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Growing the Sport

Be prepared to provide a thorough but brief description of your for your resort’s outreach program. A parent’s endorsement can
program, its benefits, and why your program is such a good fit be an invaluable selling point to a PE teacher.
for PE students (see Talking Points).
If the school redirects you to the school district office, THE HOOK FOR YOUR RESORT
don’t be discouraged. Contact the district and find out their Once your program is accepted and you go into the school to
requirements for going into the schools. They will probably spend a day, how are you going to motivate the kids to come to
refer you to the Physical Education Coordinator (sometimes your mountain? Here are some ideas:
called the Wellness Coordinator) for the district. 1. Have a drawing for a free pass at each school that
Here are some suggestions for how to pitch the program. participates.
2. Sweeten the deal with one free adult lesson to grab the
Talking Points to School Coordinators & PE Teachers attention of parents.
1. Describe the program succinctly, how you will present it, 3. Find a way to offer free transportation to and from the
what activities and equipment you will bring, and how mountain. This might not seem like a big deal, but for
many people you will bring with you. many kids in urban settings, getting to and from the
2. Make sure to clarify that the program and curriculum mountain could be a deal-breaker.
taught is designed to follow the SHAPE America
Standards (assuming you are using Riglet or another How do you incentivize PE teachers to support the program?
program that also meets these standards). That one is easy too. PE teachers have very little budget, and
3. Emphasize that your program encourages the health and many would love to support skiing/snowboarding outreach
wellness of students through winter sports. programs. Like everyone else, they love free stuff, and are
4. Also emphasize that the program is also designed to likely to work even harder for you if there’s something in it
encourage the social and emotional wellness of students for them too. Again, it is all about getting the buy-in from
through winter sports. (Social and emotional wellbeing is the teachers; they will be your biggest allies because they
a big focus for many educators around the country right have access to getting information home!
now, so this is a strong selling point). Here are some ways to win their support:
5. Explain that the people presenting the program are
well-qualified ski/snowboard instructors, and cite their 1. Offer to make a donation to the school’s PE program for
PSIA-AASI teaching credentials (you may even offer to every student from that school that visits the mountain.
send a profile of these pros). Make the point that these are 2. Offer the PE teacher an incentive too—a free pass, a gear
people who enjoy working with kids. giveaway (anything from goggles to a snowboard or skis),
6. Offer to send a link to a Riglet program (there are many or a free lesson—as a way to say thanks.
examples on the internet) or your own customized footage, 3. It’s obviously up to the area whether and how much to
if you have any, so they can get an idea of what to expect. invest in such incentives, but the payoff is guaranteed if
7. Find out what the school’s PE schedule is (i.e., how many even only a handful of kids get hooked on snowboarding
PE classes there are each day) so you can determine how or skiing thanks to a few hours in a PE class.
many hours or days it will take to reach the entire school.
8. Provide your contact information, along with your supervi- CONCLUSION
sor’s contact information, in case they have any additional As you think about ways to keep engaging new generations
questions or want to think about the proposal and get back in skiing and snowboarding year after year, it’s important to
to you later. remember why you got involved in skiing and snowboarding
9. Agree on a time to reconnect. If you haven’t heard back, yourself, and put yourself in the mind frame of a little kid who
call back. It may take a few tries, but the effort should pay just wants to explore life and move.
off eventually—even if it takes weeks or months. (If you It’s a no brainer to bring your mountain to the city and
get into another school in the meantime, you can always flip the experience to get potential customers intrigued about
send along some fun footage from that event as well as that skiing and snowboarding. Take it from a longtime school
PE teacher’s contact information to help sell the program.) teacher: Never underestimate the selling power of a kid who
is having fun!
One more suggestion related to pitching the program: If you
know of resort staff members who are parents and are affiliated Mike Smith is adjunct faculty/student teacher supervisor at the
with local schools, ask them to consider putting in a good word University of Northern Colorado.

18 | NSAA JOURNAL | CONVENTION 2017