Professional snowboarder Jesse Millen has made a living travelling and competing alongside fellow elite boarders from around the world, as well as having his skills featured in films and commercials.
After 12 years living out his dream in Whistler, B.C., Millen returned to his hometown of Timmins this week to hold a community event at the Mount Jamieson Resort—formerly known as the Kamiskotia Snow Resort—where he spent his formative years on the slopes.
"This was a foundation for me, snowboarding. To move out west and become a professional snowboarder," said Millen in an interview on Saturday.
"Now it's nice I can come back here and see a younger generation get kind of fired up on snowboarding again."
He partnered with the resort to hold a youth snowboarding camp, where he gave youngsters advice on different styles of snowboarding.
Millen also held a fireside chat to talk about his career, as well as a revival of the community's "Big Air" event to showcase his skills alongside local snowboarders.
The resort's CEO, Eric Philpow, said it was exciting to have a locally-raised pro athlete return home.
"It shows a lot for the sense of community around here if, at this stage of his life, he still has fond memories of being out here and still wants to give back," said Philipow.
"So we're trying to instil that in all the younger generation that are here now. All the kids are super excited to see him, so they've been having a lot of fun watching him."
Most thrilled of all is Millen's mother, Lori Bodick, who said she was so happy to hear that Millen was "coming home, to where I first started" and giving back to the community that raised him.
Bodick said she's extremely proud that he was able to turn his passion as a teenager into a lifelong career—and that it can be a source of inspiration for others.
"He had a dream and he said 'mom, I want to live my dream,'" Bodick recalled, "and I said 'you can always live your dream.'"
Millen and Bodick said the local KidSport program at the time helped open his eyes to the possibility of a career in snowboarding and he hopes to see more funding for programming that teaches a broader spectrum of the sport.
"More than just learning to ride, progression to ride, freestyle, maybe racing," Millen said.
"Mount Jamieson has all that and that could be something that we could really work towards for our younger generation, coming up."
