Park City parents create Go Miners Athletic Foundation to support high school teamsThe nonprofit is dedicated to helping all students participate in sports

A group of Park City parents is launching a new nonprofit to support high school athletic programs, including fundraising efforts to build state-of-the-art indoor training facilities.

“We believe that athletics are foundational,” said Sarah Elder, vice president of the fledgling Go Miners Athletic Foundation. “They’re not extra. For many students, this is where they find their confidence, motivation and belonging. It’s where they learn to lead, to persevere and to be a part of something bigger than themselves.”

Park City School District Superintendent Lyndsay Huntsman said the concept for the athletic foundation was first created in a passing conversation with Jess McCurdy, who now serves as the foundation’s president. McCurdy, a 12-year resident of Park City with multiple children in the school system, proposed the idea based on her experience with the Park City Passing League.

The Park City Passing League is a flag football organization for elementary and middle school-aged children. McCurdy established the league with her husband, and its seventh season starts this spring. The league has raised over $600,000 for football-related programming since its inception.

But football isn’t the only sport in Park City.

McCurdy said the Go Miners Athletic Foundation is intended to support all Park City High School teams. She hopes to use her successes from the Park City Passing League as an example of how parents can fundraise and find solutions for coaches and student athletes.

In a presentation to the Park City school board on Tuesday, McCurdy and Elder said the foundation’s mission is to “strengthen and sustain Park City high school athletic programs and facilities so all students can participate, build life skills, celebrate school pride and thrive in a healthy, connected school community.” The foundation hopes to formalize its relationship with the district in February.

Elder said the organization will serve as a “strategic, long-term solution” for the district, which has had to prioritize training certain teams over others because of limited facility space. Coaches have also had their attention split between coaching and fundraising to keep programs afloat, another aspect of high school athletics the foundation strives to change.

“Right now, each team fundraises independently, often through separate nonprofits, which leads to a lot of duplicated effort and donor fatigue,” Elder said. “We want to help raise more together so that the team-by-team fundraising becomes optional and not essential, like it is now.”

McCurdy and Elder emphasized the Go Miners Athletic Foundation is not designed to compete with the Park City School District or the Park City Education Foundation, which largely centers on academics.

The foundation has four strategic objectives: initiating a capital campaign, reducing barriers for student athletes, streamlining fundraising efforts and centralizing communications for parents.

In terms of fundraising and capital campaigns, the foundation is focused on making the third phase of the district’s master athletics plan a reality. The third phase is one of four and includes the construction of indoor athletic facilities to create more training spaces and fields.

“These aren’t luxury add-ons,” McCurdy said. “They’re part of the growing recognition that athletic spaces are about much more than competition. They support physical and mental wellness, they reduce missed class time and they give students consistency and coaches the tools they need to grow strong programs.”

The foundation also plans to build a website, which will contain information for all Park City High School athletic teams. Once the website is live, schedules, team updates and other important information will be readily available for parents and students to access.

“We’re committed to reducing barriers to participation,” Elder added. “That means helping fund essentials like uniforms, transportation and equipment, and ultimately working to lower the cost of playing, especially for students who need support most. We believe no student should be left out because of financial circumstances.”

McCurdy said foundation leadership has already met with coaches, who have had an overwhelmingly positive response to the proposal so far. The Go Miners Athletic Foundation also invited a representative from each sport to sit on its governing board.

“Our goal is to ensure no matter what sport a student plays or what team they join, they feel supported and that the program has the resources it needs to grow,” Elder said.

The Go Miners Athletic Foundation has applied to operate as a 501(c)(3), which opens the door for grant acquisitions in addition to raising funds from private donors.

“This is an opportunity to give our students a state-of-the-art facility, just like we have done with the academic facilities that have recently come online,” Huntsman told the board.

McCurdy said she plans to come before the Park City school board again in February to ask board members to approve the nonprofit as a “component unit,” meaning the foundation would be officially sanctioned by the district.

“This step is essential,” McCurdy said. “It allows us to fundraise in alignment with the district, partner with your leadership and move forward with a shared purpose.”