The Snowboarder's Journal - The Snowboarder's Journal 20.2
RIGHT THINGS, RIGHT REASONS: The A-Rob Plant a Seed Project
Words, Photos and Captions: Jeff Hawe 2022-11-01 10:02:27
Skylar Donaldson sessions a jump just below the Whitefish Mountain Resort, MT, base area. Skylar and his fellow “Seed Riders” hand-shaped and rode it once the lifts had stopped spinning for the day.
On a cold, cloudy day in late March, Pam Robinson tidies up her Columbia Falls, MT home after a long day at Whitefish Mountain Resort. She speaks of her boys growing up riding the hill formerly known as Big Mountain and the changes she’s seen during her years living in the Flathead Valley. Our conversation shifts to the A-Rob Plant a Seed Project, the nonprofit organization Pam founded in honor of her late son Aaron, which aims to provide snowboarding opportunities to kids who wouldn’t have them otherwise. I’ve just come back from riding alongside Plant a Seed’s participating kids and coaches.
Pam shares an unexpected story about an altercation a couple of years back involving a “Seed,” the nickname she affectionately calls kids in the program. This Seed and his friend were sharing a chairlift ride with two local boys when apparently one of the boys said something offensive about the Seed’s mother. The Seed’s reaction was harsh, shoving the boy who insulted him from the lift. Fortunately, the kid was OK, but as one could imagine, the Seed’s actions went over with ski patrol like a lead brick. After patrol, the sheriff and mountain management all had their say, Pam sat down with the Seed. She understood what he was going through in his life outside this moment. She told him, “You’re doing the wrong thing for the right reasons,” and explained how he could have better handled the situation.
At the root of what Director Pam Robinson and the Plant a Seed Project are out to accomplish is a desire to help families set kids up with important skills to navigate a challenging world. They use snowboarding experiences and community as the drivers to do that.
“When Aaron was alive, he was very helpful to everybody,” Pam says. Aaron was known to help someone he saw struggling with learning to ride, and would skip a lap with friends to teach that person the basics. “That was just the way he was,” Pam continues, “not just with snowboarding—with anything.”
Aaron was a 25-year-old up-and-coming pro who had settled into a rhythm of endless winter. When temps warmed in the Northern Hemisphere he’d chase the season south to Chile, spreading his undeniable and infectious stoke along the way. But in July 2011, he tumbled into rocks off-piste near El Colorado ski area and suffered a fatal head injury. It shook the snowboarding community and the Robinsons to their core. Aaron was survived by parents Pam and Jeff, older brother Jason (also a pro snowboarder) and younger brother Sean, who sought to keep his memory alive. “We wanted to do something that he would be proud of,” Pam says. They launched Plant a Seed during the 2011-12 winter season.
While the family focused on establishing the nonprofit, the snowboarding community rallied to fund it. Aaron’s sponsors K2, Volcom and Airblaster, along with Jason’s sponsor Lib Tech, delivered gear. By January 2012, Plant a Seed had 12 kids signed up, with gear and money for lift tickets. But Pam knew she needed a coach. She turned to a longtime family friend and veteran snowboarding instructor, Brett Urbach, who had coached Jason when he was young. Brett says, “Pam came up to me that summer [after Aaron’s passing] and we had a big cry, and through tears she told me what they wanted to do. I told her, ‘I’m in.’”
It’s a partnership that has only grown since. Winter 2021-22 was Plant a Seed’s 11th year of operation. Thirty kids spent their Friday nights riding together under the lights of Whitefish Mountain Resort. Each season the foundation brings together a blend of groms who’ve never strapped in with some who’ve been riding for a season or more in the program. Plant a Seed continues to provide board, boots, bindings, helmets, lessons and transportation to and from the hill once a week. Pam even brings home-cooked meals to every session.
The nonprofit has swelling support from the community and a flood of young kids eager to participate. Eleven-year-old Ethan Laughrey first strapped in with the program at age 6 and continues to ride with Plant a Seed. “It keeps you moving,” he says. “You’re not just sitting on the couch in the winter. It’s super fun. You can make a career out of it, too.” After thinking a bit more, Ethan adds that snowboarding with Plant a Seed has taught him how to wake up and get ready on time, an important life skill.
Fourteen-year-old Bridger Donaldson, a program alumnus, elaborates on how the group of friends he has made through the program are some of his closest ever, saying they ride together regularly. As a mentor, he shares his knowledge with kids in the program. “I really like seeing the kids lap the boxes and rails and practicing board slides,” he says. “I wasn’t at that level, being taught at that age. So it’s just really cool to see the kids learning early.” Bridger wants to transition to being a formal coach in the future.
There is no shortage of people willing to help with Plant a Seed, whether through coaching and chaperoning or donating services. Whitefish Mountain Resort donates one season pass annually to the program. Stumptown Snowboards provides waxing and tuning for boards. The Smash Life Banked Slalom—an annual memorial for Aaron Robinson and Dillon Candelaria at nearby Lost Trail Powder Mountain, and a vital fundraiser for Plant A Seed—continues to raise a significant portion of the nonprofit’s operating budget. The snowboarding community’s love for Smash Life grows stronger every year.
Brett believes this was Plant a Seed’s best year yet, attributing the program’s growing success to a recent change to the age qualification, which now allows kids ages 8 to 12 years old to participate. He also details how some of the kids move on from Plant a Seed to become members of the Whitefish Mountain Resort Freestyle Team. “The goal for snowboarders [in Plant a Seed] is to go from the top of the mountain to the bottom of the mountain without hurting yourself or anybody else out there, and having the most fun possible,” Brett says. “Other than that, there’s no real rules and these kids love that.”
All of this has succeeded in carrying on Aaron’s legacy of stoke, positivity and love for snowboarding. People often pull Pam aside at events to tell her Aaron is smiling down on them. Pam agrees, saying, “Aaron would be real stoked to know that we have all these kids that couldn’t stand on a snowboard—couldn’t even spell the word, knew nothing about snowboarding—and now that’s all they want to do. He just wanted them to enjoy the freedom, and the excitement, and to meet friends. The snowboarding community—there’s nothing like it.”
Donations to A Rob’s Plant a Seed Foundation can be made at paypal.com/paypalme/arobplantaseed
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