The Karl Studer Foundation has completed a fully funded week for two families facing serious illness, while positioning its first programme for annual expansion.
The Karl Studer Foundation concluded its inaugural Trip of a Lifetime on July 11, giving two families facing a parent’s or child’s terminal illness or another life-altering event a fully funded, seven-day stay in Alpine, Wyoming. The Foundation covered lodging, meals, transportation and guided activities, creating a week designed around rest, connection and personal choice rather than medical appointments or a fixed itinerary. The programme matters as an example of philanthropy focused not only on financial support, but on creating protected time for families dealing with difficult circumstances.
The trip was created by Karl Studer, president of Electric Power at Quanta Services and founder of the Foundation. Its premise was that a diagnosis can take away time, but not what families do with the time that remains, according to the release. The programme therefore shifted attention away from treatment and illness, offering participants uninterrupted days together in the mountains and an environment intended to reduce the pressure of hospitals, appointments and daily routines.
Jackson Hole Outfitters hosted the week, supplying the tents, cooking area, bathrooms and Wi-Fi for a glamping camp in Alpine’s Star Valley along the Greys River. Families could choose from activities including wagon fishing, a guided horseback ride, kayaking at Murphy Lake, a hat bar workshop and an evening at the Jackson Hole rodeo. Shared meals, nightly campfires and a live performance by musician Henry Pepin formed the social centre of the stay, while extended free time meant no activity was compulsory.
The Foundation also framed accessibility and comfort as central to the programme’s design. Professional outfitters, camp staff and hosts remained on site, and the week was structured to accommodate different levels of outdoor experience. That approach made the trip less about testing participants through rugged travel than about giving families control over how they spent their time, with organisers describing them as guests rather than recipients of charity.
The Karl Studer Foundation intends to make Trip of a Lifetime an annual programme and plans to increase the number of participating families in future years. The organisation describes itself as a family philanthropic initiative based in Rupert, Idaho, with members of the Studer family committing personal time and resources to causes they choose. Its first programme indicates a narrowly defined model: combining practical funding with a deliberately unstructured period in which families can be together.
