{"id":88443,"date":"2025-01-09T09:14:27","date_gmt":"2025-01-09T14:14:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/?p=88443"},"modified":"2025-01-14T15:27:56","modified_gmt":"2025-01-14T20:27:56","slug":"new-lilwat-ski-and-snowboard-team-hits-the-slopes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/09\/new-lilwat-ski-and-snowboard-team-hits-the-slopes\/","title":{"rendered":"New Lil’wat ski and snowboard team hits the slopes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0By Luke Faulks, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter Pique Newsmagazine Sandy Ward had only been snowboarding for a year or two when Aaron Marchant, founder of the First Nations Snowboard Team, invited her to join a small group of other Indigenous youth to train for the 2010 Olympics. That was in 2005. Now, Ward is leading her own winter sports youth team, the Lil’wat Nation Qw\u00edxwla7 (sliding) ski and snowboard team. Over the next nine weeks, she and two other coaches will take more than 70 skiers and snowboarders between the ages of eight and 22 up to Whistler Blackcomb for lessons and a whole lot of winter fun. “I started in that program, and it got me to where I am today,” said Ward. “So I see how important it… <\/p>\n

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\u00a0By Luke Faulks, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter Pique Newsmagazine Sandy Ward had only been snowboarding for a year or two when Aaron Marchant, founder of the First Nations Snowboard Team, invited her to join a small group of other Indigenous youth to train for the 2010 Olympics. That was in 2005. Now, Ward is leading her own winter sports youth team, the Lil’wat Nation Qw\u00edxwla7 (sliding) ski and snowboard team. Over the next nine weeks, she and two other coaches will take more than 70 skiers and snowboarders between the ages of eight and 22 up to Whistler Blackcomb for lessons and a whole lot of winter fun. “I started in that program, and it got me to where I am today,” said Ward. “So I see how important it... <\/p>\n

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Log in here<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":101363,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-88443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","category-ticker","pmpro-level-required","pmpro-level-3","pmpro-level-2","pmpro-level-5","pmpro-level-4","pmpro-level-6","pmpro-level-7","pmpro-no-access"],"yoast_head":"\nNew Lil'wat ski and snowboard team hits the slopes - The Turtle Island News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/09\/new-lilwat-ski-and-snowboard-team-hits-the-slopes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New Lil'wat ski and snowboard team hits the slopes - The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u00a0By Luke Faulks, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter Pique Newsmagazine Sandy Ward had only been snowboarding for a year or two when Aaron Marchant, founder of the First Nations Snowboard Team, invited her to join a small group of other Indigenous youth to train for the 2010 Olympics. That was in 2005. Now, Ward is leading her own winter sports youth team, the Lil’wat Nation Qw\u00edxwla7 (sliding) ski and snowboard team. Over the next nine weeks, she and two other coaches will take more than 70 skiers and snowboarders between the ages of eight and 22 up to Whistler Blackcomb for lessons and a whole lot of winter fun. “I started in that program, and it got me to where I am today,” said Ward. “So I see how important it\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/09\/new-lilwat-ski-and-snowboard-team-hits-the-slopes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TurtleIslandNews\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-01-09T14:14:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-01-14T20:27:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/facebooklogo.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"725\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"483\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lynda Powless\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@newsattheturtle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@newsattheturtle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lynda Powless\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/01\\\/09\\\/new-lilwat-ski-and-snowboard-team-hits-the-slopes\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/01\\\/09\\\/new-lilwat-ski-and-snowboard-team-hits-the-slopes\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Lynda Powless\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7b188fd7503577895ef8b306988cd458\"},\"headline\":\"New Lil’wat ski and snowboard team hits the slopes\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-01-09T14:14:27+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-01-14T20:27:56+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/01\\\/09\\\/new-lilwat-ski-and-snowboard-team-hits-the-slopes\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":672,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"National News\",\"ticker\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/01\\\/09\\\/new-lilwat-ski-and-snowboard-team-hits-the-slopes\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/01\\\/09\\\/new-lilwat-ski-and-snowboard-team-hits-the-slopes\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/01\\\/09\\\/new-lilwat-ski-and-snowboard-team-hits-the-slopes\\\/\",\"name\":\"New Lil'wat ski and snowboard team hits the slopes - 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