A Childhood Memory Saved
I feel like I spent a great part of my younger life, in particular growing up, in Colorado. It was our family destination for vacation. Interesting side note, I've never been skiing. Because of basketball, only my summers were spent in the Rocky Mountains.
That's why a story out of one of the two places I associate most with my summer vacations with my family caught my attention. One of the great places in the mountains to visit is Estes Park, Colorado. The community has worked extremely hard to keep modern society at bay to ensure a slower pace and an old style feel. And at the top of the list, as well as the top of the hill locally, sits the Stanley Hotel. I can't tell you how many lunches I've had sitting on their deck overlooking the town. Built in the early part of the 20th century by the inventor of the Stanley Steamer (auto), it is almost 100% wood and the memorial to a time that will never come back.
Over the years, there have been ownership issues as people tried to figure out what to do with the Stanley. It doesn't fit today's hotel models with efficiency, which leads to higher costs. Recently, a nonprofit out of Arizona was attempting to purchase/acquire the hotel to keep it in its current state. Nonprofit to the rescue. Unfortunately, the deal fell through.
Fortunately for those of us who enjoy such places, the Colorado Educational and Cultural Facilities Authority have stepped in to help the project in a way that will make it permanently a fixture in the Estes Park area.
Why am I writing about this? Well, to be honest, part of it is that I love the place. I love the Rocky Mountains. I love Rocky Mountain National Park, Fall River, and Old Trail Ridge Rd. Some of my fondest memories with my parents and my sisters came from those trips.
But the other reason I write is that it's an example of where nonprofits fill holes in a community. Marriott or Hilton doesn't want this hotel. They can't make money from it. But yet it is a hallmark of not only a time and place that has gone by, but it is also a staple and an economic engine for the greater Estes Park area. As the community has fought a lot of modernization to keep many smaller mom and pop hotels, restaurants, and others in business, maintaining a historical field of the community, the Stanley is the most important asset in that entire area. Without it, the area doesn't hold the same value.
This is why nonprofit work is so important. While this is a building, and maybe not quite as important as feeding the homeless or other incredibly individualistic charity work, it is still critical to the fabric of that community. This is what our communities need to do more often in pulling together to ensure that we maintain things and take care of the people where for-profit business does not see a viable path to its economic needs. We need more of this in terms of community collaboration, not less.
And as such, the next time I'm (and many others are) on that deck of the Stanley Hotel having lunch, I'll be thankful for the thought process and execution of philanthropy.
