SOS Outreach expects to serve 1,000 kids across 46 different programs at 12 mountain resorts nationally this week, marking its busiest week in 20 years of serving at-risk kids through outdoor recreation programs that teach leadership and other skills.
Mountain resorts hosting programs this week include locations across Colorado as well as in the Lake Tahoe, CA region: Vail, Breckenridge, Beaver Creek, Keystone, Arapahoe Basin, Ski Cooper, Copper, Winter Park, Durango, Steamboat Springs, Heavenly, and Northstar. Students will be involved in every level of the SOS curriculum, from one-day introductory ski or snowboard lessons, to the high-intensity leadership development “Masters” curriculum. Masters is SOS’s newest program, and was launched this year is response to long-term students’ demands for more growth opportunities. Masters combines summer and winter adventure activities to create a year-round, long-term curriculum focusing on peer mentorship skills and social justice advocacy.
SOS Outreach, which is a non-profit, has touched more than 36,000 youth via 151,000 days of programming since its inception in 1993. Participants engage in service projects, leadership workshops, program planning events, and skiing or snowboarding with their mentors and fellow students. Throughout each program, students are taught the six SOS core values of courage, discipline, integrity, wisdom, compassion and humility.
“I wanted to give back to the community, but watching SOS students grow into leaders and community advocates, I realize they are giving back to me,” says SOS’s founder and executive director Arn Menconi.
