Sally Cousins Elliott received the 2026 Trisha J. Worthington Community Service Award on Wednesday, Sept. 9. The former Park City Council member and Summit County commissioner co-founded the group that has preserved more than a dozen mining structures on the ski mountain.

Park City Community Foundation announced the honor at its annual Grants Celebration that evening. The award, given since 2015, recognizes a Park City or Summit County resident who has dedicated extraordinary time and talent to charitable work. It is named for the foundation's founding executive director, Trisha J. Worthington.

The award carries a cash component. The foundation will grant $1,000 to a nonprofit of Elliott's choosing.

Don Roll, a co-chair of the Friends of Ski Mountain Mining History, nominated Elliott. "Sally has devoted much of her adult life to making Park City and Summit County a better place," Roll said in the foundation's announcement.

Elliott and her husband Charles, known as "Torch," arrived in Park City in 1986. She served on the Park City Council from 1989 to 1994, then on the Summit County Commission and later the Summit County Council.

Her board leadership spans the Park City Chamber of Commerce, Mountain Trails Foundation, Utah Open Lands, Preservation Utah, the Utah Quality Growth Commission and the Park City Museum. She helped launch Recycle Utah through early conversations in 1988 and co-founded the Park City Garden Club.

In 2015, Elliott co-founded the Friends of Ski Mountain Mining History, an all-volunteer group focused on saving Park City's mining landmarks. The collapse of the Daly West structure that same year galvanized public support for the effort. In a September 2024 Park City Chamber profile, Elliott recalled the moment: "We suddenly got everything we asked for …"

The group has since helped preserve at least 14 mining structures, according to the foundation, with the Thaynes Mine complex in progress. A Park Record column published Wednesday, Sept. 2, credited the group with 15 structures and more than $5 million raised, including the Silver King Headframe Building.

Elliott's advocacy also helped secure listings on the National Register of Historic Places for local mining structures. She has written about Park City history for the Park City Museum, Park City Magazine and other publications.

Her prior honors include the Sierra Club's Utah Political Leader of the Year in 2007, Recycle Utah's Recycler of the Year in 2012, and the Park City Board of Realtors' Community Service Award in 2010. In 2024, she received both Preservation Utah's Lucybeth Rampton Lifetime Achievement Award and the Park City Chamber of Commerce's Myles Rademan Spirit of Hospitality Award.

Tim Fellow, a member of the Community Fund Steering Committee that selects the recipient, said Elliott's service as a community leader, historical champion and volunteer has shaped the community's public infrastructure and mining landmarks since the 1980s.

The foundation has generated more than $96.3 million in total impact to Park City and Summit County since its founding in 2007. Elliott has not yet announced which nonprofit will receive the $1,000 grant.