Adaptive Ski Week at Beech Mountain Resort!
Delta Zeta Nu Sorority Volunteers with Dee Thomas
A big “THANK YOU” goes out the the LMC students and staff who trained for and volunteered at the Beech Mountain Ski Resort for the Adaptive Ski Week, Monday, January 16 through Friday, January, 20.
Josh Escamilla and George Gillespie, LMC Volunteers
These student and staff volunteers were involved in many of the activities during the week including attending the Volunteer Adaptive Training Workshop on Monday, helping with the logistics of carrying adaptive equipment and helping participants get into bi-skis and mono-skis, participating in a lesson, assisting the adaptive instructors on the slopes with their lessons, and attending the Celebration Banquet on Thursday night at Stonewalls.
LMC Volunteers included Josh Escamilla, George Gillespie, Adam Herre, Dee Thomas, and the women from the DZN Sorority including Rashawndra Doby, Cassie Messer, Alexis Franco, Caroline Morong, Zsachlayne Roguska, Kaleigh Nowlan, Taylor Scheetz, Taylor Pritchard, and Sydnie Taylor. Natalie Burns, who graduated from Lees-McRae College, was back again this year as a volunteer instructor for the event.
George Gillespie, LMC Volunteer
This event is an opportunity for our students to participate in a service learning experience in the high mountains only a few miles from the Lees-McRae College campus. They were able to meet and assist eight adaptive instructors who flew in from Colorado to work with local adaptive instructors, volunteers and participants to help people with disabilities enjoy the fun and adventure of skiing and snowboarding.
Watch a video about the Adaptive Ski Clinic from WBIR Knoxville by clicking here.
The High Country Nordic Association Telemark Festival!
Details: LMC students, staff, and alumni had the opportunity to participate in the 2nd Annual Telemark Festival held this past Saturday hosted by the High Country Nordic Association at the Beech Mountain Ski Resort.
LMC Participants Included: Caitlin Bentley, James Harnois, Tyler Lucas, Rick Carpenter, Rob Hancock, and Dee Thomas.
The event began with a gathering of participants for early registration at Footsloggers in Boone from 6:00-8:00 p.m. Friday night. The weather was rainy with occasional hail early on Saturday morning, but the students arrived early for the event ready to borrow the few available telemark skis and boots that were provided for them to demo.
After participating in a rainy lesson on the beginner slope, they headed to the lifts in the fog of the upper mountain to experience telemark turns on steeper terrain. There were smiles all around and shouts of encouragement from the over 45 veteran telemark skiers who were out on the slopes with their telemark equipment remembering their first day on telemark skis.
As Randy Johnson said in the article in The Mountain Times, “People who cross-country ski are a tight-knit community. It’s a group of passionate skiers. We’re trying to turn this into a little bit of a camaraderie event, as well.”
Well, the camaraderie and support was really felt by our students and they definitely earned their commemorative Telemark Festival 2012 T-shirts that say “Half the Binding…Twice the Fun”…..a fun, experience for all!!
Contact: Dee Thomas, thomasd@lmc.edu for more information and to see photos of our students participating in these events!
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