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.