Salt Lake City, UT – Two time Olympic medalist and U.S. Freestyle Ski Team alum Shannon Bahrke has not taken her off hill endeavors lightly. She is determined to become a presence in more than just the skiing world – and that is exactly what she is doing pairing up her Silver Bean Coffee company and the Best Friends animal charity.

When Bahrke and her new husband Matt started Silver Bean Coffee a few years ago they wanted it to be more than a simple cup of coffee. They wanted to make an impact on other athletes’ lives. However, the more they began to think about it, they realized that the bigger picture would be for the athletes to be able to give to a charity that they were interested in.

When Bahrke thought about the charity she wanted to give back to it was a no brainer. She had heard about the Best Friends Animal Society from a book her mother gave her about 10 years ago and instantly fell in love with the charity.

“Animals have always been such a huge part of my life and getting involved with Best Friends has been amazing,” said Bahrke.  “It started off with just a portion of the money from my own personal bag going to them.  When they heard about my idea, they wanted to expand it even further and now Silver Bean has seven different animals (along with a little story about them) from the sanctuary on the bags.”

The bags are sold on the website www.silverbeancoffee.com and in the Silver Bean Coffee shop near the mouth of Utah’s Big Cottonwood Canyon, and $1.25 from the sale of each bag goes directly to Best Friends to help the animals there. The bags are also sold at the sanctuary in their gift shop where Silver Bean is sold in their cafeteria.

So far Silver Bean has raised over $10,000 for the sanctuary.