NEWS RELEASE
Outdoor Outreach Enables At-Risk Kids to Try the Hottest Olympic Sport
SAN DIEGO, California, March 1, 2006 – Snowboading was the hot sport at the 2006 Winter
Olympics and its popularity is projected to increase even more after these games.
This comes as no surprise to Outdoor Outreach, a local non-profit organization that
provides high-quality outdoor programs to at-risk youth. Their snowboarding program has
consistently been the most popular activity with the kids they work with and often serves
as an enticement to get them involved in all of Outdoor Outreach’s activities. Involvement
in these activities is important because it helps the kids to build self-esteem and to
make more positive choices in their lives.
“This is a sport that is very much on the kids’ cultural radar,” said Chris Rutgers,
executive director of Outdoor Outreach. “It’s a sport that has that “wow” factor and it’s
something that the kids can tell their friends and family about and they’ll know what it is.”
Friends and family will know about snowboarding because it’s quickly becoming one of the
most popular winter sports. According to the National Sporting Goods Association, the number
of skiers on the slopes in the U.S. has dropped from 10.6 million to 5.9 million in the past
decade, while snowboard participation has jumped from 1.6 million to 5.1 million.
Outdoor Outreach conducts about 10 to 15 snowboarding trips each year employing a special
brand of teaching that includes a 3:1 student to teacher ratio to give the kids enough personal
attention to insure that they master the basic skills in a single day.
“The learning curve for this sport is initially very hard; everyone falls at first,” said
Rachel Rabinor, snowboarding program manager for Outdoor Outreach. “But in just one day, the
majority of the kids transition from feelings of doubt and disbelief to an overall sense of
pride and accomplishment that they’ve done as much they have.”
The snowboarding program is Outdoor Outreach’s most expensive program because of the lift
tickets, equipment and the number of staff needed to teach the program safely. However, it
is also the program that seems to have the most impact with the kids as it is so far outside
of their normal day-to-day experience. In fact, these trips are often the first time that any
of the kids see snow.
The Outdoor Outreach snowboarding program has been so successful that the Monarch School,
a county school for homeless kids, asked them to create a special snowboarding program for
their students. The program is a special goal-based one where the students must meet a
defined goal (academic or other) in order to get the chance to go on an Outdoor Outreach
snowboarding trip. Outdoor Outreach staff assist the kids with goal planning and trip planning.
Outdoor Outreach is currently soliciting grants and individual donations in order to cover
the general operating costs of the snowboarding program. To learn more about Outdoor Outreach
and the giving opportunities available, please contact Chris Rutgers at (619) 238-5970 or
Elease Sgarbossa at (760) 310-9867.
Outdoor Outreach is a California Non-Profit Organization committed to providing an
opportunity for at-risk and underprivileged youth to gain confidence and self-esteem through
participation in outdoor activities. This organization is founded on the belief that offering
young people a chance to enjoy responsible recreation in the outdoors brings them experiences
that will make positive, lasting changes in their lives.
Outdoor Outreach welcomes all children, but is especially committed to providing intensive
outdoor experiences to at-risk and underprivileged youth. We work together with a wide variety
of programs in an effort to reach the at-risk/low income youth population of San Diego County.
Program partners include drug rehabilitation programs, inner-city boys and girls clubs,
inner-city public schools, residential boys homes, and several programs within the juvenile
justice system. Since its first trip in February 2001, Outdoor Outreach has taken over 2,500
kids on over 600 trips.
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