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Furniture, Concert Tickets, and Second Chances: How Ryan Bowen Supports The Other Side Academy Walk into the brick-front building at 667 East 100 South in downtown Salt Lake City and the first thing that hits you isn't what you'd expect from a place that houses 130 people coming out of addiction, homelessness, and prison. It's the calm. Students in uniforms move with purpose. A moving truck pulls in. Someone's mopping a floor like it's their job — because it is. This is The Other Side Academy, and the entire operation runs on a radical bet: that the same people the rest of the system has given up on can rebuild their lives by working, side by side, in real businesses, for 2.5 years, with no government money and no excuses. That bet only works because Utah keeps betting on them too. The Ryan Bowen Other Side Academy partnership is part of that — quiet, consistent, and built around the two things Bowen knows how to give well: physical goods that fuel the academy's self-funded businesses, and event tickets that give people in recovery something to actually live for on a Saturday night. For Bowen — Tooele-raised entrepreneur, founder of Bowen Investments, and CEO of King B Distribution — this isn't a one-time photo op. It's a recurring contribution to one of the most-watched recovery models in the country. What The Other Side Academy Actually Is (And Why The Bet Works) Most people hear "addiction recovery program" and picture a clinical rehab. The Other Side Academy is something else entirely. The Academy describes itself plainly on its own site: "We are The Other Side Academy; a self-sustaining, non-profit helping address the problems of homelessness, criminal behavior and long-term addiction through a 2.5-year residential life skills and training program for men and women. Students pay nothing to attend and the Academy does not take any government funds for operations." That last part is the radical part. No government funding. No insurance billing. The whole machine pays for itself through a portfolio of real businesses run by the students: The Other Side Movers — one of the highest-rated moving companies in the Salt Lake Valley, generating roughly $2 million a year The Other Side Thrift Boutique — high-end consignment-style stores in Salt Lake and Millcreek selling gently used furniture, brand-name clothing, and housewares The Other Side Donuts — a donut shop staffed by people in recovery A construction company, lawn care, and other ventures The Other Side Village — a permanent housing community for transitioning homeless residents Students work their way through the program like a university — freshman, sophomore, junior, senior — and progress by demonstrating the kind of soft skills (showing up on time, taking accountability, not lying) that incarceration and addiction had stripped away. The outcomes back the model: "Seventy percent of our graduates remain drug free, 88 percent remain crime free, and 100 percent are employed when they finish the program," a longtime member of the Academy's leadership has noted. For a guy like Bowen, who has spent his career building self-sustaining businesses and pulling himself up from a Tooele teenager flipping cars to a multi-sector entrepreneur, the TOSA model speaks his language. He's not funding a charity — he's fueling a business that happens to save lives. How Ryan Bowen Supports The Other Side Academy The Ryan Bowen Other Side Academy partnership runs on two lanes that punch above their weight. 1. Furniture Donations That Fuel the Thrift Boutique The Other Side Thrift Boutique is one of the academy's flagship social enterprises — but here's the thing most donors don't know: the thrift boutique exists because of donated furniture in the first place. As one profile of the program describes it, "the thrift boutique got started when people who were moving offered to donate items they didn't want to take with them. The moving company collected so much furniture and sundry other items, TOSA started selling it." That's the model Bowen plugs directly into. Through his businesses — Bowen Investments, his hospitality brands like Sundays Best and Pica Rica BBQ, BCC Construction, and his broader portfolio — he donates furniture and equipment that's been cycled out of his commercial spaces. Restaurant refreshes, office relocations, apartment turns at BCC properties — instead of letting that inventory go to landfill or a generic donation pile, it gets routed to The Other Side Academy. Why it matters in concrete terms: High-quality furniture moves fast at the boutique and generates real revenue that funds the program