Tommy Tanzer with Park City High School recipients of the 2025 Back To Our Roots college scholarships. Photo: courtesy of the Tanzer Family

PARK CITY, Utah — The charity Back Our Roots, a fundraising and public relations campaign, has assisted Park City High School seniors with over $670,000 in funding. It has flourished, expanded, and assisted 527 Park City High School students with tutoring, mentoring, college prep, and scholarship acquisition over the last 20 years.

Back to Our Roots was born in the spring of 2006. It was formerly known as the Eileen G. Bailey Memorial Scholarship Fund. It grew from the efforts of Tommy Tanzer, Joanne Bloom, Sydney Reed, Jana Cole, Betsy Bacon, and Teri Wiss to honor the life of Eileen Bailey, their esteemed colleague and the matriarch of a four-generation teaching family.

These long-term Parkites have made this happen, and 30 of their students, including Whitney Olch, Dan Morgan, Erin Price, Kerrie Meier, Brett and Krysti Peretti, Temple Smith, Greg Blackbourn, Michael Spencer, Jake Doilney, Craig Rodman, and Lincoln and Bronson Calder, have benefited.

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“We are preparing to focus our assistance on the many first-generation PCHS graduating students that need guidance and funding to finish their post-secondary and college education with the funds they will need to complete their journey,” Tanzer told TownLift.

“Unlike some other larger educational charities, we commit that 100% of all funds donated go directly to the funding efforts of this program. There are no monies going to administrative costs, mailing, advertising, public relations, legal fees, tax preparation or record keeping. All those cost are born by the founders and volunteers of this program.” Tanzer said.

Families apply via the school through the Park City High School Scholarship Fund, but anyone in need can apply via reaching out to him, at ttanzer7@gmail.com.

“I love attending the PC High School scholarship event at the Eccles Center each June before school adjourns for the year.”

Tanzer attended a large public high school in Pittsburgh, PA, called Taylor Allderdice HS, graduating in the spring of 1968, and went on to attend Washington University in St. Louis, MO that fall, studying business and economics. He transferred to the University of Texas at Austin in the spring of 1970, continued taking business courses, and also pursued a minor in education. He graduated in the spring of 1973 with a BA in business and a minor in education. He attended the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs in 1973 and 1974, before returning to his hometown of Pittsburgh, PA, where he met his future wife, Joanne Bloom.

Together, they got their advanced degrees in teaching at the University of Pittsburgh before moving to Park City in 1978 and beginning their teaching careers in Park City and Heber City. “I taught here for six years, 1979-1985, and got involved in teacher contacts from 1982-85, and found my calling as a negotiator.”

Tanzer started his own company, T. Tanzer Sports Consultants, Inc., in 1985 and scrambled over the next 10 years to build a clientele and a team of professional consultants specializing in arbitration, statistical analysis, legal review, public relations, marketing, tax accounting, and financial planning. “But by 1995, I had built the fourth most profitable baseball agency in the country with 110 clients and over 225 professional consultants.” Some of the bigger names were Steve Finley of the San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks, Shane Reynolds of the Houston Astros, Kirk Reuter and John Burkett of the San Francisco Giants, Sterling Hitchcock and Charlie Hayes of the New York Yankees, Geoff Jenkins of the Milwaukee Brewers, Stan Belinda of the Pittsburgh Pirates, and Gary DiSarcina of the Anaheim Angels.

He also represented Joe Maddon, the manager of the Tampa Bay Rays, the LA Angels, and the World Series-winning Chicago Cubs. “My active career lasted 22 years, and I sold my agency to worldwide sports powerhouse Octagon Inc. and remained a contract consultant to them through 2022.”

But after the sale of T. Tanzer Sports Consultants, he settled back in Park City and resumed his career in education, “this time by founding and leading the charity Back to our Roots in honor of our mentor and friend Eileen Bailey. By joining forces with my former colleagues, students in the Park City School system, and other local charitable leaders, we have been able to help well over 500 students find their way through higher education and into careers that make them self-sustaining members of our Summit and Wasatch Co. communities.”

The students and families have shown their appreciation repeatedly by helping the younger generations of students in Bright Futures and in Back to Our Roots over these 20 years by mentoring, guiding, and encouraging their younger proteges, by donating and publicizing the charity, and by sharing endorsements of the work that Back to Our Roots and its founders have done. Tanzer ended our interview by saying, “For me, we are only halfway through with this endeavor and will continue as long as the public and these generous founders and supporters will assist us.”

LivePCGivePC is gathering donations for local nonprofits on November 7 this year in which people can chose to make a donation to Back To Our Roots by clicking here.