Clad in a red checkered jacket and green snow pants, Ron Joseph wouldn't want to be anywhere else.
The 11-year-old Grade 6 student at the Nusdeh Yoh House of the Future School (the Aboriginal Choice School) has returned to Tabor Mountain for his second-straight year with Switch.
"I wanted to come back this year, it was fun," he said. "I came out every weekend last year, and at spring break. I liked going up the lift and going down the jumps."
Nusdeh Yoh is a tight-knit school and Switch helps build connections between students and the community.
"A lot of these kids never get out of their neighbourhood, and the school has a lot of support programs," said Alison Thibodeau, Nusdeh Yoh's community co-ordinator.
"Ron has natural abilities, he picked it up so fast. He really likes it."
It's Thibodeau's second year as a chaperone and she notices the changes that occur in students who participate in Switch.
"Their confidence and self-esteem increases and they're able to try new things," she said. "They become more connected to the people they meet and it's amazing how fast they take to it [snowboarding].
"It's wonderful for them to have that feeling of success. It's good [for them] to be outside. It's healthy. It's fun."
Switch previously operated as the Prince George Chill program. In April, 2013, the Chill Foundation, based in Burlington, Vt., announced it could no longer support programming in Prince George.
Chill has since been re-branded as Switch and is facilitated locally by Intersect Youth and Family Services.
"The idea behind it is two-fold," said program co-ordinator Meredith Bogle. "To provide youth who have the opportunity to snowboard and local service providers to foster relationships with Northern Health, School District 57 and group homes."
Youth range in age from 11 to 18 years old and come from all different walks of life.
"By the third week of the program, they've progressed so much and they've never skied before," Bogle said.
"There's been unreal feedback. These kids face all sorts of different adversity and now they're in a win-win situation."
Switch continues at Tabor Mountain for the next five weekends until March 2.
About 60 youth will participate.
-- Johnson, Citizen staff