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Toronto, ON - In the world of snowboard charities, there is clearly one standout: Burton’s Chill. A non-profit program that’s been helping inner city and at-risk youth for the past 12 years, Chill was founded in 1995 by Jake and Donna Burton, and brings snowboarding to kids across 19 North American cities, as well as Sydney, Australia, and Innsbruck, Austria. By providing all the tools (bus transportation, lift tickets, lessons and head-to-toe gear), Chill takes care of everything to enable these kids to snowboard. A group of us at Snowboard Canada decided to check out Chill this year by volunteering up at Snow Valley in Barrie, ON, and share in the stoke of snowboarding with some pretty amazing kids. Here is our story.
As the volunteers waited in anticipation for the Chill kids to flood into the trailer to get geared up, one couldn’t help but notice the excitement in the air. Everyone was here for the same reason: to help teach these kids to shred and share our mutual love of snowboarding.
When the kids rolled in, the vibe grew as excited voices filled the air and the chaos of boots, gloves, jacket, pants and boards ensued. Everything ran smoothly as our organized Toronto Chill coordinators, Jesse Druxerman and Jessica Woolsley, ran a tight ship, getting the kids on the hill quickly.
For the next six weeks we volunteers would wait in anticipation for the new adventure they and the kids would experience that night. Smiles and laughter were...
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