78. Chauncy and Kelli Johnson with ‘Snow Angel Foundation’ and Preventing Ski and Snowboard Collisions So Everyone Can Ride Another Day

Chauncy and Kelli Johnson experienced tragedy on Christmas Eve in 2010 after a snowboarder collided with Kelli and their five-year-old daughter, Elise, while they were skiing. Elise and the snowboarder both ended up passing away, and Kelli spent several months recovering from a traumatic brain injury. It was because of these experiences and the passion they have had for skiing their whole lives that they decided to start their 'Snow Angel Foundation'. With this foundation they began the campaign ‘Ride Another Day’ to encourage safety and awareness for skiers and snowboarders and others recreating in the outdoors. They’ve taken their story and message around the country to ski resorts and classrooms to help educate others on the importance of being aware of personal behavior while recreating and being a good influence on those around you.

We’re starting ski and snowboard season and I thought this message was an important one to help share, but I also wanted to share Chauncy and Kelli’s story of resilience through tragedy and how they’ve decided to use their hard experiences to help teach and educate others.

Listen to this episode to learn more about them and the ‘Snow Angel Foundation.’

Links mentioned in the episode:
Snow Angel Foundation Website
Snow Angel Foundation Instagram
Snow Angel Foundation Facebook
Chauncy and Kelli's YouTube video


Follow the podcast on social media:
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Transcript

Melissa: Chauncey and Kelly Johnson experienced tragedy on Christmas Eve in 2010 after a snowboarder collided with Kelly and their five year old daughter Elise while they were skiing. Elise and the snowboarder both ended up passing away and Kelly spent several months recovering from a traumatic brain injury.

It was because of these experiences and the passion they have had for skiing their whole lives that they decided to start their Snow Angel Foundation.

With this foundation, they began the campaign Ride Another Day to encourage safety and awareness for skiers and snowboarders and others recreating in the outdoors. They've taken their story and message around the country to ski resorts and classrooms to help educate others on the importance of being aware of personal behavior while recreating and being a good influence on those around you.

We're starting ski and snowboard season and I thought this message was an important one to help share. But I also wanted to share Chauncey and Kelly's story of resilience through tragedy and how they've decided to use their hard experiences to help teach and educate others.

Listen to this episode to learn more about them and the Snow Angel Foundation.

Welcome to the Do Something More podcast, a service oriented show where we highlight the helpers who inspire us all to do something more. I'm your host, Melissa Draper. Thank you so much for being here.

Melissa: Welcome to this episode of the podcast and this week we are featuring the Snow angel foundation and I have my guests Chauncey and Kelly Johnson who are.

Melissa: The founders of that foundation. This foundation has a tender story that.

Melissa: Comes with the beginnings of it, but now their mission is to educate and spread awareness about safety while skiing and.

Melissa: Snowboarding and being in the outdoors. So I'm going to let them share a little more about their story though.

Melissa: And I just want to say, Chauncey and Kelly, welcome to the podcast.

Chauncy: Thank you, Melissa.

Kelli: Thank you, Melissa. So yeah, I will go ahead and just introduce us real quick.

Melissa: Sounds great.

Kelli: Chauncey and Kelly Johnson. We have been married for 23 years. We have five children. We actually grew up together in Wyoming and got married. Chauncey served a mission for our church and when he got home, we got married when we were 21.

Even though we weren't high school sweethearts, but we were just, we were just best friends. So we have a lot of history around skiing together. We went skiing together for the first time with our fifth grade class in elementary school.

Melissa: Oh wow.

Kelli: We, yeah, we connect way back then and then we skied together a little bit through high school. Now we weren't, we weren't Dating. We weren't high school sweethearts, but we. We both really enjoyed skiing and snowboarding, and so that's like, we had that connection.

Then he went on his mission. I went to Utah State, and he came. And after we got married, he. We went to school there together. And at Utah State, we would get the.

