EAST MEETS WEST -
From Rural China to Rural Colorado
2017 rural teacher training hosted at Beijing International Studies University.
Nathan Yip Foundation is celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2022. The organization will kick off the special year with its annual Lunar New Year celebration held on Saturday, February 12, 2022 at the Grand Hyatt. This will be the first large, in-person gathering in two years with extra COVID precautions put in place like requiring masks plus proof of COVID vaccination or negative PCR test. 2022 will be the Year of the Tiger, and the event, themed “Into the Wild,” will feature traditional Chinese decor and elements of jungle greenery. It will be chaired by Julia and Rusty Porterfield. The Nathan Yip Foundation was founded in 2002 by Colorado residents, Linda & Jimmy Yip, after they lost their only son, Nathan, in a car ac-
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February 2022 | Cover Story
Instruments donated to Byers Elementary School in 2020 through Friends of Nathan Yip and the Future Arts Foundation.
cident in 2001. Nathan was 19-yearsold and was home for winter break from his freshman year at Lehigh University. He was a graduate of Kent Denver, a Denver-area private school. Growing up, Nathan was very involved with philanthropy and was Vice President of Future Givers, a student-run philanthropy group at Kent. He also loved to travel the world with his parents. While visiting remote areas of China, Nathan was overwhelmed by the poverty and lack of educational opportunities. During these trips, Nathan and his father, Jimmy, spoke of starting a foundation to fund education for impoverished and underserved children worldwide. Nathan recognized his own privilege and knew that by focusing on
education, he could begin to end the cycle of poverty that exists in so many rural areas. The Yip family made a promise that when Nathan finished college, they would work together to establish this foundation. Since Nathan’s life was cut short, Jimmy and Linda took it upon themselves to make his dream his legacy by creating a private foundation in his name. When the foundation first began, the Yips raised funds through dinners and events, like their flagship Chinese-themed Lunar New Year Celebration. They were heavily involved in Denver’s commercial real estate investment scene and built up a large network of non-Asian friends who they loved to share their culture and traditions with. The first Chinese New Year dinner was hosted in 2003 at the
