Ketchum's Limelight Hotel Gives Back

PHOTO COURTESY LIMELIGHT HOTEL

Book a Room, Help a Child Ketchum’s Limelight Hotel Gives Back

BY LEX NELSON

In the summer of 2021, a dozen kids from Wood River Middle School and Wood River High School arrived at Swiftsure Ranch Therapeutic Equestrian Center in Bellevue for an equine-facilitated learning session. These weren’t typical students on a field trip. The kids were part of The Bluebirds, an adolescent mental health and suicidal support group sponsored by The National Alliance on Mental Illness - Wood River Valley (NAMI-WRV).

Students who join The Bluebirds are locked in battles with mental illness, and working with horses at Swiftsure helps them fight it. The time spent with gentle animals is a vehicle for social-emotional learning. As Swiftsure Executive Director Paul Bennett puts it, “The environment promotes healthy social interaction, respect, and team-based problem-solving.”

The therapy session at Swiftsure last summer was one of several made possible by an unusual donor — the Limelight Ketchum Community Fund (LKCF).

PHOTO COURTESY SWIFTSURE

The fund was created in 2017 by the Limelight Hotel Ketchum, one of three hotels in the Limelight Hotels group. Every year, its grant cycle supports up to 13 organizations in the Wood River Valley focused on mental health, domestic abuse, and crisis care. In 2020, the Fund donated $5,280 to Swiftsure and $2,500 to NAMI.

“[Those funds] went to direct costs like paying the instructors, the arena, the cost of the horses — all of that good stuff,” Bennett says.

Dollars pour into the LKCF from a variety of sources.

“The Fund is financed by contributions from the Limelight Hotel Ketchum’s operations, by employees through an optional paycheck deduction, and by guests through an optional $1-per-night donation,” explains Meaghan De L’arbre, the Public Relations Senior Manager of Limelight Hotels. “The board of directors, made up of Limelight Hotel Ketchum employees, determines which qualified applicants receive a grant.”

PHOTO COURTESY SWIFTSURE

The Blaine County Education Foundation (BCEF) is another of those qualified applicants. It focuses on helping underprivileged kids and teens in public schools by paying individual fees for field trips, sports, and after-school activities; offering scholarships; giving grants to teachers; and more. BCEF received $3,040 from the LKCF in 2018 and another $3,000 in 2020.

In 2018, that money funded the creation of the A101 Special Needs Program in partnership with Jaime Rivetts of the Idaho Social Learning Center. The program teaches social skills to kids with autism and other special needs.

The 2020 funds were initially intended for after-school academic support. But when COVID-19 hit, BCEF pivoted to focus more on mental health. They used the grant funds to pay for online support groups for middle and high school students, also spearheaded by Rivetts.

So many kids are having anxiety. They were isolated from friends and coming back [to school] was a lot for them — it still is.

“So many kids are having anxiety. They were isolated from friends and coming back [to school] was a lot for them — it still is. Fortunately, we were able to start a new program thanks to that funding,” says BCEF Executive Director, Kristy Heitzman.

Since 2016, the LKCF has distributed roughly $150,000 to charitable organizations, and didn’t slow down in 2020. In fact, when the Limelight Hotel Ketchum reopened after lockdown it donated an additional $15,000 to The Hunger Coalition, The Senior Connection Meals on Wheels Program, NAMI, and the Crisis Hotline to help combat the effects of COVID-19. That gift went beyond LKCF’s usual grant cycle of roughly $25,000-$30,000 per year.

“Our organization does not have very deep pockets so we have been funding our services week by week and month by month,” Teresa Beahan Lipman, executive director of The Senior Connection, says. “This is AMAZING news. We have grown 382% in two months and this is much needed and greatly appreciated!”

PHOTO COURTESY SWIFTSURE

The Limelight Hotel Ketchum is far from the only hotel with a giveback component. Limelight Hotel employees in Colorado also run the Caring for Community Fund to support organizations in the Roaring Fork Valley (home to Limelight’s Aspen and Snowmass hotels). That fund has given $580,000 since 2017.

Outside of Limelight, The Washington Post reports that other “socially conscious hotels” like the Ace Hotel in Chicago and Caesars Entertainment make donations ranging from money and volunteer hours to soap. Last year, Forbes highlighted the Hyatt Loves Local program, which was created in 2020 to “support local businesses with resources, operational sites, and publicity during the COVID-19 pandemic” and funds more than 160 small business collaborations across the globe.

More hotels might soon follow this model, because as it turns out, giving back is good for business! One study from Horizon Media’s Finger on the Pulse found that 81% of millennials “expect companies to make a public commitment to good corporate citizenship.”

If you stay at the Limelight Hotel Ketchum this ski season, consider opting in to the $1-per-night donation to help local causes when your head hits the pillow. You’re sure to sleep better knowing that your dollar will help others.