Today we are launching our “Welcome Home” campaign for our new (to us) snow cat. Anyone can contribute to it by visiting https://chuffed.org/project/welcome-home This campaign will run to the beginning of November.

Since 2015 the Fernie Nordic Society have been renting a snowcat to augment grooming done by our snowmobile groomer? Last year we were the only facility renting the snowcat and the opportunity to use it more often meant some truly fabulous grooming for the 2017-2018 season. We had arranged to rent the snow cat for one more year, but…

In September we learned that we would not have access to the snow cat that we have been using over the last number of years. While it added some unexpected pressure to find an alternative, we are happy to announce that the Fernie Nordic Society and you, our members and trails users, are about to be proud new owners of our very own snowcat! She’s a beauty and is almost ready to help us achieve the quality of trails we all dream of. This purchase is one step in a long-term vision that you have helped create and we were fortunate that all things aligned to make it a reality just in time for the 2018/19 season!

Both the groomer and related costs were not accounted for at the 2018 Annual General Meeting and we have always been committed to ensuring our fees stay as low as possible while providing the best quality nordic skiing possible. Through our surveys and strategic planning processes, we’ve also heard that members would be willing to pay more to improve the club. We are asking that our members help us now with donations to support this additional cost. Already having an amazing volunteer crew of groomers and mechanics means that full-time access to our own groomer, with no additional monthly cost, will result in the best grooming program we have seen at the Elk Valley Nordic Centre to date.

Our long term vision sees us offering more programs and facilities in a venue that is sustainable, welcoming and secure for long-term access. Achieving our goals will require a series of exciting campaigns over the coming years, but we are confident that working together, we can see our nordic community of 850+ members become even stronger. We want you, as members, to feel ownership in the club because we truly couldn’t do this without you!

Our ultimate goal for this campaign is $85,000. This will cover purchasing the cat, shipping and initial upgrades ($50,000) as well as the start of our shelter and operational costs for the winter. That means that if all of our members contributed $100 we could raise $85,000 that quickly! It’s really that simple. We welcome contributions of any size, and all contributions $1000+ will be recognized with their name on the shelter once completed.

The nature of the purchase and our goal to groom this fall gives us an element of urgency, so we’d like to see how far we can get by November 1st. Please share the campaign far and wide. We encourage participation from the entire nordic and trails community!

If you are part of an
organization or company that would like to contribute a more
significant donation, we will be recognizing game changer partners by
applying their logo on the machine. Minimum game changer level is
$10,000.

We are SO excited about the future of this club and are so pleased you’re with us for the ride. Let’s Welcome Home our new cat!