Changing Lives Through Winter Fun: The Story of Winter4Kids

A means to an end. That is how Schone Malliet, CEO of Winter4Kids, sees skiing for the more than 14,000 kids his organization has introduced to the sport at the National Winter Activity Center in New Jersey. Now in its ninth year, Malliet talks about missions—his own and that of the Share Winter Foundation—and their relevance today in building opportunity through sport. 

THE HISTORY

Share Winter evolved from an initiative US Ski and Snowboard proposed in 2009 to introduce urban kids to winter activities. Malliet—whose USSS involvement spans coach, TD and partner—was enlisted to research the project, which led to the creation of the National Winter Sports Education Foundation, now called Share Winter. The mission of Share Winter is clear: to enrich the lives of youth through winter sports. It seeks to do so by introducing 100,000 kids to the sport sustainably.  Winter4Kids (W4K), based at its own dedicated mountain in New Jersey, fulfills that mission by offering kids winter sports skills, life-changing experiences, and opportunities. 

Winter4Kids partners with school and youth programs like the YMCA to enroll kids in a multi-year program called First Tracks, where kids aged 6-17 participate in their choice of Alpine, Nordic and Snowboard. W4K provides all equipment, transportation, instruction and food. “Our sole purpose is to make a difference in our kids’ lives,” says Malliet. These are kids who traditionally don’t have access to winter activities. The benefits include better health, mastering new physical activities, better nutrition, and positive attitudes about the outdoors and their futures. With that platform of opportunities, Malliet explains, “They can choose to go to college, choose to explore a sport, choose to ignore practical or physical limitations to enjoy something different and new.”

If anyone understands the concept of leveraging opportunities, it is Schone Malliet.

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TAKING THE ROAD NOT IMAGINED

Malliet was raised in New York City projects by a single mom without a high school education. It was a time when, in response to the riots of 1968 and ’69, schools started to proactively recruit black students who scored well on the Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. Malliet chose Holy Cross from a hat. “I’d never been out of my neighborhood and it opened my eyes not only to other ethnicities or groups but to other opportunities.” 

There, he learned critical thinking, and walked on to the basketball team despite having never played in high school. With no plan after graduation, he chose being a Marine officer because he had no job in mind and liked their uniforms. Having never been in an airplane, he became a pilot. In a vivid example of the power of perspective, Malliet recalls, “I didn’t know until I got above the clouds at flight school that the sun still shines. We take some things for granted, but we all experience the power of a change in perspective.”  

In addition to becoming a Holy Cross College graduate, Marine aviator, and earning an MBA from Pepperdine, he became CEO of two tech companies, a financial adviser and a VP at Wells Fargo. He insists he was not good at any of his pursuits initially, “but I got to learn.” 

FALLING HARD FOR THE SPORT

His first time skiing was much the same. On a break from a military exercise, he and his navigator got gear from their base and went to Park City. Instead of taking a lesson, he followed his friend, who was a skier. “It was the most miserable thing. I promised myself I was never gonna do this again.”

Malliet points to his skiing as an example of two things: “First, I was doing something I didn’t know I wasn’t supposed to; Second, I’ve never gotten anything right the first time.”

Malliet became intoxicated by the feeling of freedom he got on the slopes. While working in LA, he became active with the National Brotherhood of Skiers (NBS), making regular trips to Mammoth, which included the social ritual of apres ski. Malliet’s involvement with USSS had started as he embarked on his coaches education. At the invitation of the then head women’s US Ski Team coach Herwig Demschar, he even brought some NBS athletes to train with national team athletes in Chile. “Never once did I feel like I didn’t belong there, even though I wasn’t technically capable,” says Malliet. “USSS has always done some really, really good things, and I’m an example of the welcoming side.”

INCLUSION AS A CULTURE, NOT A COMMITTEE 

Taking and building on these opportunities helped erase his limitations and framed his vision for harnessing the full value of outdoor recreation. At its core, W4K offers opportunity and, as importantly, a safe, welcoming environment where kids from all backgrounds feel like they belong and can be who they are. The topic of DE&I as a Best Practice rather than a shared value raises questions Malliet believes are worth pondering: “Is diversity, equity and inclusion a committee, or is it a culture? Is it something you talk about around the table, or is it a way of life? I think that it’s both. It starts with talking around the table, but it needs to be the way things are, not something that you do.” 

The creation of the National Winter Activity Center goes back to the six months Malliet spent researching the USSS urban youth initiative in 2009. USSS dropped the concept, but their network connected Malliet with support and mentorship. Bolstered by that, he brought his findings and framework to the NBS, ultimately starting the National Winter Sports Education Foundation. 

When an NWSEF board member mentioned Hidden Valley, a bankrupt ski area in New Jersey, Malliet advised against purchasing it. “It was in bad, bad shape,” he recalls, noting the overgrown trails, decrepit infrastructure, and “snowmaking pipes you could push a pencil through.”  Nonetheless, a winter sports facility that lay a mere hour and seven minutes from Midtown Manhattan, accessible to the largest market in the country, was enticing. The organization bought it and ran a pilot program in the winter of 2014 with 180 kids. From there, an enthusiastic board gave the green light to develop the area into the NWAC. 

