just delivered thousands of pounds of food to the Christ in FOCUS Church, located on the southern fringe of Norwood where town meets field. In the modest church sanctuary, rows of pews have been pushed aside to make way for pallets of red onions,
Food bank director Michelle Blunt is giving orders, consulting clipboards, pointing a dozen volunteers in a dozen directions as they roll big boxes of nonperishable items into the food pantry room, load frozen meats and juices into freezers in the kitchen, heft even more boxes in the “government” rooms, where food for the Senior Commodity Food Program (for those over age 60 with a limited income) and the Emergency Food Assistance Program (for all low-income individuals) is stored. Kary Herndon, a Norwood native
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wearing a hand-knit hat, is stationed on a folding chair in the food pantry room to help direct traffic and tame chaos. “It makes you feel like you are in a military commissary in Afghanistan. In a good way,” she said. Between the Care and Share shipments, USDA commodities, regular donations from local grocery stores, and locally grown seasonal produce distributed through the Norwood Community Garden and FRESH Food Hub, the Norwood Food Bank takes in and gives out a whopping 9,000-10,000 pounds of food each month. Over 130 families from Telluride, Mountain Village, Placerville, Nucla, Naturita, Redvale, Egnar, Bedrock, and Paradox take home
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about $200 worth of groceries per visit – the equivalent of a full grocery cart at Walmart. “A lot of food walks out of here,” Blunt said.
I AM WORRIED ABOUT:
“We have pretty much grown out of this space. I keep looking at the church sanctuary and thinking, ‘Look at the shelves I could put in here.’ – Michele
Angel Baskets use to run its own small food pantry in Norwood, but decided in 2015 to integrate with the larger program that Blunt runs. Most of her clients qualify for federal food assistance programs and supplement with additional food from the Angel Basketsfunded portion of the pantry.
“It’s hard to get younger people involved (as volunteers).” – Barb SEEDS WE NEED TO PLANT NOW TO IMPACT THE FUTURE:
“I was once a single mom and homeless. And if you always do the same thing, you’re always going to be there. You have to be able to find some way to change the situation you’re in. You have to work hard. You have to choose.” – Michele
The Telluride Food Pantry is tiny by comparison, but still manages to serve about 50 people on a typical food distribution day. People line up outside, rain or snow or shine, and “are just bursting to get in” by the
“I believe that we’re here to make things better. That’s why we’re here on this earth. And, I feel like they (the food bank clients) are helping me accomplish that mission. I know I am making their lives better. They tell me that I am, and that feels good. Who knows, though. That could be me someday, right? Well, maybe not. But it could be. It could be. You never really know.” – Barb
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Photos by Makaela Vodopich, Desert Snow Photography
FEATURE
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time the doors open, said Telluride food pantry director Barb Gross. Clients are taken around the facility one by one, and typically walk out with a couple bags or boxes of nonperishable food items and some fresh produce. They are only allowed to come in once a month.
ski resort employees during the offseason to homeless, toothless men who live in trucks, but she knows there are others that aren’t coming in that could really use the help – like couch-surfing emancipated minors and members of Telluride’s Latinx immigrant community.
“We’re basically viewed as an emergency food pantry,” Gross explained. “But they can come weekly for produce and dairy, if we have it.”
In order to remove as many barriers as possible, the Telluride Food Pantry has a very minimal intake procedure and does not require people to show proof that they financially qualify for aid. Perhaps because of this, Gross said, there’s a misconception in the community that the people using the food bank are freeloaders who don’t actually need help.
Gross and her volunteers see a real cross-section of the community at the Telluride food pantry, from young families to seniors on a fixed income, to out-of-work servers and
Charitable Giving A HISTORY OF BENEVOLENT ORGANIZATIONS
In 1899, Telluride’s miners started an organized labor movement to address dangerous working conditions leading to injuries and loss of life, as well as poor pay and lack of healthcare benefits. 2500 BCE
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For the most part, Gross doesn’t see that. In fact, she is amazed by how much food insecurity there is in the region. “It often comes down to paying rent or buying food,” she said. Thanks to the food pantries that Angel Baskets and other organizations run throughout the region, fewer people have to make that choice. THE NEW NET
From hunger to affordable housing to wealth inequality to mental health, the social challenges our small, rural communities in southwestern Colorado face
That was perhaps Telluride’s first formal effort at acts of charity as we know them today – the voluntary giving of help to those in need. However, charitable giving and philanthropy have been part of humanity throughout recorded history. Ancient Hebrews in 2500 BCE mandated giving to benefit the poor. Plato organized groups working for the public good on a voluntary basis. In the New World, Harvard University initiated the first American fundraising drive in 1643. Giving to help one another is truly part of the fabric of American culture. In 1835, the French political scientist Alexis de Tocqueville highlighted the
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now are as daunting as ever. But we’re far better equipped to handle those challenges today than we were a century ago; human services and compassion for neighbors manifest in our region in myriad ways.
Robust nonprofits like Hilltop Family Resource Center in Montrose and the San Miguel Resource Center in Telluride help domestic violence and sexual assault survivors find the resources they need to create new lives.
Poor farms have given way to social security and subsidized housing.
The Tri-County Health Network is preemptively removing all kinds of barriers to healthcare across our rural region – from mental health to kids’ dental care, to insurance enrollment to senior transportation and immigrant legal support – before gaping new holes in the social safety net can develop. Churches and volunteer-driven benevolent organizations like
Antiquated rural miners hospitals have been replaced by federallyqualified Community Health Centers like the Uncompahgre Medical Center in Norwood, dedicated to ensuring that all patients receive quality healthcare regardless of their ability to pay.
philanthropic spirit of Americans as one of the new country’s strengths in his four-volume tome, “Democracy in America”.
Angel Baskets and the Elks play a vital role in addressing all kinds of community issues, too – and not just at Christmas. Supporting it all, a new generation of philanthropists is pouring its collective wealth back into the region through the various initiatives of the Telluride Foundation. It’s a new kind of safety net – constantly morphing with the warp and weft of our diverse communities. And hopefully, fewer people are slipping through the cracks. TF
over $400 billion annually. Added Break
To formalize our current system of giving, the U.S. Congress enacted the charitable deduction for individuals in 1917. This was essentially a contract between the individual taxpayer and the federal government to allow taxpayers to direct some of their taxable income back toward their communities. America’s first community foundation was founded 110 years ago. Born in a reformist era, the community foundation idea spread rapidly throughout the U.S. and then the world. America now has over 800 community foundations and 1.5 million nonprofits, and Americans give
The next generation of giving and philanthropy is rapidly evolving to match the complexities of today’s problems, including homelessness, local economic transitions due to market shifts, climate change, and public education. From the Giving Pledge, where philanthropists commit to giving the majority of their wealth to philanthropy, to a new era of social enterprise, with market approaches such as impact investing, there are giving opportunities to address the scope and scale of the challenges. The Telluride Foundation, partnering with our amazing donors, is part of the new generation of strategic approaches to tackling our communities’ complex social problems.
