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Park City Community Foundation honors volunteers and nonprofits

Meg Steele and 30 organizations recognized at event Thursday

Meg Steele was named this yearís Trisha J. Worthington Community Service Award at the Park City Community Foundationís Grant Celebration. She has been involved with volunteering efforts since coming to Park City.
(Carolyn Webber/Park Record)

Meg Steele likes to celebrate little successes. Cleaning up trails in the mountains, watching a nonprofit receive a grant, and, sometimes, just the fact that she did not add another responsibility to her long list of projects.

“I come home and tell my husband if I didn’t join something that day. It’s like, ‘I heard an ad on KPCW and this organization is looking for volunteers, but I did not call them. I did not sign up,’” she said.

Because of Steele’s participation in countless volunteer organizations, The Park City Community Foundation named her the recipient of the Trisha J. Worthington Community Service Award. She received the award on Thursday afternoon at the Park City Community Foundation’s Grant Celebration.

Steele is a member of the Summit Land Conservancy Board, which she joined in 2013, and the noon Rotary Club. She serves on the RAP Tax Recreation Committee and helps the Park City Community Foundation organize Live PC Give PC as well as direct funds for the Women’s Giving Fund Grant. At her job as an IT business analyst for the Park City Mountain Resort, she still finds ways to get involved by participating in the EpicPromise Day volunteer projects and distributing grants with the EpicPromise Grants Committee.

The Park City Community Foundation gave 30 local nonprofits grants totaling over $128,000 on Thursday afternoon. (Photo by Claire Wiley)

Ollie Wilder, community impact director at the foundation, said after seeing her work in Park City, Steele was the obvious choice for the award.

“She’s a bit of an unsung hero,” he said. “She’s always cheerful, always ready to help, and she does so in really substantial ways.”

Steele is the third recipient of the award, which was named after the founding executive director. In keeping with the foundation’s spirit of giving, the award includes $500 that is given to a local cause of the recipient’s choice. Steele decided to give the money back to another fund that supports nonprofits, the Candy Erickson Endowment Fund for the Betterment of Park City.

Steele first met Erickson, who passed away in 2011, when they were both working at the Park
City Mountain Resort. Erickson encouraged Steele to apply for the Recreation Advisory Board, where Steele served for six years.

“That was what kicked off my involvement in Park City. It really meant a lot to make a donation to that fund,” she said.

Steele was not the only one recognized at the celebration last Thursday, though. Thirty nonprofit organizations received a total of $128,860, Wilder said. This was the highest amount the foundation has given during this event since its start in 2008. Two organizations each received $10,000, the maximum amount the foundation will give to any one group. EATS, which promotes healthy eating at Park City schools, will use the funds to expand cooking classes to students. Holy Cross Ministries will use it toward improving their Parents as Teachers home-visiting program.

These events and awards celebrate people doing ‘amazing’ things in the community, Wilder said. Honoring individuals, like Steele, and nonprofits is something that the foundation strives to do any chance they get.

“It’s a great reminder that any individual in this community can dive in and help make a difference,” he said. “They can have an impact, can support the work of the nonprofits, and make this a better place.”


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