Demand for Chris Anthony’s school visits keeps growing

VAIL — Warren Miller movie star and Vail resident Chris Anthony wants to send 40 kids to snow science camp this year. He has popular local artist Carrie Fell’s help, and on Tuesday, they’re auctioning off a painting she made especially for the cause.

It’s all part of Anthony’s Inspire 2.0 event at the Bluebird Theater in Denver. Anthony will screen the award winning film “Snowman,” and 12-year-old pianist Ian Michael Andrews will provide entertainment along with Eagle County band Bonfire Dub, fresh off their new single “Pilot.”

Proceeds go toward Anthony’s Youth Initiative Project, and its new subset, the Glide Project, which has partnered with Walking Mountains Science Center to send kids out in the field and provide them with beacons and macroscopes.

“I got the idea a few years ago when we saw kids wandering in the backcountry and searching for that extra snow, which I’m all for, but a lot of them are kind of blindly doing it without the knowledge of what they’re going into,” Anthony said. “I always thought, don’t build a cage around the kids, let’s educate them.”

Anthony set a goal of sending 40 kids to the Walking Mountains outdoor exploration camp, where they’ll learn how to dig and analyze snow pits to interpret how the snowpack changes throughout time and explore the ingredients necessary for avalanches to occur.

Support Local Journalism

Donate

The camp and materials, which they’ll get to keep, will cost about $4,500, which Anthony intends to pay out of money raised on Tuesday. Carrie Fell’s original signed acrylic painting has already received a bid of $3,000 in the lead up to the event. That painting is entitled, appropriately, “The Glide Project.”

DEMAND UP FOR SCHOOL VISITS

Anthony’s goal for The Glide Project is another goal in a long line of objectives set forth in his Youth Initiative Project. So far, he’s been very successful in meeting those goals.

Last year, his goal was to show the Warren Miller movie “Climb to Glory,” a 45-minute piece about the original ski troopers of the 10th Mountain Division, to as many students as possible.

After the first screening of “Climb to Glory” — held at the Sonnenalp in 2012 — producer Max Bervy foreshadowed Anthony’s efforts with the film.

“The goal is for our kids to see it, so when we’re all gone there’s a piece of history that they can relate to,” Bervy said.

Eight thousands students saw “Climb to Glory” last year, and Anthony is on pace to show the film to thousands more this fall.

“There’s more demand than I can supply right now for the school visits,” he said. “I’m getting two to three requests per day.”

SCHOLARSHIPS FOR 200 KIDS

At those school visits Anthony meets many kids, some of whom need help achieving their goals.

He offers individual scholarships to youth running into financial difficulty en route to achieving their dreams.

In total, 200 kids will benefit from his scholarship program.

Recently Anthony has provided money to a student taking astronaut training with NASA, and now has a music mentor visiting schools with him to offer music programs to kids.

“I would love to bring in more mentors for academics, arts and athletics,” Anthony said.

This winter, Anthony, along with Olympic medalist freeskier Nick Goepper, will take 40 kids from Gilpin Elementary School in Denver up to Breckenridge to expose them to the sport of skiing.

“I just don’t want the financial hurdle to stand in the way of these kids being exposed to these incredible mountains which are right here in their back yard,” he said.

To learn more about the Chris Anthony Youth Initiative Project, visit http://www.chrisanthony.com/youth-initiative/.