A BOEC Love Story: Rob and Sarah Gutierrez

Rob Gutierrez and Sarah Sweet were looking forward to coming to the BOEC for an internship helping those with disabilities in an outdoor setting in 2019. Little did they know, this decision would change their lives forever. Rob and Sarah went on their first date in June of 2019 and have been inseparable ever since. They found a mutual love for each other and love of a full life filled with laughter, adventure and teamwork. 

Going back to the beginning of this beautiful story, Rob, originally from Texas, learned about the BOEC through an internet search while looking for a job post college graduation. He was interested in working with people with disabilities in an outdoor setting so BOEC was a natural fit. He applied and was accepted to join BOEC’s 2018 summer internship with the Wilderness Program. Sarah, from Oklahoma, applied to the same summer internship as Rob in 2017 after being referred by a close friend. However, after being accepted, she ultimately turned down the offer because she felt she wasn’t quite ready, instead going back to school to complete a Master’s degree in Parks and Recreation Management with the goal of re-applying upon graduation. In 2019, she remembers crying when she got the phone call accepting her to the program. 

The first week of the program was impactful for both Rob and Sarah. Rob and Sarah remember meeting new people and getting to know their fellow interns.  Rob shared this about his experience, 

“The bonds we built with my internship class were very strong and I’ll never forget sleeping at the old cabin and doing lots of icebreakers and team building games. We turned awkwardness into confidence.” Sarah remembers feeling like everyone she met at the BOEC was the coolest person she had ever met in her life. She also notes the bonds that formed immediately between the interns sharing, “To this day I still cannot believe how quickly and strongly the bond between my internship class was built during those early days of training. I experienced an intense feeling of being deeply known to my core and appreciated for the things that made me unique.” 

Over the course of the summer of 2018, Rob grew with the progression of the BOEC internship. He had immediately joined the BOEC after college with little knowledge of what to expect from the internship. Rob notes that BOEC not only helped him grow both personally and professionally, but also gave him life-long friends, an introduction to many types of people and adventures and, best of all, filled his life with love, kindness and compassion. 

After Sarah’s summer internship she decided to stay on with the BOEC and continued with the 2020 winter internship which ended a month early due to the emergence of COVID-19. She looks back on those experiences and thinks about how much her confidence grew beyond the experiential education skills she was learning,  growing as a person in so many ways, just as  Rob had experienced. She shares the impact she felt,

“I feel that the BOEC is unique in that I was given the perfect amount of support to flourish in areas I was confident in and also try new things and grow. I always knew I could step outside of my comfort zone and I would have support if I needed it. I have never experienced anything like that before or since and it is something I miss every day. We are life-long supporters of the BOEC. One of our most special memories from our wedding day was watching all of our closest BOEC friends that were able to attend drive up in an old BOEC van and fill up our dance floor!”

Throughout their time at the BOEC, both Sarah and Rob worked with numerous participants in both summer and winter seasons. Rob shares a favorite memory this way,

“During a Cleft Camp, a camp for children from Children’s Hospital in Denver with cleft lip/palate, a group of four young men asked if I could go and talk with them before lights out. They asked me about “life” including how to talk to girls and how you know when a girl likes you. That memory stands out to me and holds a special place in my heart because it was such an honest and vulnerable conversation between these young boys that I was able to be a part of. I hope they still think about it to this day the way I think about it.” 

Sarah admits that she has so many happy memories that it is difficult to choose just one. However, one particular trip taken with Mind’s Eye Travel, an agency offering accessible travel opportunities worldwide for the visually impaired and blind, absolutely changed her life. She shares her experience,

“I have so many happy memories it is tough to choose just one, but the inaugural Mind’s Eye Travel course has absolutely changed my life. On this course, I was lucky enough to hang out with the most fun fellow interns/people of all time, Austin Brockley and Kali Sanoy. Rob was the course director but he was letting the intern team take the reins as course directors for the first time.” 

Sarah continues her story,

“Leading up to the week, we talked a lot about etiquette when it comes to working with people who are blind or visually impaired. We all joked about who would be the first person to say something embarrassing. I may not have been the first, but in one trip in the van we were picking up someone and I shouted out “Okay everyone, keep your eyes peeled!” A participant from the back of the bus shouted back “Honey, you are talking to the wrong group of people!” The entire week was filled with laughter and joy and a zest for life I had not seen before. After leaving the BOEC, I got a job working with children who are blind and visually impaired and I’m going back to school to become a Certified Orientation and Mobility Specialist to continue working with the blind community, but hopefully in more of an outdoor setting. I am lucky enough to travel with Mind’s Eye Travel every now and then. Rob and I went from Zurich to Paris with them last April! My life took a new trajectory thanks to that course.” 

