It takes an entire community of donors and community partners, staff, board, volunteers, interns, participants, and clients, to come together and complete a year of programming and events at BOEC. We are grateful to our community for this collective effort and we are eager and proud to share the highlights of the past year with you!

Below we summarize the past year at BOEC. But first, we wanted to share the following words from an interview between BOEC’s Operations Manager Lydia North and Key Partner, Keystone Resort, which succinctly capture the purpose of BOEC:

“It is so critical to have access to the outdoors, not just for one particular activity, but year-round. So many social experiences are based around what you can do outside, and this is especially true in Colorado where outdoor experiences are the bedrock of community life.

My favorite part of my work is seeing a group come together and, through outdoor experiences, grow together. So often, our participants enter a space as total strangers and exit the space as a new family. It’s such a privilege to get to see that transition.

When you’re in an outdoor space, tackling the unique challenges of an outdoor environment, growing together and achieving new things together – it adds a whole new element to the community-building experience. It builds a deeper connection.”

The last year was eventful at BOEC with outdoor adventures abounding. Both the Wilderness and Adaptive Ski and Snowboard Programs thrived. The Adaptive Ski and Snowboard Program taught 2,920 lessons to groups and individuals throughout the season between Breckenridge, Keystone, and Copper Mountain ski resorts. We introduced new ski program uniforms continuing the tradition of the green jackets. Sponsors supporting this project include First Bank, Centura, Rockridge Construction and Blue River Sports/Mountain Wave. 

The Wilderness Program had fun working with 1,159 participants across 84 courses over 3,423 program days. We hosted many groups who have been longtime partners and welcomed  some new groups including The Woods Project from Houston, Texas. BOEC continued focusing on infrastructure improvements and capital projects to protect and preserve the Wilderness Campus and program operations. 

Programs specifically for military members, veterans, and their families were offered in both summer and winter serving 185 individuals. BOEC’s Heroic Military Program taught over 250 Adaptive Ski and Snowboard lessons and hosted 10 Wilderness Program river trips and mountain retreats across the mountain west. We continued our collaboration with Craig Hospital’s Operation TBI Freedom serving veterans with mild to moderate traumatic brain injury (TBI). We received generous funding from the Department of Veteran Affairs, Limber Grove, First Nation Group and other donors to support this program.

The BOEC Internship Program excelled in 2023 with both summer and winter intern classes, with 10 interns and 15 interns respectively, engaging in several months of hands-on experiential education training and many hours of programming. The BOEC Internship Program is non-revenue generating and relies on the support of generous donors to ensure sustainability.  The Moniker Foundation continues to support the cost of this important program for the fifth year.  

We celebrated Jeff Inouye’s induction into the Adaptive Sports Hall of Fame, celebrating 30 years of contributions to the adaptive ski and snowboard industry. Jaime Overmyer completed a huge milestone, her 20th year with BOEC starting as an intern and advancing to Wilderness Program Director. 

BOEC’s Volunteer Program is more successful than ever, nearing 500 volunteers. Last winter season, we had 275 active volunteers, and 122 new volunteers, who worked a total of 15,320 hours. During the summer, we had 45 active volunteers who worked a total of 1,084 hours. Of our volunteers, 37 are Military Veterans/Active Duty. We were thrilled to honor Wilderness Volunteer of the Year, Sung-Eun Choi, and Adaptive Ski and Snowboard Program Volunteers of the Year Brad Baltz and Anne Daly and Rookie of the Year, John Lucey.

BOEC’s fundraising events take place year-round and included viewing adventure films at Banff Mountain Film Festival for the 14th year, Tee It Up Golf Scramble, a fun, sunny day at The Ranch Golf Course at Keystone Resort, Fiesta for BOEC, hosted by Mi Casa Restaurant and Cantina, and an Online Auction full of fabulous items and experiences.

Longtime participants Beth Newsom and Jada Taddeo were featured in storytelling videos that we love to share. Please visit https://www.youtube.com/@breckenridgeoutdooreducation to see their incredible stories and to check out the new BOEC feature video and the internship video, highlighting the work we do and the impact the BOEC has on the participants we serve.

BOEC works hard each year to keep costs low for participants, in addition, we continue our long tradition of awarding scholarships to those in need.  In 2022-23 BOEC awarded a total of $250K in scholarships and 100% of the participants and groups who requested financial assistance were granted awards.

Looking towards the future of BOEC, we are excited to share that the Town of Breckenridge has granted BOEC two 75-year leases for BOEC’s administrative headquarters and Wilderness Campus securing BOEC’s future for many years to come. Continued progress on the five-year strategic plan is a major focus of the whole team and BOEC continues to be committed to pursuit of equitable employee compensation, improved benefits, and training.

Closing out the year, we express our gratitude for the kindness and generosity of donors like you. We not only surpassed our fundraising goal but also achieved a new record for our most successful holiday giving campaign to date! Collectively, we raised an outstanding $555,353 from 429 donors.

Hear from some of our participants how the BOEC impacted them in the last year. 

“I want to sincerely thank you for the opportunity to take my special needs daughter skiing. This program is truly a blessing and I am so grateful she got to experience this.  We will be coming back for many years to come and have spread the word where we’re from about this wonderful program.  Both sets of volunteers we had were phenomenal and gave my daughter first class treatment. Thank you again, from a deeply grateful mother.” – Eliza (mother of participant Ella)

“The BOEC team is a true inspiration and blessing. Every member of the team showed such positivity, patience, caring, compassion and commitment to the families that were present. There gregarious attitudes and attention to details to every individual adult or child was amazing. Every BOEC member I had the privilege to speak to one on one was inspirational. The entire team was and is at the top of their game.” – Operation TBI Freedom Participant“Having the opportunity to bi-ski with the BOEC was life-changing for me. It opened my world to what I could do as a person with a disability rather than staying closed in to what I couldn’t do. Thank you all for all you do!” – Andee