Way back in 1993 in Vail, when Arn Menconi founded the nonprofit Snowboard Outreach Society to introduce underprivileged kids to snowsports, industry naysayers pointed to the obvious lack of disposable income needed to stick with the sport. This year, though, the now more generically-titled SOS celebrates its 15th birthday. And the program is now the largest of its kind.

This season, 36 resorts in nine states—including Vail, Beaver Creek, Snoqualmie, and Mt. Hood Meadows, to name a few—are hosting programs for 3,600 kids. This represents 16 percent growth from last season, and 170 percent growth from 2006-07, when Vail Resorts switched the bulk of its diversity efforts from the Alpino organization to SOS.

The kids, ages 8 to 18, defy your typical skier stats: 70 percent are minorities from households with family incomes of $40,000 or less. A quarter of the kids come from single-parent families.

Looking at the overall youth demographics of Eagle County, where Vail is located, it’s easy to see why Menconi pressed for an outreach program there. Around 51 percent of the county’s kids are minority, and 20 percent of those in public school are on reduced-cost or free lunches. “The hills are 95 percent white, while the Millennial Generation [born between 1980 and 2000] is 50 percent minority,” says Menconi. “When we go into the schools it’s a Benetton world. They don’t see that in the resorts.”


Character First

Menconi stresses that SOS Outreach is first and foremost a sports-based youth development program. “Our primary goal is character development,” says Menconi, now executive director. “It has been proven that sports have a better result in character development than academic activities.”

But from a business standpoint, the program is a boon to the snowsports industry. SOS boasts some of the highest recorded retention levels in the industry. Based on surveys of former participants, 62 percent report skiing and riding after completing the program. The lifetime conversion to skiers and riders is just as impressive—25 percent, 10 percent higher than the industry average of 15 percent. “The ski industry told us, ‘If you work with poor kids, they won’t convert into the sport’,” says Menconi. “Without question, this group integrated into the sport as adults.”

So what’s SOS’s secret to retention success? “I learned a long time ago that getting kids interested in the sport requires a multi-year program. You can’t get kids to do anything unless you acculturalize them into the sport, especially minorities,” says Menconi. “Taking the kids to the mountains is a life-changing experience. Repeating it over and over and over again has a long-term effect. Not just on retaining the sport, but being a self-sufficient adult.”

For an industry worried about a dip in participation as Baby Boomers age out of snowsports over the next decade, this is good news. SOS is bringing minorities into the core market and keeping them there. Just as important, it has shown resorts that introducing minority participants is less difficult than it might seem, with a better return on the investment.

Vail Resorts, whose five mountains are currently hosting programs for 2,500 kids, is SOS’s biggest supporter. “SOS has taken the time to understand the best way to reach kids from all different demographics and build a passion for skiing and snowboarding,” says CEO Rob Katz. “The program incorporates ideas that are important to Vail Resorts, including diversity of students and teaching the basics that will inspire a love for snow­sports. SOS has given us a way to provide a once-in-a-lifetime experience to so many people.”

Menconi sums it up succinctly: “It’s a win-win for the ski resorts and a win-win for the foundation.”


The ABCs of SOS

The program’s first step is to scout out participants. Reps visit schools, often urban-based, where they talk snowsports with the kids—half of whom have never seen skis or even heard of snowboarding. Working with school principals, SOS selects the kids, buses them to the mountain, and outfits them with complimentary gear, lift tickets, and lessons, all donated by manufacturers and resorts.

At the resort, the program combines slopeside character-building classes with learn-to-ride-or -ski lessons to both foster the kids’ self-esteem and engender a love for snowsports.

The program comes in four flavors. The first, called the Diversity or Exposure Program, is a one- or two-day introduction to the mountains.

The second, the core five-day Learn-to-Ride (LTR) Program, pairs on-hill lessons with classes on five core values—courage, discipline, integrity, wisdom, and compassion. The importance of staying in school and giving back to the community are also stressed. “I tell them, ‘Ten years from now, the current top 10 jobs won’t even exist,’ ” says Menconi. “I can only say, ‘You have to have the mentality of giving back, core values, and an intensity for learning.’”

Kids who complete the LTR program are invited on to SOS University, a four-year program that combines more complimentary lessons with community service projects like recycling or road cleanup, “so they’ll understand about charity,” he adds. Kids also choose one of four majors: social justice, health and fitness, vocational training, or environmental stewardship.

