FLAT TIRE FOR MEALS ON WHEELS?
DON’T GET EATEN ALIVE!
OPINION | PG 5
CORRIDOR | PG 9
Not so fast, says local director
S O U T H
DOWN TO BUSINESS ON 3/21
The quick and the dead in franchising
World Down Syndrome Day rocks! LOCAL | PG 18
M E T R O
VOLUME 35 • NUMBER 19 • MARCH 30, 2017
Since 1982
www.villagerpublishing.com
TheVillagerNewspaper
@VillagerDenver
It’s all downhill for this sixth-grader Girl’s charitable skiing goes to the dogs
Petra Augustine, 11, of Greenwood Village, raised more than $500 this month for Vail Avalanche Rescue Dogs by skiing 50,438 vertical feet in one day. Photo courtesy of Leigh Augustine
P
etra Augustine has been skiing some 15 times every year since she was 2, but this time the Greenwood Village sixth-grader had another reason to strap on her ski boots. “It started out that I wanted to ski 50,000 vertical feet, and then my dad helped me come up with the idea of doing it for more of a purpose,” she said. After all, the Vail Avalanche Rescue Dogs have saved a lot of skiers over the years, but what had the skiers done for the dogs
lately? “I just thought it’d be real cool to do something for them,” Petra said. Before long, the 11-year-old skier was collecting sponsors who committed dollar amounts for every 10,000 feet she put behind her on the mountain March 3. Petra would make the most of her time on her carefully routed day on the slopes. She would take only one bathroom break. Lunch would be whatever snacks she could stuff into her coat pockets. e were on one of the first chairlift rides when it opened
at 8:30, and then we got on the very last gondola up the mountain,” she said of her 29 runs. A cellphone app kept track of Petra’s vertical feet every step of the way. According to the device’s calculations, the skier beat her own goal, trekking a total of 50,438 downward feet—a little more than nine and a half miles—in less than eight hours. “I wasn’t that tired at the end of the day, but the next day my legs felt like jelly,” she said. In total, Petra’s downhill climb raised $519 for the rescue dogs. The money came just in time for Henry, whose own ver-
tical feet had gotten the best of him. “His feet had gotten like kind of torn up from being on the mountain so long, so he had to retire kind of early this season,” Petra said. “He got surgery, and that’s what I helped pay for.” he story first broke in the school newspaper at St. Mary’s Academy. The young skier expects to make an annual event out of her fun-filled fundraising. She plans to get an earlier start next year to collect more sponsors and get other skiers involved. “I’m really excited,” Petra said.