Advertisement Burton, local school pioneer new program Burton wants snowboarding for PE to catch on worldwide Share Shares Copy Link Copy

The students at Williston's Allen Brook Elementary School like gym even more now.Burton teamed up with the school to work exercises into the physical education program that build on snowboarding fundamentals. Burton plans to take the program nationwide, and even worldwide."I've been teaching in this school district for 21 years now, and we've never had an initiative that we've started in our own school. So this is very rare," said Allen Brook's physical education teacher Lyn Porter.Porter says it's fun, and good for the students."Balance is key. We have a lot of kids who struggle with core strength, and core strength is huge in balance," said Porter.She can use the snowboarding exercises on their own or take a few of them and work them into a bigger program involving other sports, like basketball. The programs also gives kids an edge if they do go to the mountain.The whole idea started when eighth-grader Jeffery Boliba had to do a class project. He wanted to bring snowboarding to the younger kids at Allen Brook, where he had been a student. His father, Jeff, works at Burton. They put together a huge event featuring people from several mountain resorts. The event was a big success. Jeff Boliba wondered if the schools could do something like this on their own. Lyn Porter said there was no way, as big as that first event was. But Boliba and Porter worked together to develop a program that a PE instructor could manage."Lynn has been fantastic working with us, to get it to a point where the PE teacher can run it by themselves. We're testing in Colorado with a school out there -- we're going to launch that on January 29th, and then we'll take it to California," said Burton's Jeff Boliba.Eventually, Burton wants to take the idea to schools around the world. Meanwhile, Vermont schools that want to check out the program can contact Burton.Boliba says Vermont has turned out so many top snowboarders -- many Olympians -- it's not a stretch to believe programs like this could help cultivate a few more."I would bet that one of these little tykes here, standing sideways for the first time, you might see them in a future Olympics," said Boliba.All the kids know is they're having fun.Using the WPTZ mobile app? Tap here for video.