We'd take advantage of the student season pass rate, and we both get our season passes. We'd use our. Our student loan money really responsibly like that.

And we would schedule our classes in the spring to only have classes on Mondays or on Thursdays and Fridays was ideal. Or we would do Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. So we at least had some days, not during the weekend, that we could go and ski without.

Without the crowds. So skiing has been a really important part of our upbringing when we were younger together, and then once we got married especially, and since we. We are passionate skiers, we would always take advantage of getting the adult season pass.

And then you can get one for your child 5 or under for free. So as soon as we had children, we continued doing that. We, all of our children started skiing when they were about two.

They could stand. Stand up themselves. So we. We started them out skiing young, and it's just been a really foundational part of who we grew up as together and just kind of the culture of the family that we're creating.

So.

Melissa: Yeah. Natural to share your own passions with your children like that.

Kelli: Yes, exactly.

Melissa: Well, you, as I said, have a tender story behind why you've been so passionate about this campaign and sharing it with other people. Do you mind sharing that?

Chauncy: Sure. Yeah. No, we don't. We don't mind sharing it at all. We share our story with perfect strangers at times. So Kelly's kind of given a background of our passion for skiing, which leads into our story and why we're doing what we do.

We were skiing on Christmas Eve 2010 with our oldest daughter, Elise, who was five at the time, our daughter Millie, who was three, and then our son Logan was four months old.

He was kind of hanging out with grandma and grandpa in the car. We decided to just go for go skiing that afternoon. It was opening day at the little ski area outside of Casper Hogadon.

And so we were thrilled to be up there skiing. I took a few runs with Elise, and she was doing really well. And so I traded off with Kelly so that she could go and ski a little bit, because, as people might know who are teaching young kids, it can be a lot of work, especially until they're skiing independently.

And this was Elise's really. It was her fourth season. And so anyway, Kelly and her took off to take a couple of runs and I realized that it was taking too long for them to check in.

And one of our friends came running up the parking lot to find me and Millie and said that there had been an accident, that she didn't know who it was, but thought it might be our girls or Kelly and Elise.

And so through that experience, I would find out that a 23 year old snowboarder riding at about 50 miles an hour collided with Kelly and Elise. Kelly had been trying to get Elise's ski back on on the side of the run.

And the snowboarder must not have been able to see them in time to. To turn. That would lead to the.

So let me kind of back up just a little bit. So in that collision, it was an unprecedented collision within the industry in the sense that there were three people involved and two people passed away.

So the snowboarder actually lost his life in the accident. The impact took our daughter's life as well. And then Kelly sustained a traumatic brain injury that would lead to a quite a long process of rehabilitation and recovery.

But I got her. Fortunately, the first responders that were there on the mountain did a fantastic, amazing job. They did everything that they could for everybody involved. And Kelly was the only survivor.

And so as a result of that, I was able to get her down to Denver to Craig Hospital as soon as she was stable enough. Craig Hospital specializes in traumatic brain injury and spinal cord injury.

They are also a nonprofit. We spent three months there. I wasn't able to tell Kelly about the actual accident and losing Elise until a month later. She was slowly coming out of an induced coma that she was placed in to heal.

Melissa: Wow.

Chauncy: Our experiences with the accident are very different.

Melissa: Right.

Chauncy: Kelly remembers up to the moment that she was helping Elise get her ski put back on and doesn't have any recollection of actually what happened. So anyway, we spent three months at Craig Hospital and then three months additionally running Kelly back and forth to Denver to continue to get rehabilitation and even some additional rehabilitation at home in Casper, where we were living at the time.

So it was a very long process. For those that haven't had an experience with a traumatic brain injury, they can turn out all kinds of ways. Very fortunate. Kelly's very fortunate that she didn't have any personality changes or anything like that.

She did have to learn to walk and to talk and to swallow food again. And so it really took her back to a very almost infantile state for a couple of months there until she was able to start to become more independent.