directly Every donated item is a piece of inventory the students themselves load, transport, refurbish, and sell — meaning it's not just a check, it's job training The thrift stores hand-pick their inventory for quality, so commercial-grade pieces from Bowen's businesses fit perfectly into what shoppers actually want The Millcreek boutique reviewers consistently call out the quality of items they find there — desks for $75, name-brand clothing, electronics. Bowen's contributions help keep that inventory pipeline full. 2. Concert and Sporting Event Tickets for Students in Recovery This is the part of the partnership that quietly does the most emotional heavy lifting. Recovery is hard. The first year of sobriety, in particular, is a grind of routine, accountability sessions, work, and not much else. Students at TOSA live in community, follow a strict schedule, and rebuild discipline they often haven't had in years. They're not getting wild Saturday nights — and they shouldn't be. But they do need joy. They need things to look forward to. They need to remember what a normal, sober good time even feels like. Bowen donates concert tickets and sporting event tickets — pulled from his suite holdings and business allocations across Salt Lake City venues — directly to The Other Side Academy for distribution to students and staff. We're talking Utah Jazz games. Concerts at Utah State Fairpark, The Complex, and other major SLC venues. Sporting events that put students in good seats, in normal crowds, doing what regular people do on a Friday night. It sounds small. It isn't. For someone who's just finished their first 90 days clean — someone who can't remember the last time they sat in a stadium without being high, broke, or running from something — a Jazz game with their TOSA peers is a complete reframe of what a sober life can look like. That moment is what the entire program is selling, and Bowen helps deliver it. It's also a fit with how Bowen gives across his other charity work. He's used the same approach to support the Ron McBride Foundation — donating concert suites as auction items and event experiences for kids and donors. With TOSA, the tickets go a step further: they go directly into the hands of people in active recovery, as reward, as motivation, and as proof that the life they're building is worth the work. Why TOSA Matters to Salt Lake City It's hard to overstate what The Other Side Academy has done for Utah. Since launching, the program has: Pulled 130-plus residents off the streets, out of jail cells, and into stable, sober community at any given time Built a moving company, two thrift stores, a donut shop, a construction company, and lawn-care service that collectively generate millions in self-sustaining revenue Expanded into Denver and acquired multiple Salt Lake housing facilities, including the Avenues Courtyard Senior Living Center for $4.2 million, to house up to 160 students Launched The Other Side Village — a permanent affordable housing community for people transitioning out of chronic homelessness Refused government funding entirely, which means every dollar in the door comes from people who chose to send it As one TOSA student named Lola put it in a profile of the program: "We don't want government funding. We don't want to rely on anybody anymore. We've been relying on the government when we've been incarcerated. We've been relying on stealing from people. We've been relying on our parents. We haven't taken care of ourselves ever. We want to take care of ourselves now. That does something to us that makes us whole again." That's the energy Bowen is buying into. It's also why TOSA grads end up running things — Diego Cortez, a former gang member, is now a leadership staff member. Clay Josewski went from hating the program to managing it. Tiffany Blair, Tori Randall, Robbie Myrick — graduates who now coach, manage, and mentor the next class. The flywheel works. Getting Involved With The Other Side Academy If Bowen's example resonates, TOSA makes it easy to plug in at any scale: Hire The Other Side Movers for your next move (501-456-3007). They're consistently rated the top-tier moving company in the Salt Lake Valley and every dollar funds the program. Shop or donate to The Other Side Thrift Boutique — call 801-810-4222 for free furniture pickup. They'll come get heavy items you'd otherwise have to haul yourself. Order from The Other Side Donuts at The Other Side Village. Donate event tickets, suites, or experiences the way Bowen does — concerts, games, anything that gives students a glimpse of normal joy. Contact TOSA directly through theothersideacademy.com. Make a direct financial gift. Donations