Stowe Country Homes and Stowe Land Trust announce hospitality partnership, building on 10 years of visitor giving for community conservation
This summer, Stowe Country Homes joined four other premier Stowe lodging businesses as the land trust’s newest Hospitality Partner. Topnotch Resort & Spa and Trapp Family Lodge were the first partners who helped to launch the program a decade ago. The Stowehof joined in 2017 and the Lodge at Spruce Peak in 2021.
For 10 years, the land trust’s Hospitality Partners have given visitors to Stowe an easy way to give back to the local area. For every night’s stay with one of the partners, a $1 donation goes to Stowe Land Trust. These voluntary donations are used to support the land trust’s work to conserve important farm, forest, and recreation lands for the Stowe area community.
“Our guests come here to experience our area’s unique charm and character, four-season outdoor recreation opportunities, and beautiful landscapes,” said Stowe Country Homes owner, Alison Karosas. “Giving them a chance to help conserve what they love about Stowe by supporting the land trust is an obvious choice, and a great extension of our holistic sustainability mission.”
Collectively, guests staying with partner establishments have contributed more than $350,000 to the land trust’s conservation programs and projects since 2012.
For Trapp Family Lodge, being a hospitality partner is a natural extension of the lodge’s commitments to care for the land and provide a promise for its future. Johannes von Trapp helped establish Stowe Land Trust 35 years ago the family has permanently conserved over 1,500 acres that includes the popular trails around Round Top and those at Adams Camp.
“The working landscape at Trapp Family Lodge and in the Stowe community is fundamental to the spirit of our family, staff, and resort guests who recreate and rejuvenate on our beautiful conserved lands” said Walter Frame, director and executive vice president at Trapp Family Lodge.
“The Hospitality Partners Program is a crucial and growing part of the land trust’s success,” said Kristen Sharpless, executive director of the land trust. “As more visitors come to Stowe and more people move here, we need partnerships like these to engage visitors and newcomers in conserving the land we love – both financially and through education on how to recreate responsibly, what it means to be part of a rural mountain resort community and more.”
According to Sharpless, the land trust aims to double the number of partners and impact of the Hospitality Partners program within the next several years. “We know there are other businesses in town for whom this partnership would make a lot of sense, and we’re excited to work with them to meet shared goals for creating meaningful ways for visitors to Stowe to be a part of and give back to our community.”