February 12, 2009 Youth Enrichment Services: A Champion in Action Play video

(Latoyia Edwards, NECN: Boston, MA) - Skiing can challenge your self-doubt and elevate your self-confidence

For the last 40 years, skiing has helped keep many Greater Boston kids out of trouble. Will Morales was ten years old when Youth Enrichment Services took him skiing.

"For some reason 24 of you make a right and you are the one person who makes a left."

Navigating wrong turns is part of Will Morales' instruction for skiing and for life. By age 20, he was serving a seven-year jail sentence, had lost his brother to street violence, and was a considered a major Boston gang leader.

Will openly shares his rough neck to role model story with a group from the Walter Denny Youth Center. He learned to read in jail and once he gained his freedom, Will traded his gang life for a college degree and a career helping young people.

He is now Chief operating Officer with Youth Enrichment Services, --the program commonly referred to as YES. He says the YES ski trip showed him at a young age that his chaotic environment did not have to dictate his future.

90 percent of the children in the program come from modest means. YES removes the financial roadblock providing the young people a chance to ski down some of New England’s ritziest slopes.

"For the first ski trip, its 45 dollars for an individual and that includes the lift tickets the transportation, the lesson and the equipment. After that its only ten dollars per person."

Bumping

into these Walter Denny Youth Center kids brought a touch of nostalgia you see 20 years ago, I was one of these kids going to this youth center being fitted for my first pair of skis for my first ski trip with the YES program. But back when I was twelve years old they didn't have snowboards.

“I was scared at first but then I got the hang of it after 2 hours. People were helping us. Teaching us how to ski. How to break how to go and stop. It was fun.”

YES was founded by the late Richard Williams in 1968- Williams fell in love the Winter Olympics as a child though his family didn't have much money. He and his wife Mary dedicated their lives to uniting the poor and the wealthy, and all races on the ski slopes.

The YES program also provides job training for teenagers like Charissa. The high school senior is in state care and is required to have a job. Charissa says YES gives her much more than employment -- -it has become a respite from the pain of losing a loved one.

The demand for Youth Enrichment Services is growing but the agency's funding is uncertain. Bryan:"We are concerned over the next few years the economy is going to do to a place like YES.

Charissa: "If you can support this it shows you care about the kids that want to get a job and really want to do something with their life."

Despite the country's financial predicament, YES says it will not turn away any young person in need.