Throughout much of elementary and middle school, 17-year-old Griffin Larson kept a sticky note on his bedroom desk. It was a list: “Work hard, be dedicated to what you are passionate about, take opportunities, benefit yourself while benefiting others, have fun…” At the top, he’d written, “My core values.”
“I used to keep them on me but in the last couple of years I don’t. They’re so familiar now that they’re always in the back of my mind,” Griffin said. He compiled the list when his ski team, Smugglers Notch Ski Club, implemented the Flyin Ryan Foundation’s decisions program.
“When kids define for themselves who they are, rather than being on the receiving end of the expectations of others, it puts them in a position of ownership,” said foundation president and CEO Peter Hawks. “And kids who climb their way to ownership are going to, by and large, make better decisions and generate higher quality friendships than kids who have no clue who they are, and every decision is a dice roll.”
Core values are at the heart of the Flyin Ryan Foundation, named for Hawks’ son, Ryan Hawks, an extreme skier from South Burlington who died in 2011 at age 25 from injuries he received while competing in the Subaru Freeskiing World Tour. Ryan, who had been nicknamed “Flyin Ryan” on the tour, “collected friends like insects to a lightbulb,” because of his positive energy, smile and calmness, his father said. Shortly after his death, his family discovered a list Ryan had compiled on his computer called, “14 principals for living.”
- Live every day, all day
- Never stop exploring life
- Never lose my adventuresome spirit
- Be the best friend I can be
- Be the best brother, son, uncle I can be
- Play like I am 13
- Look out for others
- Look out for myself
- Look out for our surroundings
- Be self-sufficient
- Don’t be afraid to ask for help
- Work hard
- Live easy
- Live simply
Those 14 core values became the family’s driving force as they launched the Flyin Ryan Foundation a few months after Ryan’s death. “At that time, we lost his body, but we felt strongly that his spirit and his energy continued to be a current event,” Peter said. “We wanted to extend the impact of his life.” Continuing that thought, the foundation’s statement of purpose adds, “to make the world a better place one person, one day, one event, one core value, one decision at a time.”
The foundation has three programs: the decisions program, the core values challenge and the adventure scholarship program.
The decisions program was first inaugurated at South Burlington High School, from which Hawks graduated in 2004, and is currently implemented at 12 Vermont schools. Peter Hawks goes to all of them to speak to students . Freeski and freeride teams across the state also use the program. The International Freeride Ski and Snowboard Association (IFSA) — which has about 4,500 competitors registered to compete in more than 100 events throughout the United States, Canada and South America — requires its level one coaches to complete the program to become certified.
The program aims to get young people to define themselves in terms of their core spirit, Peter said, “rather than fall into the standard practice of being defined by the people around you.” Core values provide a foundation for a person’s attitude, Peter said. “An attitude that has core values underneath is like a North Star because it’s going to tell you when you’re on track and being your best self and when you’re off track.”
Ryan’s 14 core values are presented as an example to inspire program participants to examine their own self-identity and articulate their own core values. Each value must contain a verb, so instead of writing “family” as a core value, one might choose “being the best brother I can be.”
After their core values are written, participants illustrate them and present them to an audience comprised of the meaningful people in their lives.
While the decisions program is more structured, the foundation’s recently-launched core values challenge, an online, self-guided process, can be completed by anyone, anywhere. Teachers outside of Vermont are using it in their schools, though the foundation has not collected data on how many.
The foundation’s third enterprise, its adventure scholarship program, has presented more than 150 awards to people worldwide. A typical award is between $750 and $1,000, Peter said. The foundation budgets around $15,000 a year for scholarships. Anyone age 12 or older can apply, and the foundation has a “policy of not saying no,” Peter said. If an application is inadequate, Peter said, the foundation asks for more information, instead. The only requirements are financial need, an essay that demonstrates passion and includes core values, and a letter of recommendation.
Griffin Larson, of Essex, was awarded $1,000 and used the money last month to travel to the 2023 Freeride Junior World Championship in Austria, where he had qualified to compete.
He was honored to represent the foundation, he said. “It means more than a scholarship. It represents Ryan Hawks. Everything I’ve heard about (him) expresses his energy to try new things and go explore the Vermont backcountry and have fun. I feel like representing him encourages me to get out there and try more.”
Waitsfield siblings Zach Haskell, 14, and Sadie Haskell, 16, members of the Mad River Glen freeski team, each received $500 through the scholarship program last fall. They both plan to use the money for entry fees and travel to freeski competitions. Both are trying to qualify for the IFSA’s North American Junior Championship at Kicking Horse Mountain Resort in British Columbia.
In his application essay, Zach shared three core values: “Always have fun, always give the right amount of energy, and always work hard but play harder.”
“I’ve been thinking about them more since I wrote them down and (I’m) trying to embody those core values and really do what I said,” Zach told KidsVT.
Zach and Sadie received their scholarship at Ryan Hawks’ birthday celebration, held at Outdoor Gear Exchange in Burlington last fall. At the event, past scholarship recipients spoke about how they used their scholarship money.
“Listening to other peoples’ stories made me think about what other big adventures I could go on,” Zach said.
His mom, Kathy Haskell, coaches at Mad River Glen and has written scholarship recommendations. “Just having the kids listen to these older athletes and how they utilized the foundation to achieve their outdoor goals and personal goals was amazing,” she said. “It’s teaching you how to confront challenges and how to emotionally regulate yourself so that you’re ready for these challenges. It’s a very expensive sport, and the foundation allows more people to be part of it.”
One of the speakers who most inspired the Haskells was Elliot Diana. The 28-year-old Hanksville sugar maker and butcher received a $1,500 scholarship to help pay for his expenses traveling the Northern Forest Canoe Trail, a 740-mile trail that extends from the Adirondacks to Maine and passes through Vermont, Quebec and New Hampshire. It took him 32 days to complete the adventure in June 2022.
“For me, the most special part of it is it traces an old Native American trading route and fur traders. It’s been an established route for thousands of years,” Diana told KidsVT. “The deepest thing I took away from it was the efficiency of river travel and going through the motions of what people did for thousands of years to move their goods on that same exact water and that same exact forest trail using the same exact camp sites… And then you realize how perfect it was for all those people, and then they got kicked off of their land… that was hard for me to experience, that part of it.”
However, Diana said, the experience of separating from everyday distractions like phones and screens “and throwing yourself into some risky business in the outdoors — that’s when you can learn the most about yourself.”
Using Ryan’s core values to stimulate other people “to establish that sense of self-identity that puts them in control of their lives,” is the foundation’s goal and encapsulates Ryan’s positive energy, his father said.
“Ryan is my companion in terms of decision making with the foundation. He’s very much a current event,” Peter said. “Here I am pushing 84. I put my latest core value on when I was 78, and (it) was ‘What would Ryan do?’ That’s one of my favorite core values.”
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