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2020 Today there are over 800 community foundations and 1.5 million nonprofits in America
B E
H
T S C
N D
I
H E N
Q&A WITH
Q&A WITH
LYNN BORUP
APRIL MONTGOMERY
Executive Director, Tri-County Health Network
E
WHAT DO YOU DO?
E S
I get to collaborate with an incredibly dynamic team and passionate partners to think outside the box in identifying innovative solutions to address our community’s health needs. WHY DO YOU DO THIS WORK?
Because rural communities deserve access to the same scope of health services as our urban counterparts. We are improving the overall health of our communities, one program at a time. WHAT GETS YOU UP EACH MORNING?
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IN THE TRENCHES WITH FOUNDATION STAFF
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At the Telluride Foundation, we operate programs, doing the work that might not get done otherwise. Whether it’s public health, workforce development, or community and economic development, it takes boots on the ground – people who roll up their sleeves and make things happen. Our programs require smart, experienced, and driven staff, who are ready to get away from their desks and out in the region, working side by side with community members.
Seeing the positive outcomes and hearing the stories from clients about how our programming has impacted their health is beyond rewarding — families shouldn’t have to choose between eating healthy foods versus paying rent, or purchasing health insurance versus having a reliable vehicle.
Telluride Foundation Vice President of Programs WHAT DO YOU DO?
I oversee programs, including Community Grants, Strong Neighbors, Local Food Initiative, and scholarships. WHY DO YOU DO THIS WORK?
I can’t imagine a job that could bring me more fulfillment. I’m challenged intellectually and continuously need to learn new skills and keep up with current trends. WHAT GETS YOU UP EACH MORNING?
I keep a bulletin board in my office filled with thank you notes from people touched by the work of the Foundation; it’s a constant reminder of our impact and how our work makes a difference in people’s lives. WHAT KEEPS YOU UP AT NIGHT?
Ensuring we have enough funding for our 25 employees and that our programming remains clientcentric, efficient, and reaches everyone who needs it.
Is the Telluride Foundation doing enough, and what else can we do? We are working on complicated issues – food insecurity, workforce housing, economic diversity – problems that won’t be solved overnight. Who is still going hungry, losing housing, or unable to find employment?
WHAT IS YOUR VISION FOR THE FUTURE?
WHAT IS YOUR VISION FOR THE FUTURE?
WHAT KEEPS YOU UP AT NIGHT?
Vibrant and healthy communities where everyone has the opportunity and ability to thrive.
Where the communities we serve, from Telluride to Rico, Ouray to Paradox, are more connected and collaborative, and we see each regional community as our neighbor.
FEATURE STORY
“What shape waits in the seed of you to grow and spread its branches against a future sky?” DAVID WHYTE
“What to Remember When Waking”
Explorations in Our Once and Future Foodshed By SAMANTHA TISDEL WRIGHT
O
ne way to get to know your local foodshed is through its ditches.
The historic Gurley Ditch faithfully wets the farms and hayfields of Wright’s Mesa around Norwood and Redvale, Colorado, fed by a high-country reservoir on the eastern skirts of the Lone Cone.
Company Ditch, otherwise known as the CCC. This old ditch channels irrigation water 17 miles from the San Miguel River to the former Ute hunting grounds of Tabeguache Park, where a group of socialists built a would-be utopian farming colony called Nucla at the turn of the 20th century. THE DITCH RIDER
Early Ouray residents operated dairy farms that delivered hundreds of gallons of milk up to the mines and grew potatoes in the field (lower center) where Fellin Park is now located. (Photo by William Henry Jackson, 1901)
The Uncompahgre Valley has the Old Agency Ditch, built in 1875 to water the Los Piños Ute Indian Agency near Colona, where federal agents were once tasked with teaching the Utes how to farm. Turns out, the Utes were way ahead of the whites; they had already been farming in the Montrose region with the help of Mexican servants for decades, if not generations. Nucla has the Colorado Cooperative
Headgate. Trestle. Siphon. Nobody knows the CCC better than its ditch rider Dean Naslund, a fifthgeneration Nucla cattleman charged with maintaining the dirt aqueduct. Naslund has a warm handshake and a shaggy dog with one brown eye and one blue eye that keeps him company as he rumbles along old Highway 90 on a gray winter day. Past the decommissioned coal-fired
Removed Comma
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power plant at the bottom of Nucla Hill. Past the birding hotspot of Silver Hawk Ranch with its fallow alfalfa fields. Past the place where the pavement ends. Up into the wild hills that roll like thunder toward the Uncompahgre Plateau. In the winter, the ditch is dry, but you can still trace its thin scar as it slices across the hillside across the valley, running parallel to the highway and the San Miguel River down below. “All you have to do is look for the cottonwood trees,” Naslund says. The plan today was to go see the ditch’s headgate and diversion dam where the Colorado Water Trust partnered with other organizations, including the Telluride Foundation, to help fund the installation of a fish ladder and a low flow channel in the river bed in 2011. The road up to the head gate turns out to be too muddy, though, so we detour to the abandoned townsite of Piñon near Cottonwood Creek instead. Here, from 1897-1903, the CCC colonists built the highest irrigation trestle in the world to ferry water across Cottonwood Canyon and then labored to extend the ditch to Nucla, using nothing more than picks, shovels, and spirit levels. Food was so scarce in those days, they called the place Lick-Skillet. The only thing that grew abundantly in the communal garden was a hardy breed of bean called the ditchdigger. Cooks had to get creative with their menus: bean loaf, bean salad, bean sandwiches, bean stew.
Today, there’s not much left of Piñon (or its socialist ideals) except a few old abandoned houses set back in the woods and a small fenced cemetery with a handful of headstones. People didn’t live here for long; they literally picked up their community and moved it to Nucla as soon as the ditch was done.
economy that they once were, and self-sufficient local foodsheds have given way to convoluted food supply chains that may start halfway across the country or around the world – with stops at produce terminals, stockyards, processing companies, warehouses, and countless gas stations along the way.
Even the remarkable trestle is gone, replaced by a modern inverted siphon that sucks the ditch water down the steep slope of Cottonwood Canyon and up the other side on its long journey to the fertile fields of Tabeguache Park.
Juicy ripe hothouse tomatoes from the Paradox Valley have a hard time finding their way to salad plates in Telluride, while pallid massproduced tomatoes from the San Joaquin Valley find ample shelf space at local supermarkets.
FIRST FOODSHEDS
Over the years, a handful of farmers in the region, such as Barclay and Tony Daranyi of Norwood’s Indian Ridge Farm and Bakery, have been working hard to re-stoke the region’s appetite for locally produced food and to nurture a new crop of local food producers. Now, with a boost from the Telluride Foundation’s Local Food Initiative, these efforts are taking root and coming to fruition. There’s a lot going on in the local food movement these days, connecting local supply with local demand, while reinvigorating the regional economy.
