SOS Outreach launches 22nd winter season

SOS Outreach Launches 22^nd Winter Season, Serving 5,000 youth across Mountain Resorts

November 21, 2015 – Breckenridge, CO – Vail Resorts, Inc. and SOS Outreach are once again providing opportunities for at-risk youth across the nation to engage in adventure sports, and it all begins at Breckenridge Ski Resort.  SOS Outreach’s unique programs and progressive curriculum not only introduce more than 5,000 youth each year to skiing and snowboarding, but inspire youth to unleash their potential to thrive. Since the start of their partnership twenty two years ago, Vail Resorts and SOS have introduced more than 23,000 youth to the mountains.

SOS Outreach currently offers programs across 28 mountain resorts in 6 different states. During the upcoming winter season, SOS will serve 380 participants in Summit County. Summit County will also have over 30 adult mentors, or ‘Sherpas,’ who will lead students through the curriculum; encouraging goal setting, modeling the core values and having fun sliding on the slopes with youth participants!

New this year, SOS is expanded programs in partnership with Vail Resorts to Salt Lake City, Utah. As part of this expansion, at-risk youth in Salt Lake will benefit from the rigorous curriculum to build self-esteem and life skills through leadership workshops, community service projects, core value training, mentorship, and ride days. Participants come from a variety of backgrounds including failing grades, low-income households, and single-parent families. Along with the opportunity to experience mountain adventure sports, SOS programs incorporate positive adult mentors that offer encouragement and act as positive role models for youth.

While the organization is proud of these expansion efforts and curriculum developments, the real excitement is due to the impacts SOS is seeing in participants. One long-term participant explained the positive effect the curriculum has had in her life: “Without SOS and the support that I received, I don’t doubt I would have gone down the wrong path sooner or later. What [SOS gave] me is the path to success and change…Change is your future and the best way to predict your future is to create it.”

All of this positive change is made possible through the support of community members who step up to be mentors and through the generosity of mountain partnerships like Vail Resorts. Executive director Seth Ehrlich explains “without the support we receive from the community and Vail Resorts EpicPromise, Breckenridge, Keystone, Arapahoe Basin, Loveland, and Copper in Summit County as well as all of our mountain partners nationally, this level of impact wouldn’t happen.”

About SOS Outreach

Founded in 1993, SOS Outreach is a national youth development program that introduces underserved youth to adventure sports like skiing, snowboarding, rock climbing, mountain biking, and backpacking. Serving over 5,000 youth annually, SOS Outreach promotes long-term success through best-practice and progressive curriculum that focuses on service, goal-setting, life skills workshops, core value development, and positive adult mentorship. To learn more, visit www.sosoutreach.org, or call 970.926.9292.

About Vail Resorts EpicPromise

At Vail Resorts, everything we do is built upon the promise of bringing together the mountains, our communities, employees and guests to ignite a passion for the outdoors, conserve the natural environment and support our local communities for a bright and sustainable future. EpicPromise brings this to life as the umbrella brand for all of the Company’s environmental and community giving efforts. For more information, visit www.epicpromise.com.

Media Contact: Rebecca Gould
rgould@sosoutreach.org
970.926.9292 x 115