Posted for Nancy Yearout
RE/MAX Properties of the Summit
nyearout@colorado.net
http://www.realestate-breckenridge.net
One million vertical feet in one day.
That was the goal of the relay team
from Six Pack Sports when it caught the first chair at Keystone Resort Wednesday
morning. The 10 skiers weren't aiming for fame, though, they were aiming to
raise money for a good cause.
The Six Pack Sports team took on its
Million Vertical Feet Challenge to raise money for the Big Brothers Big Sisters
of Colorado. Overall, the team raised nearly $13,000 for the nonprofit
organization.
Big Brothers Big Sisters provides at-risk children with
mentors. Its reach is national, with roots in Colorado going back to 1918. In
2012, the program supported roughly 1,900 mentoring relationships in the Denver
and Pikes Peak areas.
Mike Kirkland, commissioner at Six Pack Sports for
the last four years, has participated in Million Vertical Feet challenges in the
past in other states. This year, he decided to bring the challenge to himself
and his colleagues at Six Pack Sports to benefit a good cause.
The money
raised by Wednesday's challenge will to go start the inaugural Sports Buddies
ski day. Sports Buddies is a program offered by Big Brothers Big Sisters in
which children and their mentors participate in organized activities, including
attending and playing team sports. The money raised by Kirkland and his
colleagues will provide for transportation, ski lift tickets, rental equipment
and lunch for the participating children.
Kirkland plans to help make
the Sports Buddies ski day an annual event.
“We're going to have a heap
of these,” he said.
Six Pack Sports is dedicated to promoting sports and
similar activities throughout the community. A year-round sports league based
out of Denver and Boulder, Six Pack Sports provides opportunities for adults to
get together and share their love of sports.
Raising money for children
to enjoy sports just made sense, Kirkland said. “I thought it was a natural fit
for the fact that we do adult sporting events.”
Kirkland's team did the
math for what they would need to do in order to achieve its 1 million vertical
feet in one day challenge. By completing 44 runs each, they could accomplish
approximately 100,000 vertical feet per person.
“We got the first chair
up and we're going all the way through the night skiing,” Kirkland said from the
gondola Wednesday. He and his companions chose Keystone Resort, they said,
because of the night skiing option. They needed to ski for 11-and-a-half hours
straight to meet their target, and even ate their sandwich lunches while riding
up the gondola.
“It's a grind. We're bombing every single run. We need to
go straight down the mountain every time,” Kirkland said. He paused, then added,
“It's a lot of fun.”
Courtesy of the Summit Daily News