buy housing capacity, expand the program to new cities, and keep the no-government-funding model alive. Refer someone who needs the program. No cost to attend, 2.5-year residential commitment, men and women welcome. The academy's headquarters is at 667 East 100 South in Salt Lake City. The Bigger Picture The Ryan Bowen Other Side Academy partnership is a smaller, quieter piece of his philanthropy than the Christmas shopping trips with Firemen and Friends for Kids or the long-running Ron McBride Foundation support — but in some ways it's the most aligned with how Bowen actually thinks. TOSA isn't a charity that asks for handouts. It's a self-sustaining business model that gives broken people a way to rebuild through work. Bowen, who built Pure Water Solutions of America from a 19-year-old's idea into the largest independent office water company in the country before exiting, knows exactly what that compounding looks like. The furniture goes into the boutique. The boutique generates revenue. The revenue funds the program. The program puts a man or woman through 2.5 years of sober, accountable work. They graduate and join the staff or hold down a job. The cycle compounds. And on the nights between, somebody who used to think their best days were behind them is sitting in a Jazz game on Bowen's tickets, learning what sober joy feels like. That's the whole bet. That's the whole point.

6 Years In: Why Ryan Bowen Keeps Showing Up for Firemen and Friends for Kids There's a moment every December at a Walmart in Riverton, Utah that's hard to put into words. School buses pull in escorted by fire trucks and police cruisers. Local cosplay groups dressed as superheroes wave kids out the doors. Inside, 75-plus families — military, veterans, wounded warriors, and kids with disabilities or facing serious hardship — get one and a half hours and a $500 budget to grab whatever Christmas they want. No paperwork. No catch. No one asking why they need it. For Ryan Bowen, founder of Bowen Investments and a long-time Utah philanthropist, that scene is now a six-year tradition. The Ryan Bowen Firemen and Friends for Kids partnership has quietly grown into one of the most consistent and personal pieces of his giving — the kind of recurring commitment that doesn't make headlines but absolutely changes Decembers for hundreds of Utah families a year. "I said to my daughter, 'What's your favorite part of Christmas?'" Bowen told Good Things Utah a couple of years into his involvement. "She said, 'Dad, it's shopping for other kids.'" That's the whole pitch, really. The Foundation Behind Three-Plus Decades of Utah Christmases Firemen and Friends for Kids isn't a flashy national nonprofit. It's a grassroots Utah operation that has been quietly running Christmas shopping trips for kids in need for more than three decades — over 33 years of buses, gift bags, and full carts. The foundation has rolled with the same simple model the entire time: raise money locally, spend it locally, take real families on a real shopping trip, and let them pick out their own gifts. Founder Andy Chudd built it on a principle most charities only put on a brochure. As longtime board member and original Utah Jazz Bear Jon Absey once put it: "A lot of people give money to charities but it doesn't stay in the community, it goes elsewhere. Firemen and Friends for Kids was put together by people who want to do good. We are a small charity, when you give us $100 dollars, $100 dollars goes to the kids." That's not a marketing line — it's the operating model. Over the years, the foundation has put thousands of children through what they call the Hugs for Christmas Shop, with the run rate now north of 10,000 children and families served since the program began. The 2025 edition, featured on KUTV's Fresh Living, was hosted by Andy Chudd alongside former University of Utah head football coach Ron McBride and Patricia Byrne of Performance Automotive — a tight circle of Utah operators who have shown up for this thing year after year. Ryan Bowen is squarely in that circle. Why Ryan Bowen Partnered With Firemen and Friends for Kids — Six Years and Counting Bowen got involved with Firemen and Friends for Kids six years ago, and he hasn't missed a year since. For a guy whose business calendar includes running King B Distribution, Bowen Investments, BCC Construction, Sundays Best, Brunch Me Hard, and Pica Rica BBQ — among 25-plus active ventures — keeping a recurring December date on the books that long says something. Here's what the Ryan Bowen Firemen and Friends for Kids partnership looks like in practice each year: Funding 75+ families at $500 each to shop for