FUN: The True Nature

Girls on the new Girl PowHER Snowshoe Team are learning as they go. How do I put on these awkward shoes? Why do they make me walk funny? Why am I freezing one minute and sweating the next? Where on earth am I going? Who talked me into this? Am I having fun yet?

Ells Angels Snowshoe Team

BC Snowshoe Adventure Series

January 8, 2012

Questions we all remember asking the first time we tried something new and adventurous. These girls are the latest members of The Youth Foundation’s Girl PowHER program. Ranging in age from 11-17 years old, they are discovering just what it takes to be the first ever all-girl adolescent team to compete in the Beaver Creek Snowshoe Series. “Go at your own pace and just put one foot in front of the other,” reassuring them as we head up Arrowhead. Simple lessons that one-day will hopefully go beyond snowshoeing. Through Girl PowHER, girls are given the ability to discover their individual potential and find the strength within to believe in themselves.

In addition to developing that confidence, we have a few “rules” on the team… have fun, be safe and be responsible. It’s challenging at times to have that full realization when you are a teenager, so we focus on the positive and try to make it to the top.

Marching up the path, weaving in and out of trees, the girls are either walking silently at their own pace or giggling with each other about the latest happenings of their day. For some it’s a struggle to get up the hill without stopping and for others it’s to remember to bring their positive attitude that helps to contribute to the overall spirit of the team. Either way, I’m just glad they show up and are willing to try something new.

In our fast paced world, we are conditioned to think that our lives revolve around the great moments. Winning the race… that big birthday... THE party. But great moments often catch us unaware of the beauty of what others may consider a small one. The excited scream while flying down the mountain like a human sled… taking a big drink from the water that you finally remembered to bring with you … or the thousand steps it takes to finish your first-ever 5k snowshoe race producing that huge winning smile.  It’s the little things in life – not the grand gesture.

Years down the road, the girls may never snowshoe again or even remember that crazy lady who encouraged them incessantly and told them they could do it. It is my hope that they will always remember how being on the inaugural Girl PowHER snowshoe team made them feel and how the support they received from their friends and women from the community gave them the confidence necessary to try something new later in life.

Sometimes it's the smallest gesture that leaves the greatest impression.

Anne-Marie Desmond, Girl PowHER Coordinator and Team "Mom"