Dairies. Ranches. Farms. For a long time after the white intrusion into southwestern Colorado, which began with miners and continued with pioneer settlers that squatted on Ute land, mining and agriculture went hand in hand. Tidy foodsheds connected down-river ranches and farms to mining settlements and boarding houses up in the high country. From the orchards of the West End to the spud fields of the Lone Cone and from the dairies of San Miguel to the prolific produce farms of Uncompahgre Park, the foodsheds were fruitful. Bellies were full. People knew exactly where their food came from, and the region was self-sufficient. It’s not so simple now. Agriculture and mining are no longer the cornerstones of our regional
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Photo by Samantha Tisdel Wright
FEATURE
THE APPLE CORE PROJECT
Hawkeye. York. Snow.
On a cool spring morning in mid-March, Jen Nelson and Melanie Eggers sit in an orchard near downtown Nucla that was planted by a Swedish pig farmer and CCC colonist named John Lundahl over a century ago.
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(Top) Cottonwood trestle and flume at Pinon. (Left) Colorado Cooperative Company ditch office in Nucla. (Right) Jane Thompson, president of the Rimrocker Historical Society, holds up a flour sack from the old Nucla Flour Mill.
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FEATURE
GROWI N G LOC AL
Ghostly apple trees spread their gray branches against the gray sky. In a month, they’ll be dressed in fluffy pink blossoms. In the fall, if all goes well, there will be apples – Hawkeye, York, and Snow – three of the 25 or so heirloom apple varieties they have identified so far in the feral old apple orchards of the West End.
thanks to the cold nights and intense ultraviolet light.
“Our vision is to plant and inspire the planting of a new generation of these rare and delectable fruit varieties,” Nelson says.
Nelson and Eggers are pomologists. They have a passion for apples. For the past four years, they have been on a mission to sleuth out and catalogue local apple varieties planted by CCC colonists and other historic West End farmers and propagate them for future generations through a program they call the Apple Core Project.
Grafting an apple tree involves fusing donor rootstock with scion from a living tree. Since apple trees grown from seed rarely produce fruit that resembles their mother apple, grafting is the only way to propagate an heirloom tree’s potentially rare genetics for future generations. Just as new scion can be grafted onto old rootstock, Nelson and Eggers see real potential in reviving the fruit growing economy in the West End. THE MAROLF RANCH
Heirloom apples have a higher nutrient content than familiar modern varieties, like the red delicious, and a kazillion unique flavors – winter banana, anyone? The high elevation on the Western Slope makes the apples that grow here extra-sweet and nutritious,
Earth. Wind. Wheat. Photos (Inset & Right) by Makaela Vodopich, Desert Snow Photography
The two friends and their respective husbands are also the proud new owners of Lundahl’s 40 acres, where they nurture a little demonstration orchard of handgrafted heirloom trees using scion cuttings from around the region.
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(Inset) Apple Core Project co-founders, Jen Nelson and Melanie Eggers. (Above) Prominent Ouray citizen John Ashenfelter had a 360-acre orchard on Spring Creek Mesa south of Montrose at the turn of the 20th century. (Far Left) The Marolf Ranch entrance. (Left) “Turkey Red” heirloom wheat from Marolf Ranch in Norwood.
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As Nelson and Eggers sit in their Nucla orchard, quietly discussing apples and their children, slender green shoots of winter wheat push their way up into the sunlight in a neatly plowed 11-acre field on the outskirts of Norwood, meticulously tended by Ernie and Karyn Marolf. Both have deep agricultural roots in the area. Ernie’s grandparents homesteaded in nearby Sanborn Park and raised dairy cows and sold cream and eggs. Karyn’s grandparents homesteaded in Dry Creek Basin and
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raised sheep and cattle. Today, the Marolfs run a farming and ranching operation on Wright’s Mesa. Ranchers around Norwood traditionally grew dryland wheat to supplement grass hay for their cattle. If you drive around the backroads of Wright’s Mesa, you can still see all the old grain silos rising crookedly out of the landscape. Grain farming required extensive plowing and only produced one crop a year. When the Gurley ditch system was complete, making irrigation possible, most ranchers switched to growing lowermaintenance alfalfa instead. Not Karyn and Ernie. They have always grown wheat to feed their cattle, mainly because Ernie likes to plow. Now, they’re trying something new – growing wheat for human consumption. For the past two years, they’ve been planting an organic strain of heirloom wheat called Turkey Red to sell to the local wholesale bakery, Blue Grouse Bread. “Turkey Red” came to Kansas in 1873 with Mennonite immigrants from Crimea in Ukraine who were fleeing Russia’s military conscription. “It’s known for its flavor,” Karyn says. “It’s a good, hard, red wheat.” Ernie sows the wheat in the fall. It sleeps in the earth under a blanket of snow all winter, then sprouts up the next spring and grows and goldens through the summer until it’s ready to harvest.
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As long as the summer monsoons come, it doesn’t even need to be watered. Karyn stores her Turkey Red in a special silo and sells it in batches to Blue Grouse co-owner Hannah Rossman, who bakes it into wholegrain sourdough bread sold throughout the region. Karyn loves the taste of the chewy, crusty loaves. Ernie confesses he’s more of a white-bread man.
They are making a little under 600 loaves today – more than usual – because in addition to the run on toilet paper, there is also apparently a run on Blue Grouse Bread. Addicts can’t imagine surviving a COVID-19 quarantine without it. “It’s a weird time, with people freaking out and buying a lot of food,” Rossman says. “People are going a little nuts in the grocery stores.”
The Marolfs lean into the raw spring wind that blasts across Wright’s Mesa, watching their little shoots of wheat shiver and bow down to the rich wet earth.
Most store-bought breads have up to 30 ingredients. Blue Grouse Bread has just three: Flour. Water. Salt. “Sometimes olives. Sometimes seeds,” Rossman admits. “Every once in a while, we get fancy.”
“One thing about wheat, it adapts to its environment,” Ernie says. “As long as there’s a market, we will keep planting it.” BLUE GROUSE BREAD
Flour. Water. Salt. Later that day, Rossman and her assistant baker Courtney Marvin stand in the yeasty floured sunlight that slants through the windows of Blue Grouse Bread on a side street in downtown Norwood, dumping bins of bread dough onto a large stainless steel work table and shaping them into loaves. They work together with a practiced, quick, efficient rhythm, anticipating each other’s every move: chopping, weighing, preshaping, and final shaping. Each supple lobe of dough gets wrapped up in a cloth and tucked into a loaf pan to proof overnight in a walk-in fridge, before getting popped into the stone hearth oven the next morning.
