Hello All,
It’s time to look ahead to the Bill Koch League Festival that will take place in two weekends, March 5 & 6! The Festival is a highlight of our season, an event that celebrates the spirit of winter and the fun of skiing. With competitive and non-competitive events, it is appropriate for ALL of our skiers.
This season, more than ever, we encourage your family to consider attending with your skier(s). As anyone who has attended previously will attest, the Festival embodies so much of what we promote in our program. Our experienced coaches are ready to support all of our skiers, whether they are racing for the first time ever, are Festival veterans, or are interested in non-competitive participation.
Every year the nordic season ends with an enormous festival consisting of two days of races and fun events for children (up to 8th grade). This year, the festival will take place at Great Glenn Trails in Gorham, NH, which is about 2 1/2 hrs from Hanover. For information about the festival, go to NENSA’s festival page here. On Saturday, children will participate in classic relay races, and on Sunday the children will compete in individual freestyle races. The youngest skiers can choose to participate in the “Lollipop” category (an untimed, low-key race open to children 2nd grade and younger – and named for the sugary reward children receive when they cross the finish line). And children of any age (up to 8th grade) can participate in the “Nordic Adventurer” category if they do not want to race at all, but want to enjoy the other activities. Over the course of the weekend there will also be games on skis, an enchanted ski tour, radar runs and other fun events while children are not participating in races.
With NH as the hosting state this year and the venue reasonably close to home, some of you may choose to attend for a single day. There is a single registration fee whether your child attends one day or both, but you will indicate the event choices as you go through the registration process. You can view the schedule for the weekend here. Messages from the team at Great Glen Trails reassure us that they are doing all they can to make and stockpile snow for the BKL Festival; read more here.
The theme for this year is “White Mountain Magic” (think wizards and witches and Harry Potter). If one of you has a good, simple costume idea that we could use for our club (pieces of fabric for capes, conical hats kids could make…), and would like to take on the organization of it, let us know.
REGISTRATION:
Please register your child ASAP. Online registration closes this weekend, Saturday, Feb 27. Go here to register. The dinner Saturday night is one that many of us attend, but it is up to each family to sign up as part of registration.
GET ORGANIZED WITH US:
To help with our own club’s organization, if you plan to attend, please add your contact information to this google doc. Also, please sign up for a volunteer job to help us get the FS tasks done. Go to our Coaching and Volunteer document here. It was such a great team effort last year! Looking forward to another good one.
LODGING:
FS families typically spend Friday and Saturday nights at a hotel. Many Ford Sayre families will be staying at the Royalty Inn in Gorham, NH. The official race “headquarters” are at Town and Country Inn and Resort in Gorham. Go here for more lodging options.
BREAKFAST:
The Royalty Inn does not provide a buffet breakfast. We have arranged a group buffet from 6am – 8am at a local restaurant called Welch’s. The cost is $9.75/person. Don’t expect gourmet, but it should do the job! It is within walking distance of our hotel. They have asked for an approximate number of attendees for Saturday morning and Sunday. Please check the columns on the contact information google doc linked above to let us know if you will eat there.
QUESTIONS:
Cheers,
Aricca