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PrintWhere Generosity Grows
Teton Valley nonprofits enrich and improve the lives of locals
Photo by Chris Larson
The Tin Cup Challenge is our valley nonprofits' primary funding opportunity.
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In a spectacular display of talent and vision, Teton Valley Community School recently beat out a thousand other schools from around the globe to win the 2009 Open Architecture Challenge, sponsored by Architecture for Humanity. As a result, the nonprofit independent school in Victor, which serves preschoolers through eighth graders, will receive $50,000 in funding for classroom construction and upgrading.
In the process of envisioning the design, which plays with the concept of a sustainable village, architect Emma Adkisson and designer Nathan Gray of Section Eight Design asked students and teachers several questions: What kind of open space do we want? How can we incorporate our agricultural traditions? What kinds of recreational opportunities do we want to provide? How can we encourage art?
Teton Valley Community School’s exceptional success makes it emblematic of our valley’s diverse range of nonprofits, each of which has also asked questions of its members and the broader community. The organizations featured in this story represent just a handful of the approximately forty nonprofits working for the good of Teton Valley’s residents, both human and otherwise. Collectively, and in a multitude of ways, these groups shape our cultural, environmental, social, and educational landscapes for the better.
Because nonprofits so often work behind the scenes in many aspects of life, one can sometimes benefit from their work without even realizing it. Last year, for example, the Teton Valley Education Foundation estimates that it reached every student in the school district though granting opportunities and programs like Shakespeare in the Schools.
Meanwhile, the Teton Valley Rotary Food Bank dispensed enough food to feed seven thousand people, the Targhee Animal Shelter housed more than two hundred dogs and cats, and the Teton Arts Council hosted numerous events that sold a total of $30,000 worth of works by local artists. And the list goes on.
Indeed, the nonprofit scene in Teton Valley appears to be thriving.
The Early Days
When trying to understand the full scope of what valley nonprofits do, it pays to consider how Teton Valley residents fared before these organizations existed. “Among the early settlers, people really had a mindset of independence and self-sufficiency,” says Sharon Woolstenhulme, public affairs and community relations director for the Teton Valley and Jackson Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. But, she adds, soon after the first LDS settlers moved into the valley in the 1880s, the church began supplying many of the social services and recreational opportunities that nonprofits provide today, in the twenty-first century.
In those early days, men from the LDS Church cut and hauled firewood for those in need. Church members maintained welfare farms, where they raised crops and beef cattle. In that same era, the church headquarters in Utah sent a doctor to the valley to train midwives.
“They served each other physically, and provided the friendship that helped them emotionally and socially,” Woolstenhulme says. “And, because of that, they became connected to each other.”
By 1909, the LDS Church’s relief society had purchased two city lots in Driggs, where they built a community granary. In the aftermath of World War I, they even sent grain to Europe as part of the war-recovery efforts. Also through the relief societies, women received art lessons and exposure to classical music and dance. The church held its first dramatic production in 1911 (Uncle Tom’s Cabin), and by 1940, wards throughout the valley had developed drama programs. Church bands and the high school band gave concerts on Main Street in Driggs.
“I suppose you could say that was the first Music on Main,” Woolstenhulme says, referring to today’s popular summer series of Thursday evening concerts sponsored by the Teton Valley Foundation.
In 1921, the church launched its Stake Days, a one- to two-day celebration in Teton Canyon where nearly the entire valley gathered to eat, camp, and socialize. And, by 1940, a church-sponsored baseball league dominated the valley’s summer sports scene. Businesses and farmers shut down operations on Wednesday afternoons, when as many as fourteen games could be found taking place throughout the valley. [See “Diamonds in the Rough” on page 18 of this issue.—Ed.] Over the years, the LDS Church also provided the ground for the city parks in Driggs and Victor, as well as building tennis courts for the public’s enjoyment.
Photos: Left, Sharon Gusa; Right, Courtesy of Teton Valley Community School
Valley kids benefit from many of the local nonprofits, such as the Teton Valley Education Foundation and the Teton Valley Community School.
Nonprofits Emerge
Teton Valley native Michael Whitfield says that as the population diversified, new needs arose that spawned the birth of nonprofits. For example, access to lands was never an issue during Whitfield’s youth; no-trespassing signs were nonexistent. “I could go anywhere,” he says, “and if I ran into a landowner, they’d stop and say ‘hi’ to me.”
In the late 1960s, Whitfield became president of the Teton Valley Sportsman’s Club, a group that promoted hunting and fishing and protected fish habitat. Later, he got involved in Citizens for Teton Valley, which contested Grand Targhee’s proposed resort expansion. Then, in 1990, he joined forces with Albert Tilt, Ned Twining, Steve Smart, Lynn Bagley, and Don Betts to found the Teton Regional Land Trust (TRLT).
“There was concern that we were losing farm ground and wildlife habitat and river access,” says Whitfield, who left his post as executive director of the TRLT in 2008. “It got going before we really knew how to do it, but it’s been successful.”
That success is measurable. Over the past twenty years, the TRLT has preserved almost 10,000 acres in Teton Valley, and a total of nearly 27,000 acres taking into account the group’s comprehensive work in the entire, seven-county Upper Snake River Watershed. In the past decade, the land trust has brought millions of dollars in grant monies into the valley’s economy, and provided approximately $13 million to local landowners and $2 million to local businesses.
