Miners Day might be the coolest way in Utah to close out summer, with the Running of the Balls, the parade, the mining drilling and mucking contests, the nod to heritage. There’s also the bonus from all that fun — cash raised for local nonprofits to put to good use.
The Park City Rotary Club on Tuesday awarded a near record $50,000 in community grants to a dozen nonprofit organizations with funds from the annual event the club puts on, namely Running of the Balls.
Club President Kristal Bowman-Carter welcomed a full house at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Park City – The Yarrow of club members and leaders of the dozen community service groups receiving grants averaging several thousand dollars each.
“Today is one of my favorite days, because we get to shine a light on our 12 incredible winners,” said Steve Yap, leader of the committee that chose the recipients from 36 applications. “Today, you’re out there every day making our community stronger, kinder and more connected.”
With that, Allison Williams, a Rotary member and community engagement director for Lucky Ones Coffee, among other roles, and Park City Councilor Diego Zegarra served as high-energy emcees, mixing humor with more serious appreciation for the work of the service organizations, along with speeding the ceremony through all the three-minute acceptance speeches, an Oscars-like touch to the lunch meeting.
“You know, if there’s a silver lining to the lack of snow, it’s a longer growing season at your community garden,” Zegarra said while introducing Helen Nadel, executive director of the Summit Community Gardens/EATS.
Key programs for the gardens are after-school mentoring and tutoring, food pantry and emergency assistance, and environmental conservation projects. In 2025, the organization reported serving over 1,200 residents, distributing 15,000 meals, and helping 300 students improve their grades and develop self-confidence.
The Arts Council of Park City & Summit County reported it launched the Arts & Culture Master Plan, unanimously supported by Park City/Summit County Council; served 100 artists through CREATE PC; has had $1 million in economic impact since inception, with average annual impact $200,000; piloted a professional development program to elevate and support the cultural workforce; and has completed three public art projects with the Jeremy Ranch roundabout sculptures, artful bus shelters and the Creekside bike park shade structure.
Bridge21 Park City, which aims to provide accessible and supportive housing for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, reported that since building and opening its first home 10 months ago, it has received 20 occupancy requests, led 140 life skill development classes and 9 educational community workshops, and all of the residents are employed for at least 15 hours a week in Park City.
Community for Children’s Justice Center aims to be a safe, home-like space that creates psychological safety and trust for children in need with professional staff who can support them, often in crisis-level situations. The Children’s Justice Center reported serving 250 to 300 children last year.
Live Like Sam, which addresses mental health needs for children from kindergarten through 12th grade across the Wasatch Back, reported serving 4,500 youth in 2025, and that its Thrive program shows more than a 25% reduction in depression and anxiety, along with measurable gains in resilience and quality of life.
Park City Senior Citizens reported that program offerings increased by over 100% from 2024 to 2025, over 5,500 meals were served in the past 12 months, and membership recently surpassed 800.
The Hope Alliance, which operates a vision clinic at the People’s Health Clinic as well as mobile clinics off-site and a variety of vision programs in Utah and internationally, reported it has been working with the Park City School District to deliver exams and glasses to every student assessed.
GFWC Park City Athenaeum Club is a local branch of an international service club, which noted a gap in funds available to students attending vocational schools rather than colleges. The group that began in 1897 today sees its primary value in awarding scholarships to Park City High School students for vocational education.
For 2025, Recycle Utah reported educating over 7,000 students in 2025 in classrooms, camps, and field trips; recycling 2.8 million pounds of material; and starting food waste and snack wrapper collection programs.
Summit County Clubhouse provides community and support for people with mental health and substance use challenges. This is done in three main ways: work — daily work routines to build purpose and confidence; belonging — work routines and social and holiday events to help combat isolation; and support — housing, employment, education, basic needs.
Lucky Ones, through its coffee houses, reported 25,000+ hours of supported employment annually for neurodiverse adults; 38 neurodiverse employees gaining meaningful workforce experience; and 20,000+ community members served annually, making Lucky Ones a public-facing advocacy platform that expands representation and helps change perceptions about the value of individuals with disabilities.
And WasteLess Solutions, which aims to reduce food waste, fight hunger and protect the environment by rescuing surplus edible food and redistributing it to those in need, while educating communities on how to prevent food waste at every level. It operates in Summit, Weber, Davis and Salt Lake counties.
WasteLess Solutions reported that in Summit County in 2025, it rescued 20,000 pounds of food, provided 12,763 meals, diverted 7.57 metric tons of CO2 and conserved 1.03 million gallons of water; and the average size of a food rescue was 114 pounds.
Shelby Cornett, the group’s Summit County food rescue coordinator, said the organization has been in existence since 2018 but began last year in Summit County. An example of who they work with is the Montage Deer Valley and Park City Mountain, taking usable food that wasn’t sold and redirecting it to other nonprofits, such as the Clubhouse, which keeps food from being wasted and helps feed those who need it and/or saves expenses.
“We take food from food donors, and it’s perfectly edible that they are just not able to sell or use for whatever reason, and then we get it to other nonprofits that are in the community,” she said. “So we use a lot of volunteers. We always are looking for more volunteers. That’s how our model really runs.”
Not unlike how Miners Day comes together each year.