90 years of the Laurentian Ski Hill will be celebrated at The Grande on Friday, October 14th at 7:00pm.
The Après Ski party will be different than the regular, run of the mill chicken and vegetable dinner. Board Spokesperson John Strang says the event will be unique with many different food stations for people to choose from. There will be a poutine bar, a gourmet slider bar, and there will be hors d’oeuvres being served. Cecil’s Brewhouse, one of the sponsors, will also be donating 50 cents to the ski hill for every pint purchased.
Strang says community partners are important in throwing these kinds of events. The Ski Hill is one of North Bay’s main attractions for tourists and for businesses, and Strang says they don’t ever want to lose the hill so they need the support of the public. Fundraising is important for conserving the hill, because the taxpayers can’t be expected to foot the bill. Strang says the hill is an important asset. It’s a feeder hill to other hills in the area like Mount Antoine, and it’s the place where kids in North Bay learn to ski. Strang mentioned former World Champion skiers Steve Omischl and Kate Pace as people who have used the hill in the past.
Mayor Al McDonald was also on hand for the announcement. He shared a story about how his girlfriend taught him how to ski on the hill when he was just 18-years-old. McDonald says the city promotes a healthy, active lifestyle, and what better way for kids to be active than learning how to ski? He says parents show up, let the kids out of the van, they can go up and down the hill to their hearts content and the parents don’t even have to pay for a babysitter.
McDonald says City Council is so supportive of the ski hill because North Bay is one of only two cities in all of North America to have a ski hill in the centre of town. Colorado Springs is the other. He says in order to keep the hill viable in the city they need help from the public to continue to support and use the hill each and every year.
Only 300 tickets will be sold for the fundraiser. The feature raffle prize is two tickets to Billy Joel at MSG in New York City, with return airfare and hotel accommodations. The door prize that night will be a Jeep Wrangler with a 2 year lease.
