Four female graphic design students showed off their new ski design during an annual fundraiser held mid-January in Silverton for SOS Outreach, a national nonprofit for at-risk and low-income youths – of which the women are or had once been members.
“Our whole goal is primarily youths development,” said SOS spokesman Spencer Cox. “This was an awesome opportunity that we were able to do in partnership with Christy Sports and Nordica with these four young women, two of whom are current participants in their final year of the SOS program as seniors in high school, and two alumnae who are both graphic design students in college.”
Cox said the nonprofit was able to connect the four women with Christy Sports and Nordica through a program SOS Outreach launched two years ago.
“This is kind of an extension of our Career Development Pipeline program, which we first piloted in the summer of 2020,” Cox said. “When we launched this program, we were able to connect our high school and alumni participants with paid internships in the outdoor industry for six weeks over the summer, leveraging some of our amazing corporate partners.”
The goal posed to Utah native Heidy Hernández, 21; Washington state native Veronica Saint Jane, 18; California native Frida Qintero, 17; and Colorado native Delaney Muro, 18, was to “create a one-of-a-kind ski that can be found nowhere else and tells a story no other ski could,” according to SOS Outreach’s website.
At first, the women had varying ideas of what design to put on the skis, including a glow-in-the-dark theme. They quickly learned, however, the limits of what they were working with when it came to manufacturing constraints. Eventually, the four designers’ vision began to unify and a concept was born.
“We though a lot about what values we wanted the ski to represent,” Quintero said in an interview on SOS Outreach’s website. “We wanted the ski to tell a meaningful story.”
The women found inspiration in the town of Silverton, which hosts SOS Outreach’s MLK Powder Challenge every year, and settled on topo lines of the geographical area, bright colors, and an inclusion of the SOS logo.
“Adding the SOS logo to the ski was important,” Delaney said in an interview on SOS Outreach’s website. “I hope folks who purchase this ski walk away with a deeper connection to SOS. This was something that was designed with intention and so much love and passion. We really want people to know about all the good this program does.”
SOS Outreach began in 1993, when its founding members took 15 Denver-area youths to Vail to learn how to snowboard. The goal was to teach the kids the transformative power of the outdoors.
The nonprofit has since grown to 15 locations in nine states, with more than 3,000 students enrolled in its outdoor, mentoring and career programs year-round. According to its website, it has helped more than 80,000 youths over the last 30 years.
“To qualify for our program, you need to take a strengths and needs assessment,” said Cox of the program’s youths applicants. “You basically need to meet two needs out of a list of about 20.
“It can be a variety of different factors that qualify you for our program. An example could be coming from a low-income household and also being a victim of bullying in school,” he said. “That would qualify you for SOS. It could also be struggling with mental health issues and having difficulty focusing in school. So, we have kind of a wide array of challenges that you face, and if you qualify for or meet two of those, then you qualify for our program.”
Cox said SOS Outreach’s purpose has always been to provide support for its at-risk youths members through community support and career or education pathways once they graduate high school.
“The ultimate goal is building a strong sense of community for youths and equipping them with skills for life, whether that's career readiness, skills for applying to college, and then just generally focusing on social emotional learning skills,” he said.
Cox sees the collaborative design between the four women and outreach members as a perfect reflection of the organization’s goal of bridging opportunities for underprivileged youths.
“They all identify as women of color, and the ski industry for so long has just been homogenously male and white,” Cox said. “To have these four young women leading in that change and being able to have a ski that’s their own and tell a story that’s their own is particularly powerful.”
The skis are currently for sale online at Christy Sports. The entirety of the proceeds from its sales will be donated back to SOS Outreach and its programs.
Hernández, Saint Jane, Quintero and Muro have named the ski “Unleashed Outreach,” in honor of both the Nordica brand and SOS Outreach.
“I want this ski to encourage people to push themselves to new limits out on the mountain and embrace opportunities in all aspects of their life,” Hernández said in an interview on SOS Outreach’s website. “Whether you’re an expert or just learning how to ride in SOS, we all have room to grow.”
molsen@durangoherald.com