Blue Grouse makes all of its breads using organic, whole wheat flour grown right in Colorado. Rossman is thrilled to have the Marolfs’ locally grown heirloom wheat in the mix now, too. She mills the grain onsite at the new community mill house behind the bakery that was installed last fall, with the help of a U.S. Department of Commerce, Economic Development Administration grant awarded to the Telluride Foundation.
Photos ( Far Left Inset & Left) by Makaela Vodopich, Desert Snow Photography
FEATURE
(Left) Blue Grouse Bread owners, Ben and Hannah Rossman. (Right) Sajun Folsom tends to his cattle as his wife, Paula, looks on.
help of one full-time and one parttime employee, they bake up to 2,000 loaves of bread each week and deliver it to 20-30 wholesale accounts – a mixture of restaurants and grocery stores – in Norwood, Telluride, Montrose, and Ridgway.
Rossman began her local baking adventures as an intern at Indian Ridge Bakery in 2009 and returned as a baker in 2013 – right at the height of the “bread is evil,” anti-gluten, anti-carb craze. But Rossman kept the faith. “It’s been ingrained in me that bread is important,” she says.
So far, they have fended off the pressure to scale up. “Both Ben and I like being part of the thread,” Rossman says. “Bread should be made on a small scale. I think the food you produce should be distributed in your own community. Food security is so important.” A sourdough takes on the flavor of its place. Rossman’s spontaneously rises now because there is so much wild yeast in the bakery air. “If you eat enough bread, you can’t live without it,” she grins.
She and her cousin Ben Rossman launched Blue Grouse Bread in 2016. Today, with the
If grins could leaven bread, hers would do the trick.
Telluride Foundation
• 70 • 20th Anniversary Issue
LAID BACK RANCH
It’s a lot of work, but he wouldn’t raise his cattle any other way.
Striding across a hay field a few miles away, first-generation rancher Sajun Folsom grins just as brightly when he catches sight of his favorite cow, a tawny beauty with liquid brown eyes and a velvet nose.
Folsom was working as a welder in California when he first came to Norwood to help his Aunt Mae with her small ranching operation about 10 years ago. He remembers the “ah ha” moment when he was standing in a ditch staring up at the Lone Cone and wondered, “Why would I want to do anything else?”
Soil. Grass. Cows.
“She’s a good mom,” he says, “and pretty soon, she’ll be having another calf.” Folsom runs a small herd of cattle on a patchwork of land he leases from larger, historic Norwood ranches. His grass-fed beef has been a hit at the Telluride Farmers Market, and he is experimenting with a number of ranching practices that run counter to the traditional way of ranching in southwestern Colorado, such as mob grazing and calving in the summer rather than late winter.
A passion for raising animals humanely and naturally brought Folsom and his wife Paula together while they were both interning at Indian Ridge Farm and Bakery in 2011. By that time, Folsom was raising a few all-natural steers he had purchased from his aunt. In 2015, on a hunch that there was a market for locally raised grassfed beef in the Telluride area, they took over his Aunt Mae’s herd
FEATURE
GROWI N G LOC AL
and turned what they loved into a business. Laid Back Ranch was born. Ranch headquarters are on a 200acre half-wooded, hilly spread they recently bought near the top of Norwood Hill, with a modest house and 45 shares of ditch water – enough to launch a permaculture operation someday. The hay fields spread out like a tawny quilt across Wright’s Mesa, as the Lone Cone shimmers on the horizon. Folsom’s letting the fields lay fallow for now, to restore the grass and the soil after the hard drought year of 2018.
marketplace for local producers, with the goal of increasing the overall volume of local goods being grown and consumed.
to have that backup system in place,” she says. “Access to food and self-sufficiency is really important in this day and age.”
It’s more than a grocery store where you can buy really good, affordable, locally grown food. It is also a social hub and the conduit for the Telluride Foundation’s Local Food Initiative. The attached commercial kitchen supports a broad range of programming from cooking classes to senior lunches.
THE ONCE AND FUTURE FOODSHED
Hub organizers are always looking for more strategies to better connect fresh local food with low-income individuals, such as the Double Ups Bucks program that matches federally subsidized EBT (foot stamps) purchases with up to $20 per visit in fresh produce.
“Cattle are not my biggest asset. Soil and grass are my biggest asset,” he says. “It would be so much better if everyone had a garden and some animals.”
Mel Eggers from the Apple Core Project is one of the Hub’s board members. She works with the West End Economic Development Corporation on the expansion of smallscale farming in the region. Her main focus right now is helping distribute local food from the Hub to Telluride residents through online marketing and weekly delivery runs.
FRESH FOOD HUB
Community. Provisions. Resilience.
Photo Courtesy of Apple Core Project
It all comes together at the FRESH Food Hub, a little blue house-turnedfood-co-op in downtown Norwood, where many local food producers find a market for their products. Here you can find apples from the heritage orchards of the West End, nurtured with water from the CCC ditch; bags of Karyn Marolf’s locally grown and milled flour; fresh-baked loaves of Blue Grouse Bread; freezers full of beef from Laid Back Ranch; jars of homemade kimchi and Thornycroft Bakery’s famous hand pies.
(Top) The FRESH Food Hub in Norwood. (Bottom Left) Freshly grown local produce at the Hub. (Bottom Right) Jen Nelson inspects one of the heritage fruit trees on her farm in Nucla.
“The San Miguel watershed should have a thriving agricultural economy,” she says. “The fact that we have Telluride nearby means we have a market that has a lot of potential. We are hoping to create a demand, which will grow new farmers. It is now or never.” On this day, people are buzzing around the little store, as they stock up on bulk food items and other essentials. Hub co-founder and Local Food Initiative coordinator Leila Seraphin bustles in, thinking out loud about vulnerable supply chains and the importance of access to locally grown food. “I wish that the local food scene was farther along than it is right now; it’s so important
The Hub creates an economic
Telluride Foundation
• 72 • 20th Anniversary Issue
Telluride Foundation
Here. Now. Tomorrow.
Back in Nucla, Nelson and Eggers walk the old Lundahl farm, looking for clues from its past. A lot of the old orchard has been cleared for pasture but on Eggers’ half of the 40 acres, there are still some apple, plum and pear trees, and a single lonely peach tree that produces 20 yummy peaches near the old farmhouse. Nelson’s neighboring land has apricot, apple, peach, plum and mulberry trees. “I haven’t found any pear yet,” she says, but she probably will. The plum trees are over by the old chicken coop. She has also been finding walnut shells. “Either something is stashing them from another place, or there is a walnut tree I don’t know about yet,” she speculates. This long-neglected land is still fruitful, but it’s not quite tame. Bears and mountain lions come down off the Uncompahgre Plateau through the orchards and into town. At the back of the farm, up on the knob where Nelson’s house is now, there is a nice sweeping view of the whole area – and a ton of arrowheads. That gets them thinking about the deep human history on this land they are now part of, and the agricultural renaissance they are helping to cultivate in the West End. Regardless of what is happening in the world around them, Eggers and Nelson agree: there has never been a better time to get back to the roots of local food production, and to plant new seedlings that can spread their tendrils against a future sky. TF
• 73 • 20th Anniversary Issue
Photo by Ryan Bonneau
HOW OUR WORK IS FUNDED
FOUNDATION IN FOCUS
The Telluride Foundation is unique in that it has never had an endowment, nor accumulated assets for the purpose of establishing an endowment in the future. We inject the capital we raise each year right back into the community – in real time. With this approach, since our inception, the Foundation has provided over $65 million in financial support to the region to support nonprofits, community needs, and various initiatives.