Christmas. That's roughly $37,500 in direct purchasing power put straight into the hands of families who need it, with zero administrative skim. Bringing his own employees from Bowen Investments and his hospitality brands to volunteer as shopping partners — walking the aisles with families, pushing carts, helping kids find the toy they actually want instead of the one they think they're "supposed to" pick. Bringing his own kids. This is the part Bowen returns to in interviews. He uses the shop as a hands-on lesson for his children about what real generosity looks like — not writing a check from a couch, but standing in a Walmart aisle next to a Marine's family and helping them have a Christmas. His daughter's line — "Dad, it's shopping for other kids" — got picked up by Good Things Utah for a reason. It's the kind of detail that tells you a giving model is actually working: when the donor's nine-year-old internalizes the mission faster than most adults do. Who Actually Gets Helped: Military Families, Wounded Warriors, and Kids Facing Hardship The Hugs for Christmas Shop has shifted its focus over the years to lean heavily into two groups, both of which Bowen specifically supports: Military families — active duty, veterans, and wounded warriors. Utah has a significant military and veteran population, and the financial reality for younger enlisted families, transitioning veterans, and especially wounded warrior households can be brutal during the holidays. The 2025 KUTV-promoted shop was explicitly built around supporting Utah military families. Bowen's contribution helps underwrite that side of the program directly. At-risk families and families with children who have disabilities. As the foundation noted during a 2024 Good Things Utah segment that featured Bowen alongside Andy Chudd, the program also hosts "a number of families with handicapped children" — kids who often get overlooked by other holiday charity programs because their needs (sensory-friendly toys, adaptive equipment, specific therapeutic items) don't fit a generic donation drive. The $500 budget per family means parents can choose what their kid will actually use and love, not just what got donated to a bin. It's a model that respects the dignity of the people being served — a recurring theme in Bowen's broader philanthropy, which spans speaking at the Utah State Prison, supporting rehab centers, and donating to hundreds of families every holiday season in his hometown of Tooele. What the Shop Day Actually Looks Like If you've never seen a Hugs for Christmas shop day in person, the production is wild. The foundation's website describes it bluntly: "This special event is hosted by the Utah Jazz Bear. All money raised goes to help the children. Local cosplay groups will be dressed up as superheroes and sci-fi characters. Police and firemen will escort the children's buses to the store to go shopping. The press shows up to share the joy." Picture it: Christmas morning, but at a Walmart, with sirens, mascots, Stormtroopers, and a Marine dad walking the toy aisle with his kid like it's the best day of the year. Because for that family, it is. Bowen and his crew are somewhere in that crowd, pushing carts. The Mascot Bowl — the foundation's longtime fundraiser dreamed up by Jon Absey 18-plus years ago, where college and pro mascots play a charity football game — has been a key funding engine, raising tens of thousands per year (over $12,000 in a single 2019 event alone, with 100% of profits flowing straight into shopping trips). It's the kind of unglamorous, repeatable, deeply Utah event that keeps the lights on so guys like Bowen can plug in additional capital and double the impact. How to Support Firemen and Friends for Kids The foundation runs lean and donor-friendly by design. Every dollar that goes in genuinely reaches kids — there's no national overhead absorbing the gift before it hits the cart. Ways to get involved: Donate directly through firemenandfriendsforkids.org. Even small contributions stack — a $500 sponsorship covers an entire family's shop. Sponsor as a business, the way Performance Automotive (a recent $10,000 donor) and Bowen's companies have done. Volunteer for the shop day as a family shopper or logistics helper — you'll spend a December morning at a Riverton-area Walmart and almost certainly leave changed. Attend the Mascot Bowl when it returns, or buy raffle/auction tickets. Contact Andy Chudd directly at (801) 915-6284 for sponsorship inquiries or to refer a family in need. The foundation is active throughout the November-December holiday push and is regularly featured on Fresh Living (KUTV) and Good Things Utah (ABC4) leading