President Kelli Klunder founded Clark’s Christmas Foundation last year to bring joy to low-income children during the holiday season. She was working with similar organizations in Utah County and St. George but realized locals also needed a program.
“Park City is such an affluent town, but yet there are so many people that need a little extra support, and we wanted to just give back to those, but also release some of that financial burden that comes with the holidays,” Klunder said.
Klunder says the foundation supported 85 children from around 45 families in 2023. This year, over 250 kids from over 130 families have already signed up.
Community members can get involved by donating, sponsoring a child and getting gifts on their wish list or wrapping presents. Klunder says there will be a gift-wrapping event in December.
“Last year, we had over 660 gifts to wrap alone, and this year, being that we're we have such a high increase, we're probably going to have well over 1000 gifts to gift wrap, which is amazing,” she said.
Klunder says the foundation also partners with local businesses. Park City Storage donated a unit to store all the gifts and Hyatt Centric Park City is hosting an event for visitors and locals to give back to the kids. The hotel is hosting a giving tree in its lobby for visitors and locals to help a child this holiday season. The tree will be up through Dec. 16.
There are Christmas trees with ornaments listing a child’s name, age, favorite color and a gift to buy for them. Whoever sponsors the child can keep the ornament.
Families will pick up gifts Dec. 20 and 21. Klunder says it’s heartwarming to see how appreciative the families are.
"Many parents sent us photos of their kids unwrapping the gifts, smiling ear to ear, just being so excited, and that's exactly why we do this,” she said. “We just want to give back to the people who really need it and appreciate it the most.”
Klunder hopes to expand the program to support Wasatch County families in the future.
“We're not quite yet being able to even fully support Summit County, but once we can, my goal is to absolutely spread to Wasatch and be able to support the families there,” she said.
Click here to find out more and get involved.
