I haven’t skied in 10 years, but recently came to Breckenridge with my family in January. While I have never taught anyone to ski, I decided to teach my 3-year-old. But I’m not writing you about our fantastic ski trip, or your wonderful town village, but about the kindness of one person that made a rather scary time for me completely OK.

For three days I worked with my daughter on the “magic carpet” and on the third day progressed to the slightly larger bunny slope. I thought we were done skiing, but as we trudged through the snow back to our condo, my daughter spotted the Quicksilver lift and told me she wanted to go up. I was apprehensive about going up a lift with a 3-year-old when I’m not a professional instructor, but after three days of teaching her, I figured we could make it, so I agreed. When I got in line, a very nice man and his son skied over to me and got in line with us. After talking for a bit, and finding out that it was my daughter’s first time up, he offered to help me and, while giving several useful tips for skiing with kids, started telling me all about Breckenridge, as I found out he is a local. He rode up on the chair with me, told me all about the town and local business and made sure that nothing went wrong with loading or unloading, and then proceeded to cheer me and my daughter down the hill.

It is amazing the impact the kindness of an apparent stranger has on a situation, a day and a trip. Thank you Ben Brewer and thanks Breckenridge! We’ll be back!