The first time Rob and Sarah met was at intern training, Sarah was doing her summer internship and Rob was in his second year with BOEC and working as a course director. Rob slipped on a patch of ice in front of everyone while facilitating lock-one, lock-two school, a training involving the use of a safety mechanism that is used to ensure safe passage along the high ropes course. Sarah said it was a hard first impression to forget and they did the “first look” on their wedding day in that exact spot. 

On the first course of the summer with the Brain Injury Alliance, a longtime partner of the BOEC, Sarah noticed how incredibly patient and fun Rob was in circumstances that she found overwhelming. She shares this moment, “We still joke about him asking me to help with a patient who needed some personal care I wasn’t familiar with and I looked at him and said “I’m going to need WAY more instruction than you are giving me.” I think Rob would agree we still have that same conversation in our marriage at times!” After the course had finished, the staff went on a camping trip to Buena Vista, another Colorado town rich with outdoor experiences. Rob and Sarah were “the odd men out” at a drive-in movie they went to see, so they sat together, spending the whole movie swapping snacks and talking. Shortly after that evening, Rob took Sarah on their first date to watch the sunset on Mt. Evans and the rest as she says, is history.  

This love story would not be complete without sharing the moment they each fell in love. Rob says,

“For me, it wasn’t one moment that made me fall in love with Sarah, but a lot of moments. Sarah is incredibly kind and I was drawn to the way she passionately talks about the things she loves like her family and her home state of Oklahoma. Sarah not only wanted all these things for me, but she also made me want to be a better version of myself. Even now that we are married, I wake up wanting to be better for me, but with the support from her. All of these combined made me realize that she is who I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.”

Sharing her experience, Sarah explains,

“Rob is impossible not to love. He is kind and fun and has this magic quality about him that makes you feel like you are the most special person in the entire room. He can somehow make everyone feel that way all at once. We went on our first date in June and were inseparable ever since. We said “I love you” for the first time in July. It is one of those moments where we fit so well together that falling in love so quickly was so easy. I knew I wanted to marry Rob by the end of that first summer. If you’ve ever had the pleasure of watching either of us dance, you know Rob is all hips and I’m all shoulders. Together in dancing and in life, we are equal partners who work together to create a fun life full of love, laughter, and teamwork.” 

Since their time together at the BOEC was cut short due to a change in operations in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Rob and Sarah left Breckenridge in March of 2020 and moved back in with their parents hoping the pandemic would end quickly and life as usual would resume in the mountains that they loved. After realizing the new normal, they both took jobs in Dallas, Texas. Sarah worked as a blind children’s specialist and later coordinator for the state and Rob worked as a rehab aide for Children’s Hospital. In December of 2020, they got engaged and married the next year at the Breckenridge Nordic Center. They celebrated their one year wedding anniversary by eating breakfast on the deck of the BOEC’s Scott Griffith Lodge. Recently, Rob was accepted into an entry-level Doctorate of Occupational Therapy program at Texas Woman’s University in Dallas, starting in June. Sarah is completing her Master of Special Education degree in orientation and mobility.

Wilderness Program Director, Jaime Overmyer, has seen many BOEC relationships develop over the past 20 years. She shares,

“Rob and Sarah were two incredible staff members who found each other at the BOEC through a shared love for helping people with disabilities find the outdoors.  It was fun to see their relationship blossom over their time here.  Everyone who works for the BOEC usually has a pretty similar mindset so it is not surprising that so many folks find the love of their lives here.”

Rob and Sarah echo this sentiment with Rob explaining the embodiment of unconditional love within the BOEC, “allowing us to work together to look past what we once thought possible” and as a place where anyone, no matter their age, background, or disability can come and be treated as if they are your oldest friend. Sarah not only sees the BOEC as the place she fell in love with Rob but also the place that shaped them as people. For them, they associate the Scott Griffith Lodge, on the BOEC’s Wilderness campus, as the place they watched all of their family and friends, from all phases of life, gather to celebrate their marriage and this new chapter together. They both made incredible life-long friends at BOEC, and dream of returning to settle down and start a family in Breckenridge where their love story began. They leave us with this heartfelt sentiment, “We are forever intertwined with the BOEC and it will always be the foundation of who we are as a couple and as individuals.”