Fundraising for the new Sun Valley Ski Academy got under way in grand fashion Sunday night with a gratis performance by Michael Franti and Spearhead at the Adams Gulch home of entrepreneur Kipp Nelson.
Some 500 people attended the event to help raise $150,000 for the fledging academy, formed earlier this year between the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation and the Community School to draw young Olympic hopefuls to the area for training in their sports and to get a quality education.
Maureen Baker, who managed the event for Nelson, said Monday that $50,000 was donated at the party and an additional $25,000 came in later that night when word got out that an anonymous donor had agreed to match funds raised that evening.
Baker said Tuesday that another $50,000 had been donated since the event, bringing a total of $200,000 raised to help get the Ski Academy up and running.
Franti and Spearhead were in the area for a Monday night performance at River Run Lodge as part of the Sun Valley Center for the Arts Summer Concert Series.
Kristin Poole, co-executive director of the Center for the Arts, told the assembly at Nelson's Sunday gathering that Franti agreed to perform for free for the Ski Academy fundraiser because "he's into it."
Nelson's party got under way at 8 p.m. with cocktails, followed at 9 p.m. with brief announcements prior to the concert in the amphitheater built into the hillside behind Nelson's home north of Ketchum.
"We have doubled the biggest fundraiser we have ever had here, and I think that speaks for the interest the community has in the Ski Academy," Nelson, a Ski Education Foundation board member, told the assembly.
Nelson said he envisions the Sun Valley area becoming a premier training area for winter Olympians and with Sun Valley representatives in every ski and snowboard event by the winter games of 2018.
"I think that when we have Olympians walking around town all the time, it will draw in the type of demographics we want here," Nelson said.
Former Ketchum City Councilman Steve Shafran has been appointed interim director for the Ski Academy.
"There's going to be a building here in the fall of 2014 and we're going to have 40 or 50 students," Shafran said.
The Ski Academy will dovetail with the Community School's new residential program, established this year to provide supervised dormitory housing for student athletes from throughout the United States and abroad. The school announced in July that it had leased the former Bald Mountain Inn in Warm Springs for three years to accommodate the residential program.
In interviews with the Idaho Mountain Express at the Nelson event, Shafran and Community School Head David Holmes said they anticipate up to eight students in the residential program this year. They expect the number to double next year and reach up to 50 students in three years.
They said they expect that in the future that the majority of residential program students will be enrolled in the Ski Academy.
Shafran said he and Nelson and a third undisclosed party tried to purchase the Knob Hill Inn in Ketchum recently for the Ski Academy but were unsuccessful. However, he said he anticipates that the Ski Academy will have its own building within the next three years.
"We think there is widespread support in the community for the Ski Academy," Shafran said. "It will be a really dynamic institution. I've heard people talk about this so much. I want everybody to leave tonight knowing that this is going to happen."
Pointing at Bald Mountain, Shafran said: "That mountain gives us a tremendous competitive advantage."
"We have the benefit of Steve's abilities to bring this to reality," said Holmes. "We see this as enhancing the whole community."
The Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation was founded in 1963 by members of the Sun Valley Ski Club to provide training to young athletes for Olympic and other world-class competitions. Today the foundation provides training to about 500 athletes a year in snowboarding and alpine, cross-country and freestyle skiing.
The Community School is a private institution in Sun Valley that provides alternative experiential learning opportunities for about 300 students grades K-12.
Don Wiseman, Ski Education Foundation executive director, said the Ski Academy brings together a partnership where aspiring athletes can receive outstanding training and outstanding education. He said the Sun Valley area will also benefit.
"Any community that can bring new people into the community, it's a positive," Wiseman said. "We've got an amazing environment here. I just feel the academy is another part of the recipe to revitalize this community."
Terry Smith: tsmith@mtexpress.com
Entrepreneur Kipp Nelson, left, brought free music and fun to his home in Adams Gulch north of Ketchum on Sunday night to raise money for the new Sun Valley Ski Academy. At right is former Ketchum City Councilman Steve Shafran, who helped organize the event and will serve as interim director of the fledgling academy. Photo by David N. Seelig
