The Open Blog

3 Ways We've Given Back This Year

Since 2015 we’ve been giving back to causes all over the world that are important to us. This winter was no different, and we had the opportunity to dive into new projects. Here’s what we got up to.

Snow-Camp-UK-Teens

 

1. We partnered with Snow-Camp

Over the season, our teams have been rallying their teams to support the work of Snow-Camp, a UK based charity that helps to improve the lives of inner-city young people through snow-sports. You may have heard of some of the events the teams held to raise awareness and money for our charity partners. This included:

  • Start of season raffle by the Méribel team
  • Moguls workshop for clients in Tignes
  • Seasonnaire freestyle camp in the Espace Killy
  • Taster sessions for holidaymakers in Paradiski
  • A pub quiz in La Tania
  • The St Anton team held a charity raffle
  • The Bozel office team did an “I can offer…” skills swap within the team

In total, we managed to raise £4988.07 for Snow-Camp’s work. This is the equivalent of putting 49 young people through their Fast-Track programme or 2 young people being fully funded through their year-long programme.

We also had the pleasure of teaching Jenny the Snow-Camp mascot to ski while the team were out in Avoriaz for the Snowboxx Festival.

This was our first year as a partner with Snow-Camp. We’re really excited to see where this will go in the future in helping to inspire, support and develop inner-city young people in the industry we love.

Snow-Camp Mascot

2. We gave over 55K days of education

We’re really proud of our One-for-One promise. It’s based on the very simple premise that for every hour we teach on snow, we donate a day’s education to a child in India through B1G1 and the HOPE Foundation. This year we managed to surpass last year’s total and donate a whopping total of 55,597 days of education. Through our instructor training programmes, we’ve also provided 318 days of support in Independent Living Skills to orphans in Ukraine.

For every one of you that skied with us this season, you have helped us to make this possible. Supporting our clients’ needs on snow and developing their skills is at the heart of what we do. Being able to do the same for Children in less fortunate circumstances makes our job even more worthwhile! Following from last year’s One for One promise, we had an update from the HOPE Foundation on some of the developments:

  • 11 students participated in Interschool competition held by VIT (Vellore Institute of Technology) at Vandalur, with several of the students winning prizes
  • 8th & 9th year students conducted the Student Leadership Conference – “DREAM 2020”. The whole conference was completely organised and run by the students. A total of 150 students which includes 96 students from neighbouring Government/Private schools participated and 6 speakers conducted various sessions.
  • There has been a 95% increase in usage of digital tools and resources by the teachers for teaching & learning and for research & development.

In the 2018-19 academic year, HOPE school endeavours to educate and prepare 420+ students to be responsible contributing citizens to the community. To achieve this volunteer participation is encouraged throughout the year to contribute in confidence building, innovation and creativity. These volunteers serve as role models for the students. The students are encouraged to conduct activities like mural painting, planting saplings, playing sports, conduct motivational sessions or share skills. Hopefully, our support from the One for One Promise will help to achieve this target.

B1G1

3. Left a small footprint behind

At New Gen, we want to make a positive impact on the world in which we live. Equally, we want to minimise our impact on the environment in which we work. We’ve been thinking of ways we can do this. Some steps we have taken to do this include:

  • We’ve tried to minimise waste of old uniforms or winter clothing by reusing them and sending them to those in need. At the start of the season, you may remember we donated 3 boxes of warm clothing to Calais. At the end of the winter, the St Anton team also donated 25 old uniforms to go to Bosnia to help keep them protected from the elements next winter
  • In the head office, we’ve made a conscious effort to limit our printing and paper waste. We have a tool that turns shredded paper into bricks that we have then been reusing as fire starters. Also, our annual brochures are printed on eco-friendly material.
  • Through Kiva we have supported projects working to tackle waste including Indosole, a footwear company in Indonesia helping to reduce the number of tyres going to landfill by recycling the rubber to make shoes.

We’re really proud of how our charity giving initiatives have grown and evolved over the years, and we’re looking forward to another season ahead – brainstorming up new ways we can impact the communities that are important to us.

Want to get involved? You can easily donate to Snow-Camp, or even easier – just ski with us! A portion of every lesson booked goes towards these projects. So you’re helping us make an impact without even lifting a finger.