They installed a fully automated snowmaking system, rebuilt the lodge, resculpted the trails–which are FIS homologated for SL–and replaced the lifts. The project grew exponentially, eventually including a 1.5k Nordic loop with snowmaking and lights. Regarding the final cost, Malliet only says, “It’s been a lot of money. More than what we expected.” 

BRINGING DREAMS TO LIFE

NWAC and W4K became the physical entity and program to manifest all the things Share Winter wanted to do. That includes the First Tracks program and Team W4K, a competitive program for kids from U6 to U18 and beyond. Kids coming to the mountain for their first visit are often intimidated, but the objectives are simple. First, they get equipment. Then, Malliet explains, they need to learn four things: “That is to turn, to fall, to be able to stop and to be able to get up. If you get them to do that, you’ve given them all the things they need to be safe.” From there, kids progress through the curriculum based on meeting skill criteria rather than by time. “After the first six visits, they come back and they’re comfortable and choose which sport to master. They understand it, they know their equipment and they want to come back.”

Thinking back to those apres ski gatherings in Mammoth, Malliet knew that more than experiences and even skills are needed to create lasting value for kids. They also need community. Programs are required to create a winter activity club at their home organization to build that critical component. These kids become part of their club, giving them a safe space and place to connect within their own communities.  

When they “graduate” from the First Tracks program, Camelback Resort offers club members free season passes and a chance to continue the sport. “Too often, we want to say these kids will never ever be able to afford the sport,” says Malliet. “The big thing about poverty is that it cuts off dreaming. Life changes and the sport changes them for life. Maybe now they think about leaving a neighborhood, and maybe they think about going to school, or they think about getting a skill.”

MENTAL HEALTH AND TRAUMA PREVENTION

For kids across the whole spectrum of ethnicities, locations and economics, the cost of trauma response—to the consequences of negative behaviors triggered by things like family situations, bullying, food insecurity and more— far exceeds the cost of trauma prevention. Covid clarified that the program’s value was in allowing kids to use winter sports as a means to changing their lives. By layering access and sports skills with life skills and healthy meals in a non-violent environment, the program gives kids a positive alternative to the negative behaviors triggered by unmitigated trauma. To schools that use participation as a reward, Malliet says, “Great, but can you also give me the bottom 20%—the ones that you’ve written off or forgotten because I think that we can make a difference.” 

W4K engages with individuals and foundations beyond the skiing community, supporters for whom trauma prevention and mental health resonates loudly. One example: through a partnership with the Annie E Casey Foundation, formerly incarcerated youth are introduced to winter sport and the possibility of becoming apprentices in operations like snowmaking. “Here we have the opportunity of caring about them, making them feel welcome, and then giving them opportunities,” says Malliet.  

SPORTS PLUS-A SACRED PLACE FOR KIDS 

The original plan involved bringing high-level racing to its state-of-the-art race facility, both to draw participation and spectators. NWAC hosted FIS slaloms in 2017 and NorAm parallel for men and women in 2020. Malliet still sees elite racing as an opportunity. “If we want to get more athletes in and more fans, we’ve got to bring the sport to them,” he says. The new lodge in the works features an unobstructed view from inside of the entire race hill. At its heart, however, NWAC remains a “sacred place for kids,” and Malliet’s favorite place remains the finish corral, encouraging kids as they come through. “I tell parents it’d be great if everybody got on the podium, but that’s not it. I want your kids to sit there at the end of the season and say, ‘I had the most incredible experience.’ That’s all I want them to have.”

MOVING TOWARDS SUSTAINABILITY

Winter4Kids is projected to serve 14,000 kids a year by 2027. The subsequent growth stage is becoming operationally sustainable—where fundraising accounts for roughly 25% of the budget— and setting up an endowment.

The realization of values- and health-based outcomes has opened up funding and partnerships from individuals and foundations who embrace Winter4Kids for its profound and lasting positive impact on kids’ lives. Malliet notes that key supporters from the USSS community have been vital at every stage of the organization’s evolution, chief among them Dexter Paine, Paul Fremont Smith and Simon Bachleda, all of whom were honored as Winter4Kids “heroes” last spring. “We are excited for these heroes and everyone whose support allows us to change and save lives.” 

HOW TO HELP

People can support W4K’s mission with financial support, and Malliet invites the skiing community to visit on Martin Luther King weekend when all the programs are running. He urges people to see the total value of the sport in the lives of all who participate. “The sport does more than just us making great tracks or finishing a great run. It really does change lives and if we can marry those things together, I think we make a tremendous contribution to communities and society.”

To learn more about Winter4Kids, to donate, or to get involved, go to: https://www.winter4kids.org