WHITE PASS, Wash. — Some local students are taking a snow day on Friday in White Pass with the White Pass Foundation, a nonprofit organization that teaches those students how to ski.
“It’s both of our happy places, being up in the mountains, so we wanted to be able to show more people why it’s so amazing,” said Chelsea Severn, the Director of the White Pass Foundation.
School is out for the week, but some area students are still learning as their weekend begins.
“Our first weekend, we only had 60 kids, but we’ve ballooned to 110, and we hope to keep growing in the future,” Severn said.
Volunteers are guiding these students through the basic fundamentals with equipment like jackets, snow pants, boots and skis at no cost to students.
“We ask the teachers and principals to find kids that don’t have the opportunity to experience this great mountain,” Severn said. “We provide them all the gear, the soft gear, boots and helmets, and for four weeks they get to come up and experience the wonder that is White Pass.”
Along with the fundamentals, students can also learn to believe in themselves.
“If they can come up here and start on our magic carpets here and end on our triple chair, they’ve achieved something that is so hard, but they wanted to do it and they persevered,” Severn said. “It just shows if you try and work hard at something, you can achieve so much.”
Severn’s goal is to have as many children as possible gain confidence through skiing.
“To be out here and watch these kids’ eyes get so big when they come out into the snow and they think they’re going to ride that, it’s like, ‘no, not yet, we’re not going up that yet.’” Severn said. “Then to see them smile and get so excited just reminds you why you do it, and reminds you why it’s so good to bring other kids here so they can experience the same joy.”
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