Everly’s Legacy Continues: Sweet Heart Presents $15,000 to Children’s Hospital Colorado Heart Institute

Northern Colorado winery and cider company expands its cause-driven program supporting children, women, families and veterans

LOVELAND, CO — October 1, 2026 — A little girl whose courageous fight with congenital heart disease touched a Northern Colorado family is now helping inspire something much larger.

Sweet Heart Winery today presented a $15,000 donation to the Heart Institute at Children’s Hospital Colorado, a gift inspired by the life of Everly Grace Snowden, who was born with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome and spent much of her short life in the care of the medical teams at Children’s Hospital Colorado.

Sweet Heart Brands CEO Charles Oster was joined at the hospital by Rob Larson, Vice President of Operations; Dylan Kaczeus, General Manager of Business Development & Wholesale; and Brent Larson, GM of Manufacturing along with Melissa Snowden, Everly’s mother, and Cooper Snowden, Everly’s brother.

For everyone gathered, however, the day was about the little girl who wasn’t standing in the photograph.

A Little Girl With a Remarkable Heart

Everly Grace Snowden was born January 3, 2021, with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS), a rare and complex congenital heart defect in which the left side of the heart is severely underdeveloped.

Her journey with Children’s Hospital Colorado began almost immediately. At just four days old, Everly underwent her first open-heart surgery. At four months, she underwent another. Her young life would include repeated hospital stays, procedures and, ultimately, a third open-heart surgery at age three and a half. But Everly was far more than her diagnosis. She was a little girl who loved to sing and dance. She painted, read, cooked and created. She loved animals, being outside, digging in the dirt and jumping on her trampoline. And she shared a special bond with her big brother, Cooper. Following complications from her third open-heart surgery, Everly died on July 2, 2024, in the arms of her parents. She was just three and a half years old.

But her story didn’t end there.

A Bottle of Wine Becomes Something More

Everly’s story inspired Sweet Heart Winery to dedicate its 2025 & 2026 Valentine’s Wine to her memory. The limited-production wines — known around the company simply as “Everly’s Wine” — was released during American Heart Month with a commitment that a significant portion of its proceeds would benefit the Heart Institute at Children’s Hospital Colorado.

Customers weren’t simply purchasing a bottle. They were being introduced to Everly, her family and the physicians, nurses and caregivers who work every day with children facing complex heart conditions.

On Thursday, that promise became a $15,000 check, tripling last year's efforts.
But for Sweet Heart, the donation also represents something larger. It is part of a growing effort to use the reach of its wine and cider brands to support organizations making a difference in the communities the company serves.

Building Causes Into the Brands

Sweet Heart Brands has increasingly connected its portfolio of wines and ciders with organizations serving children, women, families and veterans.

For Rob Larson, Vice President of Operations, the importance of that commitment became particularly clear this summer. In July, members of the Sweet Heart team traveled to Copper Mountain to participate in the Courage Classic, the annual cycling event benefiting Children’s Hospital Colorado. There, Larson had an opportunity to spend time with members of the medical community as well as families who understand firsthand what it means to have a child cared for at Children’s Hospital Colorado. “The Courage Classic made this very real for us,” Larson said. “You meet members of these incredible medical teams and then you meet the families whose children they have cared for. You hear their stories. You see what they have been through. It changes your perspective. This stops being about a sponsorship or a logo on a can. It becomes about people.” Sweet Heart’s Climb Hard Cider supports pediatric cardiac causes and the Cardiac Climbers, connecting the brand with medical professionals and supporters raising money for children with heart conditions.

But the company’s cause program reaches well beyond pediatric heart care.

Patriot Press American Hard Cider supports the Combat Recovery Foundation and its work helping veterans find connection, purpose and community along with other local veteran’s organizations.

Sweet Heart Cider supports causes benefiting women and families throughout Northern Colorado, including SAVA — the Sexual Assault Victim Advocate Center — and Be the Gift, a Northern Colorado nonprofit that helps single mothers with home repair and maintenance needs.

Those partnerships represent only part of Sweet Heart’s community involvement. Through donations, events, sponsorships and charitable partnerships, the company supports dozens of additional nonprofit organizations and community causes totaling hundred's of thousands of dollars in donations.

For Larson, that growing network of relationships illustrates what Sweet Heart’s expanding portfolio can ultimately accomplish. “We sell wine and cider, but these brands can do more than that,” Larson said. “They can help children. They can support women and families. They can stand behind veterans. And they can introduce thousands of people to organizations doing extraordinary work right here in our communities. As our company grows, we want that impact to grow right alongside it.”

Turning Business Growth Into Greater Impact

That connection between business growth and community impact is especially important to Dylan Kaczeus, General Manager of Business Development & Wholesale, whose role includes expanding Sweet Heart’s wines and ciders into restaurants, retailers and venues throughout the region.

For Kaczeus, every new account represents more than another point of distribution. It represents another audience. “We want to build brands people are proud to drink and proud to stand behind,” Kaczeus said. “There should be a story and a purpose behind what we’re putting into the market. When someone orders a Climb Hard, a Patriot Press, a Sweet Heart Cider or one of our wines, we have an opportunity to connect that person to something bigger.”

As Sweet Heart expands its wholesale footprint, that potential multiplies. “Growth gives us reach,” Kaczeus said. “Every restaurant, retailer or venue that carries one of these brands gives us another opportunity to tell these stories. If we can put our products in front of thousands more people, we can put these causes in front of thousands more people too. That’s where business growth can become meaningful community impact.”

It is a philosophy that connects directly to Sweet Heart’s company mission: “Create experiences for people to connect.” Sometimes that connection happens across a table over a bottle of wine. Sometimes it happens at a community event, on a bicycle at Copper Mountain or through a can of cider whose story introduces someone to a cause.

And sometimes it begins with one little girl.

One Check. One Family. A Much Bigger Story.

That larger vision was represented Thursday by one very tangible number:$15,000.

Melissa and Cooper Snowden stood outside Children’s Hospital Colorado alongside the Sweet Heart team as the company presented the donation to the Heart Institute.

Behind them stood the hospital where Everly spent so much of her young life. In front of them was a check made possible because people heard Everly’s story and responded. And in Cooper’s hands was a photograph of his little sister. That may ultimately be the most important image of the day.

Because the $15,000 check represents money that can help support pediatric cardiac care. But the little girl in that photograph represents why.

What began with Everly’s story and one special bottle of wine is becoming something broader: an effort to use Sweet Heart’s growth to create greater impact for children, women, families and veterans throughout Northern Colorado and beyond.

For Sweet Heart, one of those stories will always belong to Everly. Everly Grace Snowden lived for three and a half years. Her impact continues. Photo Caption

From left: Rob Larson, Vice President of Operations; Brent Larson; Charles Oster, CEO; Cooper Snowden; Melissa Snowden; and Dylan Kaczeus, General Manager of Business Development & Wholesale, gather at Children’s Hospital Colorado on October 1 as Sweet Heart Winery presents a $15,000 donation to the Heart Institute. Cooper holds a photograph of his sister, Everly Grace Snowden, whose courageous journey with congenital heart disease inspired Sweet Heart’s 2026 Valentine’s Wine and helped shape the company’s growing cause program supporting children, women, families and veterans.