News and Information about the People and Programs of SFL International
Skiing. Sharing. Learning
The mission of Ski for Light is to enhance the quality of life and independence of visually or mobility-impaired adults through a program of cross country skiing.
By Marion Elmquist
It was quite the varied week at Shanty Creek Resorts - snow, rain, sun, melt, and then more snow that gave us really good skiing Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Saturday was picture perfect for our race day. Note that I said race day, not race/rally day. After some track setting challenges, the groomers at Shanty Creek came up with a wonderful 3 kilometer trail right outside our hotel and it was decided to hold the rally on Friday. Lots of folks were there to cheer on the rally-ers, and on Saturday, those who did the rally were at Cedar River to cheer for the racers.
Wednesday was our "day off" and as usual, our clever and inventive group came up with lots of activities to keep us busy and entertained.
The attentive staff at Shanty Creek were always there to take care of any of our requests, making it all seem effortless. It was a great week.
Now we're getting ready for next year in Anchorage, February 23 to March 2, 2014. Event Chair Nancy McKinney, Rich Milsteadt and I were hosted with a number of other meeting planners to a weekend in Anchorage February 27 to March 2 to check out hotel facilities and lots of activities available in the Anchorage area. We skied Kincaid Park, our 2014 ski venue, with John Olnes, and I'm thrilled to report that we should enjoy some really great trails next year. It was all capped off by seeing the ceremonial start of the Iditarod. What a bunch of happy dogs raring to head off to Nome! On our last visit to Anchorage, in 2003, we were able to secure a seat on one of the sleds through an auction, which we then raffled off to the SFL group. The winner, a VIP, had a fabulous time during her ride and told us all about it Saturday night at the banquet. We're going to enter the auction again and I hope we'll get another seat. Stay tuned, and get ready to buy your raffle tickets.
Note that a cross-country ski tour, the Tour of Anchorage, will be held on the last Sunday of the event, March 2. There are 25, 40, and 50 kilometer options. We'll have more detail about that exciting event in a future Bulletin to help you decide whether you want to stay that extra day for another adventure.
Mark your calendars and see you in Anchorage!
Editor's Note: When you bring more than 250 supercharged folks together for a week of intense activity someplace where most of them have never been before and throw Northern Michigan's fast-changing weather at them, you might expect newcomers and veterans alike to grumble. But -big surprise -that's not what we found when we asked people to let us know about their Ski for Light week. - P.S.
By Elvira Basnight
This year's Ski for Light event ranks right up there as one of the high points of my life. I will always remember it and am so glad I had the opportunity to ski, and best of all to meet such a fabulous group of people. It was a joy talking, laughing, skiing and even falling with my guide, Marvin Liewer. The group Alabama has a song called "Angels Among Us," which really describes my first week at Ski for Light. The chorus goes something like this:
"Oh I believe there are angels among us
Sent down to us from somewhere up above
They come to you and me in our darkest hours
To show us how to live, to teach us how to give
To guide us with the light of love."
Are those not just the most appropriate words to describe the SFL experience? Thank you, thank you, thank you.
By Shelley Wine
To try to isolate the most wonderful part of the Michigan International SFL is challenging. I will share five favorite events.
1. Getting up by myself after falling off the trail and landing in
knee-high fluffy snow.
2. Gliding down-hill in a smooth controlled snowplow.
3. Participating in an outdoor aerobics class with nine other loonies
with snow falling on our heads.
4. Meeting Harald, a skier and fitness enthusiast from Norway, who
uses sign language to chat.
5. And getting to know my roommate, Elvira.
By Gretchen VanOrmer
As a newbie to Ski for Light, I have to ask, how could this not have been a life-changing event? It has been several years since I have spent time with anyone else visually impaired, and participating this year at SFL and watching so many people with less vision than I have accomplish so much really gave me a great sense of empowerment. I guess all the chickens stayed home, because watching someone learn to ski for the first time or wander lost around the hotel reminded me just how much courage people have.
I just thought this was an event to get me out of the house, but it was indeed life changing. I could not be more proud about the events of the week. The matching of guides to skiers and the bonds we form is miraculous. The weather wasn't perfect, but it didn't really matter. I watched my first narrated movie, "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel," at first wondering if I could sit through it and then wanting more. I felt welcomed by long-time Ski for Light folks. From the encouraging talks with the dog walker in the hot tub to the tear shed as people crossed the finish line this experience will forever stand out. Just the training sessions alone brought me new self esteem even though I still can't seem to line up the three little holes on the boots with the pins on the skis! Even so, I now understand how unifying the sport and the week can be.
