Student uses bat mitzvah skiathon to raise funds for Breckenridge Outdoor Education Center
Tracy Klein/Courtesy photo-1024×917
Seventh-grade student Maya Klein wanted to do something big for her bat mitzvah project.
Serving as a community-oriented initiative for Jewish teenagers, the project is meant to have a positive impact and act as a form of service prior to a girl’s bat mitzvah ceremony or a boy’s bar mitzvah ceremony, which are coming-of-age ceremonies for the religion.
Living in Summit County part time, Klein had grown accustomed to seeing the bright green jackets of Breckenridge Outdoor Education Center volunteers while enjoying a day of skiing.
Composed of passionate volunteers and employees, the Breckenridge Outdoor Education Center provides high-quality outdoor recreation opportunities to people who are typically excluded or overlooked from outdoor activities due to a disability or special need.
Klein was so inspired by the work the Breckenridge Outdoor Education Center does on a daily basis that she chose to focus her bat mitzvah project around the organization.
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“I chose the BOEC because I have always skied and have seen the people skiing with BOEC,” Klein said. “I really wanted to do something for them because at my school there is something called Unified P.E. I wanted to do something like that because it seemed really cool.”
With the Breckenridge Outdoor Education Center as the focus of her bat mitzvah project, Klein then decided to come up to Summit County from the Greenwood Village area in order to enjoy a couple days of skiing at Breckenridge Ski Resort.
Klein decided to complete a skiathon where she attempted to ski as much vertical feet as she could in one day at Breckenridge Ski Resort. Inspired by her older sister who completed her own ski-a-thon, Klein lapped chairs throughout the day and even made the hike from the upper terminal of Imperial Express SuperChair and over to the Lake Chutes.
It was during the Peak 8 hike that Klein said she faced her biggest challenge of the long ski day — the wind.
“We went up to the Lake Chutes at Breckenridge, and it was very, very windy,” Klein said. “The wind and the hike were probably the worst parts.”
By the end of the day, Klein had racked up 19,000 vertical feet of skiing. Since the skiathon on March 20, Klein has decided to use the amount of vertical she skied as a donation suggestion for the fundraiser she has launched for the Breckenridge Outdoor Education Center. Klein is asking for a donation per thousand vertical feet skied or a flat donation.
Throughout the winter, Klein has volunteered several times with the Breckenridge Outdoor Education Center and has seen firsthand the impact the organization has on its participants.
“I worked with four different kids with various things that they needed help with,” Klein said. “On my last day I helped someone with Down Syndrome. It was really like, ‘Wow!’ I didn’t really know what the kids had to go through while they were skiing.”
All of the money that is raised in the fundraising effort will then go to benefit Breckenridge Outdoor Education Center and its mission to support and empower people with disabilities.
“BOEC is a really nice organization, and it is only possible because of the volunteers and the equipment that they have,” Klein said. “… People donating would really help those who have a hard time skiing.”
To donate to Klein’s bat mitzvah project fundraiser, visit GoFundMe.com. The fundraiser has a $1,300 goal. Klein’s bat mitzvah ceremony is scheduled to take place later this month.
