The WinterKids Downhill 24 gave me the opportunity to learn to ski at 14. My father was on the Downhill 24 Channel 6 team and while he was skiing, put me in lessons on the beginner slope to keep me busy. I learned pizzas and french fries (if you know you know) and how to stop on my little skis, and when I left the hill I forgot all about it.
Fast forward almost 10 years later, I went to the University of Maine at Farmington and decided I was going to point em downhill, as the kids say, and re-learn to ski. It all came back to me, and t gave me the confidence I needed to learn how to ski, and the next year teach skiing at Black Mountain of Maine in Rumford, where I taught over 100 kids how to ski over the course of my ski instructor career in college. It felt like I was passing a torch, and giving back to my community in a way a lot of people don’t think about.
I’m forever grateful for the experience that WinterKids gave me that shaped my young adulthood and created memories and community connections that will last a lifetime.