Ski for Light, you have touched my life in ways you'll never know.
By Larry Ngayan
It was great visiting with you again and again and again. It hasn't gotten old and I look forward to seeing you next year. I remember Thursday, the day after the rain brought us a no-ski day on Wednesday. I want to give a big shout-out to Transportation Coordinator and MIP guide Tim Byas and Trackmaster Ken Leghorn. Along with others, they worked really hard to set a trail that was MIP-friendly, not only in terms of getting to the trail but also actually had tracks that were good enough to ski on. It was snowing so hard in the morning -snowplows and trucks got stuck -that the vans couldn't get through to the Meadow, so we went to lunch at the ski area. Ken had spent the morning setting a 3-K trail at the main hotel, and Tim came by to say that the new tracks were ready and we should come back to the main hotel, because it had stopped snowing there. By the time we got skiing on the fresh tracks and the new 3 kilometer course it started to snow and become very windy again. My trusty Norwegian guides Sigurd and Svein and I had a very refreshing 3 kilometer tour through the meadow and back to our hotel.
Later that evening, as I enjoyed the concert by a group that sang about the Great Lakes, I had fond memories of -and felt I really knew lake- effect weather.
Much thanks and appreciation to Deb Wiese and all the event organizers.
And a Note from . . .
By Suzanne (aka Frau) Pedersen
Who could have said 38 years ago that Ski for Light would still be going strong and better than ever? Of course, my favorite memory was the amazing talent show. I'm already dreaming up an act for Anchorage. See you there!
By Nino Pacini
It started in January 2012, when my retired friend Mike asked if I'd like to ride the entire (just about) west coast of the U.S. with him that coming September. The plan was to fly into Seattle and ride along the Pacific Coast Highway all the way to San Diego. In July, we planned a test trip around Lake St Claire. We extended our route along the western edge of Lake Erie, adding some 225 miles to avoid having to rely on any car transportation.
Lake St. Claire connects Lake Huron to Lake Erie via the St. Claire River, Lake St. Claire and finally the Detroit river. We live on the north side of Lake St. Claire and rode around it in a clockwise direction, first riding east up the north side before crossing the St. Claire River into Canada and heading down the south side.
On a cool Monday morning, July 16, we set off for the first leg of the journey, which was supposed to take us 70 miles from my house in Grosse Pointe Woods. The plan called for us to ride up to Algonac, cross into Canada on the ferry and ride down that side of Lake St Claire to Mike's cousin's place. Temperatures were supposed to hit a balmy 95 degrees, but not until later in the day.
We stop for lunch after crossing into Canada. It's around 1 pm, with the temperature already at 90. I figure we've gone about 65 miles, but it also seems that we likely have more than five miles to go, but I'm just the guy in the back. Mike calls his cousin, and we learn that there are 30 more miles ahead for the day! I'm not happy, but . . .
We tank up on fluids and set off. Canadian drivers seem to treat cyclists with more respect than we tend to get in the U.S. This, plus the smooth rural terrain, lets us almost forget about the heat and humidity. We knock off another 20 miles before we just need to stop on someone's front porch and "chill". Boy, it'd sure be nice to see a convenience store (o'yeah, it's rural Canada)! After 96 miles, we finally pull into Mike's cousin's place about 3:30. Temperature: 97 degrees and very humid.
Day 2 features another ferry crossing (Leamington to Point Pelee Island). We roll out at 7:30 and make the 35-mile overall journey to a B&B run by Mike's uncle. With the temp at 90 again when we hit the B&B around 1 pm, my hopes of relaxing in AC are quickly shattered. Thanks for that Great Lake right outside because the temperature ended up topping 102 degrees that day and there was no air conditioning.
We don't really get rolling on Day 3 from our starting point in Sandusky, Ohio until about 4 pm. The threat of rain for day four and slightly cooler temperatures
3
motivate us all the way to Fremont, which puts us at 60 miles for the day. We find a fine Chinese buffet. But not having a car at the end of a long riding day to use to go to dinner really sucks -especially the bike ride back from dinner.
Day 4 is planned as a 90-mile ride that would end up in Ypsilanti, Michigan, via Toledo, at Mike's house. We get breakfast just as the first storm hits town. It's still raining lightly when we decide to roll out. We've been riding for five miles on a traffic-free paved bike path when the rain gradually stops. We pull into Toledo just as the sun appears and the wind starts picking up. You guessed it, it was time to stop for a coffee and nutritious something (McDonald's this time). Food Critic Mike starts reading and commenting on the caloric and nutritional value of everything McDonald's serves. I figured that I'd already ridden about 230 miles in the preceding 3.5 days, with another 120 miles to go, so I ignored the commentary.
