The following post is written by Everett Tillett, Outreach Coordinator for the Flyin Ryan Hawks Foundation.
On Sunday March 1st, 2020, High Fives hosted their 9th annual Fat Ski a-thon fundraiser at Sugarbush on the Valley house quad chair. The event raised $248,000 for athletes who have sustained life changing injuries. Peter Hawks, the president of the Flyin Ryan Foundation was kind enough to support me and a few others in that event. As a team we fundraised $2,068 for the Fat Ski-a-thon. Sunday at Sugarbush was filled with an energy everyone enjoyed. Countless skiers and boarders wore unicorn, Cookie monster and other onesies while ripping around the mountain having a blast. At the base of the super bravo lift several tents of sponsors including demos from Parlor, Vokl, and K2 offered various merchandise for skiers and viewers alike. The businesses that attended were our friends at Ski The East, Skida, Cold Hollow Cider among many more. It was so cool to see many different people in the ski community come together for such an awesome day!
I had an exciting morning registering early and chatting with the event organizers, I even exchanged some words with Roy Tuscany, the director and founder at High Fives. He spoke kind words of Peter Hawks and the Flyin Ryan foundation. High Fives was kind enough to give everyone apparel for participating in the fundraiser. After registering, my morning consisted of skiing several runs off the valley house chair with one of my teammates and popping into Egans Woods a couple times. I met up with the rest of my team and we skied group laps together before some skiers went for an early lunch. The rest of us followed a bit later for grub provided by some of the local sponsors. Throughout our ski day, we emphasized skiing quality
runs over quantity. We found ourselves all over the mountain including a few runs off North Lynx in Birch woods to Castlerock and hopping to the esteemed Greg’s Poop Chute just off the side of Middle Earth.
We finished the day gathering with the rest of the participants in the Rumbles Bar for a beer and awards ceremony. With the work of additional sponsors and donors, High Fives was able to raise an extra $30,000 that day! There were several raffle winners at the end of the day. Although I didn’t win anything, I felt very lucky to have been a part of this fantastic event for such an amazing cause.