A Massachusetts-raised, Jackson, New Hampshire-based lifelong skier who also happens to be a high school music director has secured a prestigious Share Winter Foundation (https://sharewinterfoundation.org/) grant to introduce dozens of the inner city high school students she works with to the mountain sports life.

Danielle Trial Lucini, Music Director at Mount Pleasant High School in Providence, was awarded a grant to bring as many as 50 students, many of them transplants from spots like the Dominican Republic and other non-snow climates, and put them on skis and in the proper winter attire, in ski school and best of all, she says, experiencing first hand the beauty of the winter sport.

The grant is a next step – a big one, she says – in a project she started when she and another school staffer who loves to ski were on a chairlift and had a brainstorm: Let’s get these kids out here.

Lucini pulled it together with a bit of wing and prayer. She reached out to ski areas for discount passes and lessons, scoured her sources for donations and turned to social media for gear and attire donations.

From the first day she saw the kids out on snow at Yagoo Ski Area in Rhode Island, she knew she was on to something.

For a woman whose entire life has been blessed with skiing any time her family wanted to and who embraces the ski life fully, it just seemed right, she said, to find a way for kids who weren’t as lucky as her to discover skiing as well.

“I thought (getting them out there)  was a one-time thing and once I saw how the kids took to it, I said, ‘okay. We have to find a way to do this again.’”

Lucini, who holds an Indy Ski Pass and skis with her family at Indy resorts regularly, was reading the Indy Pass website when she came across information about Share Winter’s Foundation and their mission to “improve lives through winter sports,” and she thought, well, maybe.

“I researched it and saw that they don’t really fund school programs,” she said. “But I reached out anyway just to ask what they thought. They came right back to me and said, ‘apply.” So I did.”

Now, her school’s grant stands as the first Rhode Island grant the program has funded, as well as one of the very few public school programs funded.

Share Winter’s CEO Constance Beverley, who happens to be a new transplant to Providence, said the application spoke to her.

“Share Winter funds 70 organizations across the U.S., but it is pretty rare for us to fund a school,” she said. “As a new(ish) Providence resident, I’ve been searching for the right kind of program, one that could launch our investment in my new home state.  It took three years, but when we received Danielle’s application, it hit me.  This is the community I’ve been looking for, this is where we start.  I can’t wait to see what we can build together.”

Lucini said this year, they will partner with Yagoo and Otis Ridge Ski Area in Massachusetts, and hope to expand that as time goes on.

She’s in gathering mode now, looking for donations of gear, helmets jackets, mittens, and all the things high school kids need to get on snow. She has drop off sites set up across New England, and is confident she’ll get the donations she and the kids need. For details you can email her at mpskiclub@gmail.com.

Last year, she said, social media, and in particular Indy Ski Pass holders, responded and donated all she needed. This year, Catamount Ski Area has donated their entire lost and found, but she needs more.

Lucini’s New England ski roots are strong. Her grandparents, Dr. Gerard and Delores Carrier, drove their five children from their New Bedford home up to Jackson, New Hampshire every weekend and holiday week of ski season. Their home continues to be a base camp for the entire family of skiers. They long ran a charity that brought Veterans and their families to Jackson for ski vacations. Does she think they’re proud of what their granddaughter is doing to share their sport with those less fortunate?

“Oh I think they are proud,” she said. “This is now making skiing extend even beyond their own grandchildren and to all kids. To the next generation. It’s pretty cool.”