Maison Sport Teams Up with Snow Camp

16th October 2022

Last modified on October 20th, 2022

Maison Sport is donating a percentage of bookings revenue to Snow Camp.

This will fund underprivileged children’s first ski lessons and trips to the slopes.

Maison Sport will also offer internships for two apprentices, from Snow Camp.

Snow Camp was founded in 2003 and works with young people from a diverse range of backgrounds, all of whom would never have access to skiing without the charity’s support.

Each year, over 800 young people join their courses at indoor snow centres taking them from complete beginner to qualified instructors in just one year.

As part of their training, young people also experience the mountain environment for the very first time.

Renee, age 21 from the North-West, pictured on the slopes in Passo Tonale on the 2022 Snow Camp Excel Course

“This life changing journey not only provides young people with new life skills and qualifications, but it also opens the door to work opportunities in the ski industry,” said the founder of Snow Camp, Dan Charlish.

96% of young people who complete Snow Camp move on to either employment, further training, education, or other positive destinations.

Ahlam, age 16 from the North-West, pictured on the slopes in Passo Tonale on the 2022 Snow Camp Excel Course

Maison Sport, which was founded by ski instructors, has agreed to donate a percentage of all revenue to Snow Camp during the current ski season, between September 2022 and April 2023.

For just £100, Snow Camp can fund one new young person onto their 2-day beginner ski course, which takes place in the school summer holidays.

This means that Maison Sport’s support has the potential to change the lives of over 200 young people, funding their first ever experience on snow away from the inner-city estates or the challenges they may be facing on a daily basis.

“We’re excited to be joining forces with Snow Camp and supporting such an inclusive charity in the ski sector,” said the CEO and Co-Founder of Maison Sport, Nick Robinson.

“As a technology platform that helps people learn to ski, we have been looking at ways that we can use our community as a force for good.

“We want to use our large collection of experienced instructors to help introduce more people into the sport, regardless of their background.

“Snow Camp is therefore an ideal partner and one we think we can support not only financially, but through the network of instructors on our site, and leveraging their time to teach others that may otherwise not be able to learn to ski or board.

“By tying the donation to our revenues, we know we will be helping more people as we grow. For every lesson a customer books, they will also be helping pay for a disadvantaged young person to learn to ski or snowboard, who otherwise may not have had the chance.”

Image © Maison Sport.

“On behalf of all the team, we are exceptionally grateful to everyone at Maison Sport and their wider community for this core line of support,” said the Community and Partnerships Manager at Snow Camp, Dan Keeley.

“We’ve been working closely with the snow sports industry for nearly 20 years, with game-changing partnerships like this having a huge impact on our work.”

As well as helping financially, Maison Sport is also supporting Snow Camp’s award-winning apprenticeships with two apprentices on placement with Maison Sport in London over the coming months.

The total funds raised will be announced at the end of April 2023 and donations will commence after this.

A full list of the totals raised, and the number of young people helped will be released in Spring next year.

110 young people aged 16-21 from 4 regions across the UK (London, the Midlands, the North-West and Scotland) on the slopes in Passo Tonale (Italy) April 2022

About Maison Sport

Maison Sport was created by a team of industry professionals with over 25 years of ski teaching experience.

All ex-British ski team members & fully qualified ski instructors, the founding team at Maison Sport have successfully worked together over the past 5 years.

The vision for Maison Sport was conceived after the trio acquired a traditional ski school in France, where revenue has since increased around 8 times.

Witnessing an antiquated way of booking lessons, they spotted an opportunity to solve a problem for customers and ski instructors, by using a technology platform to connect the two parties together directly.

Maison Sport offers reduced costs to the customer of as much as 50% and provides a more ethical and profitable practice for the instructors, who keep up 93% of the cost of the lessons.

Much like many successful marketplaces, one of Maison Sport’s key selling points is its unique instructor reviews, only left by past customers, which enable new customers to make informed decisions about their ski or snowboard lessons.

Currently, the Maison Sport marketplace includes more than 364 resorts and over 1,300 trusted, qualified instructors across France, Switzerland, Italy and Austria.

In France, Maison Sport’s instructor pool is second only to the Ecole de Ski Francais, a company that was founded in 1945.

About Snow Camp:

Snow Camp was founded in 2003 in London, before expanding nationally to include Scotland, the North West and the Midlands.

Snow Camp enables young people to reflect on the key issues impacting their day-to-day lives and help them develop new skills to support their futures.

This is achieved by harnessing the power of skiing and snowboarding.

Alongside learning to ski or snowboard young people take part in life skills training, work towards new qualifications and have access to mental health support.

Over the last 19 years the charity has supported 15,466 young people.

Snow Camp work with a diverse range of young people with on average 70% from BAME backgrounds.

Snow Camp’s patrons include BBC Security Correspondent Frank Gardner OBE, Olympic medallist Jenny Jones and former Alpine Ski Racer and TV presenter Chemmy Alcott.

Snow Camp is run by Switch180 charity.

Registered charity number England and Wales 1101030, OSCR: SC043344.

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