NENSA News

Greetings NENSA members and NENSA fans!  We have just received a wonderful gesture from a member who is making an immediate Matching Challenge, and is willing to MATCH all donations of $50 or more (please give more if you can, as it too will be matched!) for up to a $5000 matching challenge total donation to NENSA.  

This is the last week of our Annual Fund Drive, as our fiscal year ends April 30th.  We have a goal of 6ok that we set a year ago in our Board meeting.  That amount was based on funding our annual budget for all the programs, races and clinics you have come to know and love.  We still need your help to help us meet this 60k goal.  We are getting there – we are 59% of the way to 60k, but still have a ways to go!  Please be as generous as you can, and now more then ever, as your gift of $50, or more, will be matched dollar for dollar.

THANK YOU to everyone who as donated thus far, and thank you everyone who is able to make a donation today and be a part of this wonderful Matching Challenge we have going this final week.  And thank you to our anonymous Matching Challenge donor too!!

Congratulations go out to our New England U16’s ~ Will Koch, Josh Valentine, Griffin Wright, Matthew Moreau, Anna Lehmann, Abigail Streinz and Charlotte Ogden, who all qualified, based on their results at USSA Junior Nationals this past March, for the USSA/NNF National U16 Camp this July out in Sun Valley, Idaho.  New England is also allowed to name another girl and boy as our discretionary picks to attend, and this year, Olivia Cuneo and Zander Martin will be attending (Tim Cobb was asked, but had to decline).  Congrats to all of you for your hard work and excellent results, and for qualifying for this training camp.

 

NENSA’s Eastern REG Camp will be held Saturday June 24 – Thursday June 29th, at Green Mountain Valley School campus, in Waitsfield Vermont.  This is a slight change from the original published dates of 6/22-6/28, due to USST coach scheduling and availability. This camp is by invitation only, and qualifying U16/U18/U20 athletes will be sent invites by May 1st.  All U16 athletes who qualified for Junior Nationals this year will automatically receive an invite.  U18/U20 invites based on final overall rankings for the season.

We are officially half way through the month of April, yet only 17% of the way to our goal of 60k raised for our NENSA Annual Fund.  Thank you to everyone who has generously donated thus far ~ but we still need the support of all our members to reach our goal. Please consider a tax deductible donation to NENSA today.  Click here to donate.  Thank you!

“Meet us in Norway! You will love it,” Heidi said when my husband Kris Freeman and I were planning our spring vacation. Kris’s brother Justin, his wife Heidi and their two girls, Iris and Sage, live in the Netherlands and love going on ski vacations during the winter. While we were planning our trip, my parents, Jim and Michele Dodge, and Kris’s parents, Donavon and Barbara Freeman also decided to come ski in Norway to see Justin and his family during their spring break trip.

Right now we are in Nordseter, Norway for two weeks, enjoying the spring skiing, warm temperatures and endless kilometers of free, groomed trails. The trails from Nordseter run all the way to Lillehammer and connect with the Olympic tracks at the Birkebeiner Ski Stadium. In Norway, Nordic skiing is the favorite pastime and and part of their history and culture. The government maintains the trails and grooming and thousands of families are out enjoying the mild temperatures and great skiing this week.

Kris and I both grew up skiing with our families. I started skiing with my parents in their backyard and trails winding through 70 acres of woods. My Dad would pack a lunch and we would spend the day skiing as a family. We would also go to ski races all over New England, and take ski vacations during school breaks. Kris grew up skiing with his parents and his brother, going on trips at a young age that included skiing the Canadian ski marathon.

Norwegians are on Easter break while we are here, and I am amazed and intrigued by the culture of skiing that I have seen here on the trails in Nordseter and Sjusjoen. I keep seeing families heading out on the trails with backpacks filled with food, shovels, small sleds, and cameras, with sleeping pads rolled up on the top. Out on the trails families pull small children in a pulken (pull sled), and children that look about 4-6 years old are tethered and skiing behind a parent or grandparent. All ages, and all family members, including the family dog, are on the trails together. They stop and create benches made out of snow, some with a small fire, where they spend time playing and eating a snack.

Today we skied on part of the Birkebeiner trail out to a small hut. At the hut there was a table with soda, coffee, hot chocolate and 3 waffle makers powered by a generator. Families were sitting outside on stumps, enjoying waffles, while the young children played in the snow, and the adults soaked in the midday sun.

The atmosphere reminds me of my upbringing and the one my husband has described to me. I feel lucky that I grew up skiing with my family, and continue to ski as a family. Heidi was right-I do love it here! I love experiencing a culture where skiing is a family pastime, with children being taught to ski by parents who were taught to ski by their parents.

The Bill Koch Youth Ski League in New England has this culture through family involvement. USSA competencies say that kids less than 12 years old should be skiing 80% undirected. When I was growing up, many parents in our Bill Koch League were coaches, volunteers, and learned to wax; and most skied with their children and went on ski trips with families from our club. Everyone was involved in some way which created in a community that grew into one of the biggest Bill Koch Leagues at the time. Our league consisted of families who all understood that skiing and recreating year round, as a family, was important to keep their children involved in sport at a young age. This community resulted in continued friendships, and skiers working in the sport as coaches, some in the highest levels of the sport. Hopefully, it will also result in another generation of parents taking their kids skiing, and kids skiing with their parents.