Tahoe gear shop owner uses ‘gravitational pull’ to raise millions for the community 

The Abridged version: 

• Brendan Madigan bought Alpenglow Sports in Tahoe City 14 years ago and has taken its community-minded culture to new extremes. The shop has helped raise millions for nonprofit organizations in the region.  

• He tries to keep his finger on the pulse of the community, staying attuned to needs that Alpenglow can help fulfill by connecting those needs to people with financial resources they are willing to share. 

• This year’s Winter Speaker Series will bring Emily Harrington, Chris Benchetler, Mike Hattrup and others to the Olympic Village Events Center at Palisades Tahoe. The series draws thousands to five events every winter and includes a livestream. 

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Brendan Madigan arrived in Lake Tahoe in 2003 as a self-described ski bum planning to hit the slopes in winter and run trails in the summer — all while working just enough to pay his room and board and support his life outdoors. 

Madigan soon took a job at Alpenglow Sports in Tahoe City, joining the small outdoor gear shop as a part-time sales representative. 

At Alpenglow, Madigan found a public-facing culture that supercharged his own commitment to community. Then, he worked his way up the ranks until he bought the store from the original owner in 2011. 

Today, the core of Alpenglow’s identity is its focus on building connections among Tahoe’s vast outdoor recreation community and then using those connections to improve life in the Tahoe Basin. The shop has helped raise $2.5 million for nonprofit organizations in the region, and its efforts are still growing. 

“My parents always raised me with the mentality that you have to pay rent to walk around on the planet,” Madigan said. “We feel like we have a responsibility to the community who has supported us for so long to do the same right back to the community.” 

Alpenglow hosts Winter Speak Series

Alpenglow sponsors Nordic ski races, mountain trail runs and film festivals, with proceeds going to community organizations. But the lion’s share of the money the store helps raise comes from its Winter Speaker Series, where athletes share dramatic stories and photos from their adventures and take questions from the audience. 

The series began modestly at a café down the road from the shop, with local athletes as featured speakers. A raffle-style prize giveaway would raise a few hundred dollars for a local group.  

“We just wanted to gather and be inspired by adventure tales,” Madigan said of those early days. “It was always free, because we wanted the community to come. And there was always a little bit of fundraising, because we wanted to give back to some of the groups doing good in the community.” 

Attendance climbed steadily, and eventually the gatherings grew too large for the space. After conversations with Squaw Valley (now Palisades Tahoe), the resort offered the Olympic Village Events Center to host the series. At first that room was so large that it felt cavernous, but over time, it too began to fill up as Madigan recruited speakers from around the country. 

As attendance grew, so did the proceeds from the giveaway, with outdoor gear companies donating thousands of dollars in top-of-the-line equipment for prizes. The nonprofit Tahoe Fund and a group of anonymous contributors — Madigan calls them the “Donor Party” — jumped on board to match Alpenglow’s fundraising. Now those donations account for the bulk of contributions. 

Funds for local nonprofits to support education and recreation

The series draws thousands to five events every winter and includes a livestream that Madigan began during the COVID-19 pandemic. The contributions provide roughly $200,000 grants spread across two years to each of five community groups chosen from among 30 to 50 applicants. 

This winter’s grant recipients will be the Headwaters Science Institute, the Tahoe Waterman Foundation, the Truckee Dirt Union, the Tahoe Cross-Country Ski Education Association and Truckee Roundhouse. They will use the money to expand access to recreation, help residents learn new skills and boost science education beyond what public schools can provide. 

The Headwaters Science Institute, for example, will help create a new overnight science camp in partnership with the Tahoe-Truckee Unified School District. The institute will also award scholarships to help students attend science-focused day camps and train teachers to teach students about the scientific method. 

Megan Seifert, the institute’s founder and executive director, said the goal is to teach children not just the history of science, as most school programs do, but how science and research work in practice. The program does much of its education outdoors to better engage students who might not excel in a normal classroom setting. 

“We wouldn’t have been able to do this without this funding,” Seifert said. 

Series is ‘by us, for us’ 

Brad Altman, a civil engineer and member of a committee that evaluates applicants for grants from the Speaker Series, said Madigan has mastered the art of leveraging Alpenglow’s role in the community to create something bigger than others could have envisioned. 

“Brendan is a force,” Altman said. “He simply doesn’t believe that something can’t be done.  He uses the gravitational pull of Alpenglow Sports to slingshot ideas and pull people together.” 

Madigan said he tries to keep his finger on the pulse of the community, staying attuned to needs that Alpenglow can help fulfill by connecting those needs to people with financial resources they are willing to share. 

“The cool thing about the Speaker Series fundraising is that it’s kind of by us, for us,” he said. “The community is working together to make itself a better place to work and play and live every day.” 

Daniel Weintraub is a regular contributor, writing Tahoe Loco for Abridged. 

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Winter Speaker Series lineup

The Alpenglow Sports Winter Speaker Series will host five athletes and industry leaders at the Olympic Village Events Center. Each event benefits a Tahoe-based nonprofit. Doors open at 6 p.m.

This year’s speaker series line up:

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