| KEYSTONE THANKSGIVING TRIP | By TC, Louella Steller |
A total of 38 skiers woke up to sunny skies and snow-covered mountains on their first day of skiing at Keystone. This was one Thanksgiving trip with snow!
Starbucks catered our club’s morning group breakfast. Everyone ate fast, as they were anxious to hit the slopes. After a perfect day of skiing, the Texas Ski Council held their welcome dinner at the Keystone lodge.
SCSC will certainly meet its goal of having younger members in the future due to the success of the Youth Camp that was sponsored by Keystone Resort. Space City had thirteen youths participate in the camp, ranging in age from three to fifteen. Andrew & Amanda Zavala, twins of Becky & Albert Zavala, were the youngest in the camp. Others included Paula & Eddie Bauer, Miranda Ross, Matthew Marchetti, Daniel & Alexander Duenas, Bronte & Annie Ye, Xena Murugappan, and Luke & Jenny Huebner. The camp met daily for four days and included lessons, lift tickets, ski rentals, and lunch. On the last day, there was a special awards party for all the youth that participated. Matthew Marchetti won the award for the best racer in the NASTAR races. |
 On Thanksgiving evening the group started their ritual of having a glass of wine prior to going out for dinner. ATC Laurie Haischer arranged for a Thanksgiving buffet in which everyone ate like there was no tomorrow.
It seems like Judy Weison came home with some new jewelry, which hubby, Les Weison bought her as her reward for skiing so hard.
Jose Araujo was unable to ski the last day due to a bad fall in which he bruised his upper leg. He has pictures of his injury if you have any doubts. Pilar Gonzales, who Jose met in Singapore, shadowed our trip. Pilar lives in Washington, D.C., but is a member of Space City Ski Club because she says we are a fun group to ski with. That is if you can keep up with Pilar!
John Zavala was fluctuating between spending time with his family and meeting new friends.
Tina Williams brought her son, Eddie, and her daughter-in-law, Tammy Bauer and their three children. Eddie took a bad fall on the last day of skiing and broke his collarbone. Eddie seems to be used to broken bones, being a motorcycle driver. |
 Laura Ritter, Gillian Muragappan and Jenny Huebner all have children who attend the same school in Houston and have become good friends. Now they vacation together!
Marti & Nelson Turner drove up from Houston and visited places they have always heard of, but never had an opportunity to visit, such as Amarillo, and Texarkana. Their car is now equipped with snow chains due to the snow that fell prior to leaving. They will be prepared for the next blizzard in Houston.
Art Duenas brought his two boys so they could participant in the youth camp and start training for the US Olympic team.
Linda Wang and Mark Ye were the “never ever” skiers on our trip. Keystone has their ski school on top of the mountain, which created a problem for Mark. He missed the learning school chair lift stop on his first day and had to try to make it down the mountain on his own. After falling one too many times, he asked to be rescued. |
 Don Smith joined Anne Marchetti and her son, Matt. Don, who was complaining of a painful fall, was surprised to learn that he had broken his leg after a doctor’s visit when he returned to Houston. He has a copy of the X-ray if you don’t believe him.
Evan Lowe skied the back mountains of Keystone most of his days by himself. Since they were not groomed, he ruined one pair of skis, but who cares, since they were rented.
Tor Lileng managed to find the nightlife in Keystone.
Craig Campbell was our club’s race director. Space City came in third after Dallas and Austin. Craig did his best to recruit everyone to race. The Texas Ski Council final awards ceremony was held at the Summit House on top of the mountain. Best of all, Keystone offered night skiing.
Returning to the airport we had a narrated tour of the Colorado Rockies from our bus driver, who used to be a tour operator.
