Justin River Lechton was a fifth grade student in Aniak in Southwest Alaska when he learned to ski. He loved the freedom of breaking trail and going out on the river with his dogs.
“It brought me outdoors. It took me outside to nature,” he said. “I was just enjoying it so much.”
Now, at 21, Lechton is becoming a ski coach. In February, he joined the nonprofit Skiku, which taught him and other kids across Alaska how to ski. In February, he and the Skiku team traveled to Interior villages along the Yukon River – Grayling, Anvik, Shageluk.
Lechton shadowed other Skiku coaches, learned teaching techniques and ways to take care of skis. That trip culminated with a week in another Yukon River community, Holy Cross, where Lechton now lives. There, he ran the show. Next winter, he will be Skiku’s coach for kids in Holy Cross.
“They're mostly inside, and it'd be great to get them outside and to do something outdoors, all together, as a team,” he said.
Skiku has been around for more than a decade, bringing cross-country ski coaches and equipment to kids in Alaska villages who don’t have easy access to the sport. Program staff traversed most of Alaska, spending about a week at a time in each community they visit.
But usually, after the visit, the skis go back in the closet for the rest of the winter, said Tyler Henegan, Skiku’s executive director. He said what’s missing is an adult who will take kids out, to “keep those communities shredding.”
“In my mind, I have, like, a Jedi Padawan situation where we can kind of have that person mentor folks out there and really kind of hope to make something a little more sustainable,” Henegan said.
That’s where Lechton comes in — to keep it going throughout the season. He’s the first local coach Skiku has trained up.
Sydney Roach is a middle school student in Shageluk who worked with Lechton and other coaches when they stopped in her village.
“We're just going skiing around town and up and down hills and through creeks and stuff. And it's pretty fun,” she said. “We skied every day of the week.”
Sydney says she is happy for the opportunity to ski, which she doesn’t get to do a lot. Her mother, Sonta Hamilton Roach, also appreciated it.
“Get the kids excited about being out and about going down hills,” she said with a laugh. “I can never see myself going down.”
Sonta Roach said that children in her village stay active by hauling wood and working outside, but they don’t get many chances to try themselves in competitive sports – something she said is good for discipline, development and potentially educational opportunities.
And Roach is happy the four villages in the lower Yukon region, all located just a few dozen miles from each other, are part of this project.
“We're all the same people trying to live good, healthy, quality lives in our communities,” she said. “When you really see our tribes come together, we can do cool things.”
Nathan Elswick, First Chief of Anvik, said the four communities came together and, with funding help from the Interior tribal consortium Tanana Chiefs Conference, decided to partner with Skiku to add one more extracurricular activity for students.
“Nowadays, a lot of the kids are stuck to the screens,” Elswick said. “Hopefully, we could pick up skiing for our students, and just getting our kids more involved, and just that extra time outside.”
Aside from the four communities along the lower Yukon River, Skiku visited more than 20 villages across the state this year. The organizers said they hope to continue growing the number of communities they serve – and to find more residents like Lechton in each of them to keep kids skiing throughout the season.
For Lechton, participating in Skiku this year brought him back to his childhood, when he was skiing for the first time and making new friends.
“It brought back some good memories,” he said.
His favorite part was how kids looked up to him and learned the sport through games and adventure. He said he is already thinking about planning out next year, to encourage them to keep going.
