This winter Adoption Alliance was fortunate to have participated in the first ever Denver Chill Snowboard Program sponsored by Burton Snowboards. This 6-week event was designed to take underprivileged kids, ages 12-18, and teach them to snowboard while also instilling in them important life skills such as courage, respect, patience, persistence, responsibility & pride.

Adoption Alliance had 8 foster children who took part in this amazing opportunity. Every Wednesday night for 6 consecutive weeks these kids, and 2 chaperones from our foster care staff, took the Chill bus to Keystone Ski Resort where Burton dressed them from head to toe in snowboard gear, paired each child with their own snowboard, and provided lessons each night. By the end of the 6 weeks, every participant in the program succeeded in graduating from the bunny slope and made at least one run down the mountain.

This program, as you can imagine, has done wonders for the self-esteem and confidence of many of these kids. There were participants who had never before followed through with anything, let alone excelled at something. Chill gave them the opportunity they needed to succeed. For some, this was their chance to find something that they not only finished through to the end, but also enjoyed doing so much that they even stopped free riding to help others who were struggling on the slopes.

We would like to thank Burton Snowboards and the other sponsors that made this event possible, as well as the Denver and National Chill Coordinators whose dedication and hard work made this program a success. We would also like to give a special thank you to our staff chaperones, Liz & Sam, who spent countless hours working hard to make this a great experience for our foster children. We look forward to hitting the slopes again next year with Chill!