St. Luke’s Magic Valley teams up with illustrator to get word out to kids on ski safety

Being a major part of Idaho communities also means being there for the things Idahoans enjoy most, and making sure they can enjoy it safely.

St. Luke’s Children’s Injury Prevention team has been a part of sharing ski and snowboarding safety education with Magic Valley area resorts for several seasons, but this year, paramedic Lisa Hills wanted to do something a little different — find a more kid-friendly way to get the important information out.

She found the perfect fit with illustrator and ski instructor Nathan Jarvis.

“I was doing a lot of research online … I came across his website and it was so beautiful and kid-friendly,” Hill said. “So, we reached out to him, and he has been absolutely incredible to share everything—all of his knowledge and artwork.”

Jarvis is an award-winning illustrator and certified Children’s Specialist ski instructor based in Utah. Nathan created Smartful Kids in 2018 to focus his creativity on his love of snow sports and the importance of helping new skiers and riders have a safer, more successful start.

“Working with St. Luke’s Children’s Injury Prevention Team to help promote slope safety has been a real treat for me,” Jarvis said. “Promoting slope safety is high on my list of things that matter most for everyone out there enjoying the wonderful world of snowsports.”

Jarvis had material on his website that was just what Hills was looking for and he was happy to share, but the Children’s Injury Prevention team also had a special request.

 “We had a bicycle helmet flyer, but we didn’t have a snowboard and ski flyer to show the helmet fit and how it should sit on their head,” explained Jamie Stierstorfer, Children’s Injury Prevention program coordinator in Twin Falls. “He created a helmet flyer for us!”

The safety signage featuring graphics from Jarvis is now posted at Magic Mountain, Soldier Mountain and Pomerelle ski resorts. Pomerelle also invited St. Luke’s Children’s Injury Prevention to share safety information at its annual Kids Day Competition in March.

“It was so much fun, I really enjoyed it, and I think the kids had fun just picking through Nathan’s stickers, flyers and educational coloring pages,” Stierstorfer said.

The team also had a few helmets on hand, funded by St. Luke’s Magic Valley Health Foundation donations, for families that had questions or concerns about how to properly fit helmets and make sure they were up to date on safety standards.

“The parents are the ones that approached us and started asking the questions and then got their kids involved,” said Hills. “So that was a beautiful part of it.”

Stierstorfer and Hills are already looking ahead to how to expand their ski and snowboarding safety education sessions next winter and they’re also looking forward to continuing their partnership with Jarvis, aiming to, pardon the pun, “draw people in.”

“I think the most important thing was to be able to go up into their environment with some material that was kid friendly, that drew awareness that we were there because of kids,” Hills said.