ELDORA • It was like a family reunion one recent afternoon at this Boulder County ski area, everyone hugging and celebrating and looking at each other wide-eyed.
“They haven’t seen each other since last year, and it’s like they haven’t seen each other in many years,” observed Kevin Wilson.
He was on the receiving end of those hugs, one of the hundreds gathered on what was a momentous day for Ignite Adaptive Sports. The organization’s volunteers and friends greeted Wilson with joyous remarks:
“This is so cool!”
“This is gorgeous!”
“This is amazing, holy cow!”
This was the ribbon-cutting of Caribou Lodge, Eldora Mountain’s new hub that will serve as the new center for the nonprofit getting people with disabilities out on the snow.
Ignite Adaptive Sports is recognizing this upcoming season as its 50th. The anniversary comes with state-of-the-art digs that would have been hard to imagine in the 1970s, when what was then called the Eldora Handicapped Recreation Program started out of a van.