The 2020 SnowKidz Award For Best Kids Snow Program Goes To Sweden


As part of the FIS SnowKidz program, the SnowKidz award goes to the program that stands out as the best for bringing kids into the snow and out onto skis and snowboards. For 2020, the award for "Worlds Best Snow Kids Program" goes to Everyone on Snow from Sweden.


In the above video, Andrew Cholinski, Coordinator for FIS Bring Children to the Snow, takes us through this year's top three award winners. Alongside the Everyone On Snow program from Sweden, a tie for second and third went to Snow Move of Finland and Seek A Snowflake from Greece. With as good as those programs appear to be, the judges still had to go with the program from Sweden. Here is an explanation of the judge's choice from an FIS news release.

"To bring children to the snow, Everyone on Snow employs a simple but effective formula. That is, provide Swedish school children in grade 4, transport, lessons, equipment and access to their local ski slopes for 1 day. To boost the engagement, students from other local high schools are invited to lead programmes."

"The formula has yielded good results over the past years which allowed Everyone on Snow to achieve a 2nd place finish in the SnowKidz Award 2018 and 2016 and a top 5 finish in the years previous. But it was the steps taken in the last two years which allowed Organisers to clear the final hurdle and achieve the win. After finishing 2nd in the SnowKidz Award 2018, Organisers took their winnings, invested them back into the programme, consolidated their offering to schools and most importantly expanded their communications. Within a short space of time, the programme went from an average of 34 events per season to over 50. These efforts were clearly noted by the SnowKidz Awards independent judging panel and rewarded accordingly."

"But the decision to Award the 1st prize to Everyone on Snow did not come easy. As in the past two editions of the Award, Everyone on Snow faced stiff competition from Scandinavian neighbours Finland with Snow Moves! and this time was also challenged by Greece with their ever impressive Seek a Snowflake Tour. Like Everyone on Snow, Snow Moves! and Seek a Snowflake also provide the opportunity for school children to try snow sports. Both programmes showed strong growth over the last two years and in the end the judges could not separate the two. Both Snow Moves! and Seek a Snowflake earned 293 points respectively and as such 2nd and 3rd place were a draw."

Rounding out the rest of the field are programs from around the globe, including those from other parts of Europe, North America, and Australia. From here in the U.S.A. was the Nordic Rocks program, just missing the podium and landing in the 4th position.

Point totals and final positions for each program - Credit: FIS

Congratulations to those programs that took home the top honors and well done to all others that participated. Getting young children interested in snow sports at a young age is a wonderful endeavor. These congratulations are also shared by FIS President Gian Franco Kasper, who said, “With each edition of the SnowKidz Award we are more and more impressed by the efforts of snowsports stakeholders to bring children to the snow. My congratulations to Sweden and to all the nominees and countries who participated in the SnowKidz Award 2020.”

Photo: SnowKidz Children From Stockholm, Sweden - Credit: International Ski Federation/FIS Snowkidz

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