After graduating, they’re invited back for the final program, as sherpas or mentors, to help the current crop of SOS participants achieve their goals.

Menconi strives to keep kids in the program for as long as possible. This season, 522 kids are enrolled in SOS University, which speaks to his success.

“A multi-year program is what leads to retention,” says Menconi. “A one- or two-day program in anything is gratifying. But our hope is to make sure people are electing this as a lifetime sport. What we do, for example, is you can come back and get more equipment. Come back and we can let you teach more kids, get certified—all those carrots that teens think are so thrilling.”


How SOS Impacts Kids

Gaby Hernandez, 20, from Edwards, Colo., is one of many SOS success stories. Now in her ninth year with the program, she was recently promoted to full sherpa, and is teaching snowboarding to LTR students at Vail. “I want to give back what SOS gave to me,” says Hernandez of the volunteer gig.

When she started the program at age 12, Hernandez had just moved to Colorado from Mexico City and spoke no English. “I had never seen snow in my life,” she says. Her middle-school teacher suggested SOS as a way to help Hernandez get acclimated. “It helped me with my English, through friends I made in the program,” she says.

SOS also turned her into a lifelong snowboarder. “I like the sense of freedom that I get. I can ride anywhere I want and be challenged. You can find a pipe you might not be able to conquer. It’s a challenge,” she says.

Now a part-time medical assistant and college student majoring in pathology, Hernandez says SOS’s impact goes beyond her love of riding. “I incorporate the core values in my everyday life. Now that I’m working in health care, it makes me a better person, gives me a heart to help others. I would have never thought of that before SOS.”

Surveys of SOS participants show that, like Hernandez, one in four SOS University participants go on to graduate college. “This is the number one key to retention,” says Menconi. (To wit: college graduates are more likely able to afford snowsports.) Even pre-college, students on the verge of dropping out often decide to stay in school because of SOS.


The Pro Bono Part

Fundraising is essential to making the program possible. Menconi estimates it costs $250 to put one kid through the five-day LTR program. With more than 18,000 student days of programming this season, Menconi is busy wrangling $800,000 in cash and $3 million in in-kind contributions.

Foundation grants and individual donations (K2, for example, gave $15,000) provide the cash. Manufacturers like Allyance, Bula, Chaos, and Northwave donate soft and hard goods. And resorts offer free instruction. For its part, Vail Resorts provides a cash grant to help with transportation and management costs, and provides gear, lunch, instruction and tickets for 2,500 kids.


The Future of SOS

“My dream is to have 100 mountains and 1,000 kids going multiple years,” says Menconi of SOS’s future. More than 75 ski resorts have already expressed interest in hosting programs, says Menconi, “but we can’t financially close the gap.”

So he keeps appealing to foundations in and out of the industry. “I tell them how SOS is having a major effect on the kids: self-image, health, and academically. Individual action sports are really teaching them character development and making leaders out of them.”

Menconi’s personal history helps keep him motivated. “I grew up on the South Side of Chicago,” says Menconi, who just celebrated his 50th birthday. “My neighborhood changed from white to black in one year when I was 12. Now I get to run a nonprofit, bringing kids of color to mountains all over, bringing Latino, Black, and Asian kids past the guard at Beaver Creek. That wasn’t going on in the 70s. I get excited.

“If we’re going to grow the sport, we have to ‘do well by doing good.’ If you believe in giving to other people, you will succeed,” he says. “I make sure that everyone who wants to go to the mountains can.”



SOS Youth Participants

Here’s the SOS resort tally for 2008-09:

Beaver Creek 701
Breckenridge 581
Keystone 549
Vail 540
Snoqualmie 280
A-Basin 150
Durango 100
Winter Park 80
Steamboat 55
Northstar-at-Tahoe 50
Sierra-at-Tahoe 50
Sierra Summit 50
Copper 50
Monarch 50
Mt. Hood Meadows 50
Mt. Spokane 40
Hoodoo 40
Mt. Hood-Timberline 40
Loveland 40
White Pass 20
Mt. Bachelor 20
Mt. Hood.-Ski Bowl 20
Hunter 20
Ski Santa Fe 20
Heavenly 20
Sunlight 18
Wachusett 15
Mt. Lacrosse 10
Angel Fire 7