Melissa: Yeah. So really one, one moment, one decision, one accident that truly changed your lives forever in multiple ways.

Chauncy: Absolutely. Yeah. It's, I mean, a split second and it changed really the trajectory of our lives in so many ways. Since that time, we have had two additional children. So Millie, our 17 year old, was three years old at the time and our son Logan was 4 months old and he's now 14.

And so once Kelly was recovered, she had always.

We had always wanted to have a big family. Pretty nerve wracking for me because I didn't want to see her in a hospital ever again.

But.

But we worked things out and we ended up having two more girls, Reese who is now 10, and Leilani who is eight. So we've got kind of a gap there.

We're sort of raising some teenagers and then our younger kids, which is a challenge for anybody who's a parent knows that. So.

Melissa: Yeah, every phase of life right there.

Chauncy: Absolutely.

Melissa: Well, well, Kelly, something that stood out to me when I was watching your video you have of this campaign and introducing your story was something you said, was that the anger to the wards that snowboarder came and went quickly and you realized it was truly an accident, even though one that could have been prevented.

Melissa: Do you want to expound on that.

Melissa: Just a little bit?

Melissa: Yes.

Kelli: That really relays into the idea that had Chauncey explained that we both experienced that day so differently. And he, he really. I feel like he took the brunt of the emotional injury that that happened.

And so for me, I, I was still impatient. And when I kind of really, truly grasped what happened, I remember being really mad at the snowboarder for a couple of days and then I, I can only explain it as just a spiritual release that I was just.

It was just a confirmation to my heart that it was an accident. He did not mean to collide into us. He did not. He. He was not angry or malicious person.

It was just an accident. And I was able to forgive him quickly after that confirmation in my heart.

And so we really try to respect the snowboarder and his family and we refer to him, we know his name, we know his parents, but we just refer to him as the snowboarder.

Just because we don't want anyone to, to have harsh feelings or say anything mean against him was an accident.

Melissa: Right.

Kelli: But like I said in the video, also, I feel like it was an accident that could have been prevented.

And that's. That really circles back to the foundation and why we are trying to raise awareness and really get the message out about what is possible when we are not taking personal responsibility for our actions.

Melissa: Right, yeah. So, Chauncey, you want to go into that a little more? What was that process that you went through? I mean, your family's been through this huge loss and. But to take that and fuel it into this campaign to want to help and prevent.

How did you go through that? When.

Melissa: Why were those decisions made?

Melissa: What helped you keep moving forward through that process?

Chauncy: Yeah. Yeah, wonderful. So I actually, you know, I didn't know that we would end up starting our own nonprofit foundation or nonprofit organization. But I do know that when Kelly was in the ICU before she.

Well, while she was in a coma, I just continued to get this thought and this impression that I was going to need to do something about this type of thing and wasn't very aware at the time of really of how often accidents that cause fatalities or catastrophic injuries occur or even how many accidents occur with regard to collisions.

But I did know that for me to get back into, I, I snowboard. I snowboard and ski. We actually both do both, but I've Snowboarded since about sixth grade, so 30 plus years, which dates me.

But anyway, and so, and I love the sport, but I also really couldn't see myself getting back into it without trying to do something to create a safer environment on the slopes.

And so that's really where that inspiration started. I went through a long process of grief, post traumatic stress, things that I had never dealt with before that took time for me to sort of get a handle on in a positive way.

I've talked about this before, and I won't go into it in a lot of detail, but I struggled with alcohol, alcoholism for about two or three years, just trying to figure out how to get these feelings of anxiety and things suppressed a little bit.

Not, not the, not the thing to turn to. And this was for somebody that, you know, I had experienced alcohol a few times in high school, but I'd never drank.

I, you know, it's part of our kind of health code and, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which we're members of. And I wanted to honor that and honor those.

Those covenants and commitments that I made with my wife. But at that time, I just didn't know how else to deal with it. So this took a little bit of time to get to where I felt like I was on a solid footing again.

