President’s Message – It is almost here!

I can’t believe we are so close to the start of the season. It seems like just yesterday that we had our first SkiFit and a kick-off pub night. But this past weekend was the 12th and final official SkiFit of the season. However, there will be an extra session on November 23–thank you to Dave Flowers for taking over this weekend!

Speaking of SkiFit, this past Saturday we had a record turnout of about 60 members. Special thank you to Astrid Petersons and George Lorenz for leading groups almost every week. Thank you to all the other volunteers who took the lead at various SkiFits. Without all of you, we could not run the program. I also want to send a special thank you to Karen Evans and John McHutchion who have led SkiFit for many, many years. Hope you have a fantastic season out west.

On the topic of thanking volunteers, we held our annual Volunteer Appreciation Dinner and Awards evening a couple of weeks ago at The Hot House Café.  We handed out  14 awards, including the special Lifetime Achievement Award.  This is “Awarded to a long-time member for outstanding and long-term volunteering and leadership in the club.  A member can only receive this award once.”  This year’s recipient was Kevin Thyer. Kevin has been instrumental in the development and running of our very popular race program. Please see the article below regarding the Volunteer Awards.

As a heads up, the write-up that I mentioned in the last SnoBiz that will be in the upcoming edition of Horizon Travel & Lifestyle magazine, will be distributed in the November 30th Toronto Star. This will go out with 50,000 print copies of the paper and to over 100,000 digitally. 

One last item.  Rocco Romeo, our very talented Director of Marketing, has designed a special club pin commemorating our 75th Anniversary season. We received the pins late last week and began handing them out at last weekend’s SkiFit. They will be available at upcoming social events, and on day trips and long trips.

I hope that you are all as excited as I am for the upcoming season!!

Cheers!

Justin Graham

President, High Park Ski Club