When Noah Chutz decided to move to Colorado from California, his main intention was to be a ski bum in Vail. But while looking for jobs to help pay for lift tickets, Chutz came across an ad in the Vail Daily looking for a youth snowboarding mentor. "All I saw was 'youth', 'snowboarding', and 'mentor'," he said. "I had been a camp counselor and mentor in the past so those were three clutch words."

After an interview, Chutz had become part of the Snowboard Outreach Society (SOS), an organization whose mission is to build character in at-risk and underprivileged youth to enhance decision making for healthy and successful life experiences.

Chutz became a leader in SOS's University Program, a four year intensive leadership program in which a small group of youth must complete a set of requirements in order to graduate. As a "sherpa," Chutz led a group of five teenage males, all with similar snowboarding abilities, all from local low income areas around Vail Valley, to complete their required hours on the hill, five days a week. His main goal was to push the kid's boundaries to show them what they're capable of accomplishing. "We like to get these kids from the local low income areas out because they live in such a cool part of the country but can't afford to play," he said.

Although his snowboarding ability improved, another skill Chutz gained from the program was patience. "I haven't had a lot of experience with teenagers so that was a total educational experience," he said. "There's a fine line between friends and authority figure and it was a challenge to try and establish myself as an authority figure, though not a traditional one."

Chutz is has been volunteering since he was 16 years old. On top of SOS, he volunteers with Boulder's Celiac Community and had recently battled with CU to get gluten free foods into the dorms. To Chutz, volunteering is a way of doing jobs he's always been interested in without the pressure of wondering if he's qualified enough to get paid for it. So in that regard, it's a fun way to work. But knowing that he is benefiting someone's life is what makes it most worthwhile.

"If it's improving someone else's experience, I want to keep doing it," he said. "I would love to see if I could be a full time youth mentor." So what keeps him coming back to SOS? "It doesn't get much better than having fun with kids on a snowboard in the mountains," he said.

For information about volunteering with the Snowboard Outreach Society or other agencies, call the Volunteer Connection at 303-444-4904, or go to our Volunteer Central.