Visit any western resort town and you’ll find a robust LatinX community, sometimes making up 30% of the population. It’s a robust part of community culture. But oftentimes, it’s a segment that doesn’t ski. SOS Outreach, a nonprofit serving 15 resort and urban communities nationwide including Utah, is seeking to change that. Today, Last Chair will visit an SOS Outreach ski day at Park City Mountain to speak with leaders, mentors and participants about the engaging program.

SOS Outreach was formed nearly 30 years ago and has operated in Utah since 2015. Its mission is to bring together underserved youth under a mentorship program and get them on snow, with supporting partnerships for equipment and lifts. And while the program introduces youth to the joy of the sport, it also brings life lessons of character and values.

Central to its cause is inclusivity - ensuring that underserved youth in resort towns have a pathway to the sport. It’s especially important for the LatinX community where their parents and most of their peers have little or no past engagement in the sport.

SOS Outreach event manager Abbey Eddy recalls a story of a 12 year old Mexican boy who was driving with his father and admiring the mountains. “‘Those mountains, they’re not for us, son,’” said Eddy of the father’s reply. “You just hear that and you realize that there's a whole population moving here for a different reason than most people think. And traditionally, like myself, it's white people that move here to ski. But there's a large population. It's about 20 percent of our Park City community that moves, not necessarily to ski, but to work and for other opportunities that primarily is our LatinX population.” 

On the March Saturday, Last Chair visited an SOS Outreach program at Park City Mountain, it was an industry day where representatives of the mountain and other businesses were there to introduce youth to potential career opportunities in the sport they loved. Earlier in the season, Olympians Steven Nyman and Brita Sigourney were a big hit with SOS participants.

At the base of the First Time lift, the group of around 100 skiers, riders and mentors gathered for a briefing. Some of it was the logistics of the day. But more was focused on life skills and leadership as program manager Palmer Daniels deftly brought the group together with volunteer mentors to talk about values.

This episode of Last Chair takes us inside a segment of our population that is a vital part of our resort communities. Listen in to learn more about SOS Outreach from leader Abbey Eddy, and especially mentor Justin and program participant E. And as you listen, imagine the big smiles on their faces as they headed up the mountain.

Here’s a sample of the conversations. Listen in to the full Last Chair podcast to learn more. <<LINK>>

It's really an incredible organization that we can have this national reach with the same mission across the board to make sure that we're increasing diversity in our snowsports communities, increasing access and also being really intentional with our programming and our curriculum so that we're helping kids to transition the life skills that they naturally learn from being on the mountain into using them into their everyday lives and strengthening our mountain communities as a result.

It's an incredible scene. We have these more rural mountain community programs, but then our urban locations are powerful and impactful. It's really a different challenge. In mountain communities, kids are looking at the mountains every day but might not be able to access them. And then in a place like Detroit, you're working with kids that have never seen skis before. And so opening their eyes to even the sport of skiing and snowboarding, it's opening their world into something totally new, different, exciting and impactful.

For a lot of our Latinx families that have moved here - their parents don't ski. Then you don't have that same comfort level with the sport of walking through the village. How do you carry your skis and what equipment do you need? There's a lot that goes into skiing. It's more than just having a lift ticket, but having to have all the right clothes and the right boots and socks and. And again, this clunky gear and how you're managing all of those different pieces just to get to the base of the lift can be challenging. And when your parents aren't helping you with that process of getting from the parking lot to the lift because they haven't done it before. We're really intentional with making sure that our mentors and adults and volunteers from the community are helping provide that kind of coaching and assistance to the youth so that they feel more comfortable and confident when they are putting their skis on at the base of the lift there.

That's a really hard one, can I use three words? One phrase: spread the love. We say it at every ride day. It really encompasses what we do and the impact that we have.

Justin is a first generation college student in his family, attending the University of Utah majoring in biology. He’s been skiing for a decade and now serves as a mentor for youth.

I enjoyed the speed mostly. I'm a little speedster. I like to go down the slopes - I'm obviously careful with other people around me - but I like to go fast.

It's a privilege to have the opportunity to ski. It just gives you the freedom to do whatever you want. It relieves stress from your work, house and school. It's awesome.

I became a mentor because I wanted to have an impactful meaning to my community. Mostly, my Latin American friends, I just want to show them that you can totally have fun. And I know life might be stressful for your parents and yourself, but it's good to go outside and enjoy.

It's my only sport that I really love and enjoy. And that brings me happiness and joy. It's fun to hang out with your friends when you're skiing, too.

E is a junior at Park City High School who has been skiing since fifth grade. Her big smile and joyous approach to skiing is contagious within the group.

SOS was one of the ways, back then when I was in fifth grade. I didn't have the opportunity or enough money to actually go into skiing. But SOS helped with that and it's been affordable. I have been able to go out and ski even more than I would have had.

I am the first person in my family to ski. They kind of find it cool, like they kind of want to try it out now because they see how much I loved it. But when it first came about, they were like, ‘oh, it's so weird. Why do you want to do that?’

Oh, not only are people there to help mentor you, but they help you be safe, they teach you all these valuable lessons about how to be a great person overall. And it's like community service. It's really big for them because I wouldn't find the essence of community service unless it was like SOS trying to get me to reach out for that.

Oh, I was so scared my first time! Like, I looked down and I was like, ‘oh no, I can't do this. I can't do this. Like, this is too much for me.’ But one of the mentors with me guided me down the mountain. ‘It's going to be alright, if you fall, it's going to be OK, and no one's going to judge you for falling.’ And after that, I was kind of like, ‘OK, maybe it's not that bad.’

Yeah, it's a lot. I feel it does talk about a lot of my personality or who I have become as a person. Skiing has made me open up more to people. Skiing has showed me it's OK to be afraid of something. It's OK to know where your limits are, but don't also be afraid to push them sometimes and be a better person at that.

We do what we call a Circle of Love. And in that Circle of Love, we talk about our core values of the day. Today's core value is wisdom. And so we share opportunities of making sure that kids see examples of wisdom that they can share with their groups and then just trying to get everyone hyped up and excited. And again, remember, they're part of this SOS community when they're out there and that they know that this is a place for them to really be intentional with creating that inclusive environment. and that Circle of Love does that. 

What you see on an SOS Outreach ski day are a lot of smiles - from the young adults from the LatinX community learning a new sport to the volunteer mentors giving their time. As SOS’ Abbey Eddy says, it’s all about ‘Spreading the Love.’ Listen in to learn about SOS Outreach and the impact it’s having on ski towns. 

SOS Outreach believes that no matter what social, societal, or economic barriers exist - that every child deserves the opportunity to thrive. Today, SOS Outreach is celebrating over 25 years of pairing youth with mentors to engage them in skiing and riding while, at the same time, teaching them valuable life skills and values. SOS Outreach has programs in 15 communities nationwide - both resort towns like Park City and urban centers including Detroit, Portland and more. One of the keys to SOS Outreach’s success has been the thousands of mentors who volunteer to help provide a personal experience in the mountains for youth.