We address issues in today’s dollars to maximize the impact of today’s donor gifts, rather than setting funds aside and spending a few pennies over time. This approach is in our DNA; it is how we do our work, attack an issue, and partner with our incredible donors and community partners to make more possible. Our fundraising approach has two tracks: individual donor contributions and grants from foundations and other entities. Together, these two funding streams fuel the engine that propels our work.
our grant making and capacity building and provide seed capital for various initiatives and operations. Grants from private foundations and state and federal sources also bolster many of our initiatives.
Individual donors’ multi-year unrestricted contributions support
Unrestricted donors’ gifts are critical to our work because
The Foundation has four giving tiers for individual donors to consider: Telluride Friend, Gold Hill, Bridal Veil, and First Tracks. However, we welcome any donation, at any level, to support our work. In fact, we have received donations as meaningful as $1!
communities’ needs are constantly changing and evolving. Today’s concerns give way to tomorrow’s issues. Unrestricted gifts allow the Foundation to act strategically and efficiently with a long-term view, while at the same time respond to our region’s most pressing needs.
a bequest program for donors who want to sustain the community through their estate plan. Telluride Forever is our effort to more fully engage our donors, while ensuring the sustainability of essential nonprofit partners and innovative initiatives.
In 2016, the Telluride Foundation Board of Directors launched a new fundraising program called “Telluride Forever.” Through this program, donors can invest in innovative initiatives to help shape, improve, and preserve a more prosperous future in the region. Telluride Forever also incorporates
Telluride Forever gifts can be unrestricted or specified and can be spent in the present or in the future. If a Forever gift is unrestricted, it will allow the Foundation to use its expertise and community knowledge to determine where the need is greatest in the community. If the gifts are specified, we will
Telluride Foundation
work with donors to match their interests with our existing initiatives and programs or investigate the feasibility of creating new initiatives. Donor advised, designated, and other funds, along with planned and income gifts, are part of our expertise to help donors fulfill their giving objectives. The top legal and estate advisers in the state are part of the Foundation’s team of advisors for its donors. We invite you to get in touch to learn more about how you can support the community through the work of the Telluride Foundation.
• 75 • 20th Anniversary Issue
Our grant categories and their corresponding desired outcome include:
ARTS & CULTURE
One of the core programs of the Telluride Foundation is Community Grants, which provide financial support to area nonprofits. These grants sustain vital programs and enhance our community, providing support to the programs that make our region so special: critical safety net operations, quality arts and cultural experiences, and opportunities for children and youth to thrive. The Foundation awards Community Grants, always focused on measurable outcomes; in addition to grants, we strive to strengthen organizations through capacity building and technical assistance.
Participatory and quality art experiences
EDUCATION
Develop 21st century learning skills for kids and adults
ATHLETICS
Participation that leads to life skills
ENVIRONMENT & ANIMALS
Protect and preserve our surrounding natural assets
HEALTH
Improved health status of the region’s population
BY CATEGORY
Please visit our website for a complete searchable database of the Foundation’s grant-making over the last 20 years.
GRANT AWARDS
HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES: 28%
2018
COMMUNITY GRANTS
FOUNDATION IN FOCUS
ARTS & CULTURE: 18% EDUCATION: 18% EARLY CHILDHOOD: 16% ATHLETICS: 15% ENVIRONMENT & ANIMALS: 5%
Telluride Foundation
• 77 • 20th Anniversary Issue
EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT
Increase child school readiness
HUMAN SERVICE
A strong safety net that builds opportunity
Consolidated Statement of FOUNDATION IN FOCUS
Financial Position
The Telluride Foundation’s financial health and management are fundamental to our success and impact. We practice what we preach. We conduct an annual financial audit and adhere to the highest standards of nonprofit and foundation accounting procedures and policies. The Foundation is consistently among the top 10 foundations across the nation when it comes to grantmaking turnover (ratio of revenues to making grants) and per capita individual giving.
19 20
O PR
GRAM
TO OVER HE
AD
RA TI
O
gra ese (Grants & xpens Ini mE
10%
AS S E T S
2019
2018
Cash and cash equivalents
5,844,034
6,502,896
Accounts receivable, net
1,097,482
996,908
Prepaid expense
41,683
25,415
and allowance for bad debts
5,154,581
3,025,473
Investments
5,129,526
5,378,434
Note receivable
238,247
183,656
Property and equipment, net
431,540
428,825
TOTAL ASSETS
$17,937,093
$16,541,607
Grants payable
1,259,335
1,418,560
Accounts payable and accrued expenses
228,191
195,275
Loan payable
1,300
-
TOTAL LIABILITIES
$1,488,826
$1,613,835
Without donor restrictions
7,498,534
8,863,287
Undesignated
7,498,534
8,863,287
With donor restrictions
3,795,152
3,039,012
Purpose restriction
5,154,581
3,025,473
Pledges received in future periods
8,949,733
6,064,485
Total with donor restrictions
TOTAL NET ASSETS
$16,448,267
$14,927,772
TOTAL LIABILITIES & NET ASSETS