It took a little bit longer process for me to forgive the snowboarder. But I don't have any ill feelings in my heart towards him. In your mind, you know that something's an accident, but in your heart, you're kind of like, it's just this battle, you know, because you don't know why something had to happen or that the outcome had to be the way that it was.

Melissa: Right.

Chauncy: And so it really wasn't until we got more information about what happened in the aftermath of the accident that I started to realize the culture on each mountain matters so much as far as when action will be taken to prevent a reckless skier or rider from hurting themselves or somebody else.

I think that the ski resorts across the country do a really good job of trying to do what they can to make the mountain environment safe.

There is a big gap in personal behavior and how that affects others, and even gaps at times in how ski areas and resorts respond to somebody when they know that there's reckless behavior going on.

And so that was really kind of the start of, okay, we really need to do something about this. You know, we started to learn that skiing, in general, is a very safe sport.

I think a lot of people look at it and they say, well, I don't want to fall, you know, getting off the lift or getting on the lift, or, you know, I don't want to get entangled in my skis.

And, yeah, those things are, you know, for learners, are difficult. But in reality, skiing is a very safe sport. Statistically speaking, you have somewhere between 45 and 55 fatalities every year from skiing.

And those can range from. The majority are from. As a result of collisions either with the ground, an object, or another person. But there are others, like heart attack on the mountain, things like that, as people are exerting themselves.

And then there are about the same number of catastrophic injuries, which would be an injury that is, for example, a spinal cord injury or a traumatic brain injury, where you're just not going to return to life.

Same. Right. And then there are thousands of other injuries. We don't know the actual number on that. I'm not sure if we'll ever know that, unless some things sort of change within the industry where there's a requirement to report on any other known accidents.

And so there's a lot of things kind of going on in the industry that way. But I just thought to myself, you know, my family and I aren't just a statistic.

There are other families that aren't, you know, and individuals that aren't. Just statistics.

Melissa: Right? Real people being affected.

Chauncy: Yeah, real people being affected. And there's some real opportunity here for us to potentially move the needle on that. Right.

And so what we initially did was we. I reached out to the National Ski Areas association, which is the trade organization for the entire industry across the country, and I said.

I called them. Very scary phone call, because I don't know what they're going to say, but. But I said, you know, I'm Chauncey Johnson. My wife Kelly and daughter were involved in this accident.

And they're like, oh, yeah, we know about it. And we're like. I was like, oh, okay. And I just said, we would really love to partner on some type of a campaign that could increase awareness on collisions.

And so in 2016, we partnered with NSAA and started the Write Another Day campaign for those that ski and snowboard. If you've ever seen the poster with an empty snow angel that says she was five, you were doing 50.

And then a hashtag, write Another Day. That's our campaign.

And. And then we started getting requests to come and speak at different ski resorts for their staff orientations, particularly for ski patrol and things like that. And it started to become really a great opportunity for both us and for the resorts and staff training and bringing awareness to this, and started to get enough requests that I thought, well, man, if we're going to continue to do this, we need to create a vehicle to really take it more seriously.

Melissa: Right? Keep it organized and moving forward.

Chauncy: Yeah, yeah, keep it organized. Keep it moving forward. I was going to start this. I had a board of directors already and everything. And then Covid hit, and then we didn't actually formalize our 501C3 until February 2023.

So we're going on two years now. We are actually shifting directions. Not shifting directions, I should say, but just expanding our efforts to be able to talk to more children and teens and their parents, as well as continue to work with more and more resorts nationwide.

And so that's really kind of the catalyst of the foundation and. And what we're working on. And we. When we were sitting around this board table with NSAA in 2016, I was there with the people that create.

Some of the people that create Warren Miller Ski Films and Ski Magazine. And. And they said, chauncey, what if you could do anything, what is it that you want to accomplish?

