Many Park City five-year-olds are not academically and socially ready for school when they start as kindergarten students. Brian and Kirsten Shirken were inspired by this need in Park City, driving them to roll up their sleeves and get involved in Park City Community Foundation’s Early Childhood Leadership Committee. The committee supports the Early Childhood Alliance group working to ensure that all children in Summit County have sufficient opportunities to thrive, learn, and grow into participating, contributing members of our community.
Park City Community Foundation and its incredible champions have made marvelous progress to jumpstart the initiative with the help of the Shirkens, who introduced Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Utah Properties’ leaders to the community need. That introduction has played a crucial role in starting the momentum to raise a million-dollar fund that is poised to make important strides in the next two years towards improving and expanding services, prioritizing advocacy and education, and tracking kindergarten readiness data across Summit County.
Berkshire Hathaway has set an inspiring example by not simply relying on business dollars to meet community needs, but also by rallying their constituents to support an impactful cause. The Roney family and Berkshire Hathaway’s leadership team committed to an initial significant contribution, and the company also put up a $10,000 challenge that will match donations from their agents and their agents’ clients. With support from the Berkshire Hathaway team and from other donors, over $600,000 has already been pledged towards the $1 million needed to fully launch the Early Childhood Alliance’s work.
You can help fulfill the urgent need of families with young children who do not have adequate services by attending our “Early Childhood Champions” fundraising event on August 21, 2019, from 5:00-7:00pm at the Kimball Terrace. The event is free to attend and will feature U.S. Representative Ben McAdams, who led Salt Lake County in a first-in-the-nation partnership to improve early childhood outcomes and became a champion for early childhood issues. Learn more and RSVP >
Can’t make it to the event? Please consider a donation: Contribute to the Early Childhood Fund.