The time: 8:00 pm, Friday. The place: The Showbox in Seattle. The event: Some type of women's organization trying to raise money by presenting a ski movie called Lost and Found. The reason: I don't know, I hoped I would find some answers. It was almost 9:30 pm, thoughts rushed through my head like naive freshman rushing a fraternity. I wasn't at the Showbox yet, but I would be there soon enough. Too soon I realized, what awaited me there? What questions would I ask? What was the truth behind this organization? What were their intentions...were they good ones? Or were they were they hiding something...was this ski movie thing just a facade, a front, behind which they were hiding a malicious plan to overthrow order, instilling chaos in the hearts, minds, and bodies of all the attendees? Women aren't really rational creatures after all, I thought, and SheJumps is an all women's organization created to help women.

I finally arrived, and once inside, the entertainment was in full swing with the showing of Lost and Found still to come. However, something wasn't quite right. It was...the people...they looked....different, I guess you could say. One thing was for sure, this wasn't the normal ski premiere crowd. Had the skiing audience really changed that much since the last premiere I went to, around 3 years ago? Wow I thought, I guess the sport really has reached the mainstream audience. It was then that Lynsey, one of the founders of SheJumps, informed me that the people here were all from Boeing. All of a sudden, it became so clear to me, so clear in fact, that I had to rub my eyes to make sure I was seeing what I was thinking. This event was a front after all. Perhaps they were trying to steal information about Boeing's operations, with the intention of selling them to Airbus. Yes, just maybe that's what this was really about. It was genius really. Lynsey and Claire Smallwood were distracting the unsuspecting crowd members with raffles and product giveaways from Eagle Pass, CMH (free heli trip), Rossignol, Steven's Pass, Fate, Holden, Bula, and Snowboard Connection, as well as a variety of contests inluding a beer chugging contest. These people wouldn't stand a chance. And...they didn't. The event exposed them to the skiing/boarding world and even instilled in some, the desire to try these sports for the first time, women and men both. Basically, this event was increasing the size of the wintersports market, which in turn will increase market share for certain companies, which in turn gives them bigger marketing budgets, that will be spent on getting more people to take to the slopes, thus continuing the cycle of life. Ooohh, the cycle of life, back at it again are you, your not fooling anyone.

Although SheJumps is based around action and adventure sports such as skiing and snowboarding, and the word jump to us, literally means...jumping off of stuff, this is not the niche market in which the non-profit limits itself. On the contrary Pierre, if its not Evian, I won't drink it. In fact, SheJump's mission is to help women achieve whatever they consider to be a goal, "jump" or step forward. The "jump" doesn't necesarily have to be sports related. If a genious student from Bangladesh wishes to recieve funding in order to study at a western university, and may potentially cure cancer one day, then SheJumps may be just the organization to fund this student. Day by day, minute by minute, thought by thought, one step after another, one cliche at a time, from its presence in the snow world and eventually to the rest of the action sports world, to the medical world and beyond, SheJumps is set to change the world. If you can guess how many times the word world was repeated in the last sentence, then when you are dying...on your deathbed, you shall recieve total consciousness.

Check out the cause online at www.shejumps.com

Special thanks to our SkiBacs NextGen volunteers and to our sponsors: Eagle Pass Heli Skiing (www.eaglepassheliskiing.com), Canadian Mountain Holidays (www.CanadianMountainHolidays.com), Rossignol (www.rossignol.com), Stevens Pass (www.stevenspass.com), Fate Clothing (www.fateclothing.com), Holden (www.holdenouterwear.com), Bula (www.bula.com), Snoboard Connection(www.snocon.com), Springhill Suites by Marriott (www.marriott.com), Discrete (www.discreteclothing.com)