the old school initiative

What is The Old School Initiative?

The old school initiative has been established to assist with funding for certain local programs in Whistler and Pemberton. What’s more, our objective is to support programs or individuals, with a specific focus on snow and concrete (Skiing, Snowboarding and Skateboarding).

The Old School Initiative is still in what we would call the start-up phase and who knows where it will end up, and what the long-term focus will become.

*During COVID we provided financial support by way of donating to charities outside of the aforementioned focus.*

Who are we?

We are a collective of old schoolers (like some of us kind of knew Myrtle Philip) who grew up in Whistler and Pemberton or have deep ties to the area. Surprisingly, it was not that long ago when there were not enough kids for sports teams. So in the winter we skied (snowboarding wasn’t really a thing yet) and in the summer we skateboarded.

As far as skiing, most of us raced as that was the only organized program in the valley. During free time we tried to copy what was happening in Warren Miller films, and we still ski our asses off to this day. Influencers of the time were Mark Ghirardelli, Alberto Tomba, Glen Plake and Scott Schmidt. This gives you an idea of our vintage.

As far as skateboarding, this was of course prior to there being an established skateboard park in Whisler. So, we skateboarded in the village, ollieing off the stairs by the liquor store and getting chased by the bylaw officers, notwithstanding skateboarding was not officially banned from the village yet. We had a few locations with ramps in the valley and when it rained, we set up features in the lowest level of the underground parking underneath the conference centre. Often our parents drove us down to Sealyn Bowl in North Vancouver until there was a new bowl in Whistler. The Bones Brigade were our gods, and we know who Animal Chin is…”Have you seen him?”

There are a number of old schoolers from the area who have had a moderate level of success in life and business. The valley shaped who we are and we want to give something back to the valley.

That’s about all there is to it.

We are extremely excited to be collaborating with Foon Skis, a Pemberton based craft-ski company that is locally owned and operated.  40% of the profit from each pair of skis sold will be donated to the Old School Initiative, and 100% of those funds will be put towards the various initiatives and athletes we support.

When you buy a pair of Foon/Old School skis, you are not only buying a pair of locally hand-crafted skis and supporting a local business, you are also giving back to the Whistler and Pemberton community.

We value our supporting partners. Most of our supporting partners are made of up people or companies who also have deep ties to the area and are stoked about what The Old School Initiative is trying to do.

Want to help? If you are an athlete and are making a submission for support, please note a few things.

1) We focus specifically on “snow and Concrete” (more specifically: Skiing, Snowboarding, and Skateboarding)  Sorry, we don’t mean to discriminate against other great sports in the valley, but this is just kind of our thing.

2) We require that athletes and NOT PARENTS make the submission.  We really are interested to only hear directly from the athlete as we want to get to know the person we are considering for support

3) While athletic ability, accolades and goals are important, we are also very focused on how you contribute to our community.  Please spend as much time telling us about this as you do telling us about your athletic achievements.

4) References are always helpful.

Please excuse any delays in responding to your submission as this is all volunteer time.  We will respond! Thank you so much for your interest in The Old School Initiative.