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Beaver Meadow School second-grader Hudson Brown slid across the snow with ease, first pushing off on one ski, and then two.
Sporting a Celtics hat, he made his way across the snow-covered baseball field on a cold sunny day, along with his friends in the physical education class
“I get to eat snow, and I get to ski,” said Hudson, who had never skied before, but hoped to get faster.
Brown wasn’t the first and won’t be the last from his school to ski, either. The school’s second-year physical education teacher, Patrick McDonough, connected with the New England Nordic Ski Association to bring its “Nordic Rocks” program to Concord.
Nordic Rocks helps schools across the region teach cross-country skiing in hopes of growing the sport and promoting outdoor recreation and fun in the winter.
That’s exactly what the first day of the winter Nordic curriculum looked like at Beaver Meadow. First, McDonough sat his students down and explained how the skis work.
“My goal is to teach the kids to love being outdoors and to love Nordic skiing,” he said while skiing with the students. “That’s my biggest goal as a P.E. teacher, to really teach lifelong activities.”
Mackenzie Rizio, the youth and introductory program director for the Nordic association, helped McDonough throughout the day as each class was introduced to cross-country skiing.
Students asked questions and goofed around a little. Once the skis were on, though, they wanted to venture out onto the track.
Each student put on one ski to begin, and learned how to maintain their balance while pushing off with the other foot.
Many fell, but they kept getting back up and tried new methods of pushing off as they figured out how to move.
Day one was a success in McDonough’s eyes.
“There’s been really, really, really good reviews. A little difficult, for a lot of these kids, it’s an inaugural program,” he added.
Rizio explained that the program has 65 partner schools with around 8,000 students registered to participate this winter. They offer a five-lesson curriculum, instructional videos, game ideas and allow schools to keep the skis as long as they keep using them.
It’s funded by the Share Winter Foundation and the Killington World Cup Foundation. The equipment consists of Madshus skis and Lost Nation R&D snowboot bindings that adjust to fit any boot size, which were developed in Albany, Vt.
The design of the adjustable binding made it easy for students to get on the skis and glide away.
“This is a lot of kids’ very first time on skis in many of our partner schools,” Rizio said. “It’s sort of magical to see them. The gear starts kind of clicking and they pick it up really fast.”
That’s McDonough’s hope. The school is next to the Beaver Meadow golf course, and he wants to bring students there as they get more comfortable session over session, year over year.