You know, what are you trying to do? And. And I. And I said, you know, I just really, really desperately and deeply want everybody that goes skiing or snowboarding to be able to go and have a great time, come off the mountain and go back the next day or the next weekend or the next month and just write another day.

I said, I just want everybody to come back and be able to write another day. I don't want anybody to come off the mountain the way that my wife, daughter and this snowboarder did.

And I know that that's an impossible task probably.

Kelli: Right.

Chauncy: But they all said that's it, it's right, another day. That's it.

That's the campaign slogan. And so we still do everything under that mantra. It's very applicable to really any adventure sport or frankly getting in our cars and driving the kids to school or to the grocery store or whatever we're doing.

Melissa: Right. And I think it's applicable because you found that joy and passion in it your entire lives and wanting to keep it there. Right. Wanting it to be a good joyful experience for everyone that's participating in it, I think is a beautiful way to see that.

And I love that you mentioned educating.

Melissa: Children and teenagers because when I heard.

Melissa: This story and as you've shared your story and as a mother of teenage boys right now, there's so much that can be done to help and to educate in a good constructive way.

Chauncy: Absolutely. I mean, I was a teenage boy. I think that that was part of my understanding. I would say just really that logical understanding that it was an accident and getting my heart to come along with that understanding.

Melissa: Right.

Chauncy: You know, there, there were some other things going on that complicate things further. The snowboarder had marijuana in his system. We don't know how that affected his judgment or not. There were there that didn't intervene, including a ski patroller.

And so this is why we talk to ski patrol and things. We don't hold that, we don't hold anything against the patroller or other people that had concerns. But we do need effective ways of how are we going to approach that conversation to be able to help somebody, not injure themselves or others.

And there's kind of a counterculture. Not kind of. There is a counterculture element with skiing and snowboarding. I don't think that it's proliferated amongst everybody that skis and snowboards. Snowboards.

But there's definitely that group, those kind of packs of teenage boys that like to ride together. And, and I was a. I was just as much a part of that.

So I can really identify with that. Even though to most of these kids, they would look at me as an old 45 year old and say, this guy, I can't relate to him at all right.

You know, we connect, we get it, and they want to be responsible, but a lot of times they don't even know, like you said, that their behavior can really hurt themselves or hurt somebody else.

Melissa: So, yeah, true education really can help make a difference. And with your ski patrols there, give them the power to act and the confidence to act when they should.

Chauncy: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

Melissa: Yeah. So, Kelly, do you want to share? Have you received feedback as you've started this campaign or taught these classes? Have you heard any other stories of others that have been appreciative for the work that you're doing with this foundation?

Kelli: Yeah, one of the most. The biggest, like, reward, I guess, when we go and speak in front of groups is afterwards, there's at least two or three people that will come up to us.

And the biggest thing that the biggest reward is for them to say, I am a changed skier. I will not ski the way I used to. I now see what I could.

What I could do, what. What is possible to happen. And I am not gonna. To ski how I have skied before. So to. To hear that feedback that personally, people are changed, their heart is changed is the biggest.

Because that we know for sure that that person saved. You know, that person is. Is going to make better decisions. And. And so that. That's always the one of the biggest rewards for.

For us in doing this is just hearing about people who.

Who take it. They see themselves in the mirror for the first time and realize, I need to do something.

There's a lot of people that will say, oh, I know. I know somebody who needs to see this. I know somebody who. To make sure that so and so sees this and.

Which is absolutely important, and we need that too. But we always encourage groups that we talk to is first look at yourself and look at your actions and think of how you are, what your behaviors are like when you're doing activities, and then.

And apply it to yourself. Like, see those. Those gray areas where you know that you could be a little safer, you could be a little more cautious, and then. So apply it to yourself and then be the influence on those around you to also make smarter decisions and to be more aware of how this could turn out really bad for.

For not just you. So I guess that that is the biggest thing that I love when we get the opportunity to go out and speak is talking to the people afterwards that have really.

