Nice Article on Vermont Community Ski Area

[thetrailboss]

Nice article about work at the Lyndon Outing Club, my home hill besides Burke. While other community hills, like Northeast Slopes and Cochran's, get a lot of press, the LOC has remained fairly low profile but it STILL operates and has almost continuously since 1937.

www.skilyndon.com

Making A Difference: Susan Teske And Joe Peters Are Team Players At Outing Club

It’s a lovely irony: the president of the Lyndon Outing Club isn’t a skier.

And yet Susan Teske, along with a committed group of community members, volunteers countless hours to make the LOC a stellar community skiing hill.

Teske is the current president of the LOC , while husband Joe Peters is former president and current vice president of the organization.

“The president’s job – we joke about it,” Teske said last week. “We joke that it’s a 10-year position because once you get it, if you’re doing it, people are happy with you doing it so they just let you!”

But neither Teske nor Peters is interested in taking a lot of credit for what happens on the hill.

“The whole board really runs the place … we’re just two of a whole group of people who run everything,” Teske said. “There’s this core of guys who basically maintain everything. Put the Ts on, make sure the motors are running, hook up new lights when they don’t work, fixing things. Then there’s a core of people who run the kitchen when we’re open. This year that’s kind of been my job. It’s not my favorite job, but … when we’re open we have to have the kitchen open because that’s one of the ways that we support the hill, one of the ways we pay for things.”

In addition, Teske does a lot of grant writing to raise money and there are fundraisers throughout the year.

Peters, the quieter of the couple, explained, “Before when you had a good year, you made plenty of money to keep things going. But the way things are now, we don’t make enough if it was just on skiing.”

So there’s also another effort that Teske and Peters are putting their back into: turning the LOC into a four-season activity center.

People use the hill for hiking and exercising their dogs through the summer. The LOC building is rented out for wedding receptions, parties, and more. The Lyndon State College Mountain Recreation Program uses the building and the hill for classes. They’ve opened a skate park that keeps kids engaged and away from the sidewalks with their skateboards during the summer.

The LOC hosted their first cyclo-cross last fall. “It was really exciting,” said Teske. “The Burke Mountain Academy kids got involved with helping to lay out the track and community members got involved in helping to plan the course layout. And then we had all these cyclists come from all over the place to participate … I still can’t believe people did it because it was ridiculously hard!”

She hopes that event will continue to grow in years to come.

And then there are the plans that Teske and Peters hope will take them into the future.

A mentoring program is in the works that will give young people an opportunity to learn skills to take into the workforce. They’re partnering with LSC to provide mentors and Blue Cross Blue Shield to provide ski equipment.

“They would be able to come work with the college students who are on board to be mentors and some of our board members. The mentees would learn how to ski and ride. They would learn various aspects of mountain management, for lack of a better term – they’d learn about guest relations and how to run lifts and working in the kitchen. So they’d gain some employability skills,” Teske explained. “They’d get some certifications for CPR and basic first aid. So they’d be building a portfolio for employment as they’re being mentored … and then the goal is that after they learned those skills, they would then also learn the skills of teaching lessons, so that they would then teach lessons to younger to offer lessons for free at the hill.”

They hope to launch the program this year so that it’s up and running in the fall.

But even if it takes a little longer, Teske is willing to put in the time. “I don’t get discouraged when things take too long,” she said. “I want them to happen immediately, but it’s like waiting for snow to come. You can’t make it happen if it’s not ready.”

They’re also talking about putting in a nature trail on the hill that will get people out hiking and learning. She hopes the mentees will also be part of that effort.

“I think it would be very cool to see the kids design it for kids.”

One of their key collaborators at LSC is Sean Doll, an assistant professor in the mountain recreation management department and overseer of the mountain resort management program.

“I don’t think it would be possible for me to say enough about how much of their time and personal resources Sue and Joe give to the community,” Doll said. “Their commitment to the Lyndon Outing Club is, for lack of a better word and stronger word, impressive. It’s actually pretty crazy!”

Doll brings his students up to LOC to do their required community service hours and he said both Teske and Peters are committed to making sure the students get what they need from that time.

He’s also looking forward to having his students participate in the mentoring program.

“They get the opportunity to learn something about the ski industry and then turn around and teach it,” Doll said. “She’s giving my students the opportunity to do that, and then she’s giving these students who maybe can’t afford to get into the ski industry the opportunity to do that. And they’re getting to do it with cool college students!”

Teske, whose uncle was one of the founders of the LOC back in the 1930s, hopes that it will keep going far into the future.

“I want to see it grow,” she said. “It’s worth us keeping it going. In the long run, it’s just our time. It’s not painful to do, it’s fun. And I love to see it when some little four-year-old comes up and learns how to ski and is so proud of themselves.”

Source: www.caledonianrecord.com

 

[thetrailboss]

Another good one.

http://www.caledonianrecord.com/new...cle_2dae3d3b-f83c-5249-a039-b8b1cae27de1.html

 

[Glenn]

Smaller hills are really cool. There's one in Brattleboro that's been running for years. It's a great spot for the locals to get out and make some quick turns.