The Telegraph Ski & Snowboard Festival, which runs from October 24 to 27 in London’s Battersea Park, has announced Snow-Camp as its official charity partner.
Snow-Camp is the only UK charity to use snow sports as a way to help inner-city young people transform their lives and skills.
As part of the collaboration the Festival, which is the longest-running winter-sports event in the UK, has pledged to help raise money, with a target of £2,000 for the charity, part of a wider £5,000 Snow-Camp goal.
“The Telegraph Ski & Snowboard Festival is one of the highlights of the year for Snow-Camp, and this year we’re celebrating our 10 year partnership in style,” said Dan Keeley, community manager at Snow Camp.
Since its inception in 2003, when a group of youth workers, including founder Dan Charlish, took 13 children and teenagers from London to the French Alps for a snow-sports trip, the charity has supported over 10,000 young people across the UK in London, Bristol, Scotland, Cardiff, the Midlands and the north west of England.
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©GeoffWilson2015/Geoff Wilson
“The work that Snow-Camp does in local communities is truly unique and our partnership has gone from strength to strength in recent years. Here at The Telegraph Ski & Snowboard we’re passionate about getting more young people into snow sports, helping secure the future of the industry, and Snow-Camp is playing a huge part in that,” said Stephen Morgan, event director at The Telegraph.
The Festival aims to raise at least £2,000 in total – this will be enough to support two young people through the full Snow-Camp journey. This starts with learning to ski or snowboard at an indoor centre or dry slope in the UK and learning life skills. They eventually progress to a life-changing week in the mountains, developing key life-skills and gaining qualifications at every stage. After students complete the year-long programme they have the chance to continue their career in snow sports with a one-year apprenticeship or a 10-week course to learn to become a ski instructor.
A notable success story is that of Jonjoe Boulter from Hackney Wick, London, who is now a qualified ski coach in Verbier, working with the Warren Smith Ski Academy. He aslo appeared on Ski Sunday to tell his story.
“Back in 2009 we were solely working with young people in London, and here we are now, proudly changing the lives of over 1000 underprivileged inner-city young people year-on-year all over the UK – so much of which has to be credited to the incredible generosity of The Telegraph team and many of our passionate supporters who we’ve met at the festival and joined us for the journey,” said Keeley.
“We’ve set ourselves a target of £2,000 but with the support of our industry partners and visitors to the Festival we’re hoping we can easily surpass that and help change more lives – what better way to do that than through skiing or snowboarding,” said Morgan.
The event hopes to reach, and hopefully surpass, its target by encouraging its exhibitors, which include some of the biggest brands and resorts in the ski world, to donate to the campaign.
During the first week of September the general public can also help, with 10 per cent of all Telegraph Ski & Snowboard Festival ticket sales being put towards to the target.
At the four-day event visitors, of which there were over 17,000 in 2018, will also be urged to donate at various points around the Festival, when they pick up a complimentary copy of The Telegraph Ski & Snowboard magazine.
On Saturday October 26 members of the Snow-Camp team plus its rabbit and turtle mascots, Jenny and James, as well as young people who have completed the scheme, will take to the Festival’s real-snow slope, Mount Battersea, for a mass pledge session. Joining them will be Snow-Camp ambassadors and stars of the ski and snowboard scene such as Warren Smith, Jenny Jones, Chemmy Alcott and Graham Bell, on hand to encourage the audience to donate towards the campaign.