I regret to announce that circumstances, all related to the current Covid pandemic and public health protocols, have overcome our efforts to conduct the Snowflake KidSki 2021 program.
Our program is heavily reliant upon the wonderful high school skiers, who volunteer to teach and coach the participants. Historically, participants are grouped according to age and experience and we assign 2-3 Coaches to groups of 7-10 kids. With the Chalet closed to use, and with a plan to keep group sizes smaller and consisting of kids who already interact in family or school-classroom “pods”, the number of high school coaches necessarily increased. However, when the high school Nordic season was suspended thru December, the opportunity to recruit and train coaches was lost. The season finally began, last week, and we attempted to recruit coaches for an abbreviated KidSki program, but the number of recruits was very small. This is not to fault the athletes, or their parents, who may be cautious about exposing the athletes to “new” people. That is a reasonable caution, and I would have had the same concerns with my own kids when they coached KidSki.
Bottom line is that our 2021 KidSki program is a casualty of the Covid situation. If the circumstances change, and the snow allows, I have a contingency to offer a 3-4 week program in February, but it will depend upon availability of high school or college skier-coaches. If you already sent in a KidSki registration/payment, the check has not been deposited, and I will shred it.
In an effort to encourage young skiers to get out on the snow, we are going to offer ski-rentals for kid-size equipment. Snowflake Members may rent kid-size Skis/Boots/Poles for their children for $30/set, and take the equipment home for 4 weeks. A deposit of $100/set will be required; I will hold the deposit check until equipment is returned. If you are interested, contact me at snowflakeduluth@gmail.com and we will arrange a time to outfit your child.
John Graham
Manager, Snowflake Nordic Ski Center
218-355-1271