This year, the “Spirit of Sarah Scholarship” has been awarded to Bella Bacon, a 13-year-old skier from Ellicottville, New York. Now in its sixth year, the scholarship honors the late Sarah Burke who was both a camper and longtime coach at Momentum Camps. The scholarship provides one promising young girl a full package to Momentum in Whistler, British Columbia, covering one week of summer camp (including food and lodging, coaching, lift tickets and more).

Bella is the first American to ever win the award, after greatly impressing the judges with her application. “Bella shows great talent, dedication and the guts to send it,” says Momentum Camp Director John Smart, who was on the judging panel alongside Sarah’s mother Jan Phelan, Sarah’s husband Rory Bushfield and Canadian Team Halfpipe Head Coach Trennon Paynter.

Surely, this will be an exciting and rewarding trip for this young ripper. Until then, she’s preparing by practicing on her backyard rail setup, which she built and paid for herself.

From the whole FREESKIER team: Congratulations, Bella.

Learn more about Momentum Camps, here.