COPPER MOUNTAIN, Colo. — Of all the people traveling to Copper Mountain this week, Alina Tatkov with Ukraine Aid Fund says the children in her group may have traveled the furthest.
“We just wanted to show the mountains to the kids,” said Tatko. "It's been such an incredible day.”
All 14 of the children are from Ukraine. During the war, nearly all of them have had a parent die or a parent missing after the Russian invasion.
“Not all of them made it,” said Tatkov. “So they have seen a really hard time that no child should ever go through.”
Ukraine Aid Fund flew the kids to Colorado for a two-week trip to get away from the war and that included a trip to Copper.
The resort set the group up with sliding on the tubing hill, rides on the alpine coaster, gondola rides, lunch and time in the Snow Maze.
"Just to smile and play in the snow and have pizza and hang out,” said Tatkov. “Over there, the daily routine is how do we stay warm and keep track of the alarms that are happening in and out of the bomb shelter? It's a different life.”
Along with the stop at Copper Mountain, the kids are visiting museums, the Great Wolf Lodge, seeing Meow Wolf, went to the State Capital, and to a Nuggets game where they got t-shirts, beanies and got to meet some of the Nugget players.
SUGGESTED VIDEOS: Colorado Guide
9NEWS+
9NEWS+ has multiple live daily shows including 9NEWS Mornings, Next with Kyle Clark and 9NEWS+ Daily, an original streaming program. 9NEWS+ is where you can watch live breaking news, weather updates, and press conferences. You can also replay recent newscasts and find videos on demand of our top stories, local politics, investigations and Colorado specific features.
To download 9NEWS+ on Roku search for KUSA.
To download 9NEWS+ on Fire TV search for 9NEWS.