$17,937,093
$16,541,607
Pledges & grants receivable, net of discount
L I AB I L I T I E S & N E T AS S E T S
Pro
90%
tiat iv es
)
O
ve
r he
ad
(Adm
i n i s t ra t i o n & Fu nd
ing
)
FOUNDATION FINANCIALS
December 31, 2019 and 2018
N E T AS S E T S
Total without donor restrictions
Telluride Foundation
• 79 • 20th Anniversary Issue
F OU N DAT I O N FI N A N C I A L S
2019 Without Donor
With Donor
Restrictions
Restrictions
Contributions & Grants
3,960,994
3,534,019
Federal Contract Revenue
1,015,050
-
Dividends & Interest
344,426
Other Income
626,080
R E VE NU E & SU PPORT
2018 Total
Without Donor
With Donor
Total
Restrictions
Restrictions
7,495,013
3,645,465
3,084,512
6,729,977
1,015,050
863,821
-
863,821
-
344,426
586,985
-
586,985
12,099
638,179
363,661
13,706
377,367
FUN FACTS
Net assets released from restrictions
Satisfaction of time restrictions
(506,500)
506,500
-
1,215,167
(1,215,167)
-
Satisfaction of program restrictions
1,167,370
(1,167,370)
-
1,049,906
(1,049,906)
-
6,607,420
$2,885,248
$9,492,668
$7,725,005
$833,145
$8,558,150
TOTAL REVENUE & SUPPORT
EX PE NSES
DID YOU
KNOW? POPULATION WE SERVE
By Community
Program Services:
Grants & Assistance Programs
6,106,815
-
6,106,815
5,093,057
-
5,093,057
Education & Consulting
291,638
-
291,638
246,534
-
246,534
$6,398,453
-
$6,398,453
$5,339,591
-
$5,339,591
Rico
Development
374,124
-
374,124
309,671
-
309,671
Telluride
318,965
-
318,965
297,857
-
297,857
$693,089
-
$693,089
$607,528
-
$607,528
$7,091,542
-
$7,091,542
$5,947,119
-
$5,947,119
Total Program Services Support Services: General & Administrative
Total Support Services
TOTAL EXPENSES
Mtn. Village
Norwood
CH ANGE IN NET ASSET S FRO M O PERAT IONS
(484,122)
2,885,248
2,401,126
1,777,886
833,145
2,611,031
Nucla
Non-operating Activities:
Realized & Unrealized Investment Losses, Net
(730,631)
-
(730,631)
95,485
-
95,485
Investments in TVA Companies
(150,000)
-
(150,000)
(205,431)
-
(205,431)
CHANGE IN NET ASSETS
($1,364,753)
$2,885,248
$1,520,495
$1,667,940
$833,145
$2,501,085
NET ASSETS, BEGINNING OF YEAR
$8,863,287
$6,064,485
$14,927,772
$7,195,347
$5,231,340
$12,426,687
NET ASSETS, END OF YEAR
$7,498,534
$8,949,733
$16,448,267
$8,863,287
$6,064,485
$14,927,772
Telluride Foundation
Naturita
Ouray
• 80 • 20th Anniversary Issue
Telluride Foundation
Ridgway
• 81 • 20th Anniversary Issue
266 2426 1434 526 717 539 1013 973
R E COG N I T I ON
FRIENDS OF TELLURIDE
FIRST TRACKS
Fletcher & Liz McCusker
Adam & Diane Max
Community Banks of Colorado
Adam & Diane Max
Chris & Laura Pucillo
Lou & Bonnie Cohen
Ron & Joyce Allred
Casey & Megan McManemin
Howard & Debbie Schiller
John Mike & Marcia Cohen
Richard Betts
Telluride Properties
Alpine Bank
John & Laura Olson
Ed & Darenda Sheridan
Richard Cornelius & Lynn Brubaker
Lars & Annie Carlson
Christopher & Noelle Whitestone
Joe & Anne Andrew
Steven Plofker & Bobbi Brown
Dan & Sheryl Tishman
Sally Puff Courtney & Jim Harley
Charles & Sue Cobb
Rick Young & Bonnie Beamer
Curt & Libba Anderson
Chris & Laura Pucillo
Anonymous
Deedee & Peter Decker
Damon & Elaine Demas
Mike & Anne Armstrong
Henry & Susan Samueli
Bill & Katrine Formby
Mark & Terrie Dollard
Carol Armstrong
Howard & Debbie Schiller
Tim & Brandie Gehan
Erik & Josephine Fallenius
John & Laura Arnold
Ed & Darenda Sheridan
Michael Goldberg &
Jack Gilbride & Judy Evans
Anonymous
David & Maire Baldwin
Pamela Smith
Chris & Patti Arndt
Ashley Hayward
Ken Grodberg
Eric & Shannon Bass
Ed & Frances Barlow
Elliot Steinberg
Exceptional Stays
High Country Beverage
Ken Grossinger &
Lynne Beck
Barney & Carol Barnett
Gene & Tracy Sykes
Jim & Laurel Fredlake
Carol & John Keogh
Micheline Klagbrun
John & Rosemary Braniff
Harmon & Joanne Brown
Dan & Sheryl Tishman
Ken Goldman & Jodi Jacobs
Land Title Guarantee Company
John & Ellen Grimes
Norman & Elaine Brodsky
Stuart & Joanna Brown
Harlan & Carol Waksal
Laurel & Danny Harlin
Mark & Debbie Lieberman
Matthew Hintermeister
Peter & Linda Bynoe
Tingate & Mandie Jue
Mark & Kim Lowes
George & Becky Harvey
Charles Conner
Peter & Laura Klekamp
Lumiere Telluride
Chris & Julie Hill
Day Family Foundation
John & Bridgett Macaskill
Jay & Becca Markley
Kevin & Kristin Holbrook
Brian & Penny Dyson
Kevin & Mary Grace Burke
TELLURIDE FOREVER
John & Alice Butler Gary Cantor
GOLD HILL
David & Kate Wadley Clint & Susan Viebrock
PATRONS
Laura Chang & Arnie Chavkin
Ron & Joyce Allred
Vincent & Anne Mai
Michael & Yvonne Marsh
Peter Jamar
Bob & Tricia End
Brian & Karen Conway
Carol Armstrong
Kenneth & Elena Marks
George & Julie Parker
Dan & Lynn Jansen
Bernard Hatcher &
Mark & Susan Dalton
Mike & Anne Armstrong
Gally & David Mayer
Peter Richardson
Rich & Charlotte Jorgensen
Stephanie Anagnostou
Dick Ebersol & Susan Saint James
Ed & Frances Barlow
Beth McLaughlin
Randy & Leslie Root
Ken & Patricia Krueger
Hill & Bettie Hastings
Bruce & Bridgitt Evans
Barney & Carol Barnett
Fred & Lisa Orlan
John & Laura Shields
Paul & Lois Major
Joe & Lynne Horning
Carl & Judy Ferenbach
Joanne & Harmon Brown
Lisa Payne
Gary & Susan Sowyrda
James & Cindy McMorran
Bill & Jane Janke
Kathleen Fisher
John & Alice Butler
Debra Peacock
Morgan Smith & Sarah
Harvey & Gwen Mogenson
Arthur & Paige Nagle
Tully & Elise Friedman
Laura Chang & Arnie Chavkin
John & Thalia Pryor
Lavender Smith
Brian O’Neill
Don & Nancy Orr
Tom & Janine Hill
Brian & Karen Conway
Steve Raymond
TD & Page Smith
John & Kris Perpar
Jeff & Debbie Resnick
The Herrick Family
Mark & Susan Dalton
Travis & Alison Spitzer
Tom & Donna Stone
Ken & Jan Reynolds
Paul Lehman & Ronna Stamm
Paul & Janet Hobby
Bruce & Bridgitt Evans
Bobby & Polly Stein
Robert & Anneli Thiebaut
Mark Rosenthal &
Grace Jones Richardson Trust
Dan & Mary James
