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.