{"id":2453259,"date":"2020-01-15T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-15T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=319113"},"modified":"2020-01-15T05:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-01-15T12:00:00","slug":"a-silent-volunteer-snowmass-local-sue-smedstad-to-be-honored-inducted-into-the-aspen-hall-of-fame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/a-silent-volunteer-snowmass-local-sue-smedstad-to-be-honored-inducted-into-the-aspen-hall-of-fame\/","title":{"rendered":"A silent volunteer: Snowmass local Sue Smedstad to be honored, inducted into the Aspen Hall of Fame"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Sue Smedstad<\/strong>
Courtesy photo\/Aspen Hall of Fam<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Trustworthy. Selfless. Compassionate. A ball of sunshine, love and kindness.<\/p>\n

These are just a few of the words and phrases that have been used to describe Sue Smedstad, a longtime Aspen-Snowmass local set to be inducted into the Aspen Hall of Fame on Saturday for her exemplary volunteerism.<\/p>\n

In a 12-minute video on Smedstad created for the induction ceremony, a handful of her colleagues and closest friends described her tireless passion and drive to support a multitude of health, human services and youth initiatives in the Aspen area, and how the reach of her impact is unmatched.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere hasn\u2019t been a hurdle that Sue hasn\u2019t figured out how to go around,\u201d Nan Sundeen, director of human services for Pitkin County, said in the video. \u201cIf I have an initiative I\u2019m working on, I will seek Sue to be on my team. \u2026 She will help bridge the paradigms between nonprofits, government and community so that we\u2019re successful and that we\u2019re sustainable.\u201d<\/p>\n

From working her way up the ranks at Aspen Skiing Co. \u2014 starting as someone who handed out trail maps at the base of the mountain and finishing as the company\u2019s vice president of administration \u2014 to co-founding and serving on more than a dozen local and state nonprofit and advisory boards, Smedstad has dedicated her adult life to the betterment of the Aspen-Snowmass community.<\/p>\n

But on a recent morning at a local coffee shop, she credited much of her service work and accomplishments to her upbringing, and the fact that opportunities to give back always have been available.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis community provides so many opportunities for people like me to get involved, and there are so many people doing great things,\u201d said Smedstad, a Portland, Oregon, native and over 40-year Snowmass local.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor example, you could walk into a room with folks who have been here for a range of time, say 5 to 50 years, and you wouldn\u2019t have to go a foot in either direction to find someone engaged in the community in so many ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Smedstad, one of the first community engagement opportunities presented itself when she was working as the personnel director for Skico.<\/p>\n

She said many of the employees were coming to her and her staff with personal struggles the skiing company didn\u2019t have the resources to address, sparking her to reach out the local mental health authority at the time and start the first ski area Employee Assistance Programs in the country.<\/p>\n

From that point on, Smedstad said she became interested in anything and everything that supported health, human services and youth in the Aspen area. She helped found organizations including the Aspen Hope Center, Response, Aspen Youth Center and Hospice of the Valley; has been recognized for her local and state efforts to combat substance abuse; and has organized the \u201cGirls to Women, Women to Girls\u201d and \u201cBoys to Men, Men to Boys\u201d annual conferences for Aspen eighth-graders, which connect girls and boys to adult women and men role models who help the students establish career aspirations, for over 20 years.<\/p>\n

Smedstad and the rest of this year\u2019s Aspen Hall of Fame inductees truly stand out for their integrity and dedicated local volunteerism, said Lorna Petersen, the hall\u2019s president.<\/p>\n

She said the 2020 class is one of the strongest ever, and that the annual induction ceremony sold out in roughly a week\u2019s time. Also being honored this year are Peter and Barbara Guy, Rick Deane and David Swersky.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve known Sue for a long time and I knew she volunteered but I had no idea all of the things she\u2019s actually done,\u201d Petersen said. \u201cThis year all four of our inductees are phenomenal and are silent volunteers. \u2026 I don\u2019t know if there\u2019s been another group inducted that\u2019s so solid.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Smedstad said she is honored to be a part of the 2020 Aspen Hall of Fame class, she also said she\u2019s much more comfortable working behind the scenes and again credited the overall generosity and volunteerism of the entire Aspen-Snowmass community for her accomplishments.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve learned that when you develop a passion for something you always have time for it, absolutely always have time,\u201d Smedstad said. \u201cThis is a community of volunteers.\u201d<\/p>\n

mvincent@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sue SmedstadCourtesy photo\/Aspen Hall of Fam Trustworthy. Selfless. Compassionate. A ball of sunshine, love and kindness. These are just a few of the words and phrases that have been used to describe Sue Smedstad, a longtime Aspen-Snowmass local set to be inducted into the Aspen Hall of Fame on Saturday for her exemplary volunteerism. In […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2453259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-18 20:52:02","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2453259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2453259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2453259\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2453259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2453259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2453259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}