Taos News

Native youth hit the slopes for second season

Charles N. Romero Snowsports Program continues to grow

By JEANS PINEDA jpineda@taosnews.com

Late Taos Pueblo tribal member Charles N. “Chuck” Romero provided 18 years of service to Taos Ski Valley Inc. before he passed away unexpectedly in March 2021. Now, his memory lives on through the Charles N. Romero Snowsports Program, which gives Native American youth the chance to learn how to ski for free and entered its second season this month.

A total of 15 of the original 25 kids from the pilot year last year made a return to the slopes at TSV this past weekend, and the overall number of youth participants increased to 31. The age range for the outreach effort widened from 4th grade through 12th to now including second- and thirdgraders as well. “Things seem to be shooting off well, we really

increased our numbers,” said Sage Yardley, president of Working on Wellness. “This is our home community,” Yardley continued. “I was raised to be a part of the community and give back. And my day job, I’m a compliance officer for the Gaming Commission for the tribe. But otherwise, I was raised to be a volunteer.”

All of the kids who came out to ski were supplied with snow gear — including mint Patagonia jackets and other snow sports apparel. The clothes came courtesy of Imagine Outdoors via the Share Winter Foundation and, at the local level, they received some help from the Mudd ‘N’ Flood Mountain Shop.

On Sunday morning (Jan. 22), kids gathered at the Taos Pueblo Community Center for breakfast provided by Bent Street Deli to be transported by the Taos Integrated School of the Arts (TISA) school bus to the Rio Hondo Children’s Learning Center. From there, they would get fitted with their ski or snowboard gear and receive instruction on how to carve down the bunny hills.

A month ago, in the ramping up to the program’s start, former Taos News sports editor and current sports coordinator for the Taos Pueblo Sports Alliance, Arcenio Trujillo, posed a question to parents during a meeting at the Taos Pueblo Community Center.

“What can we do next?” he asked. “What are the things that we set out to do when we took on this endeavor to do the Charles N. Romero Snowsports program. We said we wanted to provide the gold standard for our kids. And that means providing the best equipment, the best food, the best forms of transportation that we come up with. We decided we did not want to try and just piecemeal something together and just kind of, like, hitchhike up to the ski valley.”

The program was spearheaded by Trujillo’s daughter, Aurora Valdez, a Taoseña Award recipient from the Taos News. Valdez worked with the nonprofit Working on Wellness and the Share Winter Foundation in conjunction with the Taos Pueblo. The program received its funding when Taos Ski Valley Inc. CEO David Norden presented Margaret Romero, Chuck Romero’s mother, with a $25,000 check.

“Beyond the Charles N. Romero program, we have a memorandum of understanding with the Pueblo — it’s an M.O.U. for mutual collaboration and respect. So, it’s nice that we can meet and collaborate,” Norden said.

On Sunday, the quality of the experience offered by the program showed how much it had grown since its inception.

All the planning from the different entities involved saw the goal of a broader, more diverse community making it up onto the mountain and partaking in snowsports achieved. The youth will get four more weeks to ski or snowboard on Sundays as part of the program.

The program is one of a number of efforts by the resort to increase accessibility to the slopes for what is an increasingly-expensive sport — such as the Taos Winter Sports Team scholarships, the River Radamus sponsorships and the Community Weekend event.

The opportunities are especially lucrative given how relatively expensive skiing has become at the popular resort in recent years. An adult day pass purchased within 72 hours of the intended ski date, for example, is $155. While one could argue the resort’s offerings aren’t equivalent, an adult day pass at Ski Santa Fe is $99 on weekends, $92 on weekdays, by comparison.

The Community Weekend, an event which took place last December, also offered the opportunity for the public to skate for free, sled for free and, if they never skied, they could ski for free too. The resort even provided tickets, rentals and lessons for these first-time skiers.

“Every year, we add something, and last year, we added the Charles N. Romero program and we just gauge that success and see what we can do to modify [it],” Norden said. “But, now that you’ve got a couple of examples of successful programs, we think we can expand on that. But, today, it’s all about the Charles N. Romero program.”

Norden said Romero is still remembered by longtime ski valley employees for being “just a joy to be around” and “super positive.”

“Everybody knew him here as ‘Chuck.’ I mean, he was almost like the face of the organization,” Norden said. “He was here when he was young and he worked in the rental and retail shops. Everybody knew him. He was here, year-after-year, after-year, after-year.”

SPORTS

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2023-01-26T08:00:00.0000000Z

2023-01-26T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://taosnews.pressreader.com/article/281689733943561

Santa Fe New Mexican