The Park City LGBTQ Task Force’s Queerski is slated to run from Feb. 21-25.
While other events, such as Elevation Gay Ski Week, which is scheduled for Feb. 22-26, are designed as destination events to bring together the global LGBTQ+ community together, Queerski is an event that celebrates the intersection of the queer and outdoor community, and serves as a fundraiser for the local LGBTQ+ community of the Wasatch Back, said founder Joe Urankar.
“The whole thing started in 2019 as a private party I threw for my friends,” he said. “I’m an event planner, so I planned this event that would be related directly to the local ski culture. The intention when we started was to have an event that was more integrated in the local ski culture and a way for me and my friends to connect on the mountain.”
Since then, Urankar started seeing people coming to Gay Ski Week and joining in the Queerski fun.
“We saw an opportunity to start planning dinners and lunches and on-mountain activities,” he said.
After Urankar joined the LGBTQ+ Task Force, one of Park City’s social equity initiatives, he and the group started getting Queerski up and running in a “bigger way.”
“We’ve started hearing how we could turn it into a fundraiser and make it more official,” he said.
To fundraise, the LGBTQ+ Task Force established a relationship with the Park City Community Foundation, a nonprofit that connects other local nonprofits with donors, local leaders and the public.
The relationship stems from the LGBTQ+ Task Force’s involvement with the foundation’s Live PC Give PC, day of giving, Urankar said.
“The Task Force wanted to become a fiscally responsive program, so we became the foundation’s local lens that will help them understand our (LGBTQ+) community and what our needs are,” he said. “We asked them to adopt our fund’s mission statement. So anyone who wants to donate or contribute can have the 501 (c) (3) credibility, and oversight that the Community Foundation will provide. And on our side, we’ll have the tools and resources to apply for grants for programs and other things we want to do.”
This year’s Queerski events include ski outings, meals and social gatherings, according to Urankar. (See accompanying schedule.)
“Each event is considered stand alone, so if people want to come to one thing and not another, that’s totally encouraged,” he said.
Queerski is open to allies, friends and family members, Urankar said.
“In-person connections are so necessary in our community,” he said. “Yes, we are throwing a party, and it will be fun and a certain level of fanciness to it. But at the end of the day it’s about the ability to bring people back together has a lot of real human value to us and our community.”
Urankar also said it is important for himself, the Task Force and the local community at large to continue supporting programs such as Queerski.
“The most rewarding part of hosting this event is feeling like we’re building something that will help the local LGBTQ+ community find a foundation and footing in a pretty conservative state where the legislature has been pretty hostile,” he said. “This is about becoming more part of the broader community in a more meaningful way.”