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The 2008-2009 Senior S&T season proved to be a little more subdued than in prior years, with a total of some 14 candidates taking part in the program at one point or another, 7 of whom went on to try their skills at the Senior S&T test at Cannon on March 8th. While the winter climate was fine for skiing, the economic climate may have dampened a lot of people’s enthusiasm or their ability to get up north to train. We all do what we can, and those who were able to join us had a great year.
The training effort this year was very ably conducted by 15 dedicated EMARI Trainer/Evaluators (T/E’s) including two new T/E’s, Josh Tamulen and Brad Schultz, who tested February 21 and 22nd at McCauley in upstate NY, a small but very steep and challenging mountain. Congratulations to both Josh and Brad.
We had a total of 5 days of up-north Senior training this year, all of which were extremely well attended and very productive. Locations included Loon Mountain, Ragged Mountain, Sunday River, and Cannon Mountain. Midweek clinics at Wachusett were offered on Wednesday nights this year, and were taught by a rotation of T/E’s who were nearly always joined by one of our newest T/E’s Josh Tamulen, and frequently by Dave Smith as well. Attendance at those clinics was steady, usually 3 or 4 students a night. As in the past, S&T clinics were open to all interested patrollers in EMARI and NH, whether formally enrolled in the Senior program or not.
Our Sunday River trip this year was special, as we celebrated 20 years of Senior S&T Clinics at Sunday River….pretty impressive! We feasted at a banquet in the Grand Avenue Restaurant at the Jordan Grand Hotel Friday night, rather than our traditional rowdy pot luck dinner, and had a great time. The guest list included 6 present and past patrol directors at Sunday River as well as the Eastern Division S&T Program Director Frey Aarnio, and Eastern Division Director Rick Hamlin. The night’s festivities included many fascinating and often hilarious stories of past clinics and patroller camaraderie that you would expect given the cast of characters in the ranks of our patrols and T/E’s. It was a lot of fun.
This year’s joint EMARI and NH Senior Ski & Toboggan evaluation was held on Sunday March 8th at Cannon Mountain, and was organized by the New Hampshire region in concert with EMARI staff. Our 7 EMARI candidates were joined by 3 other candidates, 2 from the New Hampshire region and 1 from Maine. The test was very well organized and ran exceptionally smoothly, right down to the excellent lunch at the Park Headquarters building prepared by the EMARI region. Weather for the test day was uncharacteristically sunny and calm, a surprise appreciated by all in attendance. Congratulations to Susan and Paul Kelly, the NH S&T Advisors for putting together a wonderful and enjoyable test day.
The following six EMARI candidates passed all or part of their Skiing and Toboggan components in the 2008-09 season:
- David Catinella — Blue Hills
- David Cline — Wachusett
- Ron DesBois — Bradford
- Tracy Dowd — Nashoba Valley
- Michelle Landry — Wachusett
- Tony Mangiocotti — Wachusett
Congratulations to all!
Our Toboggan Instructor clinic and mentoring program added several new Toboggan Instructors to the Region as well. We thank them for their willingness to step up, and look forward to their help and enthusiasm in the coming seasons.
As always, I am amazed and appreciative of the dedication and skill of our corps of EMARI Trainer/Evaluators. Patrollers in this region are very lucky to have so many superbly skilled instructors to learn from. Please help me get this message out to everyone this year and encourage all to take advantage of this tremendous resource!
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