Maybe it was the good snow, maybe the sunny weather, but one thing is for certain, it was the people and camaraderie that made Keystone 2005 a trip to remember. |
| HEAD OF THE LIFTLINE | By Cindy Moore, President |
With the ski season in full swing, SCSC is well under way to another great season. And it is so nice not to worry about a snow shortage! It just keeps dumping! This was a great year to plan so many trips to Colorado! And the best news is the ski season is only about half over! Get on wait lists for those trips that are full. Someone is always canceling at the last minute and you could get that magical phone call!
February is the month for one of our most popular activities of the year…Mardi Gras! This year the DOWNHILL KREWE OF SCSC salutes the “WILD WEST”! It is the 2ND weekend of Galveston Mardi Gras, February 24-26, 2006, and the cost is only $70 for Parade Package ($75 non-members). Be sure to sign up and take part in the Z Krewe parade on February 25. Yes, you don’t just watch a parade…you are IN the parade! I have done this myself, and it is a thrill! Also included is a tailgate party, parade beads to toss, and entrance to Strand. There are also optional weekend activities. If you’d like to stay with your SCSC friends in Galveston, you will need to reserve your room ASAP. The final payment date for this activity is coming soon, February 16, so don’t delay! Get your payment in now to Activity Advisor Ellen Eastham. With all of the Katrina victims staying in Houston, this promises to be the best Mardi Gras Galveston has ever seen! Be a part of it through SCSC!
Believe it or not, we are already thinking about next ski season. If you’d like input into where the Texas Ski Council and SCSC skis next year, plan now to attend BidFest, which is back in San Antonio, March 31 through April 2, 2006. Lunch, dinner, a dance party, the vender presentations and the vender ski show/exhibition are all included in the low price of $55.00 if you pay prior to March 1, 2006. The venue will be the fabulous Crown Plaza River Walk at $135.00 a night. See TSC Representative Leyla Ozkardesh for all of the details and to reserve your spot. You can contact her at Leylajo@spacecityskiclub.org. Information about BidFest is on the SCSC website under Activities.
See ya on the slopes! |
| PROGRAMS AND ACTIVITIES | By Jose Araujo, VP of Programs & Jessica Halter, DOP |
Do you need to recover from the Holiday’s stress? Come and join us in the activities that we have prepared for you this month! Would you like to participate in an activity as a coordinator? Contact Jessica or me. We had a wonderful opportunity to give back to our community with the Sunshine Kids live auction that Jessica coordinated at our December 2005 General Monthly meeting. It was a real success! Our members donated over $8,500.00 and a very special member, Jerry Sadler, donated $5,000.00 for the Texans tickets! Jessica will provide more details on the auction results.
This month our Happy Hour is at The Flat, 1701 Commonwealth, on Thursday, February 16th. The General Meeting is on Monday, February 20th (President’s Day) at Chateau Crystale. We have a special weekend (February 24-26, 2006) with the Downhill Krewe of SCSC at the Galveston Mardi Gras which promises to be very exciting with part of the New Orleans crowd! (See the ad in the agazine). We are always working on activities that our members will enjoy, so please check the web page and read the e-blasts. You do not want to miss them! Jessica has some more news to announce: |
One reason I love this club is because of the generosity of its people. The Sunshine Kids have benefited once again from our caring and generous members. During the Holiday Gala and then again at the December meeting, we all banded together to purchase items such as a signed, framed and autographed picture of Madonna, tickets to Texans and Rockets, group Gourmet dinners, dinner and dancing lessons, VIP airport valet, a golf outing, ski lift tickets, a day of boating, holiday decorations and services, guitar lessons, and many, many more wonderful items and services.
Jerry Sadler was the super-hero of our Sunshine Kids donations, and we all appreciate his giving spirit. Who KNEW Texans Tickets could be worth so much? Thanks to Sean O’Brien for donating the tickets, and also to Ellen Eastham for sweetening the reward and donating additional tickets to Jerry for the same game. Special thanks to Frank Andrews who once again volunteered to be our Auctioneer for the Live Auction. Listed on page 5 are the people who donated items and/or services, purchased items/services, or helped with the auctions. The Sunshine Kids will enjoy skiing in Steamboat based in part on the funds we raised. All listed on page 5 should receive acknowledgement from the Sunshine Kids Foundation to thank you and provide a donation receipt. This December, we all became SCSC Sunshine Kids Heroes for 2005. If I’ve inadvertently left any names off of this list, please contact me so that I may get the proper information to Sunshine Kids- Jess
For the coming activities, the Calendar of Events published in this issue and is posted at www.spacecityskiclub.org.
