For approximately 3% of the U.S., one week in Aspen is crowned as better than the rest: Gay Ski Week. Every year, the week of January 12 is named Gay Ski Week in Aspen where LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) people pile into Aspen for a week of fun. The week includes discounted rainbow rolls at Takah Sushi, parties, the famous gay ski week downhill, and more.

The thing that sets this year’s Gay Ski Week apart from all others is the appearance of the Matthew Shepard Foundation. On Wednesday, January 14, the foundation held a fundraiser at the Caribou Club. The event was estimated to raise around $250,000 on ticket sales plus much more from the silent auction, with auction items ranging from trips to Peru and Belize to artwork by local artists.

Matthew Shepard was a student at University of Wyoming who was beaten and left to die on October 6, 1998, in Laramie, Wyoming because of his sexuality. Six days later he died at a hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado. Shortly after, two boys were charged with the murder and sentenced to two consecutive life sentences.

Though this tragedy, Matthew’s mother and father Judy and Dennis Shepard created the Matthew Shepard Foundation in December of 1998, the mission is to “empower individuals to embrace human dignity and diversity through outreach, advocacy, and resources, effecting positive change.”

For the first ten years after the murder, the foundation’s number one goal was to pass the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which is an act that expands on the 1969 United States Federal Hate-Crime Law to include crimes motivated by a victim’s gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability. This act was passed October 22, 2009, about eleven years after Judy Shepard and others began lobbying for the act.

All money raised by the foundation is used to pay the ten staff members, pay for Judy Shepard’s travel expenses because she travels all around the world speaking to high schools and colleges, and support the foundation’s online youth blog called Matthew’s Place (http://www.matthewsplace.com/).

The Matthew Shepard Foundation is one built to inspire love and respect no matter people’s differences. They intend to “replace hate with understanding, compassion, and acceptance.”

“Check out Matthew’s Place. Whether you’re straight, gay, questioning, there are some really cool perspectives about everything under the sun,” Deputy Executive Director of the Matthew Shepard Foundation Robin Wood-Mason said. “Ultimately the message is don’t be mean to each other, be nice and respectful. Understand that everyone’s coming from a different place and that’s how ultimately we’ll all get along. It’s all about fostering cultural respect.”

The Matthew Shepard Foundation isn’t the only group head over heels for Gay Ski Week; the AHS GSA (Gay-Straight Alliance) club (or P.R.I.D.E.) is ecstatic that Aspen is hosting another week honoring LGBT people.

“I am blessed to live in a town where we have such a thing as Gay Ski Week. The fact that there is a town that is so accepting of people that they’ve dedicated a whole week to them is absolutely amazing. The problem in the world is that being gay, or bi, or whatever else is made out to be such a big deal, and having something like Gay Ski Week makes it so that people realize that, hey! It’s not a big deal,” AHS senior and GSA member Luis Martinez said.