Unfortunately, we have to ride in traffic through Toledo and then Monroe, Michigan, but we get back out into the country for the final 20 miles. We roll into Mike's place about 4:30 pm after fighting pretty strong winds all afternoon. But we're home -or at least one of us is! Total mileage for the day was 92.
Day 5 has me eager to get home! The strong headwind and cooler temp -about 70 degrees -feel rather cold at first. We pull in to my home 55 miles later at about
12:30. This journey had me re-considering whether I truly wished to ride nearly 2,000 miles alongside a busy highway! Mike and I agreed that it wasn't for us. Sometimes it's a good thing to test your theories before jumping in! We've continued to ride every Tuesday and plan to do another five day self-supported bike trip in the Adirondacks -not too many busy highways there!
Editor's Note: And now for something completely different . . . Hope you enjoy this departure from the norm - let us know! - P.S.
By Andrea Goddard
I never quite trusted Mrs. McCarten. After all, I had her for both language arts and social studies in sixth grade. What if I got a bad grade while studying the Egyptians? Would she somehow hold that against me when I was simultaneously turning in essays about the most recent horrid poem we'd had to read?
Everyone said she was tough. She actually dared to scold me for talking in class . . .the nerve!
I held steadfastly to my uneasiness around her until the day she asked, "Andrea, have you ever read a book called Little by Little? It's by a woman who grew up visually impaired. I really think you would like it."
Should I believe her? After all, this was coming from the same woman who assigned hideously boring reading about the Roman Empire, and who had the plodding gall to claim that analyzing poetry was important! But putting my reservations aside, I checked out Little by little from Talking Books Kerry Cundiff, and the very first sentence of Little's narrative hooked me. Little's first memoir starts when she is about five or six years old, describing her experience of her earliest realization that she is visually impaired. She spends her first handful of years in Taiwan, where her parents did missionary work. When she is seven, she moves to Canada where her family is actually from, and recounts touching, engaging, sad, and hilarious stories about being different, learning to love writing as much as she adored reading, and learning that the world of sighted children (and adults) was not always an understanding or welcoming place.
This first book takes us through various vignettes in Little's life, ending after her graduation from college, the untimely death of one of her beloved parents, and the publication of her first novel for children.
Along with her gloriously dry humor and clear relish for telling a tale, I was struck by how resonant her narrative is with the young child and teenager I remember being. Even today, I find Little's voice is not dated, jaded, or simply the attempt of a grown-up to recount stories of youth. Instead, Little draws me in, allowing me to live with her, to walk to and from school as she is teased mercilessly by sighted bullies, and to sit with her teenaged self at a play, during which she (seated in the front row) eases off her shoes for comfort, and accidentally kicks one of them into the orchestra pit.
Stars Come out Within is the second installment of her memoirs. Here, the adult Jean Little carries on the account of her first novel's publication, her experiences teaching a class of young students with disabilities, and her depression as she is forced to adjust to glaucoma and to progressive vision loss. Among her tales of traveling to Japan with a friend, and of finding and buying her first home, she describes going to The Seeing Eye when her vision becomes poor enough to necessitate the use of a guide dog. Her warm, poignant rendering of her first moments with her new dog, Zephyr, and the subsequent triumphs and disasters all of us dog guide users know well are priceless. (In this second memoir, Little also quotes pertinent bits of Emily Dickinson's poetry to begin each chapter, a touch I felt warmed by as Dickinson was the first poet I ever read).
Jean Little was the first author I'd encountered who wrote both about her own experience of growing up visually impaired, and about her refreshing outrage at the lack of realistic portrayals of people with disabilities in classic and contemporary literature for young people. Her commentary on this topic seems as relevant today as it was when she first looked for disabled characters who actually stayed disabled throughout an entire story, non-miraculous ending included! Her righteous indignation has always won from me a sigh of relief. Thank god someone "gets it"!
One concluding note: When I was about sixteen, I decided to chance writing to Ms. Little, who still lived in Canada. With the aid of a very helpful librarian, I found an address for her publisher. Reaching for the sky, I asked whether she might be able to reply on tape (this was the mid-90's, and cassettes were still readily available). To my delighted disbelief, a fat, padded envelope arrived a couple months later from Canada, and Jean Little herself was talking to me on a tape I've held on to ever since. We enjoyed a pleasant taped correspondence about the mundane and better things in life for a couple of years. I feel an added kinship with her every time I sit down with her stories and a steaming mug of hot Darjeeling tea! I'm glad I trusted tough Mrs. McCarten for recommending the books of one of the most down-to-earth, engaging kindred spirits I've ever read!