Davis & Bobsey Fansler
Jack & Janet Wolinetz
Shoshannah Pollack
Resturante Rustico
Jesse & Mary Johnson
Carl & Judy Ferenbach
Paul & Aleta Zoidis
Stewart Seeligson
Joel & Patricia Siger
Jim Johnson
Tully & Elise Friedman
Brian Wolahan
Jim & Joanne Steinback
Matt & Elizabeth Sommers
Jeff Katz & Christina Casas
Tom & Janine Hill
Anonymous
Jim & Judy Singleton
John & Carolyn Snow
Marty & Tristin Mannion
Jesse & Mary Johnson
Chris & Erin Busbee
Lisa Ungar
Carli Zug & Steve Szymanski
Telluride Foundation
BRIDAL VEIL
• 82 • 20th Anniversary Issue
Telluride Foundation
• 83 • 20th Anniversary Issue
R E COG N I T I ON
Telluride Brewing Company
Chang Chavkin Scholars
Dudley & Tina Taft
Rocky Mountain Health
Mike Armstrong
Mandy Miller
Jon & Mary Beth Tukman
Kiernan Family Fund
Dan & Sheryl Tishman
Foundation
Sara Bachman
Ximena Rebolledo León
John & Carolyn Snow
Sparky Latina Scholarship Fund
Walton Family Foundation
Ed Barlow
Megan McManemin
Carli Zug & Steve Szymanski
Elaine Fischer Visual Arts
INITIATIVES &
The Colorado Trust
Laila Benitez
Chris Pucillo
Reese Henry & Company
Scholarship Fund
GRANT SUPPORT
Laura J Musser Fund
Lynne Beck
Brian O’Neill
Energy Outreach Colorado
Richard Betts
Dan Tishman
Caring for Colorado Foundation
US Department of Commence,
Joanne Brown
DelanieYoung
The Colorado Health Foundation
Economic Development
Arnie Chavkin
Price Family Fund
DIRECTED FUNDS
Scott Spencer Memorial Fund
Anne’s Rainbow Skate Fund
NEIL ARMSTRONG
Westmeath Foundation
Administration (EDA)
Karen Conway
2020
Strokes of Genius
SCHOLARSHIP
High Meadows Foundation
Corporation for National
Danny Craft
ANNIVERSARY
Scholarship Fund
FOUNDERS
Johnson Family Foundation
& Community Service -
Mark Dalton
HOSTS
Saul Zaentz Foundation
AmeriCorps VISTA
Deedee Decker
Neil Armstrong Scholarship Fund Monica Callard Fund
Carol Armstrong
Tukman Family Fund
US Department of Agriculture
Bridgitt Evans
Mike & Anne Armstrong
The Hoot Fund
Mike & Anne Armstrong
El Pomar Foundation
Rural Development
Davis Fansler
Harmon & Joanne Brown
McManemin Family Fund
Joanne & Harmon Brown
Boettcher Foundation
Enterprise Community Partners
Carl Ferenbach
Arnie Chavkin & Laura Chang
Knox Family Fund
Charles & Sue Cobb
Gates Family Foundation
Tri-State Generation &
Tully Friedman
Mark & Susan Dalton
The Levy Fund
Mark & Susan Dalton
Anschutz Family Foundation
Transmission Association
J. Tomilson Hill
Tully & Elise Friedman
Hermitage Fund
Dick & Joyce Farmer
The Watt Family
Kevin Holbrook
Jeff Katz & Christina Casas
Good Neighbor Fund
Tully & Elise Friedman
Goldman Family Charitable Fund
BOARD OF
Kris Holstrom
Adam & Diane Max
San Miguel Kids Endowment
Tom & Janine Hill
Colorado Dept. of Economic
DIRECTORS
Dan Jansen
Chris & Laura Pucillo
Johnson Family Fund
Thomas & Francie Hiltz
Development & Trade
Jesse Johnson
Howard & Debbie Schiller
West End Pay It Forward Trust
Dan & Marilyn Quayle
Colorado Dept. of Local Affairs
Ron Allred
Paul Major
Dan & Sheryl Tishman
Rico Legacy Endowment
John & Carolyn Snow
Newman’s Own Foundation
Anne Andrew
Sage Martin
Lone Cone Legacy Trust
Barry Sonnenfeld & Susan Ringo
Colorado Impact Fund
Carol Armstrong
Tricia Maxon
IN MEMORIAM Adam Max
Philanthropist
Telluride Foundation
Neil Armstrong
Astronaut
• 84 • 20th Anniversary Issue
Richard Holbrooke
Ambassador
Stephen Wald
Philanthropist, Telluride Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient
H. Norman Schwarzkopf
Bill Carstens
Developer
Foundation Co-Chair, Army General
Telluride Foundation
• 85 • 20th Anniversary Issue
Father Sylvester Schoening
Catholic Priest
Photo Courtesy of Telluride Ski Resort
PERSPECTIVE
REFLECT INSPIRE PREPARE
Telluride Foundation
• 86 • 20th Anniversary Issue
n spite of our differences, this landscape holds us all together. Its cracks and fissures and erosions are what make it beautiful. Through philanthropy and leadership, the Telluride Foundation seeks to be the connective tissue that helps all of our region’s residents survive and thrive in this challenging, magnificent environment.
I
Telluride Foundation
• 87 • 20th Anniversary Issue
PERSPECTIVE
OF THE
Photo by Harvey Mogenson
THE FUTURE
stability. I had no plans of living here for the long-term and aimed to stay only for the winter season, working as a server in the lucrative up-scale restaurants of town. However, as my time at home progressed, I began to fall back in love with the community of Telluride. I met driven, motivated people who weren’t working in the service or property industries, and began to sink into a culture of activity, civic engagement, belonging, and healthy living.
REGION
By SHEAMUS CROKE
Strong Neighbors Coordinator, AmeriCorps VISTA Volunteer, 2019 - 2020
I suppose I used to share some of this frustration, but my perspective shifted after spending a number of years outside of the box canyon and getting a change in global scenery. Witnessing intense poverty and studying economic development changed my view of economic growth. I began to see Telluride not only as a wealthy bustling ski town, but also as a place in the fortunate position of being more concerned with regulating and controlling growth than incentivizing it. Nucla, a community I grew up visiting and where my mother now lives, currently faces the opposite challenge, with the potential loss of roughly 70 percent of its tax base after the recent closure of the coalfired power plant outside of town.
Telluride Foundation
After engraining myself back within the Telluride community and its surrounding region, I have gained a much deeper appreciation for not only the circumstances Telluride exists in, but also for all the moving parts and work that is done to make communities like this special.