Finally, remember to send me any SCSC past files, memorabilia, documents or items. My e-mails are vpprograms@spacecityskiclub.org or jaraujoy@msn.com and Jessica’s e-mail is jessicahalter@yahoo.com. |
| FROM THE SKI DESK | By Kayleen Kill, VP of Trips |
We are now in the midst of a great ski season. Openings on any of the trips are going to be harder to come by, but don’t despair. We always seem to have cancellations in the last month or two before a trip, so be sure to get on the wait list for any trip you are interested in.
By the time you receive this issue, Steamboat (led by TC Thuy Tran and assisted by ATC’s Richard Rocque and Leyla Ozkardesh) and Mammoth (TC Bill Bomberger) will have returned, and Finland (TC David Eickhoff and ATC Jan Ferrell) will be about to return. We have 5 more trips leaving in February and March and I know they will all be great.
The TC’s and ATC’s have been working since May on these trips. Please be sure to thank them for all their hard work.
As I mentioned last month, we will be working on next year’s trips soon. Please consider being a TC or ATC for next year. Although it is a lot of work, it is very rewarding. And without our volunteers, we wouldn’t exist as a club.
See you on the slopes! |
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SCSC AND THE SUNSHINE KIDS WOULD LIKE TO THANK THE FOLLOWING PEOPLE FOR THEIR CONTRIBUTIONS IN MAKING THE SILENT AUCTION A SUCCESS!
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Ann Dorn |
Gary Ladd |
Linda Licarione |
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Barbara Della Longa |
Jeannine Jiral |
Lisa Spota |
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Anneliese Unterharnscheidt |
Jeff Sarff |
Marsha Lutz |
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Barb Ehrlich |
Jerry and Peggy Montgomery |
Nolan Badeaux |
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Bruce Baird |
Jerry Sadler |
Penny Chancey |
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Bruce Lowther |
Jessica & Katy Halter |
REI |
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Cheryl & Walter May |
Jim Jeans |
Robert Wray |
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Cheryl Kenney’s Brunch Bunch |
Johanna Kuang |
Ron Hayes |
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Cheryl Kenny |
Jose Araujo |
Ron Rambin |
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Cindy Moore |
Kathy Luhrs |
Ross & Diane Baker |
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Craig Campbell |
Katie Brooks - Aspen Ski |
Sean O’Brien |
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Deborah Cini |
Kayleen Kill & John Rice |
Sue Salvage |
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Don Smith |
Kim Olinger |
Suzan Miles |
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Ellen Eastham |
Laura Kinney |
Mike & Dawn (Van Lang) |
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Elyse Turla |
Linda Hopkins |
Vanlangandonck | |
| FROM THE 2005 – 2006 NOMINATING COMMITTEE | |
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This year’s Nominating Committee has been working hard to find next year’s leaders for the Space City Ski Club. We feel we have come up with an exciting slate of office candidates, unfortunately at the time of this writing our slate is not quite complete. We will, however, have a completed slate to submit at the February General meeting. These candidates will be put into nomination and voted on at the March General meeting.
2006 – 2007 Officer Candidates:
President - Gary Ladd
VP of Programs - Deb Cini
VP of Trips - Pat Piech
VP of Membership - Jessica Halter
VP of Publications - Steven Teoh
Treasurer - Don Macken
Secretary - Janet McKenzie
Respectfully,
John Rice, Chairman
Barbara Ehrlich Ross Baker
Llona Doubet Sue Sedwick
Bob Horan Larry Christie |
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