Nicole Miller/Summit Daily News
A public art exhibit at Copper Mountain Resort ends this weekend, as the auction for the custom-built ski chairs on display around the resort closes at 11:59 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 7.
The Playhouse Project raises money for nonprofits in Summit County by auctioning works of art each year, and this year, builders put their own spin on ski chairs from the old Timberline Express lift at Copper.
Proceeds will benefit MD Oso Outdoors, a Mountain Dreamers program that helps Spanish speakers, especially immigrants, learn to ski and snowboard.
Copper is the Playhouse Project sponsor for the first time this year and donated the chairs. In previous years, builders have created playhouses and dog houses for the project. Summit Daily News organizes the builders and provides a stipend for their creations, according to publisher Nicole Miller.
She added that Alpine Lumber’s Summit County location donated materials for the project as well.
“Everybody gets together to provide all these materials and support so that these projects can get built,” Miller said.
Four chairs have been on display at Copper Mountain for about a month, Miller said, and one was put on display in early September. One final chair will be displayed and auctioned off during the week of Thanksgiving when Copper Mountain hosts an Alpine World Cup event.
Olivia Butrymovich, Copper Mountain’s communications and philanthropy manager, said the resort thought the Playhouse Project would be a good way to give people the opportunity to own a piece of the Timberline Express, which served the resort for 30 years.
“We thought this was a good time to celebrate the end of the lift and give people an opportunity to purchase refurbished chairs that we never put on sale or offered to the public,” Butrymovich said.
Copper recycled the rest of the Timberline chairs — as well as the lift towers — so the Playhouse chairs are the only ones the public can purchase, Butrymovich said.
Javier Pineda, a co-founder of Mountain Dreamers and the founder of its MD Oso Outdoors program, said the group will use the funds it receives from the auction for program expenses, including equipment, passes and lessons.
Pineda said the program offers “bilingual, bicultural ski and snowboard lessons” with its partners at Breckenridge Ski Resort, Beaver Creek Resort and Arapaho Basin Ski Area.
“We provide four lessons,” Pineda said. “At the end of those four lessons, people are able to comfortably ride green runs and (are) able to enjoy Summit County in a different light.”
Copper chose MD Oso Outdoors as the beneficiary this year. Butrymovich said the resort’s Play Forever initiative focuses on protecting the environment and supporting the local community. Improving access to the outdoors is part of the community initiative, she said.
“What Oso Outdoors does, and their programming does, aligns very well with our commitment to access to the mountain,” Butrymovich said.
The resort has worked with MD Oso Outdoors before, donating to the program through its Play Forever Thursdays, where discounted lift ticket sales support local nonprofits. Copper and MD Oso Outdoors are also collaborating to bring Spanish-language, ranger-led hikes to the mountain.
Butrymovich said guests at Copper have enjoyed looking at the chairs on display, and the resort expects “a lot of attention” on the chairs during the Union Peak Festival Sept. 5-7, which features free concerts and other events.
After the auction ends Sept. 7, Ski Country Auto Repair & Towing will offer free delivery of the chairs to winners that live within the county and could offer delivery for a fee to those outside the county. Miller said winners outside the towing company’s range will need to pay for the chairs to be shipped to them.