Telluride and the West End are both changing, in their own ways, but this change brings an exciting future. If two years ago someone asked me if I would move back home to Telluride, I would have likely told them something along the lines of “I don’t think so; it’s really small and I don’t know if it’s what I’m looking for.” However, in December 2018 I moved back on a whim after six months of traveling in South America, with the main goal of finding financial
• 88 • 20th Anniversary Issue
Before long, I was seeking a more fulfilling and impact-driven position in my rediscovered hometown. The Strong Neighbors Initiative Americorp Vista position at the Telluride Foundation immediately caught my eye. It provided the opportunity to not only work in a field I had always been interested in, but also give back to the communities that have shaped me into who I am.
Photos (Right & Bottom) by Rob Gowler
Telluride, like most places, has changed a lot in the past 24 years. It is not uncommon to encounter the crusty local that tells you how much better everything used to be, citing an influx of tourists and seasonal mayhem as chief complaints.
I have begun to mesh into the cogs that make Telluride more than a resort town, and I couldn’t be happier about it. Yes, Telluride and the surrounding communities are changing, but I find this exciting. I look forward to spending each day instilling more meaning into the wonderful place we are fortunate to call home.
(Top) Tri-State recently shuttered its coal-fired power plant in Nucla. (Middle) The West End of Montrose County provides miles of wild and remote trails. (Bottom) Rock climbing in Paradox Valley.
Telluride Foundation
• 89 • 20th Anniversary Issue
PERSPECTIVE
PE RS PE C TIVE
REFLECTIONS ON THE
FOUNDATION
By ANNE SLAUGHTER ANDREW
Board Member, Past Grants Committee Chair
What distinguishes Telluride from so many breathtakingly beautiful ski resorts? Some may say the uniqueness of our box canyon location. Others may say the rich history of our town. Still others may think of the renown of our many festivals. For me, what distinguishes Telluride and our surrounding area is the enduring sense of community. I feel immeasurably lucky to have been able to learn about our community and contribute to supporting, strengthening, and celebrating that community as a board member and donor to the Telluride Foundation. As Chair of the Telluride Foundation Grants Committee, I have had a chance to learn about the many challenges our community faces – from advancing better quality early childhood education in Telluride to coordinating care for the elderly in Nucla/Naturita. I’ve been able to meet the community leaders across our region who are so invested in taking care of our community needs – from the executive director at the Sheridan Opera House to the volunteers who run the food bank in Ridgway. The partnership between the
Telluride Foundation
Foundation and these community leaders and their organizations is extraordinary. The Foundation invests its resources in being a strategic partner with the community, bringing financial resources and, just as importantly, the human resources of its staff and board. The Foundation has invested in our community organizations, helping them to build capacity to lead and expand their impact. The Foundation’s commitment to innovation and the Telluride Venture Accelerator have injected a new level of energy and excitement for the region’s economic development. The Foundation’s commitment to building resiliency in our rural communities has not only transformed these communities but has been recognized nationally. When we bought our home in Telluride almost 10 years ago, our hope was to be able to contribute to a community that we thought was quite special. Thanks to the Telluride Foundation, that dream has come true. And while I know that there are still many challenges ahead, including addressing affordable housing, the sense of community that defines the Telluride Foundation and drives its vision forward will endure.
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WE ARE IN THIS TOGETHER AN INTERVIEW WITH ARTIST TAVARES STRACHAN
Conceptual artist Tavares Strachan is at work planning a temporary public neon art installation titled “We Are In This Together” that will be viewed while riding the gondola between Telluride and Mountain Village. Please share your first impressions of Telluride?
TS: Having been born and raised on an island, I had the luxury of being raised in an exceptional landscape. Telluride reminded me of home in so many ways. There is an unspoken respect for the natural world that I admire. How would you describe your approach to producing a site-specific artwork in Telluride’s public domain?
TS: Spending time and developing a relationship with the place is important, including building networks and merging with the human beings living in a place.
The work begins by forming these connections and relationships. This project seeks to bring the community together and to add to the narrative of the Telluride region. It is the product of research over a five year period. We are interested in shedding light on local issues around housing, climate, food, education and immigration and coming together to research and address some of these questions at a local level that resonates more broadly in our current climate. In this moment of nationalism, it’s particularly difficult to manage any global issue without zooming in on local issues and the reverse is true. At what point did you determine a neon sculpture on the mountainside would be the gesture you wanted to make at this site?
TS: When I realized that this is a location only visible if you were on the mountain and somewhere that would be least obtrusive to the skyline. The project titled “We are in
Telluride Foundation
this together” is being staged at a highly charged cultural and political moment. How do you see the role of the artist in light of this divisiveness?
TS: It’s important to believe in something; it’s also important to follow your instincts. As social organisms, who are we if we are not together? What would the ideal outcome of this project be at a local level?
TS: The hope would be that the discussion surrounding the project would prompt responses that would reverberate in the community beyond the life of the public art installation. The goal would be for the intervention to incite action on a social impact and philanthropic level in the areas the project intends to highlight from education equality to climate change and impact. The project serves as a call for unity. Do you view this as a utopic proposition or...
TS:
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A call to action.
WHERE DO YOU SEE OUR COMMUNITY
“Norwood will be blossoming. The community will be vibrant and rich, and we’ll be the happiest town in the world.” RUBY, 15,
Norwood
I’m not sure what Telluride will look like in 25 years, but I know there will still be trees. CHARLIE, 6,
BRYCE, 5,
Telluride
“I think we will be doing more with technology to make the world a better place.” EMILY, 16,
Photo by Sage Carver
“Maybe it will be like a teenager land? The clock tower will change to an old grandfather clock. And maybe the chairlift will come off the lift so you can ski on it and it goes right back to the lift.”
Ridgway
“Maybe with more dirtbike trails and a waterslide and swimming pool.” CORBYN, 6,
Telluride Foundation
Nucla
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Telluride
Photo by Sage Carver
Photo Courtesy of Telluride Mountain School
IN 25 YEARS?
“We might have more than five girls in our class.” RYNN, 8,
Nucla
Telluride will look very strange. Cars will only have three wheels, and everyone will be riding bicycles. VITALIJA, 6,
Telluride
Photo by Lisa Wright
Photo by Kaycee K. Joubert, Real Life Photographs
PERSPECTIVE
Photo by Ryan Bonneau
FAST FORWARD The Telluride Foundation is making more possible here, now, and tomorrow. We are committed to shaping the future, together, so what’s next? To be continued‌.
SPECIAL THANKS
Penn Newhard Backbone Media
Harvey Mogenson Photographer
Aurelie Slegers Photographer
Samantha Tisdel Wright Anniversary Edition Writer/Editor
Ryan Bonneau Photographer
Makaela Vodopich Photographer
April Montgomery Anniversary Edition Editor
Noah Clark Anniversary Edition Design
TELLURIDE FOUNDATION
220 E. Colorado Avenue Suite 106, PO BOX 4222 Telluride, CO 81435
info@telluridefoundation.org | p: (970) 728 8717 | f: (970) 728 9007