Montrose - Daily Press

MONTROSE - Special education students at Northside Elementary School will ski for the first time ever Tuesday, but not without practice.

Jeans Westerner’s bike and ski tech, Bruce Grigsby, visited Karie Hassell’s special education class Thursday to prepare the kids to ski the slopes of Telluride.

The trip was made possible by the Montrose-Olathe Adaptive Ski program, which raised $5,000 through its annual chili dinner in November to send 75 local students with special needs to ski with the Telluride Adaptive Ski Program or at Powderhorn Resort this year.

Karol Vallee, paraprofessional, helps third-grader Aaron Arendsee walk around the classroom on skis, to prepare him for a Telluride ski trip Tuesday. Jeans Westerner provided the equpment for the students to practice. (Matt Lindberg/Daily Press) Advertisement

Northside third-graders Aaron Arendsee, Ty Coop, Nathan Bussing, Sean Ulibarri and another student were thrilled when Grigsby brought boots and skis for them to test.

“It’s going to be awesome,” Sean said about hitting the slopes Tuesday. “But the boots felt weird.”

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The students’ faces lit up as they tried on the skis and boots.

“I liked them,” Aaron said about the gear.

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