A new education program using Utah’s 2034 Winter Games to help boost student literacy, attendance and adherence to values like teamwork and perseverance is coming to seven school districts across the state.
“This is a joy,” said Amy Garff, chair of the Utah 2034 Education Committee putting together the pilot program as an extension of the efforts made in thousands of classrooms by the family’s Ken Garff for Good foundation over the past 20 years.
Utilizing the Olympics “will give us the opportunity to really create some excitement in this program,” said Garff, the president of Ken Garff Philanthropies, which also will include opportunities to hear from Olympic and Paralympic athletes and visit Winter Games venues.
More details are set to be announced in September, but Garff told the Deseret News a “digital library” of brief interviews with Olympic and Paralympic athletes is being assembled to share what they’ve learned about excellence, respect and other values.
Where the Utah 2034 education program will start
The Garff family is one of the “Founding Captains” of the privately funded Organizing Committee for the 2034 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, giving $20 million to the Podium34 program that’s already raised more than $250 million to help cover the $4 billion cost of hosting again.
After the first meeting of her committee that includes education, business, nonprofit and sport leaders last week, Garff said preparations are underway to make teaching materials available in seven school districts, Cache, Duchesne, Granite, Iron, North Sanpete, Salt Lake and Uintah.
“We really wanted to reach a few different areas in the state as we were doing this pilot so that we get a good representation of how we can make this program most effective,” the longtime school volunteer said.
While the Olympic education program will start in elementary schools, the plan is to expand it through high school and possibly even to colleges and universities. Next year, materials are expected to be developed for junior high and middle schools.
“We’ll be analyzing this data as we go. But we’d certainly like to be adding more schools, elementary-wise, and highlighting the next age group,” Garff said, adding she’s grateful for the pilot schools that are “willing to jump in and try this.”
This marks the first time an Olympic organizing committee has mobilized such an extensive education program. When Salt Lake City hosted the 2002 Winter Games, schools along the Wasatch Front were encouraged to “adopt” one of the participating countries.
Utah’s Olympic legacy strategy
Brad Wilson, the Utah 2034 organizing committee’s CEO, said he hopes the much more extensive Olympic education program will be “evergreen,” still in place if the state is selected to host again after 2034.
“You’d be hard-pressed to find a community around the world that has had the opportunity that we have, to use the Olympic values, to use the power of sport, this far in advance, to have such a long runway to make a difference in the lives of our kids,” Wilson said.
Using the Olympics to reach school children, he said, “is a key pillar in our impact strategy and we hope in our legacy strategy. What are we doing to change the lives of Utahns for the better before our Games. And then, what can we do afterwards.”
Wilson said the new program is expected to produce tangible results.
“I love how the program is even measurable. We’re going to be able to see, are we driving attendance the right way, are we driving literacy the right way. We’ll learn from that,” he said. “It’s not just about some fun Olympic stories in the classroom.”
In time, Wilson said the education program could end up being used in classrooms nationwide.
The Garff family is bringing “long-term thinking” about incorporating the Olympics into the state’s classrooms, he said, adding that others who contributed to the Podium34 program will do the same in different areas, such as improving the mental health of athletes.
“We’re working in collaboration with our other captains to help use their passion and resources toward other organizing committee objectives that will help us pull off the Games,” Wilson said, while also benefiting Utahns.
“We absolutely don’t claim that we have expertise in everything as an organizing committee,” he said. “When we see an organization like Ken Garff for Good say, ‘We do this. We can help you with this,’ we’re just saying, that’s great.”
Garff, whose father-in-law, Bob Garff, played a key role in the 2002 Winter Games, was among the Utahns who carried the Olympic torch ahead of the 2026 Winter Games in Milan-Cortina, Italy, earlier this year.
But it was visiting an Italian elementary school’s “Olympic museum” with student tour guides proudly describing the exhibits they’d created that helped her appreciate how much work it would take for educators to help students feel a part of the Games.
“They did a fantastic job in making the world both smaller and larger for these kids. It really brought to life for me what can be done,” Garff said, adding that when she returned home, Utah teachers shared their Olympic-related classroom activities.
“Some of the things they came up with were so creative and so much fun,” she said. “This was half a world a way. I can’t wait to see what is going to happen in 2034. This is really going to be fun. There’s so much talent in our education system in Utah.”