Eric Hilty was a lawyer, sitting with pals at a bar 25 years ago, wondering how he might raise money for the Invest in Kids nonprofit he just founded.
The child advocacy group needed to pay lobbyists to help secure state funding for its nascent program connecting nurses with first-time mothers. Over beers, the group of skiers carved a plan.
“We needed to raise money quickly so we thought, ‘Maybe we could tie it into skiing,’” Hilty said. “Why not try to ski all the moguls runs at the Jane in a day?”
A couple months after that happy-hour brainstorming session, the first Jane-A-Thon in 2000 drew 16 skiers who raised $10,000 as they skied all 16 of Mary Jane’s back-diamond bump runs, with Hilty handing out water bottles and PowerBars from the back of his car parked at the Challenger Lot.
Since then, the state’s longest running ski fundraiser for kids has enlisted 4,678 participants who gathered supporters as they skied Winter Park’s dimpled dame, the mogul-Mecca of Mary Jane. The bumpers have raised more than $2.4 million for Invest In Kids, helping 131,000 children and 42,000 parents in every county of Colorado.
The 25th Jane-A-Thon — March 1-2 — is expected to involve about 450 skiers and snowboarders and will likely raise more than $340,000. The March 1 Jane-A-Thon Corporate Day includes 27 company teams — some with as many as 50 members — gathering for team-building ski descents while raising money for Invest In Kids.
“We really think the Jane-A-Thon couldn’t be a more authentic Colorado type event,” Hilty said.
The Nurse-Family Partnership pairing nurses with low-income moms-to-be for two years remains Invest In Kids’ flagship program. The Denver-based nonprofit has added new programs as its budget has grown to more than $5 million a year, serving more than 14,000 children, parents and caregivers last year.
The group’s Incredible Years program works with preschoolers, teachers and parents to develop social and emotional skills. The Child First program created in 2020 connects mental health clinicians with children and parents in 25 counties in their homes to help deal with chronic stress and trauma.
All the programs are evidence-based, with scientific research proving the effectiveness of clinical work that starts with pregnant first-time moms and works with children through age 5. Invest In Kids partners with communities to do the training and advocacy work while helping to facilitate funding from county, regional and state sources.
“Invest In Kids helps to bridge the gap between academic research and replicating into real work … so local families get to benefit from the best academic research,” said Lisa Hill, who has been with Invest In Kids since 2001, serving as executive director for the past 15 years.
Hilty said he helped found the group after “seeing too many kids in the juvenile justice system” and thinking there should be a better way to reach kids early in life.
“To our core we really believe that every Colorado kid deserves to get off to a right start and we really see these programs achieving that,” he said.
The Jane-A-Thon has evolved into an event with less of a focus on hammering the state’s largest collection of thigh-crushing bump runs. Most participants — each promising to raise at least $175, which enrolls one student in The Incredible Years program for a year — simply ski for fun, skipping the hustle of skiing 16 long bump runs from bell-to-bell. Although there is a group of veterans, including Hilty, who rush through all 16 of the Jane’s bump fields.
“We have a lot of second-generation participants now too,” said Hilty, remembering a kid who spun 40 laps on the beginner-friendly Galloping Goose lift at a recent Jane-A-Thon. “We continue to make the event more and more accessible. It’s just so fun.”