It's really helped them and others. There's skiers across the nation that will. They have it implemented where if they do have a skier or Rider who are, quote unquote, a problem on the mountain.

They will actually pull, pull them into the patrol shack and have them watch our video afterwards. They will, they will talk to them about that and, and hearing, hearing those same stories of this.

You know, I took this person in and they were, you know, defiant and angry and just wanted their past back. They just wanted to go and they watched the video and then it just softens them and it just, it just changes their countenance.

And it changes really the, just the whole feel of feeling like you're in trouble or feeling like you're being reprimanded. It takes that like your, your bad behavior to truly a.

A place of concern for your health, concern for your safety. It's not pointing your finger and saying you're bad, you're, you shouldn't be on here. You shouldn't. It, it, it is more like I really, truly care that you stay safe.

And so it, like that whole feeling is, is really what we're, we're trying to come across people. We don't want people to be scared of skiing and snowboarding or writing their book or cross country skiing or whatever it is that they want to do.

We don't want anyone to be scared. We just need everyone to be aware of the areas that could use a little more caution.

Melissa: And that story video is, it's not long, but very impactful. And I can see how it can take away that defensiveness that, hey, we're all in this together because all sides were affected in your story.

And so, yeah, it doesn't need to.

Melissa: Be us against them.

Melissa: It can be. We're all working together to make this a good experience for everyone involved. Well, and I think also that idea, even if you're not a snowboarder or skier, that idea of being aware of those around you, of being aware of.

Melissa: How your actions are affecting those around.

Melissa: You, is something that is applicable in so many different areas.

So I think it's a beautiful message either way. Well, we do have listeners from all over and I'm sure some listeners to this show that, that maybe aren't necessarily skiers or snowboarders.

But I always love to end our episodes with general advice.

And so I guess I could go several ways with that with you and your foundation, but just general advice for those that want to help spread safety in these situations or even advice for someone that wants to take a hard experience they've been through and use it to move forward to help and to improve a situation.

So however you want to go with that with that question.

Kelli: One of the things that Chauncey and I are able to train, especially patrollers and mountain safety and the staffing at resorts, is that we, once we've shared our story, we've, we've shared some, some really personal things and we like to invite our listeners and even though now it's just, just purely by voice, but we would like to invite our listeners to be our friends and to realize that, that we're all on the same team as far as keeping ourselves and our family and our friends and everyone safe.

So as your friend, as your friend now, as your friend of Kelly and Chauncey Johnson, now if you as a bystander see someone who is being reckless, who is out of, out of control, who is being perhaps belligerent and, and needs to just be kind of given a reality check instead of going at them with your fist or your finger pointed in their chest to really put your arm around them and, and say, hey, listen, I, I just want to tell you a story that happened to my friend.

I have a friend in Wyoming who was skiing with her daughter and they had a snowboarder collide into them and the snowboarder passed away. The daughter, the five year old girl passed away and the mom was sent to the hospital for months.

I don't want that to happen to you. I want you to. And just the whole presentation of it coming from a friend is it really brings, put, you know, brings down the boxing gloves.

It really helps to, to de. Escalate emotions and that is just so important when, when dealing with any type of situation where emotions are high and defensiveness is. Please use our story to, in whatever way you need to, as our friend, please, please tell our story, please share it and please help it to do good to others.

And I know that Chauncey can really speak to the idea of how this, doing something more has helped him.

Chauncy: Yeah, absolutely. I would say to people that have been in any type of a situation where they're experiencing grief from the loss of a loved one or they've found themselves working their way through a traumatic experience, first of all, get over yourself a little bit in the sense of asking for help, ask for help, ask for help to get counseling, ask for help to go to your medical doctor to potentially get medication if you need it.

We live in a society, I think it's becoming less stigmatized. But even for me and my generation and I'm, you know, middle age, it was still too much of a stigma just the way that I was raised and it's nothing against my family.

