I am the mother of Nickolay Dodov, who was killed in an avalanche on Thankin Ridge, Haines, Alaska on March 13, 2012.

My husband Alex and I started Nickolay Dodov Foundation five years ago in the name of our son. The mission is to spread avalanche awareness to all who enjoy the snow mountains with the hope that by being able to reach out we will save lives.

In the last three years we have reached out to nearly 6,000 ski and snowboard athletes, middle, high school and university students, coaches, teachers, parents and all age mountain enthusiasts. Last snow season we reached out to more than 1,500 people.

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Nickolay Dodov Foundation is a nonprofit. Our foundation is part of a nationwide movement to educate youth winter sports enthusiasts to stay safe in winter environments. Over the last 10 winters an average of 39 people died in avalanches each winter in North America. We believe providing avalanche education will help to safe lives.

We have started the avalanche education tour in the begging of December with three events; Avalanche workshop in Santa Cruz, Avalanche awareness presentation at South Tahoe Middle School, Avalanche awareness presentation at Mammoth High School. We have three new avalanche educators, one of them is Richard Bothell, the former American Institute for Avalanche Research and Education director.

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Our foundation is brought up from our love for Nick, from our love for the mountains, from our love for skiing in the backcountry. We will continue to encourage and teach as many as we can to play on the snow and be safe.

We will continue our work in the light of our Nick. Nickolay was not only our son, he was our best friend, our best teammate and our teacher in many ways. He was very special young man, his light was so bright. Everyone who had the opportunity to know him, was amazed of his talents, wisdom, his big smile and huge heart, always ready to help everyone.

Natalia Dodova lives in Nevada County.