If you've not heard of it, the Burton Chill Program involves inter-city youth from 15 different cities across North Amercia and gets them on a snowboard to try something new that they likely would not have had the chance to do. In 2007 it reached over 2500 kids.
Chill teaches underprivileged, at-risk kids to snowboard over six weeks each winter, giving them everything they need for the experience: lift tickets, instruction, bus transportation and head-to-toe gear. Here in Utah, Brighton Resort is the host resort for the program.
Burton Snowboards founded Chill in 1995 in their home city of Burlington, Vermont. Initially, the goal was to bring snowboarding to kids who otherwise wouldn’t have the opportunity.
Many of the kids who participate in Chill have never left their cities, even their neighborhoods, and most have never been to the mountains. Chill gives all of these kids the chance to shed their labels of "addict", "delinquent", "trouble-maker", "under-achiever" and, through their own personal success, become a "snowboarder."
Ski Utah's Tim Roberts who maintains the RideUtah.com blog, spent the last 6 weeks going up to Brighton with his neighbor Jake who was learning to snowboard as part of the program. Check out the video that Tim put together documenting the program and Jake's progression.
Nice work Jake and Tim! Holla!
International
It's on. Burton Snowboards runs this program. I was just lucky to take a small part in it. Check their website for more info. http://chill.org/