My family has been such a huge support. But sometimes we don't know what to do for a friend and sometimes we don't know what to do personally when we're struggling with these things.

You don't have to go through a big traumatic experience either to start experiencing anxiety or depression or something of that nature. And so please don't feel like you have to have some crazy life experience that sort of launches you into not feeling yourself.

So ask for help. There are resources Everywhere.

Email me chaunceynowangelfoundation.org if you need help finding resources. That's not really what we do, but I'm just saying, like, if you feel comfortable, do that. Check out snowangelfoundation.org to jump on and help us out and join our community.

We can utilize help in many, really many ways. Financially, obviously, is kind of a big one that every organization can use. But also, if you would like this message to go to your school, to your school district, or even to the company that you work at, if you're a safety driven company, please reach out to us again.

Chaunceynowangelfoundation.org and we want to get into your local school and be able to help raise awareness, particularly in Utah. There's so many skiers and such great ski. I mean, we've skied all across the country.

We're starting to get connections in Europe and I don't know that there's a better place to ski than Utah, I'll be honest.

So we want to keep that great vibe going there and we want to help people again. We want everybody to ride another day so you can get involved with us through helping us out, volunteering.

Just all it takes is reaching out.

Melissa: So yeah, thank you.

Melissa: Beautiful messages from both of you and I will include links to all of those in the show notes for the podcast.

And just want to thank both of you for being a little vulnerable, being willing to come on and share your story and what you do with your foundation.

Chauncy: Absolutely. Thanks so much, Melissa for having us on. This has been fantastic.

Kelli: Thank you, Melissa. Adios, amigos.

Melissa: That was my interview with Chauncey and Kelly Johnson, the founders of the Snow Angel Foundation.

And I really appreciated them sharing that touching story of the tragedy their family walked through after that accident, losing their daughter Kelly's injury and many of the other things that they had to navigate and how they've used those experiences now to help teach and to educate others in a really loving and encouraging way.

They were both very real about their experiences. Chauncey even shared there about the experiences he had with alcoholism and trying to find his footing again after their family went through this tragedy.

But I loved how he also shared. He's now grateful for the opportunity to share their story and to help prevent more of these tragedies from happening with their campaign Ride Another Day.

And I really love the universal message behind that campaign, that every person can be aware of their personal behavior and how that affects others. And of course, that can be important for recreating in the outdoors or skiing and snowboarding.

But that is such an applicable message for so many situations. And so I really think it's a good message to help them share and get out into the world.

And I, of course, appreciated the tender messages they shared there at the end. Chauncey's encouragement to anyone that is walking through something similar or trying to find your own footing in life to not be afraid to reach out.

And then I really myself, personally needed to hear Kelly's message and reminder that when you're in those situations, when you see someone you think is behaving recklessly, that instead of going up and pointing that finger into their chest or getting the boxing gloves out to look at them and to put their arm around them and say, hey, I want to tell you a story, or I want to give you a different perspective on this.

And as she said, now that you've listened to this episode, you can consider them your friend. And if you are a skier or snowboarder and you're in these situations, you can put your arm around someone and say, let me tell you this story I heard from a friend and I want to tell it to you to help you to be safe and to be able to write another day.

So great message from both of them. Really appreciate them taking the time to come on and share that. And I will leave links to their website and their social media.

So if you want to donate or get involved with their organization in any way or, or also see the YouTube video that we mentioned in the episode, you can do that through those links.

And if you want to support the podcast, I just want to give the friendly reminder that you can subscribe or follow the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.

And you can also rate the podcast. We love getting 5 star reviews and good ratings. And finally, you can share this episode with a friend. Maybe as you listened today, you thought of someone, you know, who skis or snowboards and you thought maybe this message would be a good one to share with them.

So go ahead and share this episode with them.

Melissa: And as always this week, I hope.

Melissa: You can find a way to do something more to help lift, inspire, or make a difference.