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A MESSAGE FROM OUR DIRECTOR
Dear Friends of Small Champions,
Welcome to the Small Champions Newsletter!
We are excited to share with you our mission of providing life changing experiences through sports and recreational opportunities for the very special youth of Eagle County, Colorado, who are challenged with physical and cognitive disabilities. In each issue of the Small Champions Newsletter we will feature profiles and stories from our amazing kids, their
families, and our wonderful instructors, coaches, and volunteers. We are proud of the achievements of each of our Small Champions and we look forward to sharing them with you.
Along with the stories from our group, we will be highlighting upcoming Small Champions events, fundraisers, activities, and programs that we present throughout the year.
These newsletters are full of excitement and success stories which would not be possible without the outstanding support of our donors, community members, corporate and community partners, board members, volunteers, and staff. I want to personally thank each and every one of you for your commitment, passion, dedication, and support for our special children.
We hope you enjoy the information in these newsletters and the opportunity to connect with our amazing Small Champions!
John Weiss Executive Director
Sophie is a strong and vibrant second grader who loves reading, art, learning something new and sushi. When she grows up she wants to follow in her mother, Airika’s, footsteps and go into cosmetology—saying she’s loved playing with makeup since she was a baby smearing her mother’s lipstick on her face. She lives with a prosthetic leg below her left knee and gives the winter and summer camps a thumbs up, letting us know that “a whole lot of people” made her favorite Small Champions list and that she really loves the one-on-one time she gets with her instructor.
“It really opened the door for us,” said Airika about joining this community. She explains that Sophie would shy away from anything new or scary until they joined Small Champions. She’s a complete natural with snowboarding, and it took the one-on-one time with her instructors for Sophie to take to it and realize she can accomplish anything she puts her mind to. This helped her out of her shell, cultivating that wonderful confidence that this amazing young lady exudes today. “It’s been great in terms of not seeing her—or any other child’s condition as a disability. They’re just differences that make Sophie and everyone else unique.”
Karen has been an adaptive instructor and Vail Valley resident for about 20 years. She first got involved with Small Champions through Kara (one of our Small Champions Board members), who asked Karen if she’d like to be an official instructor and received an enthusiastic “YES!” due to the valuable one-on-one time instructors get with their Champions. For her, Small Champions goes so much further than ski and snowboard instruction — it bursts the world wide open for these kids and has continued to change her own life with every Champion she takes slopeside. Her most recent student was a five-year-old boy named Jack who lives with Autism. Karen quickly learned that Jack loves all things with engines and adapted her instruction to work that into their routine, making Jack feel as comfortable as possible while they got to know each other. Every time they met, Jack would be in charge of carrying and caring for his equipment as they took a ride on the in-town bus with the same friendly bus driver. With each day spent skiing with Jack, things just got better and better — he’d communicate more, his mobility improved and his confidence grew. She loves helping those who don’t know the abilities within them discover everything they’re capable of. “Life is too short and you have to do what you love to do—what brings something to you and other people.”
2019-20 Winter Highlights
The Small Champions Winter Ski and Snowboard program was a wonderful success in 2019-20! We had 60 Small Champions taking part in the winter program this season, which is our largest group of special needs children, teens, and young adults to date. Each of our athletes has his or her personal one-to-one instructor, and in some cases, an instructor and an assistant. This brings our group to 120+ people out there on Vail Mountain enjoying friendship, accomplishment, and camaraderie. With the unfortunate closing of ski areas in Vail and around the world in March due to the COVID-19 outbreak, our 2019-20 ski season was cut short. Undeterred by the imposition of COVID-19, some of the instructors reached out to their Small Champion skiers during quarantine to check on them and ensure continuity in the instructor-athlete relationship that is so important to our program. Some events cancelled due to COVID-19 include our Annual Small Champions Fun Race and Family Picnic Day. This day in April is one of the highlights of our SC year. It is a time for all our Small Champions, their instructors, families and friends to come together to celebrate the amazing accomplishments of our special athletes. Family members and friends cheer on their Small Champions as they complete a fun racecourse and then receive their participant medals for the season. We have included photos of our 2018-19 event to share the joy of this day. We look forward to holding this amazing day again in April 2021. Despite the shortened season, each of our Small Champions experienced the joy and sense of accomplishment of learning the sport of skiing/snowboarding. As usual, many wonderful and life changing moments were experienced throughout the 2019-20 winter season due to the skill and compassion of our specially trained instructors, the use of specialized equipment and the amazing will and determination of our athletes. I’m sure many of our Small Champions are already dreaming of the next SC Ski/Snowboard season.
Summer/Fall Activities and Events
We will begin our Small Champions Summer Programs this June. Although the current COVID-19 pandemic has caused a number of cancellations, postponements, and modifications to our usual SC activities, we are pleased to be able to offer the following opportunities to our Small Champions. More activities will be added as they become available.
We plan to add more activities as they become available. The next two on our list are:
Getting Ready for Winter: Register for 2021 Programs
October to November is when annual registration opens for the upcoming 2021 Small Champions Winter and Summer programs. We require registration from all new and returning Small Champions for the upcoming Ski and Snowboard season.
17th Annual Small Champions Golf Tournament and Silent Auction Fundraising Event
We are pleased to present our annual Small Champions Charity Golf Tournament/Auction fundraiser. This is our largest fundraising event of the year. When: Monday, September 14th Where: Red Sky Golf Club – Fazio Course
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