A fun filled winter spent on the slopes!
Although it’s beginning to feel more and more like spring each day, here at Elevate Youth we’re making the absolute most of the end of our mostly-snowless Boston winter! During the month of January, our school groups' enrichment sessions were filled with many fun activities meant to teach them movements and tips that would be helpful for our skiing trips at the end of the month. One of our favorite activities was a “Dress Down Drill” where students split into teams and competed to put all their winter gear on in the correct order before the other team! Our week of skiing kicked off with our Hennigan School group on the last Friday of January. Although the weather wasn’t as snowy as a skier always hopes for, our students embraced the man-made snow at Wachusett Mountain and gave it their all.
The week after, we had 3 days of skiing with the rest of our school groups. We got lucky with some fresh snow up at Wachusett on Monday and had great conditions all week! When we picked up our youth at school, they all had smiles on their faces and were ready to brave the wintery conditions. We laid out all of our gear on tables in the lodge for youth to put on including gloves, coats, snow pants, and goggles, then we headed to the rental shop to get our skis, poles, and helmets!
Each day, we would start by eagerly heading outside to the first bunny hill and learn how to put on our skis. We were so fortunate to have certified ski instructors from Wachusett give our students private lessons for the first hour of each day. They were so patient and kind and helped our students progress their skills of turning, stopping, and controlling their skis. Since we had Elevate Youth staff, Wachusett Instructors, and so many wonderful Volunteers present, we were able to break the students up into groups of one or two kids with an adult and allow each student to progress and work at their own pace. Once they could successfully turn and stop at the bottom of the hill, it was their chance to head up the magic carpet! Each student was able to take as many runs as they wanted on the first bunny hill to practice, then once they felt comfortable and an adult watched them successfully complete a run, they were able to make their way over to the other side of the mountain to the bigger magic carpet!
Some of our youth spent their day of skiing on the first hill and really dove into practicing their turns and stops. Other students felt comfortable enough by the end of the day to take the chair lift up to two green trails! Some of our youth from Kenny even made it their goal of the day to go down the whole green trail from start to finish without stopping (spoiler alert… they succeeded!) Each day, everyone encouraged each other and left feeling content to have been able to share such a great day of skiing together. We can’t wait for our youth to expand their variety of skiing skills on our Cross Country skiing trips at the end of February.
Thank you to all the wonderful staff at Wachusett Mountain for helping our students have an incredibly successful day! It wouldn’t be possible without the equipment and support they provide, Thank you Wachusett! We’d also like to thank our friends at Atomic Coffee Roasters for their ongoing support of our mission, and our ski program! Finally, a huge thank you to our wonderful and dedicated volunteers. Our trips are even more successful because of the energy, positivity, and heart you all bring to every enrichment and trip you attend! We are looking forward to finishing out our winter strong in a couple of weeks with Cross Country skiing, and preparing for warmer spring weather to come!