up to shop day. The Bottom Line Six years into the Ryan Bowen Firemen and Friends for Kids partnership, the math is simple: 75-plus military, veteran, wounded warrior, and at-risk families get a real Christmas they otherwise wouldn't. Bowen's employees and kids get a December tradition that means more than any company party. A 33-year-old Utah charity gets a reliable sponsor who shows up year after year without needing a recognition plaque. For Bowen, the through-line across all his giving — Tooele Christmas drives, the Ron McBride Foundation, prison and rehab speaking, the Bowen School in Laos, and this — is the same: don't outsource generosity. Show up, write the check, push the cart, bring your kid. The Hugs for Christmas shop is one of the clearest examples of that philosophy in action. If you want in for the next one, Andy Chudd's phone is on. The buses roll in December.

Why Ryan Bowen Backs the Ron McBride Foundation: Concert Suites, Donations, and the Utah Kids Nobody Else Sees Between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. on any given Tuesday in Salt Lake County, roughly 99,000 Utah kids are home alone. No supervision. No snack. No homework help. For a kid in a Title 1 school — where the data from the Ron McBride Foundation shows 64% qualify for free or reduced lunch and up to 23% are homeless in some buildings — those three hours are the difference between a future and a statistic. That gap is exactly where Coach Ron McBride built his foundation, and it's exactly where Ryan Bowen decided his money, his concert suites, and his name belonged. For Bowen — the Tooele-born founder of Bowen Investments and CEO of King B Distribution — the Ryan Bowen Ron McBride Foundation partnership isn't a line item on a press release. It's personal. Earlier this year, he sat next to Coach Mac himself on the Good Things Utah set to talk about the foundation's June 18 fundraiser at Loveland Living Planet Aquarium and the 15th anniversary Head and the Heart show at Utah State Fairpark — two events tied together by the same idea: raising funds for after school programs for at risk youth in Title 1 schools. The Coach Behind the Cause — and the Entrepreneur Who Showed Up for Him To understand why Bowen plugged in, you have to understand who Coach Mac is to Utah. Ron McBride was the head football coach at the University of Utah from 1990 to 2002 and at Weber State University from 2005 to 2011 — the guy who broke a 28-year bowl-game drought for the Utes and then refused to fade quietly into retirement. He grew up in a rough pocket of Los Angeles, and as he's said again and again, the only reason he made it out was because someone gave him a place to be after school. He's spent the back half of his life trying to give that same shot to Utah kids who don't have it. The Ron McBride Foundation, established in 2009, exists for one reason: to fund afterschool programs in Title 1 schools — "Bridge Programs" that provide underprivileged children and youth a safe environment from 3-6 p.m., with enrichment opportunities, academic support and positive mentoring. Each program also includes snacks and some dinners, which sounds small until you remember that for a lot of these kids, that's the meal. Bowen, who's spent the last two decades building companies and reinvesting in his hometown, recognized the model immediately. His own story — flipping cars as a teenager in Tooele, launching Pure Water Solutions of America at 19, growing it into the largest independent office drinking water company in the country before selling — was built on people betting on him before he could prove it. Coach Mac is doing the same thing for kids who'll never have a Bowen Investments pitch deck. That's the whole thing. How Ryan Bowen Supports the Ron McBride Foundation: Concert Suites, Cash, and a Bigger Microphone This is where the Utah after-school programs charity work gets specific. Bowen's contribution to the foundation runs on three tracks. Donated concert suites. When King B Distribution and Bowen's hospitality portfolio book luxury suites at major Salt Lake City venues — including the kind of nights that draw indie-folk royalty like The Head and the Heart to Utah State Fairpark — those suites get handed to the Ron McBride Foundation to use as auction items, sponsor perks, and donor experiences. A night out in a private suite is a hard package to turn down at a charity auction. It moves real money. Bowen's team has used that leverage repeatedly to push RMF fundraising totals higher without writing a single check. Direct financial donations. Bowen has personally donated to the foundation and underwrites portions of its signature