Our Story
Jumpstart began with one belief: not every future runs through a college classroom.
A young man who saw another way forward
Reilly Crisler, 2003 to 2021. Every program we run, every young person we walk alongside, every employer we introduce, all of it traces back to him. This is the story of the belief he lived by, and the fund his family built so that belief could keep opening doors.
Who Reilly was
Reilly was the kind of person who noticed the people the world tended to overlook. He was quick with his hands, quicker with a joke, and happiest when he was building something real, something you could stand back and point to when it was done. He did not measure a person by their transcript. He measured them by what they could do, how hard they were willing to work, and whether they treated the folks around them with respect.
Reilly never believed that every future had to run through a college classroom. He saw friends who lit up on a job site and dimmed behind a desk, and he understood, long before the rest of us caught on, that being told your path was second-best could quietly talk a good person out of a great life. To Reilly, a skilled trade was not a fallback. It was a calling worth being proud of.
The belief that started a fund
He talked often about the dignity of working with your hands and the freedom of being your own boss. He admired the electrician who set his own hours, the mechanic who could fix anything that rolled into the shop, the tradesperson who owned their skill outright and answered to no one. With the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projecting about 70,000 openings a year for automotive service technicians nationwide through 2034, Reilly's instinct now reads less like a preference and more like a plan for our whole community.
That was the conviction his family kept coming back to: that a young person deserves more than one narrow definition of success. That the path into the trades, into a real wage, a real craft, a real future, should be as visible and as celebrated as any other. It is a simple idea. It also changes everything about how you support a kid who is trying to figure out what to do with their life.
Founded in his memory
After losing Reilly, his parents, Steve & Renee Crisler, made a choice that turned grief into forward motion. In 2022 they founded the Reilly Crisler Jumpstart Memorial Fund, Jumpstart, here in Colorado Springs & the Pikes Peak region. What began as one family's tribute became a way to hand Reilly's belief to the next young person who needed to hear it: your future is worth building, and there is more than one honest road to get there.
They did not build a monument. They built a working thing, programs, mentorships, and partnerships that put Reilly's conviction to work in the daily lives of students and families across the Pikes Peak region. His name is on the fund, but his fingerprints are on the mission: keep it practical, keep it human, and never let a young person believe their only worthwhile path is the one that runs through a lecture hall.
How his belief lives on
Today that belief has a shape you can point to. At Draft Day, young people sit down with the Colorado Springs employers who are hiring and leave with a real first step. We help them into apprenticeships that let them earn while they learn, pair them with tradespeople and professionals who have walked the road ahead, and stay alongside them as they step into the region’s fastest-growing fields.
The proof shows up on days like our automotive Draft Day, where more than 50 students from over 10 area school districts and colleges sat down for real interviews with 20+ local businesses, toured show cars, and rated the day 4.5 out of 5. Some left with a real opening, like Peyton, who lined up a summer part-time job at Corwin Toyota. But the truest measure is quieter: a kid who now believes their hands are worth something, a family that can finally see the road ahead, a door that stays open because Reilly once insisted it should. That is his legacy, and it is still growing.
What we believe
Our mission is short to say and steady to live by. Three convictions shape every program we run and every partnership we build across the Pikes Peak region.
Jumpstart connects Colorado Springs youth and families with the employers who are hiring, and helps them take a real first step from first job to lasting career.
That connection is the whole point. Too often the pieces are all here, motivated young people, families ready to support them, employers desperate for skilled workers, and yet they never quite reach one another. Jumpstart is the bridge: mapping the pathways, making the introductions, and staying alongside people through the hard middle stretch when a good start can quietly slip away. We measure success not by programs launched but by lives changed.
Every young person has a path
Not everyone is meant for a four-year degree, and no one should be told their future is second-best. A licensed electrician, a hotel operations manager, a precision machinist, these are careers worth celebrating. We help young people in the Pikes Peak region find the path that fits the life they actually want to build.
Careers are a family effort
Behind every young person taking their first real step is a parent or caregiver hoping it works out. So we do not just serve students, we bring their families along with real guidance and support, because momentum multiplies when the people at home are in it together.
We build with our community, not for it
Our programs are shaped hand-in-hand with Colorado Springs employers, tradespeople, and educators, so the skills our participants build are the skills our region is genuinely hiring for. When local talent and local opportunity meet, the whole Pikes Peak community grows stronger.
A word from our founder
Renee Crisler leads the fund her family built. Here is the gap she set out to close.
Jumpstart is bridging the gap between education and industry. There's a lot of support for a student who wants to go to college. But a student who walks in and says, here are my top five jobs, do I have to go to college? There often isn't much support for that student. That's who we're here for.
Anyone can walk through a door. What matters is whether someone thought to hold it open for you.
Keep the door open
Reilly's belief only lives on when someone acts on it. Give in his memory, or come see Draft Day in action, and help hold the door for the next young person in the Pikes Peak region.