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Shelley Osterloh ReportingSnowboarding can be fun as a sport, but to troubled kids it can be much more. A program called "CHILL" is teaching at-risk kids to ride, but it is also teaching to be successful without drugs or violence.
Each year a couple hundred troubled Utah kids participate in the CHILL program, but right now a handful of them are getting the chance to rub shoulders with some country's best snowboarders, at the US Open Snowboarding Championships in Vermont.
Kids and teens from over 20 different youth and social service agencies in Salt Lake meet each week at Brighton to learn to snowboard. All their gear and instruction if provided by Burton Snowboards. The CHILL Program was started by the company's founder, Jake Burton, eleven years ago as a way to help at risk kids.
Some of the CHILL riders are heading to Vermont to the US Open Snowboarding Championships. Those involved say CHILL has made a big difference in the lives of troubled kids.
"It really works well with these guys. They fall in love with the sport. They achieve at snowboarding, which isn't easy, and they take that on to other aspects of their life and they achieve there also."
Sixteen-year old Casey Fain admits he's been in trouble with the law. He says snowboarding has changed how he sees himself and the others.
Casey Fain: "It teaches me how to be respectful to others, and responsible, and keep things cool with your family and yourself. It helps you have a mind, a good state of mind in everything you do mostly. And it helps you focus really."
Eighteen-year old Massimo Marini started in the CHILL Program a couple of years ago, and has returned as a volunteer to help other kids.
Massimo Marini: "I have something to do that's positive. I don't go around and do negative things that would cause me to get into trouble. Snowboarding is really therapeutic for me."
And now they are off to see some of the best riders in the world, some that may provide a little more inspiration to achieve. While in Vermont they'll get to meet Burton team riders and Gold medalists Shaun White and Hannah Teter, and ride with Jake Burton.
CHILL is in 14 American cities. Since it started in Utah in 2003, nearly 700 kids here have participated.
