"I'm not going to be disheartened from skiing," said Cory Roberts, 16, who hurt his shoulder on the third of four (S)heJumps into the Canyon camps for Boys & Girls Club kids of Salt Lake City. Cory was progressing quickly and moved into the advanced group of skiers, but fell on his first run yesterday. With a big smile on his face at lunch, he told us that he still wanted to be a skier and can't wait to get back on the slopes. He shared his story about his dad leaving his mom and him at 6, and since then, his dad has been in and out of his life. "I can't trust him anymore, though," Cory candidly said. After getting into "some trouble," he joined the Boys & Girls Club and got baptized, which helped him straighten out. He's a ski lifer now, thanks to the camp program.
Yesterday was the most rewarding day of all for the campers, as each of them had the privilege of having a private lesson (one coach per kid). But most coaches joined forces to take the kids on quite an adventure; the upper level kids did some cliff hucking 101, and even found powder. "It was awesome," said Toria O'Hearn, 16, at lunch. Then she saw her coach, Rachael Burks', article in a recent Powder mag, and she was like, "That is soooooo awesome." "It's great to see these pros come out," said a precocious Jordan Stiffler, 12, "they are just regular people." One of our missions for this program, is to be able share with these kids that skiing is a feasible sport to participate in even if you don't have much money. Anna Cruz who just joined the program as a never-ever skier last week, was starting to make parallel turns and got so excited. At 16, she is getting old enough to apply for a job at a resort, which in return would give her skiing privileges. When she heard this her eyes got big, "Really?" she said. Yep, really!
"We had so much fun, these kids did so great," said coach Tara Paras. "I want to come back next time." And that's the consensus of most of the coaches that come out. Thanks this week to Chris Tatsuno, Drew Stern, Tara Paras, Tamara Guttman, Andy Sabatier, Rachael Burks, Liz Sherman, Erica Martling, Alexa Miller, Re Wikstrom, Molly Baker, Bill Naperialski,Kyle Bates, and Danielle Stockus. 
If you want to coach at our final camp of the season on Jan. 31, email claire@shejumps.org.