Girl's Trip - Again!
The ladies of Elevate Youth have done it again! Over this weekend, staff members Sophie and Hailey, with the assistance of volunteers Noor and Kat, piled 10 youthers into our van and drove them out to western Massachusetts for two nights of skiing, tubing, and plenty of giggling at Bousquet Mountain.
After school on Friday, girls from the Thomas J. Kenny School, Boys & Girls Club of Dorchester, and the James W. Hennigan School met at Elevate Youth Headquarters and prepared for the 3 hour drive across the state. What we weren’t prepared for was a dead battery – after assistance from a few jumper cables and Domino’s pizza for energy, we were off!
We arrived Friday night to Camp Arrow Wood, an off-season sports summer camp, greeted by Jess Moulton, Bousquet’s Operations Manager. Girls claimed their bunks, showered, and joined together in the common area to create our Full Value Contract: a complete list of how we want to feel and treat each other over the weekend, signed by each girl. We all got some rest before our exciting and full day on Saturday.
Saturday morning we woke up bright and early to dress for a day of skiing and tubing! Many girls borrowed gear from EY including gloves and snowpants, and others brought their own adorable snowsuits and mittens. We enjoyed breakfast at The Kitchen in the ski lodge, where waffles and juice were a huge hit. After strapping into our rental boots, helmets, and skis, we were ready for a day on the snow!
We began our ski session with help from the instructors at Bousquet: Helen, Jade, and Jill assisted the girls with the basics of stopping, turning, and mountain awareness. As we gained confidence in these skills, we took turns going up the Magic Carpet and skiing the bunny hill in small groups. When our lesson was complete, our youthers enjoyed the bunny terrain park, skiing backwards, skiing without poles, and experiencing more freedom on the hill.
After a full morning of skiing, we enjoyed a rooftop deck lunch from Lift Bistro Pub, where mac & cheese and french fries were a favorite. We relaxed our muscles in the sunshine and appreciated the view of the mountain while we ate. With some downtime before snow tubing, our girls made snow angels, snowmen, and had a snowball fight outside.
Snow tubing was a highlight of the trip by far – the easy journey up and the thrilling ride down was the perfect end to our afternoon. We raced, squealed, jumped lanes, spun, and went down backwards for an hour and a half, before heading back to the cabin. We took pictures with the sunset and admired the frozen pond before showers, dinner, friendship bracelets, and a mind-bending riddle game.
Sunday morning we packed, ate breakfast, and headed back to Boston with lunch on the road, arriving at Headquarters around 1:15 pm. Elevate Youth is so grateful to our programming partners, volunteers, and EY families, and especially to Jess Moulton at Bousquet Mountain for making our Girl’s Trip such a huge success.
