Vail Resorts donates $250,000 as part of Vail Ski Challenge

Children’s Hospital of Colorado takes first place, $150,000 donation

Last week, Vail Resorts distributed $250,000 in charitable giving to four Colorado non-profit organizations as part of the Vail Ski Challenge.

The competition challenged 13 teams, captained by select Colorado business and civic leaders, to ski as many vertical feet as possible during the season for the right to direct $250,000 of Vail Resorts charitable giving to the team’s selected charity. The winning charities and teams include:

• 1st Place $150,000 donation to Children’s Hospital of Colorado. Team Finlon led by philanthropist CatheyFinlon skied on behalf of the organization.

• 2nd Place $50,000 donation to Sungate Kids. Team Herda captained by Larissa Herda, president and chief executive officer for TW Telecom, skied on behalf of the organization.

Cathey Finlon, Team Captain; Anne Hanson, Children’s Hospital Colorado Foundation; Jim Benson (kneeling); Kevin Reidy; Christ Jarnot, Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Vail Mountain.

• 3rd Place $30,000 donation to the Denver Public School Foundation. Team Lynne captained by Donna Lynne, president of Kaiser Permanente of Colorado, skied on behalf of the organization.

• 4th Place $20,000 donation to Project Angel Heart. Team Thiry, lead by Kent Thiry, chief executive officer of DaVita, skied on behalf of the organization.

Winners were announced during a special event on Vail Mountain this afternoon. Teams skied their final vertical feet in the morning before racing against one another as part of the EpicMix Racing program. Additional $1,000 donations were made for the top three winning EpicMix Racing teams and their selected charity.

The Vail Ski Challenge was designed to raise resources and awareness for important community charities and create greater connections among Colorado civic and business leaders – all while enjoying Colorado’s iconic mountains and skiing.

Each business leader assembled a team of six who racked up vertical feet for charity throughout the ski season at any of Vail Resorts’ mountains. The top four teams, as determined by the team vertical foot score, were able to direct a total of $250,000 of Vail Resorts charitable giving to the charity designated by that team.

The additional teams and charities represented in the 2013 Vail Ski Challenge included:

• Team Gart led by Ken Gart, principal of The Gart Companies, skiing for Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Denver.

• Team Isenberg captained by Walter Isenberg, chief executive officer for Sage Hospitality, skiing for Concerts for Kids.

• Team Dea captained by Peter Dea, president and chief executive officer of Cirque Resources, skiing for the Denver Museum of Nature & Science.

• Team Crow captained by Jim Crowe, chief executive officer of Level3, skiing for Anchor Center for Blind Children.

• Team Salem led by Hassan Salem, president of US Bank - Colorado, skiing for American Heart Association.

• Team Warhover captained by Anne Warhover, president and chief executive officer for The Colorado Health Foundation, skiing for LiveWell Colorado.

• Team James led by Bruce James, managing partner at Brownstein Hyatt Farber & Schreck, LLP, skiing for Denver’s Road Home.

• Team Maffei captained by Greg Maffei, chief executive officer for Liberty Media, skiing for Tennyson Center for Children.

• Team Hunter led by Shawn Hunter, chief executive officer of the USA Pro Challenge, skiing for Children’s Diabetes Foundation at Denver.

For more information or to see the Vail Ski Challenge leaderboard, please visit www.vailskichallenge.com.

The Vail Ski Challenge is just one of the many charitable giving programs that are part of the Vail Resorts Echo program, which is aimed at both protecting the iconic settings that surround the resorts and helping build stronger communities where the Company’s employees live and work. Vail Resorts Echo encompasses three core efforts – environmental stewardship, charitable giving and community volunteer engagement. Each year, Vail Resorts Echo partners with more than 180 local non-profits, contributing more than $6 million to support programs that create strong families, give local kids educational opportunities and preserve our forests.