The Chummy Broomhall Award is given out every year to a volunteer who embodies the ethos of Chummy who was the Chisholm Ski Club leader for 70 plus years, a 2x Olympian, and builder of the Olympic race courses for Palisades Tahoe, Lake Placid, and Black Mountain. He embodied the spirit of being a volunteer generously giving his time and energy to generations of skiers. It is in this spirit that this award be in his honor for the unsung heroes of ski racing. We are thrilled to share with you all that Alan Goedecke of Bedford, NH and the Bedford Cross-Country Ski Club is the winner of the 2024 Chummy Broomhall Award. This past winter, at 80 years old and he was still out skiing and helping out his ski club. Sadly Alan passed away just a few weeks ago. We wish he could be here now to receive this award – we know he would have been thrilled.
Peter Goedecke noted that “in 1990, when the Manchester Nordic Ski program struggling to stay afloat, Alan stepped in to coach on a volunteer basis at first. During that time he saw the needs of the local ski community. Without a proper place to practice he had an idea to build a ski area in Bedford, called the Bedford Cross-Country Ski Club. With this entity that he founded, a ski area was built at Earl Legacy Park with 5 km of trails, a heated ski lodge with flush toilets, and grooming equipment – this was done at no cost to the town of Bedford.”
The club also features an equipment loan program that distributes about 300 pairs of skis a year to local teams. This program is funded by donations and allows local youth to get gear at no cost. Currently the Bedford Cross-Country Ski Club (https://bxcsc.org) supports Manchester, Bedford, Soughean and Winnacunnet, and BKL. Without Alan, it’s likely that none of these teams would still be viable. New teams that were started with major help from the ski club are Winnacunnet, the local BKL club and Bedford High School.
Daniel Rodd reported that he “had a great experience working with Alan Goedecke as a BKL coach at the Bedford Ski Club. I was astonished by his dedication to the Nordic Ski Community there. Whether he was painting the ski club cabin, working on trails, or coaching high school skiers, Alan seemed to have an endless amount of enthusiasm. His energy and work ethic is contagious and as a result, he had an impact on volunteers like myself, and many others, especially kids. He showed them how to work hard, whether it was on the trails or at ski practice.”
Daniel also noted that “Alan’s sort of optimism was essential when managing a ski club in Southern New Hampshire, with our unreliable snow conditions. He and his son Peter, managed to get ahold of some ancient snow making equipment and set it up so the snow guns actually worked. When necessary, Alan would stay at the ski club most of the night making snow and moving it around the trails with his tractor. My son and I helped out with “snow farming” on a few long cold nights before races, and it was very tiring, but Alan always made that work more fun. His sense of humor and energy endured late into the night as he was moving snow around the trails in his bright orange snowmobile suit.”
Congratulations to Alan, for his many years of volunteer service to our Nordic community, and for all that he accomplished and gave to our sport over the past 34+ years. The fact that Alan is not here to accept the award is heartbreaking, but his family, many friends, former athletes and colleagues feel honored to know the Chummy Broomhall Award was bestowed upon him this year.