VAIL Like nothing on earth.™

Vail Resorts offers two days of skiing and riding for Eagle County’s elementary school children

By: Janet Lawrence

The Best Field Trip, Best Christmas Present Ever

Vail Resorts does a lot of good things but there is one thing that has been going on so long I think we often forget about it. Here in Eagle County, my employer subsidizes greatly, two days of skiing/ riding and lessons for each of the county elementary school kids. If you didn’t know the breadth of the valley, you might not know that for a good number of these kids, this is their only chance to get on the hill, participate in these sports, and experience the mountains! It is a tremendous thing the company does, and our ski and snowboard instructors get to facilitate.

You have to see how much fun these kids have! Is this the very best school field trip you have ever heard of? It’s not just skiing or riding for two days with your best school buds, but it is skiing or riding with your best school buds, on VAIL Mountain with VAIL’s own instructors leading the way!

I was riding the beginner chair (12) at Golden Peak with a little 6 year old girl from Gypsum Elementary. My conversation with her brought me from all the business of ski school, back to our real purpose. I asked her how her day was going and without hesitation she stretched her little pink jacketed arms out in front of us, like she was showing me the whole mountain, and said “It’s great! This is my Christmas present!”

Thank you Vail! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!

 

Author: Janet Lawrence, of the Vail Ski and Snowboard School. Janet grew up skiing in Upstate New York and came to Vail in 1997. She has been working in the Vail Ski and Snowboard School since, first as an instructor then a Trainer and a  Supervisor in the Golden Peak Children’s School. In the off- season she sails and bikes and works with children at an outdoor day camp