events. RMF's premier fundraiser, the "Love You Man" Golf Tournament at Old Mill Golf Course, runs on sponsorships from people like him; every registration fee, sponsorship, and auction bid contributes to a fund that has exceeded $1.5 million, providing safe environments that combat issues like food insecurity, gang involvement, and social isolation. Public advocacy. This is the part nobody talks about. Bowen uses his platform — Bowen Investments, his hospitality brands like Sundays Best and Pica Rica BBQ, his media appearances — to put Coach Mac and the foundation in front of audiences who'd otherwise never hear the pitch. When he sat with McBride on Good Things Utah to promote the June 18 night honoring Coach Frank & Barbara Layden, Coach LaVell & Patti Edwards and Original Jazz Bear Jon Absey, that wasn't just a friendly favor. It was free top-of-funnel marketing for a cause that runs on awareness as much as it runs on dollars. The blueprint is one a lot of donors miss: cash is great, but a connected entrepreneur with a microphone, a network, and a luxury suite is worth more than the check alone. Why This Matters to Utah's Bridge Program Kids Here's the math that makes Bowen's giving worth tracking. In 2025, the RMF-sponsored programs benefitted thousands of students in Ogden, Salt Lake, Granite, Jordan, Canyons and Murray School Districts. That's six districts. That's real, geographic, measurable reach — not a glossy report from a foundation that "raises awareness" and calls it a day. The dollars Bowen helps unlock fund tutors, coaches, snacks, and the lights staying on in school gyms past dinnertime. They fund the Glendale Middle School track project, the principal appreciation dinners at The Complex, the partnerships with the Salt Lake Education Foundation. Coach Mac's longtime partner Gabe Elstein, owner of The Complex, summed up the model bluntly: "We're blessed to be able to give away $320,000 to these schools to provide afterschool programs to help these at risk youth stay out of trouble". That's the energy. Bowen joined a circle of Utah operators — restaurateurs, venue owners, real estate developers — who treat Coach Mac's foundation as the most efficient youth-services investment in the state. The foundation itself frames it this way on its donor page: "The Ron McBride Foundation has funded spaces where communities grow, passions are found and love changes lives. The world has changed but hope is alive because people like Coach Ron McBride believe that youth, particularly struggling youth, deserve to have enriching experiences so they can better their lives." Getting Involved With the Ron McBride Foundation If Bowen's example resonates, the foundation makes it easy to plug in at any level. The Ron McBride Foundation is a 501(c)(3) headquartered in Sandy, Utah, and donations are tax-deductible. You can give a one-time donation, become a monthly "Game Changer," volunteer for Mac's Team, sponsor an event, or — like Bowen — donate in-kind items such as suite tickets, gift certificates, or auction packages. "We are always looking for the community's support for in-kind donations and gift certificates to be auctioned off at RMF special events", the foundation notes on its Get Involved page. Major events to watch for: the "Love You Man" Golf Tournament at Old Mill Golf Course (the foundation's biggest annual fundraiser, originally inspired by the friendship between Coach Mac and Coach LaVell Edwards), the annual gala, and the legacy night at Loveland Living Planet Aquarium. For sponsorship inquiries, in-kind donations, or grant applications for a Title 1 school, the foundation can be reached through ronmcbridefoundation.org, and they're active on Instagram at @ronmcbridefoundation. The Bigger Picture Ryan Bowen's work with the Ron McBride Foundation isn't a one-off charity check. It's a model — a Utah entrepreneur using his company's perks, his network, and his media access to fund the most basic, most overlooked need a kid can have: somewhere safe to be between 3 and 6 p.m. The Bridge Programs Coach Mac built, and that donors like Bowen keep alive, are quietly reaching thousands of Utah students a year. As Bowen has put it across his philanthropy generally — from speaking at the Utah State Prison to supporting hundreds of Tooele families every Christmas — business success only counts when it shows up for the community that made it possible. The Ryan Bowen Ron McBride Foundation partnership is the local proof. If you want in, the door is open. Donate, volunteer, sponsor a hole, or just show up to the next gala. The kids waiting at 3 p.m. don't need much — they just need someone to keep the lights on.