By Laura Oftedahl, Endowment Chair
Ski for Light (SFL) has been around for nearly 40 years, enriching the lives of thousands of visually and mobility impaired participants along with our guides and a growing number of volunteers. If you have ever been involved, I'm sure you'd like to see SFL around for many years to come.
To build a fund for the future, the Ski for Light Board established the Endowment Fund in the late 1990s and we're at $350,000 and growing.
Gifts made to the Endowment Fund are added to a pool of money that is invested, and only a portion of the earnings generated by the investment may be spent, with original donations preserved to earn income for use in subsequent years. This ensures that the organization will have funds with which to operate over the long term.
There are several ways you can help grow the Ski for Light Endowment Fund with a tax-deductible gift:
Cash Donations: Gifts can be made via credit card on the SFL website
www.sfl.org, or mail a check to:
Ski for Light, Inc.
1455 W Lake St
Minneapolis, MN 55408.
Gifts of $50 or more to the Endowment Fund are recognized in the SFL Annual Report (unless otherwise requested). Donors of $400 or more become Life Members of Friends of Ski for Light - today there are 357 Life Members.
Planned Gifts: There are several ways to help Ski for Light in the future that won't change your current financial situation: name Ski for Light as a beneficiary in your will, life insurance policy or living trust. Donors who have done so become, if they so choose, a member of the SFL Tracksetter Society. SFL acknowledges the membership and expresses gratitude with a commemorative, framed print of antique Nordic skis from the Ski Museum in Oslo. Members are also invited to a special reception at each annual event, and are acknowledged in the SFL Annual Report. There are currently 16 Tracksetter Society members. If you have designated Ski for Light as a beneficiary in your estate plan, please let us know.
For more information, a brochure about the Tracksetter Society and endowment fund is on the SFL website: www.sfl.org, click on Ways to Donate, then "SFL Endowment and Gift Planning Brochure". The brochure is also available in print. For the brochure and more information, contact me via email: LauraO@tsoft.com or phone: 510 851-3716.
There are nine SFL regional affiliate groups; many offer a variety of summer and fall activities. All of the regionals were founded by people who wanted to recreate their Ski for Light experience in a more local and intimate setting. We encourage you to take advantage of all they have to offer, and to support them in whatever way you can.
For the most up-to-date listing of their activities, visit the regional round-up page on our website.
Our thanks go to the following companies that have provided products or services to help support Ski for Light. Many of these companies have stood behind us for years - and we're grateful. Be sure to think of our friends when you're gearing up for your next adventure.
* JanSport * Birkenstock * Bison Designs LLC * Blue Ridge Chair Works * Byer of Maine * * CamelBak Products * CanineHardware * Clif Bar and Company * Cocoons * Columbia Sportswear * * Crazy Creek Products * Cross Country Skier Magazine* Dansko * D-fa Dogs * Fox River Mills * * Granite Gear * Haiku * Helly Hansen * Hog Wild * Honey Stinger * Ingebretsen's * ISIS For Women * * Injinji Performance Toe Socks * Katie's Bumpers * KAVU * Kiva Designs * Kuhl * Laacke and Joys * * LARABAR * Madshus * The Master Skier Cross-Country Ski Journal * Mt. Borah * * National Geographic Maps * Nikwax * Olly Dog * PeakWaggers * * P&N Promotions * Silent Sports * Timex * Toko U.S. *
Editor: Peter Slatin
Layout and graphics: Bjorg Dunlop
Electronic version: Larry Showalter
Special thanks to: Fram Lodge #3-564, Sons of Norway
The SFL Bulletin is published three times a year. It is available in ink-print or via e-mail. If you wish to change formats, please send your request to: bulletin@sfl.org.
The current as well as past issues of the Bulletin are also available online at www.sfl.org/bulletin.html. In addition to an online edition that may be read in your browser, you will find a downloadable pdf version of the current issue.
For future Bulletins, remember that your contributions and feedback are always most welcome. You may submit articles as e-mail or as a word attachment; if you do not have e-mail, you may send a typed article through the mail. Send all items to:
Peter Slatin
255 West 108th Street, Apt. 8A-1
New York, NY 10025
The deadline for the Summer 2013 Bulletin is June 15, 2013. We look forward to hearing from you.
Ski for Light, Inc. is a registered trademark. All rights reserved.
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