Why We Created the BSSA and The Snow Angel Bursary

Why not?

'But...Why?' is a question we have encountered more than once.

Why does Bermuda need a ski and snowboard charity? Why fund an opportunity to experience snow sports when there are so many other important causes?

Our answer is simple: why not?

We do not pretend that learning to ski will cure illness, solve homelessness or put food on somebody’s table. Nor do we believe charitable causes need to compete with one another for legitimacy.

What we do believe is that opportunity matters.

Trying something completely new, discovering a passion, meeting different people and becoming part of a community can widen somebody’s world and as a result, lead to all sorts of outcomes. At the BSSA, we believe those opportunities should not automatically belong only to people who can afford them.

So, we ask instead: why not?

Why not create that opportunity here in Bermuda?

It Started With a Community

When the Bermuda Snow Society was founded in 2023, the idea was very simple: to bring people together through a shared love and enjoyment of snow sports.

On a subtropical island, it was admittedly an unusual concept.

Yet the community quickly grew to more than 130 members. Along the way, we repeatedly heard from people who wanted to try skiing or snowboarding but had no idea where to begin.

“I’d love to ski, but I don’t know how.”

“I wouldn’t know where to start.”

“I don’t have anyone to go with.”

And, inevitably, there was another barrier: cost.

For somebody living in Bermuda, trying skiing or snowboarding for the first time involves far more than buying a lift pass. There are flights, accommodation, transfers, equipment, lessons, clothing and food before somebody has even made their first turn.

For many people, that makes snow sports inaccessible before they have had the opportunity to discover whether they might love them.

We began to ask ourselves another question.

Why not change that?

Breaking Down the Barriers

The BSSA was created to help do exactly that.

Snow sports have traditionally carried significant financial, social and cultural barriers. If somebody has never skied or snowboarded, does not know anybody who skis/rides and cannot afford the considerable cost of travelling from Bermuda to the mountains, those barriers can reinforce one another.

Somebody even said to us "I'm 40 years old, I've never seen snow, and I don't think I ever will".

Our ambition is to begin removing these barriers.

That starts with the Snow Angel Bursary.

The bursary is a means-tested programme designed for somebody who would not otherwise have the financial opportunity to experience skiing or snowboarding. It is not about subsidising a holiday for an existing skier or boarder. It is about removing the practical barriers that stand between a complete beginner and their first genuine opportunity to try the sport.

Flights, accommodation, equipment, lessons, clothing and the other essential costs of taking part can all become barriers. The purpose of the bursary is to remove all costs and all barriers.

Because if somebody wants the chance to try something completely new, why not help make that possible?

This Is Not a New Idea

We are not the first people to believe that snow sports can be used to create opportunity.

In the UK, another island with very limited snow access, Snow Camp has been doing exactly that since 2003, using skiing and snowboarding alongside life skills, mental wellbeing support, qualifications and employment pathways to work with underserved young people. In 2025/26 alone, more than 1,100 young people participated in its programmes across the UK.

In the United States, the National Brotherhood of Snowsports has spent more than 50 years working to increase participation and representation in winter sports. What began with 13 Black ski clubs coming together in the 1970s has grown into an organisation encompassing dozens of clubs and thousands of supporters, alongside an Olympic Scholarship Fund that has supported more than 45 athletes, including six Olympians.

Their scale, longevity and success demonstrate something important: widening access to the mountains is not a frivolous idea. It can create communities, develop skills, open pathways and change who feels that snow sports are for them.

We have been inspired by what organisations such as these have achieved.

And that brings us back to the question at the heart of the BSSA:

Why not?

Why should Bermuda not have something like this, accessible by Bermudians?

More Than a Ski Trip

At first glance, the outcome is simple: somebody gets the opportunity to experience snow for the first time and learn to ski or snowboard.

But the possibility behind that experience is much bigger.

They might discover a sport they love.

They might meet people they would never otherwise have met.

They might find a new community.

They might develop the confidence to try something else that once felt unfamiliar or inaccessible.

Or they might simply return home having experienced something extraordinary that previously seemed beyond their world.

We do not need to know exactly where an opportunity will lead before deciding that it is worth creating.

Sometimes widening somebody’s horizons begins with something remarkably simple: giving them the chance to try.

And again: why not?

Starting Small, Thinking Bigger

Our first steps are deliberately modest.

If we can introduce even a small number of people in Bermuda to snow sports who would not traditionally have had access to them, we begin to challenge some of the barriers surrounding the sport.

Over time, that could mean a more diverse snow-sports community, greater participation, new skills, qualifications, volunteering opportunities or simply more people discovering that the mountains are somewhere they belong too.

We do not know exactly where that will lead.

But neither did the organisations that inspired us when they first began.

The Snow Angel Bursary is our starting point.

Our ambition is simple: to open a door that might otherwise remain closed.

A chance to try something new.

A chance to discover something unexpected.

A chance to see where it might lead.

Why not?