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Aspen Skiing Co. receives an honor from governor’s office

Staff report
Crowds at the mall in Snowmass on Jan. 5. The holiday hordes were spread out rather than concetrated this season.
Anna Stonehouse/The Aspen Times

Along with late Broncos owner Pat Bowlen and four other Colorado residents, Aspen Skiing Co. was recognized recently with a Colorado Governor’s Citizenship Medal for its role in the community.

The Medal awards were started in 2015 by an executive order and is one of the highest honors given to Colorado residents and organizations who play a role in the state’s communities. The honors were handed out Saturday at an event in Denver.

Skico received the corporate citizenship medal for having a “collective responsibility to ensure that the company is a rewarding place to work and the community a desirable place to live. They respect and nurture the delicate balance between ‘resort’ and ‘community,’ that makes them unique,” according to Gov. Jared Polis’ office.



“The comments from the governor and the selection committee were really about our mission statement of live passionately, awaken the spirit, elevate community and honor place,” Kaplan said Monday. “And that commitment about being more than a ski area and being a place where people come to connect and people come to work to contribute to make a difference in people’s lives.”

Tim Gill, who is a part-time Aspen resident, received the Vanguard Legacy honor for his Gill Foundation, which was started in 1994 and is one of the leaders in funding for LGBT rights.




The governor’s office honored the late Bowlen with the Colorado Mountain Leader award, which goes for work in the state and also has an impact nationally. Bowlen, who died in June, owned the Denver Broncos for 35 years.

“It was great to see the other honorees who all were pretty inspiring. Obviously the Bowlen family, and Pat Bowlen’s legacy in the state and beyond,” Kaplan said, “and Tim Gill. It was fun to hear Tim talk about his passion for snowboarding and his passion for Aspen. It was very much a Colorado values and leadership in Colorado kind of night to hopefully show the way for the rest of the nation.”

Also honored were: Kylee Cisneros-Gomez of Antonio as the Emerging Community Leader; David Brown and David Cohen of Techstars for the Growth and Innovation award; and Barbara O’Brien of the Denver Public Schools for Public and Community Service.

Kaplan said the bulk of the winter season employees will start to come back in two weeks and it will be a conversation from the manager level to the new employees orientations.

“This time of year, it’s actually perfect because we are getting geared up to welcome everybody back,” Kaplan said. “We’ll be sure to use this as an example that validates their efforts and makes it all worthwhile.”