The Park City Rotary Club honored its volunteer and professional citizens of the year in a ceremony Tuesday, lauding two recipients who Rotarian Bob Richer said have helped make the community what it is today. The 2021 Jack C. Green Volunteer Citizen of the Year Award went to Jim Gaddis, while the Linda Singer-Berrett Professional Citizen of the Year Award went to former Park City Community Foundation Executive Director Katie Wright.
‘Jim just keeps on giving’
Gaddis, through his decades of volunteerism and philanthropy, has helped to bring many of the Park City’s areas most beloved programs to life, including the National Ability Center and the Youth Sports Alliance.
Hans Fuegi, former NAC board president and longtime friend of Gaddis’, said Gaddis was a driving force behind securing funding for the NAC’s ranch.
“It’s safe to say without Jim’s involvement the facility (either) would not have been built, not built on time or not built at the magnitude it is now,” Fuegi said.
Another longtime friend and fellow skier, Bob Marsh, said Gaddis’ contributions to the local ski racing and winter sports community have been critical.
“Jim not only has raised the bar, he’s set the new standard for what the slogan ‘service above self’ means to so many individuals and organizations in Park City, Salt Lake and the state of Utah,” Marsh said. “Jim just keeps on giving of his time, energy and resources to help others.
“On behalf of all the athletes, coaches, parents and organizations who have benefited from your tireless efforts in those early days, thank you for showing us all how it’s done right.”
Thor Kallerud, president of the Youth Sports Alliance, said Gaddis has been involved with YSA since its inception in 2002 and, his “insight and support” have helped it evolve into an organization that now engages about 2,800 kids and distributes $200,000 in scholarships annually. Most important to Gaddis, Kallerud said, has been YSA’s after-school programs, which offer activities for kids in grades one through nine.
“It’s a very dear part of Jim’s heart,” Kallerud said.
Kallerud said in honor of Gaddis, YSA will begin raising funds for what will become the $1 million Jim Gaddis YSA After School Endowment, ensuring the program continues to benefit local youth for years to come.
“Jim has changed many lives and he is an inspiration to all of us,” Kallerud said.
As Gaddis took to the podium after hearing praise and admiration from friends and colleagues he joked, “I can’t believe what I just heard.” He said his commitment to giving back stems from when he was a 14-year-old skier, just selected to compete for the U.S. Junior National Ski Team. The only problem was, the race was in New Hampshire.
“Neither my parents nor I could afford to buy the ticket to get me there,” he said. “A local businessman stepped in and paid my way, and I sort of never forgot that.”
Gaddis said he saw it as his duty to pay it forward to other young skiers, and that’s how he’s spent much of his adult life.
The community’s conscience
Katie Wright stepped down as executive director of the Park City Community Foundation after seven years in the position this past spring, but her impact in that time, said the nonprofit’s Board of Directors Chair Kristi Cumming, has been incredible.
“Her passion and dedication to our organization were clear,” Cumming said. “She had this amazing spunk, and a willingness to ask questions and to listen to her mentors and to this community.”
Cumming said she and Wright joined the foundation at the same time, and it was a pleasure to watch Wright “blossom before our eyes to become an exceptional community leader.”
Diego Zegarra, the foundation’s vice president of equity and impact, said he joined the organization largely because he wanted to work alongside Wright.
“I was growing in the nonprofit world and I really wanted to learn from her,” he said. “She lifted me up and opened doors for me.”
Zegarra said the foundation will miss Wright’s “calming, vulnerable energy” but is better for having had her leadership for so long.
“I’m certain the Community Foundation, and in turn this community, would not be where it is were it not for her passion and dedication to her job,” he said.
Park City Mayor Andy Beerman said he values Wright’s friendship, and when he took office she was on his shortlist of people he didn’t want to disappoint.
“She sets a high standard for the community,” he said. “She’s someone you hate to disappoint because it usually means you took a shortcut.”
Beerman said Wright has been the Park City community’s conscience, “and she’s tough about it.”
“I want to thank Katie on behalf of all of Park City,” he said. “She asked us to be better. She insisted we do good. And because of it, we are better.”
Wright said she was grateful and deeply honored by the recognition, and said she has long lived by the credo that “being of service is the only way to be.” She said it’s easy to feel down and out these days, with so many issues large and small facing Park City and the world as a whole. But she said she prefers to look at it all through rose-colored glasses.
“Because when you’re working on these issues with people who really care, who are giving their time, money and experience, you can really see that the world is quite beautiful and people are quite lovely,” she said. “And so I feel very lucky and positive and optimistic.”