Editor’s note: This story was updated to correct the last name of Glenn Verette.

The Summit Foundation recently received a $1 million donation that will promote education and career opportunities for young people.

The gift will be used as a “million dollar-match” to challenge others to donate to the fund, which the foundation is calling the Thriving Community Fund. 

Through this fund, the foundation hopes to support young adults seeking vocational jobs and trades, and it will provide scholarship funding for low-income college students. Additionally it funds the Grow Your Own program to increase the number of local professionals, such as nonprofit staff and others that are critical for the workforce. 

Jeanne Bistranin, executive director of The Summit Foundation, said that this donation took the organization by surprise. The ball for the Thriving Community fund got rolling by two newcomers to Summit County: San Antonino natives Kym Rapier and Glenn Verette. They have only been in Summit since February 2023.

“We’re going to use that as a challenge for other donations in the community. The beauty of that is people then can donate to whatever ability they have,” Bistranin said. “What’s beautiful about The Summit Foundation is the smaller donations add up.”

Bistranin noted that the foundation recently has been putting effort toward pulling in donors that were newcomers due to high turnover with long-term philanthropists, who have left the county.

Without even knowing about this effort, Rapier and Verette reached out to the foundation looking to contribute. This was a no-strings-attached donation, and without direction from the donor, the foundation knew exactly what the money needed to go toward. 

The Verette and Rapier gave the foundation an opportunity to get their Thriving Community Fund up and running. A large focus of that is on supporting multiple career and educational pathways for young adults in Summit. 

“For years, the narrative was everybody needs to go to college, and now the pendulum has swung and more young adults are looking to take a vocational route and go into trades. We are really looking to support those people as well through the Thriving Community Fund,” Bistranin said

The goal is also to help further develop Summit’s workforce by producing more people that specialize in the trades. 

The foundation will be working with Colorado Mountain College and Summit High School in addition to other organizations to further support young adults with career and educational opportunities. 

The 40th anniversary of The Summit Foundation comes with numerous initiatives, and this is just one. The Thriving Community Fund will be the cornerstone of the fundraising efforts focused on ensuring working families can live in Summit now and in the future.